SigmaWay Blog

Upgrading of standards depend upon the structure of the industry and the changes occurring in it. But as demand changes, standards set previously becomes obsolete and new standards must be set to relate with the present market structure and demand. Even though companies might face resistance from unions and other political institutions, they must reassess the standards for the benefit of the company and also their employees. To know more, kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.drharoldkerzner.com/updating-the-standards/

Conflicts are bound to arise among employees while working on a project. To resolve them we need to be sympathetic and good listeners. Project managers must keep a positive environment amongst teams to bring out the best from them. Sometimes team members cannot resolve issues among themselves, then project managers must step in. Please go through the link for more details on how to resolve project conflicts: http://www.pmhut.com/10-necessary-skills-to-resolve-project-conflicts

To achieve project targets successfully, effective communication is the key and for that proper communication planning is very essential. In recent PMI's 2013 Pulse of the Profession report, it has been revealed that effective communications is the most important success factor in project management. The report also revealed that on an average two in five projects, do not meet the project's main goal and one-half of those two unsuccessful projects are due to ineffective communications. Effective communication means providing only the useful and required information in a proper time. For doing things in a better way, a project manager has to tailor the communication plan accordingly. There are numerous tools that a project manager can use to maintain a better communication approach, few of them like stakeholder analysis, Power/Interest grid, fish bone diagram or Ishikawa Diagram and RACI chart (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed) are discussed in the article. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.projecttimes.com/articles/effective-communication-a-challenge-to-project-managers.html

Measuring performance of an ongoing project is a difficult task. The best method to understand performance, is to primarily determine the KPI's, which in turn will give us a clear idea on which parameters we want to measure the performance of a project. Proper measurement can help us to understand the area where a project is lacking and why. It also helps us to manage expectations of stakeholders and issue warnings against any upcoming problems which might arise in future. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.projecttimes.com/george-pitagorsky/measuring-in-progress-project-performance.html

Inability to take decisions is one of the principal reasons for the failure of any project. Good project managers need to have proper understanding of various effective tools to manage triple constraints of any project i.e. time, cost and scope. In this article tools like SWOT Analysis, Maslow's Pyramid, Pareto Principle, Monte Carlo Simulation and Decision Tree Analysis are discussed. In the field of project management, these are regarded as highly effective tools for decision making. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.projecttimes.com/articles/decision-making-models-in-project-management.html

Success of any project depends upon numerous factors and several circumstances. Every project manager should be well aware of various challenges which are associated with either the project directly or indirectly. This article mainly covers ten project management challenges which are needed to be considered before startup of any project. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.daywatcher.com/top-10-project-management-challenges/

Many big projects sometimes do not see the light of success because of lack of knowledge, skills and improper management of time, money and resources. To avoid doing such mistakes we must understand the reason behind the mistakes and find out ways to prevent them from repeating them in future. To know more about these mistakes and how to avoid them, kindly refer to the below mentioned link:-http://www.cio.com/article/717321/12_Common_Project_Management_Mistakes_and_How_to_Avoid_Them

Project’s success is highly dependent upon the efficiency of the Project Manager. A Project Manager must have some required skills to successfully manage projects and lead by example. To know more about the skills of a project manager, kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.cio.com/article/726888/7_Must_Have_Project_Management_Skills_for_IT_Pros

Proper utilization of project management is very important since it can make or break a project. Managing it optimally can bring fruitful results but overutilization or underutilization can lead to failure of a project. To know more about project management, kindly refer to the below mentioned link:-http://www.cioupdate.com/trends/article.php/3603241/Getting-Project-Management-Right.htm

Nowadays, it is very essential to learn various skills and practices of Six Sigma for improvement of business processes.  It basically helps a company in enhancing performance by establishing the employees and management strategies. The main focus of Six Sigma is to identify defects or errors in business, remove these errors and decrease variation in manufacturing as well as business processes. During six sigma projects there are mainly two project methodologies that a company usually follows.  They are DMAIC and DMADV. Both consist of five phases; however, DMAIC is implemented on projects that focus on improvement of the existing process of business, whereas DMADV is implemented on projects which aim to develop new product and process designs. To understand the importance of Six Sigma in business processes, please follow this link: http://goarticles.com/article/Six-Sigma-Benefits-for-Businesses/6646247/

Recently, Tibco made an announcement to acquire Jaspersoft for some $185 million and D&B announced that it has acquired small analytics startup Indicee. This shows that companies in order to be more focused and remain valuable to customers, it is very important to provide more value through insights from big data. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2014/04/30/suddenly-everyone-wants-to-be-in-cloud-analytics/

Objectives of a project might be more than one. The stakeholders are the ones who are supposed to earn benefits from a project, but the definition of benefit can be different for different stakeholders as stakeholders are more than one. Quality objectives may differ for different stakeholders as per their needs and requirements from the project. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.pmhut.com/quality-objectives-in-project-management-beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder

In the present competitive market maintaining profit and growth is very difficult for a company. To do so the company must take help of enterprising tools. Such tools actually improves productivity and hence profitability of a company. These tools help in proper co-ordination and connectivity amongst the various processes thus reducing idle time among processes. It helps to keep track of various tasks and ensures timely completion of each task. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.pmhut.com/7-benefits-of-using-enterprising-tools-for-managing-projects

Nowadays, stakeholder management has become a very important aspect for successful completion of any project. It is also introduced as a Knowledge Area in the PMBOK® Guide. During the project, communication, interference, flow of information, uses of tools and matrixes, and hidden agenda of stakeholder’s should be always keep in mind and properly managed by the manager. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.business2community.com/strategy/can-stakeholder-management-fail-0631968#!RK4ai

It is foolish to plan for the best by just hoping to get the best resources, productivity and enthusiasm while working on a project. It is absolutely possible that we might get to work with the worst kind of resources whose productivity is low and is less enthusiastic. In such a situation if our planning was with the best, we will be left with nothing to do. But, if we plan for the worst, we can work with any kind of resources. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.drharoldkerzner.com/hope-for-the-best-plan-for-the-worst/

Managing time is extremely crucial for Project Managers. For successful completion of a project, utilizing and managing time effectively is very important. By managing time, it is possible to make a positive impact in performance and efficiency of a project. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link:-http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/lean-six-sigma-business-transformation/articles/six-time-management-tips-for-project-managers

Implementing wrong project management tools can ruin a business. So before deciding which tool to implement, we must first make the foundation of a project with solid definition of purpose and also it is required to estimate the various needs and requirements of project. Project management tools should work more smoothly and should deliver the results in an efficient manner. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link:  http://lnbogen.com/2014/04/14/how-project-management-tools-kill-more-companies-than-any-other-saas-out-there/

Project management is an important medium to reduce wastage of time, resources and money. Traditional project team models are not that much effective in construction industry. In this article, four ways are mentioned to work more effectively and efficiently. For a  successful project, it is very crucial to give importance to value engineering, identifying the associated risk, minimizing build time and maintaining long term relationships with the clients. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://projectmanager.com.au/basic/4-common-construction-problems-project-management-resolves/

This article tells us why both Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) are needed.  Please go through the link for more details: http://qfd-institute.blogspot.in/2013/03/dfss-dfls-and-qfd-why-we-need-both.html