Mark Woeppel's Blog

So I need a little help… My new book, Visual Project Management: Simplifying Project Execution to Deliver On Time and On Budget, comes out MAY 1ST, so I’ve created a Thuderclap campaign to promote it. Here’s where you come in… I need your help to get the word out and let people know the book exists! In exchange for your help, I’m giving away 5 personally autographed copies of the new book. All you have to do is click this link to visit the Thunderclap page, and click the “Support” button with the social network of your choosing. It only takes three seconds. We’ll … Read More

  Here’s the thing: If you’re not achieving the results you want in your projects, your biggest opportunity for recovery is not re-planning, but more effective execution that addresses the real reasons projects are late. Visualizing your projects solves the root cause of poor execution. Through visualization, you will know where  each piece of your project stands, allowing your team to focus; improving communication, prioritizing the work more effectively, reducing task durations and improving productivity. By visualizing the work, the things that are most important can be identified by objective observation, not subjective politics. No longer will priorities be set … Read More

Do these statements sound familiar? “We had no shared common understanding of how we should complete projects” “Really what it was, [there] was no process per se, it was every step of the process that needed to happen, really was happening concurrently.” “We’re all applying little Band-Aids on it, and all of the sudden, you’re just left with one ball of Band-Aids and no one wanted to own it anymore.” “In a situation like that you can imagine that morale gets stretched pretty thin.” These are the comments from one of our customers about their project delivery process. The reason … Read More

“What’s the status of the work? Are we moving forward? Are my team members working on right things?” “We’re DOOMED!” If you’re like most project managers, these questions are familiar. In fact, they probably sound like the questions going through your head every night when you’re trying to fall asleep; the ones without answers. You’re not alone. In fact, a staggering 39% of IT projects with budgets over $10 million fail. They’re not just delayed, overrun or overdue… they fail. Other research shows that at least 30% of all projects are late. Project execution can and should be a methodical, … Read More

Project Management is a notoriously difficult world to navigate. Often, it’s characterized by delays, poor communication, overrun costs, missed deadlines and incomplete work. In fact, studies have proven that at least 30% of all projects are finished late or off schedule. To put it simply, the project world can be a dark and scary place for the untrained and unprepared manager. Luckily, there’s a wealth of information available online, for free, that project managers can turn to when their project needs a quick pick me up. I’ve compiled a list of the most influential project management blogs for 2015. These … Read More

Last week, I shared an overview on the Improved Coordination level of the Viewpoint Project Execution Maturity model, which focuses on achieving reliable delivery and improving communication among remote teams. If you missed it, you can read that post here. If collaboration in one location seems challenging, then collaboration among far-flung teams in different offices—or different time zones or continents—probably feels impossible. Different locations cultivate different work cultures and loyalties, which naturally impede alignment and synchronization, and the potential for miscommunication increases with every additional mile separating team members. With remote teams, you have all of the same challenges you … Read More

In this post, I’m continuing my series on the Viewpoint Project Execution Maturity Model. If you’re new to my blog, you can read about the first level, Basic Collaboration, here. Who says achieving delivery dates are not important? There is a school of thought in the project community, that for some projects, dates are impossible. You can’t put a clock on the creative process. Bull. Every project has a date, and to ignore it is to deny reality. If you’re building software, you still have a release date. Doing the “best you can” is not what your investors or management … Read More

In kindergarten, we learned some simple skills: how to work together, how to share, how to communicate with others, how to be kind and make friends. They were basic social skills that would help us in the long run to get what we want out of life and out of our work. As we grew older, maybe we got involved in sports or group activities. We were taught an easy mantra: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work. At some point once we entered the real world however, we lost sight of these simple ideals. We quit articulating the things we need, … Read More

Complex projects have complex problems. Problems so complex that to an insider, those closest to the project, they seem impossible to fix. Picture this: Your project has one goal: Build a mountain. Now, think of your project as two tectonic plates: one is called Planning, one is called Results. You are standing right in the middle, trying to push the two together to create the mountain, but unfortunately, as a result of forces beyond your control: nature, the plates are shifting further and further apart. Your mountain is becoming a valley, and you’ve fallen right in. You’re trapped in the … Read More

If you’re a follower of my blog, you’ll know that I’ve written quite a bit on the topic of execution – that the lever for improving project performance is found in the execution phase and processes of the project. Actually, there are 12 levers to improve project performance, but they have to be pulled in order. There’s an execution process maturity. You can’t do some things until you do others. There are a lot of moving parts, people and processes. Your projects may not be planned properly. Your communication may not be very good. Your resources might not be as productive … Read More