Blended Learning: The Benefits

May 16th, 2013

The benefits of combining face-to-face and digital training techniques make blended learning the preferred method of training for today’s organisations according to ILX research: 75% of respondents in our Digital Learning for Business survey found blended learning the most efficient approach. We outline how it can deliver learning that is effective for modern business imperatives.

Active learning

  • By handing more control over to the business and the learner, great blended learning enables productive partnering of the traditional and digital world.
  • Pre-course online studies prepare delegates for their learning journey.
  • Foundation topic knowledge necessary to move on to advanced concepts is easily achieved through initial e-learning.
  • Formative assessment by exam simulations allows individuals and companies to plan learning.
  • Transferable analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills are developed in workshops and in online environments.

Accessibility

  • Anytime, anywhere access is a reality with blended learning.
  • Productivity is maintained through the reduction of time away from work.
  • Multi-team and multi-region training programmes are possible by eliminating time, geographical and even cultural barriers.
  • Employees are able to access peer and tutor help and resources in class or online in the manner, and at the time and place of their choosing.  

Social learning

  • Blended learning makes face-to-face workshop learning possible.
  • It allows collaboration with colleagues.
  • Course delegates can connect with peers on the internet.
  • There is the opportunity to take part in question and answer sessions with experts.
  • Communities of learning in physical and virtual spaces are created.
  • Formal and informal learning is possible.
  • Blended learning can facilitate corporate induction.

Talent management

  • Human resources professionals can benefit from the blending of classroom with digital.
  • Ensure consistency of training and learning.
  • Extend training capacity as learning can be in virtual as well as physical environments.
  • Free personnel specialists from administrative tasks to allow them to focus instead on nurturing talent. 

Personalisation

  • Corporate and individual clients can enjoy a tailored learning programme.
  • Organisational architecture will determine the elements of the training programme, but it can range from traditional-style workshops and seminars to digital-style learning through webcasts, webinars and podcasts.
  • Individualised learning paths for a whole team improve the return on investment of time and money.
  • To gain these benefits, organisations need to find a good training provider to advise on the content of the learning programme so learners are engaged and business goals are achieved.

Cost-effectiveness

  • Long-recognized as a benefit of e-learning, it is also a significant advantage of blended learning.
  • Fewer trainers for less time mean that organisations pay less for their travel and meal expenses.
  • Access to trainers virtually who would otherwise cost the organisation as they would have to brought in by car, train or airplane.
  • Equipment expenditure can be slashed because individuals bring their own device.
  • Travel and venue costs for learners tumble as some learning can now be done from the desk at home or work.

 

Follow these Useful Links for More Information:

 

Posted in Business, Leadership and Management, Career HR Recruitment, Digital Learning and Development, PRINCE2, Project Management | Comments Off

10 Reasons Why the Cloud Can Improve Your Project Management

April 30th, 2013

Significant business benefits are driving companies to the cloud as Business Review Australia and Forbes report. Many of these same benefits make the cloud a perfect means for improving your project management. Here are 10 reasons why you could consider it.

  1. Collaboration: Everyone involved in a project can communicate and collaborate at the same time or any time without resorting to emails. Project changes can be made quickly in concert with an unlimited number of others.
  2. Geography: Irrespective of location and time zone, data can be accessed at a time of team members’ choosing. This empowers team members to work in a way that suits you and them at home, on the train or in the office.
  3. Data and Systems: Unlimited amounts of data can be backed up easily and be exported anywhere, depending on the cloud services and systems that you use. The cloud places you above physical software and systems, and therefore, any crashes.
  4. Accessibility and Visibility: All your information is in one place accessible by all unless your internet fails. Transparency of strategies, plans and processes improves the chances that everyone understands and pursues the same strategy.
  5. Project Size: Size and quantity need not matter. Small and large projects can be equally well managed in the cloud.
  6. Control: A clearer overview of everyone’s work enables you to manage them more effectively and gives them the ability to manage their tasks and workload.
  7. Financial: Personnel, technology and administration costs are reduced whether in terms of managing systems or attending physical meetings.
  8. Simplicity: Project management and not technology management can be the focus.
  9. Risks: By limiting your involvement with technology, you can reduce your risks. Although, it must be said, there are security risks that are inherent with the internet.
  10. Real Time: Much talked about, but valid and beneficial nevertheless, is the point that the cloud means that information is always available and that actions can be completed almost immediately.

Useful Project Management Links:

Useful Cloud Information Links:

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How to Start Up a Project PRINCE2 Style

April 25th, 2013

A critical organisational challenge at a time of economic uncertainty is the efficient delivery of business change. The PRINCE2 Starting Up a Project process plays its part in delivering that change. Our guide will give you an initial understanding of the process and our courses at PRINCE2.com will instill the more detailed knowledge that those who work with projects need.

  • Decide if the project is worth considering. Imagine you are remodeling your garden. The purpose of the Starting Up a Project process in this situation would be to help confirm that your plan to create your own Versailles was realistic and worth the effort before starting on the Initiate a Project process.
  • Think things through. The objective of the Starting Up process is to ensure that you have thought things through and that everything is in place. You can be confident that you have done so when you have, among other things, the authority to initiate a project, a sound business justification and the required information to define and confirm the scope of your ambitions.
  • Learn lessons from history. Good gardeners will tell you that the secret to gardening success lies in learning from experts, similar projects and from other sources of information such as blogs. Project managers will tell you that the same can be true of project management success. PRINCE2 encourages you to learn from other project management experts, from similar projects and from other sources both in and outside the organisation. Learning lessons well, will have a positive effect on everything from the Business Case to the project team.
  • Find the face that fits. One of the essential objectives of the Starting Up a Project process is creating the right roles and putting the right people in them. Staying with our garden analogy, you need a head gardener (the executive) and a foreman gardener (project manager). The executive’s role is to represent the interests of the stakeholders and make decisions accordingly.  The foreman’s role is to run things on a day-to-day basis him. After filling those positions, you would build a team whose members had defined roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, and so on.
  • Answer the big “why” question. It cannot be said often enough that the Business Case, where you answer the “why do we want to do this?” question, is critical in any project. It comprises many elements, examining, for example, project objectives, funding and background information, such as feasibility studies. This is also an opportunity to determine things like the customer’s quality expectations and key milestones.
  • Take the right approach and write the brief. Is it better to modify an existing product or create a new one? Is it more cost-effective to develop it ourselves or to buy it in from outside? These are some of the questions that this step enables you to answer while you think things through in terms of resources, security and legality, and the like. As for the project brief, it should be just that – brief. The document outlines the current status of the project, desired outputs and outcomes, the scope and much else as you can see in the sample brief for Ace Software on our Free PRINCE2 Downloads page.
  • Plan for Initiating a Project. When designing a garden, it can sometimes feel as if the planning phase far exceeds the doing phase. Persevere, however, for your patience will be rewarded. Planning can make the difference between success and failure for any project as the nature of the following job list proves. For it is in this period that you will be reviewing the lessons log, evaluating the time needed to create the stage plan, reviewing and analysing any risks and, finally, getting approval to initiate the project.

Useful Links

  • Our PRINCE2 Practitioner Gold Pack is the perfect way to improve your project delivery skills. It combines Foundation and Practitioner courses in a blended learning programme.
  • Buy any ILX digital learning course and you will receive Managing Risks in Project free and be better equipped to deal with the risks thrown up by today’s uncertain economic climate.
  • We aim to support your learning and project management practice with our comprehensive selection of free and useful downloads, this blog, a forum and social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
  • To better serve organisations, we have developed ILX Connect to assist companies to implement PRINCE2 training.
  • ILX Consulting provides everything from maturity assessments and organisational health-checks, through ITIL, MSP and PRINCE2 implementation, to programme and project performance management. It has a proven record of delivering tangible improvements in capability, productivity and customer satisfaction to a businesses and organisations.
  • Two further useful sources of information are: examination and accrediting body, the APMG  and owner of the Best Management Practice portfolio, the Cabinet Office.

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‘Career Focus’ Series #2: Everything you’ve ever needed to know about project management in 5 minutes flat

March 28th, 2013

Project managers and project management skills are in huge demand. According to a Financial Times report, a shortage of these skills is having a serious effect on the economy. What is also exciting is that according to a recent survey by Computer World on the fastest growing professions in IT, 40% of businesses will have to hire project managers this year.

If you’re now having a light-bulb moment telling you to investigate this exciting and, as our figures show here, lucrative career, then you’ll be glad to know that we’ve grilled our resident expert project manager Cyril Caulkin to tell you how you can progress your career in project management and take advantage of this market opportunity. So pull up a chair and use his 20 years’ experience in the business to guide you.’

 

THE BASICS ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

First things first, what is a project? Cyril: ‘Referring to the PRINCE2® project management methodology, the accompanying official manual has a good description: “A project is a temporary organisation that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an agreed Business Case.”’

Yes, but how will I know that something is a project? Cyril: ‘Again the PRINCE2® manual explains: “There are a number of characteristics of project work that distinguish it from business as usual: Change. Projects are the means by which we introduce change… Temporary. Projects are temporary in nature… Cross-functional. Projects involve a team of people with different skills working together to introduce a change that will impact others outside the team…Unique. Every project is unique…Uncertainty. Clearly, the characteristics already listed will introduce additional threats and opportunities.

OK. Now I know what a project is, what’s project management? Cyril: ‘Project management is the management of the project by a project manager who acts as a catalyst, and brings the whole project together.’ 

Why do we need project management? Cyril: ‘In today’s world, businesses need to progress and in doing so need to implement change. Projects are the implementation of change. To be successful, a business cannot stagnate. It must change with the times, otherwise it gets out of date and competitors will overtake it, so projects need to be there’

Hmmm. It sounds complicated, I’m not sure I really get the link between a project and project management.  Cyril: ‘To illustrate a simple project, we could use a shopping trip as an example. You say to your partner, I’ll go shopping, what do you want, how much do you want to spend and what time do I have to be back? So a project is a piece of work with a target output (the completed shopping basket), based on requirements (the shopping list), to the right level of quality (getting the right things) within the right cost (the budget that you’ve agreed) and within the right timescale (when you need to be back with the shopping).’

Has project management changed at all in recent years?   Cyril: ‘It hasn’t. There might be different methods of documenting it but it’s still basically keeping control of everything.’

Where is project management headed in the future? Cyril: ‘Some people think it’s not going anywhere! The actual method will not change; it’s always a matter of controlling what you do within the cost, within the timescale and within the agreed quality.’

What about the current economic climate, isn’t that causing any changes? Cyril: ‘You’ve got tighter time constraints, tighter budgets and value-for-money and cost-effectiveness have to be better, that’s all. The point is without a project management method like PRINCE2 you cannot control the project now and you cannot see the figures so that next time you run a project you can build and improve on your practice. PRINCE2 is very practical for it lends itself to that kind of development.’

 

OUTSIDE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Is project management useful in the wider world and in other sectors or professions? Cyril: ‘Yes. Retail, marketing, finance, engineering, research, IT and so on – I’ve done loads of work with all those sectors of industry and all need project management to implement change and ultimately become successful.’

Some schools are including some aspects of project management in their learning. What do you think about bringing project management more into education? Cyril: ‘Great! I believe that everyone should have done the PRINCE2 Practitioner course before they leave school then they’ll have a really focused view of what business is about before even starting out on their careers.’

Wow! You make project management sound really important! Cyril: ‘To me it’s as important as science, maths or biology or whatever… you need to know project management to be able to succeed in business and your future career.’

What about women, can they succeed in project management? Cyril: ‘There are lots of women project managers and they’re just as good as the men! There are as many female as male project managers; it’s a common misconception that project management favours the male population and that most project managers are men.’

 

GETTING INTO AND GETTING ON IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT 

What do I do to get my first job in project management? Cyril: ‘Get PRINCE2 and the APM Introductory Certificate in Project Management (APMIC) – PRINCE2 will tell you what to do and when, whilst APMIC tells you how to do it. Then, use them to get a job in an organisation’s project office or as a project team member.’

How do I move up from a project team role to a project manager role? Cyril: ‘Get experience as a team member for a year or two, then put yourself about, get more involved until you’re ready to take on more responsibility and take on a team manager role and then you’re in a good position to become a project manager.’

What kind of experience do I need? Cyril: ‘Just get as much as you can, get more and more involved and ask for more responsibility.’

How will I know that I’ve got what it takes to become a project manager? What qualities and skills do I need? Cyril: ‘You’ll need to be able to demonstrate the following: you will have to communicate, plan, organise and deal with people; you are the catalyst that makes things happen. You’ve got to be able to solve problems as well as deal with risk and change, but that all becomes second nature once you’ve got the communication skills and you listen to people, you’ll be doing all those things subconsciously.’

Can project management be useful for people who have just come out of the armed services? Cyril: ‘Yes! Anyone in the armed forces will have their own particular skills in certain areas, if they then had PRINCE2 they would be sitting pretty for they’ve already got that project manager mind-set.’

What do titles like business analyst and change manager mean and are they considered a lower-level role compared to project managers? Cyril: ‘They’re not below or above project managers; they’re different. The business analyst is someone who knows the business. A change manager deals with changes to requirements. The project manager may use the business analyst to help define requirements for a business or might use a change manager to manage the changes in the project. They would only be working for you as the co-ordinator of all these activities which make up together what project management is about. One aspect of being a project manager is understanding how your organisation works.’

What’s the career progression path for project managers? Cyril: ‘It’s project manager, senior project manager, programme manager and then into the corporate level of senior management within an organisation.’

 

QUALIFICATIONS

Which project management qualification should I get? Cyril: ‘The only project management qualifications you need are PRINCE2 and APMIC as already mentioned.’

If I have an MBA do I still need a project management qualification? Cyril: ‘Yes – although part of your MBA might include project management as a lot of MBA courses incorporate PRINCE2 to cover the project management element of their syllabus.’

People talk about soft skills in project management. Would it be worth doing a psychology course? Cyril: ‘The PRINCE2 method is a set of procedures that you follow; to be a successful project manager you also need soft skills such as communication, time management and organisation. They’re not explained in the PRINCE2 manual, but you need these supporting skills – a psychology course won’t teach these.’

There’s a lot of talk about Agile. How does it relate to PRINCE2? Are they complementary? Cyril: ‘Yes. Agile allows you to break down your projects into smaller, more manageable stages – you can still use PRINCE2 to run these stages.’

Take advantage of our Career Focus Fortnight and save up to £200 on your project management training until 31st March. Click here now for further details.

 

Follow These Useful Links:

  • For a complete picture of PRINCE2 and what it can do for your project management career make your way to the Cabinet Office where you can also find out about the links between its various processes.
  • Utilise your social media profiles! LinkedIn has some fantastic user groups that offer a wealth of information and networking opportunities. Try:
  • Check out these valuable sources of information on everything PRINCE2:

PRINCE2® is a registered trade mark of the Cabinet Office.

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Understanding the PRINCE2 Approach to Organisation

March 26th, 2013

Organisation is essential for a project to succeed and project managers need to understand this in order to communicate, negotiate and deal with everyone involved in a project. PRINCE2 offers an elegant and straightforward approach to organisation. Using the principle of management by exception which ensures efficient use of senior management time, its project management structure comprises four levels. Three represent the project management team and the fourth lies beyond the project.

The Corporate or Programme Management Level: Separated from the project management team, this level involves commissioning the project, identifying the Executive and defining the tolerances within which the Project Board will work; normally this is also documented in the project mandate. Tolerances set out the amount one can go above and below a plan’s targets on variables such as the time taken, the costs budgeted for and the quality to be provided.

The Directing Level: The Board is responsible for the direction and management of the project and is made up of the Executive, the Senior User(s) and Senior Supplier(s) who are accountable for the success or failure of the project. To be successful, the different elements of the Board must first pull together to provide what the manual describes as a ‘unified’ view of the direction the project should take and second, must possess the four characteristics of authority, credibility, ability to delegate and availability.

The importance of these characteristics cannot  be overstated. Authority is necessary to be able to make strategic decisions. Credibility, it therefore almost goes without saying, is essential if that authority is to be wielded effectively and that only comes if Board members are senior enough in the organisation. Ability to delegate is critical if the project manager is to have enough room to do his or her job; remember PRINCE2 is not about micro-management. Availability ensures that when the project manager needs decisions or direction, the Board can provide it.

Armed with these attributes, and as part of directing the project, the Board’s responsibilities include, amongst other things, approving major plans and resources and authorizing any deviation from the set tolerances.

The Managing Level: The project manager is in charge of the daily management of the project within the tolerances or parameters set by the Project Board. His or her responsibility is to ensure the project produces the products based on cost, time, quality, scope, risk and benefit performance goals.

The Delivering Level: Team members deliver the products to the required levels but, depending on the size and complexity of a project, a team manager may be appointed to manage team specialists and to create certain products.

We have provided only an at-a-glance picture of project management organisation, so for more information, watch this space in the future, and for more knowledge, skills and understanding that you can use to improve your own project management success rates, take PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner.

Take Advantage of These Useful Links:

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ILX Online Learning Top Tips

March 25th, 2013

ILX recently conducted a survey of our online learners and found that the greatest barrier to study was the combination of a lack of self discipline 33% and making the time to study 38%.

ILX have come up with these 5 tips to boost your motivation to login and learn:

  1. Grab a Study-Buddy – research has shown that studying with someone else will not only increase your motivation, but you are likely to pick up new study techniques and can share topics…
  2. Schedule it – pick a day and time each week and stick to it
  3. Download the m-learning modules to your smartphone so instead of checking facebook you can reinforce your learning while you’re standing in line or filling in time on public transport
  4. Make it fun – once a week grab your mate and test your knowledge against each other using the Snakes & Ladders revision app – download through iTunes
  5. Set an end goal – by setting a completion date to work towards, you are more likely to achieve your goals on time, or even sooner!

For more information on learning opportunities available with ILX visit ilxgroup.com

Or, register here  for our upcoming Digital Learning, Live Webinar on Thursday 4 April from 2pm ADST

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‘Career Focus’ Series #1: Climbing up the Project Management Career Ladder

March 11th, 2013

We often get asked the question “How do I become a project manager?”

With many answers for that question freely available online, would-be PMs can sometimes be left feeling overwhelmed. We thought we’d help by outlining some handy hints and tips to help start your climb to the top today – whether you are currently working in a project environment, or starting from scratch!

For those already working in a project environment and looking to progress

  • Initiative: Look at your current role, think about how you could improve your own efficiency and effectiveness in terms of assisting the rest of the team in delivery of projects.
  • Responsibility: Try and take on more responsibility in your current role, especially where this includes project management elements.
  • Expertise: Develop professional project management skills through learning on the job and consider supporting this with courses that encapsulate the best practice across industry sector and size – PRINCE2® and APM courses being particularly useful here of course!
  • Complementary skills: Hone communication skills so you are clear and direct, be organised so you are on time and prepared, cultivate a calm and analytical approach that allows you to tackle difficult tasks and face problems and take with you to work a positive attitude to people and projects.
  • Mentoring: Find a project manager in your current team or in your company who would be willing to share her or his expertise.
  • Networking: The internet has opened doors that could not have been dreamt of 20 years ago. LinkedIn groups , forums and communities bring project managers and their world to your mobile or laptop. Take advantage. On LinkedIn there are general and sector-specific project management groups; accrediting organisations have communities and special interest groups; learning providers, such as ourselves, provide forums to ask questions about getting into project management and the dark arts of the profession!
  • Research: Examine project management job advertisements within the company to see what they are looking for, and ring to understand the sub-text of the job advertisement. Get some background into what HR and the PMO are looking for and build up a relationship with them so that when you are ready to apply for a project-manager role, they are primed and already aware of you.
  • Indirect path: Whatever your role, you may find that the best way to become a project manager is to find a similar job in your own organisation which specifies project management skills within the job description. Sometimes taking a different route can be the best way forwards!

 For those wishing to enter project management

  • Understand: First, understand what a project manager is and what it is not; if you are basing it solely on the television show The Apprentice, you need to think again. The role of a project manager can be complex and demanding, but is always satisfying.
  • Skills: It’s not just about the qualifications and work experience. Work to develop the necessary personal and business skills that you will need as a project manager too: improve your communication, organisational, management, budgetary, leadership, planning and problem-solving skills.
  • Experience: Get relevant experience through putting yourself forward to manage projects at work, local schools and charitable and voluntary organisations. Review and apply your experience in other projects.
  • Education: Learn the art and science of project management through a degree or through professional short courses that allow you to learn whilst continuing to work. Take a look at some of those on offer to you here.
  • Mentoring: Try to find someone in your firm, family or amongst friends and acquaintances who can share their knowledge and expertise with you. Learn from their experiences.
  • Network: Use the internet to make contact with project management professionals who frequent LinkedIn, chat rooms, forums and communities and then learn, discuss and share.
  • Inform yourself: Project management books, podcasts, videos and much else can be found to give you the necessary depth and breadth of knowledge you will need.
  • Project-management skills: You don’t necessarily have to be a PM to use project management skills on the job. Many roles utilise elements of project management – that’s why it’s such a useful skill set to have! Whether you work in construction, accountancy or technology – hone your project management skills every day, and demonstrate this to any future employers.

Want to find out more?

Check out our Career Focus Fortnight! From 18 to 31 March, we have tons of advice, information and offers for everyone interested in project and programme management. Don’t miss out! Click here to get involved now!

Useful Links:

PRINCE2® is a registered trade mark of the Cabinet Office.

 

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Books to Help Your Business Boom

February 26th, 2013

 

“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”  Oscar Wilde

As the weather does its stuff, there is nothing more tempting than curling up by the fire or stretching out on the beach with a good book (depending on whether you are in the northern or southern hemisphere). Here are a few of the many on the online and physical shelves of bookshops that will make sure that the read is worth your while.*

 

The Financial Times Guide to Business Start Up 2013: The Most Comprehensive Annually Updated Guide for Entrepreneurs, The FT Guides, Paperback, Sara Williams, 480 Pages, ISBN-10: 0273778757, ISBN-13: 978-0273778752

One cannot go too far wrong with the FT when it comes to business news and the same is true of this guide for small business. Comprehensive, authoritative, and in accessible language, it aims to cover what budding entrepreneurs need to know about business including law and marketing and finance.

 

49 Quick Ways to Market Your Business for Free: An Instant Guide to Marketing Success,  Harriman House, Kindle Edition, Sarah-Jane White, 521 KB, ASIN: B005EPR5MM

We all like something for free, and we especially like something that cuts down our marketing costs in tough times. So these ideas will appeal for it seems they can be applied to almost any kind of business and seem simple and quick to use. Definitely worth looking into it.

 

Good Small Business Guide 2013, 7th Edition: How to start and grow your own business, A & C Black Publishers Ltd, Paperback, 608 pages, ISBN-10: 1408159597 ISBN-13: 978-1408159590

A hardy perennial that comes back every year, this book, seems worth dipping into now and then or sitting down and reading from cover to cover (if you are so inclined) for its ideas on starting, running and developing a small business.

 

Start Your Own Business 2013, 5th Edition, Crimson Publishing, Paperback, 384 pages ISBN-10: 1780591209, ISBN-13: 978-1780591209

At a time when an entrepreneurial culture and entrepreneurial skills are said, by some, to be the way out of global recession, this will be a welcome addition to the library of books giving advice and guidance. It is certainly brimming with ideas, seems readable and full of lively insights.

 

What They Teach You at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism, Penguin, Philip Delves Broughton, 304 pages, ISBN-10: 0141046481, ISBN-13: 978-0141046488

As near as many of us will get to attending that august institution and therefore worth opening up for that alone, this seems, not surprisingly, to be full of useful insights and information that could be used to help everyone be better at business. Cleverly written, it is also humorous and, therefore, one to curl up with by the fire or the air condition depending on where you are in the world.

* ILX Group does not endorse any of the above products.

 

A Final Word

 

Best Practice Books

Having provided training in IT Service and Project Management for over 20 years, ILX Group can offer the relevant publications to support and partner what you are learning in the classroom or through digital learning.

Flick through a range of publications on all the Best Practice areas and order at our Best Practice Bookstore.

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Apps-olutely Fabulous Apps Series 3

February 25th, 2013

Not that many years ago apps were coming out at the rate of one a day. How times change. In 2011 the number reached 701; today, who knows how many are launched daily as utility-based apps get a stronger hold in the business world (let us know if you do!). Naturally, project management has been in the sights of app inventors and we have selected  a few from the very many that could be useful in making the project manager’s job easier*. Enjoy!

  • Project Viewer: Aims to do what it says on the tin: open MS Project attachments, open Project files from Dropbox, get the Gantt Chart view, Table and Detailed Task view.
  • ActionComplete: Inspired by Getting Things Done methodology, this hopes to help you manage four types of task: actions (next actions), waits (waiting for), projects, ideas (someday/maybe) and, as you would expect, boasts useful features that include task weighting and reminders.
  • Catch Notes: Capturing ideas by jotting down on notes, memos by recording them wherever you are on all your devices and capturing photos are the goals of this useful little  app.
  • DocScanner: Now with a Hollywood connection, having been used to produce photo-based scans, the object of this app is to enable project managers to scan documents, receipts, whiteboards, business cards… you get the picture.
  • Droid Scan: Portable scanning on the move that aims to turn your images into PDF documents.
  • HERE Maps: A handy little app whose purpose is to make our global environment local so allowing you to dazzle your colleagues and your customers with your knowledge and prevent you from getting or feeling lost anywhere.
  • Roambi Analytics - Visualizer: A picture is worth a thousand words, and graphs and charts are worth no less when you see what this app could do with bare data.
  • Todoist: To allow you to make to-do lists, add and manage tasks, sort them into projects simply, easily and quickly, is the objective of this app.
  • TouchDown: Email, contacts, calendar, task list, all are meant to be accessible from wherever you are.
  • Upvise: Billed as the mobile cloud for smart businesses, it aims to keep you wise to contacts, tasks, sales, projects and makes sharing ideas as well as files, simple.

Useful Links

  • No app can ever replace a comprehensive knowledge of project management, of course. For more information on one of the most respected methodologies in the business go to PRINCE2 Training page.

* ILX Group does not endorse any of the above products.

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Fight the festive flab with PRINCE2

January 11th, 2013

OK, we’ve overindulged during the festive season, so whilst we feel rested, we feel flabby. Time to lose those holiday pounds! We may not have a magic formula for losing the weight, but we have come up with a light-hearted look at how PRINCE2 could be part of an overall plan to help you. One serious note to begin with though: remember to seek expert medical advice before embarking on any weight loss programme and to check out our ‘Useful Links’ section for somewhere to begin your researches. Now, pounds away!

Project-manage your Diet. Before you start thinking that we’re taking weight loss way too seriously, it’s worth remembering that one of the reasons diets (and projects) fail is because they’re not controlled properly. Since it’s your own weight you’re trying to lose – this is an opportunity for you to take responsibility and manage it. Be your own boss.

Learn from Past Failed Diets. If you haven’t already tried – and failed – to lose weight before now, you’re one of the lucky ones. Most people are less fortunate. The trick is to learn from past mistakes. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of diets you’ve tried and those you haven’t. A chat with friends (helpful ones!), a glance at magazine articles, internet research and, most importantly, a conversation with your own medical practitioner, will help you capture lessons you should learn.

Prepare the Business Case. We said that one of the reasons diets fail is because they’re not managed properly. They also fail because dieters don’t think through why they’re trying to lose weight. First, ask yourself if you are trying to comply with medical advice, to generally get fit or squeeze into that special dress or suit for Valentines. Then establish how the diet and its results will contribute to your overall life objectives. Take this psychological step and, you never know, those pounds could be history.

Determine your Weight-loss Approach. When you diet there are so many approaches you can take. Will you cook at home following a plan or will you buy in calorie-controlled meals? Will you cycle to work to or join a gym? These are some of the many options and questions that you’ll need to consider.

Plan your Project. Anyone who’s been on a failed diet will tell you that without a plan you won’t lose a pound. Think about what you need to do, how you’re going to do it, who’s going to help you, the resources you’ll require, the schedule you’ll need to follow and how much it’s all going to cost.

Manage the Project in Stages. Your medical practitioner will tell you the best way to shed those holiday pounds but you might consider taking everything in stages. This will allow you to evaluate what you’ve done in one stage of your weight-loss project and plan what you’re going to do at the next stage.

Consider the Risk Management Strategy. Knowing how important it is to follow a safe diet and how easily plans can be derailed it makes sense to manage likely risks (remember, risks can be opportunities as well as threats). Assess the medical risks with your health practitioner. The social ones you could try doing yourself – we don’t know about you, but walking past cake shops and attending parties where the skinny host and hostess pile calories on the plate count as risks in our book. Whatever the risks, you need to work out how you’re going to manage them. And, at the risk of repeating ourselves, be sure to seek expert medical advice before you do anything; our useful links at the end could be a good place to begin your researches.

Manage your Stakeholders. We love them dearly, but family and friends can be supremely unhelpful when it comes to losing weight. As in any project, ignoring them doesn’t work so you need to manage them and their expectations – tactfully does it!

Finally, here’s to a flab-free 2013 for you!

Useful Links:

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