‘Prince’ is a project management method, and an acronym standing for ‘Projects in Controlled Environments’. It details the management, control and organisation of projects within a controlled environment. Prince2 refers to an updated version of this methodology, and is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and HM Treasury of the United Kingdom.

Prince was developed in 1989 by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) as a government standard for IT project management. Soon it became popular outside of IT. Prince2 came along in 1996 as a more general project management method. It is also becoming extremely popular both in the UK and abroad.

Prince2 has been updated several times, but isn’t renamed Prince3 to symbolise how the original principles have not changed. It has been adapted for changing business environments, to address problems and integrate it with other OGC methods.

It provides a structured approach to project management, describing procedures to coordinate people, resources and tasks in a project. It shows managers how to design and supervise a project, how to react if the project needs adjustment or doesn’t go quite to plan.

One of the most important features of Prince2 is that it provides everyone working on a project common language. Easing communication is just one way in which Prince2 can enhance the management of projects, but good communication can be key to developing clear management roles suitable to the project.

The process is outlined from start to finish with Prince2, from appointing managers, designing a team, briefing, defining the approach and planning stages. It also includes authorising work, assessing progress, capturing and examining project issues and taking correction action. It also concerns the completion of a project, including de-commissioning, re-designating resourced to fulfil other roles, and the project being formally evaluated.

Accreditation is governed by the passing of two exams; Foundation and Practitioner. The Foundation exam is one-hour long, and consists of multiple choice questions. The Practitioner exam last for three hours, and is an objective-testing multiple choice exam. Exams are administered by the APM group, who keep an online record of all those who have passed.

Prince2 Practitioners must retake their Practitioner exam every 5 years to remain qualified, although the re-registration just takes an hour. Trainers must be accredited every three years and pass regular surveillance checks.

It is wrong to assumed that Prince2 will help any project successful, especially since many projects will never be accomplished successfully because the goals and aims are unrealistic or unobtainable. Prince2 can be tailored to the specifications of a particular project, making it fully scalable.

PMProfessional provide Prince2-accredited project management courses.

[tags]pm, project management, prince2, prince project management, prince, management of projects[/tags]

What if your company couldn’t use its computers for a day? How about your phones? Any phone system outage, even if it’s a short one, could result in financial losses and inconvenience for your business. Can you afford this disruption? Most businesses can’t.

Planning for any type of interruption in your telephone or data service should be a critical issue for any business. Unfortunately, however, most businesses only realize its importance after the fact - after an outage has occurred. Many adverse effects of interruption of service could be minimized or even eliminated with some advanced planning.

Your business should be prepared for the following events: a power outage, network failure, phones system failure, a disaster affecting your workplace or a disaster affecting your region. During most previous disasters, the phones would still work. With the emergence of telecom systems that are powered by local electricity, without power, communications are shut down. Your customers can’t place orders and your business grinds to a halt. Restoring your telecom service then, is essential to restoring your business. Companies that have a telecom disaster plan are better prepared for any outage for whatever reason.

In the past, disaster planning was usually expensive and cost prohibitive to most companies. With today’s technology, there are cost-effective options for even the smallest telecom budget.

What Your Plan Should Do

Your plan can be anything from a written plan on how to re-route your telecom services, to purchasing automatic routing arrangements with a carrier. The plan should define a procedure that will bring back your resources as fast as possible. It should also require redundancy in components and systems to provide continuous operation.

Understand Your Services

When you are designing your disaster recovery plan, you first need to understand all of your services, the value they provide your company and what the impact would be if that service was gone for a period of time. You also need to look at which parts of your services might be likely to fail and how that failing will compromise your business and its connectivity.

Redundancy plays a huge part in disaster planning. A common myth is that all you need to do is have a different circuit from a different vendor. This doesn’t guarantee redundancy. You have to ensure that you have two completely different circuits with absolutely no shared facilities and being fed by different central offices.

Here Are Some Steps to Get You Started

* Take the time to consider what the worst-case scenario would be and plan for it. If you have prepared for the worst case, lesser emergencies will be taken care of as well.

* Define everyone’s roles and responsibilities and make sure they know what they are responsible for.

* Back up your data. Important daily output should be backed up and documented. Ideally, one back-up copy can be kept on site and another off-site.

* Establish a plan for your communications and review these plans with all of your service providers.

* Select an alternate IT location in advance. This may mean a different building, city or state, depending on the severity of the disaster for which you are planning.

* Document your plan in writing and share it with your employees so they know the procedures you’re putting in place. Educate your employees to make sure everyone knows the procedures to follow during an emergency. Make sure all critical names and contact information are included in your document.

* Review your plan quarterly and make sure contact information is always up to date.

Specifically for telecom, here are some points to consider that will reduce the chance of telecom failure and give you a faster recovery from disasters.

* Do you have an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) in place? Is it adequate for your business and for a reasonable amount of time?

* Do you have a current data backup of your PBX system?

* Do you have back up lines if your T1 or PRI goes down?

* Do you have redundant hardware (hard drives and power supplies) if they fail?

* If your system fails, are your incoming calls automatically re-routed to another number?

* Do you have all your data, documentation, licensing codes and passwords backed up and in a safe place?

Disaster planning can end up being more valuable than any other IT project. Disaster recovery strategies are different for every company because every company has different priorities. It’s important to note that it’s never too late to start building and implementing your telecom disaster recovery plan. No one wants a disaster and no one wants to plan for it. However, a Disaster Recovery Plan will protect your business and prevent total loss during an emergency, whether big or small.

With more than twenty years of experience in planning, implementing, managing and consulting on telecommunications projects, Nermine Shaker has generated millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at The Sygnal Group, a Telecommunications Management Company that offers unbiased reporting, analysis and implementation of telecom strategies to businesses of all sizes. http://www.SygnalGroup.com

[tags]Telecom, Telecom Disaster Planning, Telecom Management, TEM, Disaster Planning, Disaster Managment[/tags]

The Project Manager is, by virtue of the job title and appointment to the position, the leader of and person responsible for any given project. The Project Manager is the person who is accountable for the accomplishment of the project’s stated objectives. The Project Manager will need boundless energy, will be prepared to work long hours, and will have the ability to know just the right thing to say to an overworked team as well as to a potentially demanding client.

The role of the Project Manager is to plan, execute and deliver a completed project according to strict deadlines and within budget. A large portion of the PM’s role is to acquire resources and skilfully co-ordinate project team members, contractors and consultants, so as to deliver the completed project according to plan. Quality control and time management on the part of the PM are two key objectives that, effectively managed, will facilitate the success of the project.

A successful Project Manager will be endowed with a variety of skills in addition to general management skills. Depending on the project at hand, some skills will be more essential than others, but here are some of the key skills that a successful Project Manager should possess:

Analytical thinking skills
This will require the PM to be able to understand the overall project while keeping an eye on the minutiae of the project.

Organisational skills
To keep a project on schedule and within budget the PM needs to be a focused and effective organiser.

Interpersonal skills
A successful manager at any level will need to have the ability to manage people effectively. A PM will be responsible for co-ordinating staff at different levels of the project for which he or she is responsible, therefore it is essential that the PM has the necessary leadership and interpersonal skills to keep team members motivated and on schedule.

Communication skills
The PM will need to have evolved communication skills as it will be required of him or her to communicate with people at all levels within the project. The PM is the main communication link between those who have a vested interest in the project as well as the members who make up the project team. He or she must be able to clearly communicate project objectives, challenges or problems, scope changes, and regular project status reports.

Problem-solving skills
Problem-solving skills can be learned and perfected. Any problem that arises must be dealt with at source and as swiftly and effectively as possible, so as to minimise risk to the project at large.

Time management skills
The PM will have the ability to prioritise, delegate, and manage time effectively.

In summary, it is the Project Manager who will be accountable for achieving the project’s stated objectives. An excellent Project Manager’s skills are complimented by the right tools, such as Microsoft Project 2003; and project 2003 training will only enhance these skills.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on project 2003 training, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

[tags]project 2003 training[/tags]

Most users of MS Project will agree that the Gantt chart is the most important and useful scheduling feature of this project management application. Many of whom will use the Gantt chart and not much else. They may use the Resource Sheet for resources and possibly the Network Diagram view, but for the most part the Gantt chart will be the most often employed.

What is a Gantt Chart?
It is best defined as a horizontal bar chart that was developed as a production control tool in 1917 by Henry L. Gantt, an American engineer and social scientist, and which has become a favourable tool for use in project management. Its advantage lies in the fact that it is a graphical illustration of a project schedule that assists with the planning, coordination, and tracking of specific tasks within a project.

A Gantt chart is effective because it aids in planning a project that has many components and a number of team members. A Gantt chart plans the tasks that need to be completed, sets a timeline for the tasks, plans the allocation of resources and creates critical paths for tasks.

Gantt Charts are extremely useful because they are easily read and interpreted by a wide audience. Gantt charts do however have their limitations. When a project is a small one and all of the Gantt chart lines fit on one page it is easy to manage, but when the project becomes bigger and the Gantt chart extends over a few pages it becomes too cumbersome to work with easily.

How to use a Gantt Chart
[three]Identify all activities to be completed.[/three]Begin your Gantt chart by creating a list of all the activities that need to be completed during the project, including earliest start date and an estimated time-frame for completion, and then list these activities in sequential order.

[three]Identify task durations[/three]Using previous experience and project member’s input create a time-line for the duration of the project and each individual task and activity. You can colour code the time blocks to denote different types of activities. You can move the time blocks around to report on actuals versus planned, to re-schedule, and to create new plan updates.

[three]Identify resources[/three]Verify that resources are available when needed for a task and not being used for another task.

[three]Identify costs[/three]At the end of each line you can show as many cost columns for the activities as you require. A Gantt chart can be used to keep track of progress for each activity and how the costs are running. Cost columns can show planned and actuals and variances, and can calculate whatever totals, averages, ratios, etc. you need.

The great thing about making use of Gantt charts for project management is that not only will they help with the planning phases of the project, where you must decide the course of action to take, but they will also help monitor the project and keep it on track. To learn more about Gantt charts and their effectiveness, MS project 2003 courses, from beginner to advanced, will be well worth attending.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on ms project 2003 courses, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

[tags]ms project 2003 courses[/tags]

MS Project 2003 training illustrates the basics of project management, but how will you know if the human resources are available to complete those tasks? Oftentimes, managers from different departments are counting on the same resources to accomplish their projects. Project excels at coordinating resources used across multiple projects through the use of resource pools.

How To Create Resource Pools
To create a resource pool, start a new project just like you learned in MS Project 2003 training. In this project, enter only available resources and then save it. This will not only centralize available resources but will standardize them so that one manager doesn’t cost equipment or personnel differently than another.

Each new project should connect to the resource pool project and will become a sharer file. The sharer file shows resources in the pool and whether or not they are available. As users allot resources, the resources pool will update to show when and where the resources are assigned. Other managers will then be able to see the resources you’ll be using - and you’ll be able to see the resources they have reserved. If they allot the same resources to their project in the same time period, the conflict will appear in both shared projects so that the managers can see the problem and work out the details.

Keeping The Resource Pool Up To Date
If you learned about shared projects in MS Project 2003 training, you learned that any time one user has a project open, other users can view the project but cannot make changes. In this way the project remains uncorrupted by simultaneous changes from multiple sources. The resource pool works the same way.

Other users can still update their own projects but any resource allocations they make will not be updated in the resource pool right away. When the current user closes the resource pool, another user can then update the resource pool with a different project. In this way, each project accesses resources one at a time to minimize allocation conflicts.

By default, only the owner of the resource pool can make changes to the resource information. If a user tries to change resource information, such as the name of the resource, the changes will revert back to the original information once the sharer synchronizes with the resource pool.

Coordinating Users
By default, the system is set up to be self-regulating, preventing users from over-allocating resources or changing basic resource information. However, the system is also designed to be flexible. There is nothing stopping a manager from gobbling up all resources or even changing the defaults so that resource information changes in the resource pool rather than the other way around.

This is where project management has to extend beyond what is typically learned in MS Project 2003 training. The organization will need policies that govern resource conflicts and other potential problems. The software can only do what it is told and must be part of a company-wide project management system to be used most effectively.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on ms+project+2003+training, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

[tags]ms project 2003 training[/tags]

Some companies are using the economic downturn as a reason to cut back and reduce the size of their work force. Others are seizing the opportunity to turn their gaze inward, improving their business processes and developing employee skills by methods such as sending them to Microsoft Project training courses.

Spend More, Not Less
As a business loses customers and sees the workload fall, employees become idle. The intuitive response is to lay off employees to meet the smaller workload, but what happens when the economy recovers? Business picks up, new employees have to be hired and trained. This makes the organization slow to respond to the upswing.

Other companies view the extra time employees have as a time to indulge in the training they’ve always meant to do but never seemed to have time for. Sending staff to Microsoft Project training courses can be the start of a new method of project management. Organizations overhaul organization and business process with little disruption to work flow. When the economy becomes strong, these businesses are already fully staffed and better trained than their competitors.

Proof Of The Benefits of Training
In November 2008, the Cranfield School of Management released a report called “Nurturing Talent”. It contained stunning figures showing the value of using a lull in business to step up employee development efforts such as Microsoft Project training courses.

Half of the 1,189 British companies surveyed in the report found that trained workers were more likely to stay rather than find greener pastures elsewhere. One third found that training improved employee morale, a critical factor when public confidence is at its lowest point in many years. Do you think your business can’t afford training? Nearly half the companies found that their training programs actually saved them money in the long run.

Strategic Planning Makes Strong Business
Business owners and department managers can’t be so blinded by today’s events that they lose sight of tomorrow. Although the economy of the UK and the world is in a bad state right now, recovery is inevitable. Where do you want your business to be when the next boom comes?

Investment in Microsoft Project training courses yields management and workers with a better understanding of project management and a new tool for organizing and optimizing tasks in your organization. It is a positive move that inspires confidence in employees and stockholders alike. This kind of constructive action builds your organization rather than tearing it down.

Layoffs are dramatic, but ultimately make sense only if your company is never going to recover the lost business. It is planning for failure and not surprisingly if you plan for failure, you fail. Implementing new training regimens is a plan for success and will lead to prosperity for your company in the future.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on microsoft project training courses, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

[tags]microsoft project training courses[/tags]

So you have a burning ambition to make a career shift, with the intention of becoming a Project Manager. Perhaps your current employment role is unsatisfactory, perhaps you are looking for a new challenge, or perhaps you are looking for a complete change in your vocation.

Project management is best defined as a thoroughly and carefully planned and organised endeavour to achieve a specific result. This can cover a swathe of activities, from constructing a building to implementing a new software application.

The key outcome of project management is to use knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to plan and implement activities to meet and exceed stakeholder needs and expectations. This outcome is best achieved by an educated and experienced approach to managing the four basic elements of a project: resources, time, money, and scope.

Resources
One of a successful and effective Project Manager’s critical tasks is to manage the resources assigned to the project. The project resources are the skills and tools that will enable you to lead the project through all its different phases, from definition to planning, through to implementation, and on to completion and delivery. The sub-categories under resources are People, Equipment, and Material - all of which are of equal importance to the project’s success.

Time
The next critical task is time management. This is of crucial importance as, nine times out of ten, a project that is effectively time-managed will be completed within budget. The most common cause of a project exceeding budget is a lack of effective time and schedule planning and management.

Money
From the financiers’ point of view budget management is the most important of all the tasks. Realistically there are many factors that influence the effective financial management of a project, and the costs can be divided into three groups: estimated, actual, and variable. So a project’s budget comprises estimated costs, confirmed costs, plus a contingency allowance and any profit. It is essential to meet the project schedule in order to meet the project budget.

Scope
The project scope defines what the project is set to accomplish by making use of resources, time and money. Managing the project scope is the most important element for a Project Manager to have a handle on. If there is a change, for whatever reason, to the project scope there must be an equal adjustment to the three elements discussed above. A common phrase in project management parlance is ’scope creep’. This is when small changes, that on their own are minor or insignificant, are implemented, but that when added up negatively influence the employment of resources, the sticking to budget and the completion of the project within the allocated time.

Now that you are know a little more about what the essential elements of a successful project are, you might very well consider enrolling in a training course that will expand your knowledge, train you in important project management skills and techniques, teach you the basic and advanced terminology used in the project management environment, and assist you in becoming au fait with project management methods and systems.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on project management courses london, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

[tags]project management courses london[/tags]

The most essential ingredient in any project is The Plan. A solid project plan is the model from which the project, and all its different functions, is constructed. In essence, it charts the entire project’s course; as such, the project plan needs to be as detailed and precise as possible, though obviously allowing for unforeseen contingencies.

A wise man once said, “If you fail to plan, plan to fail.” Creating a project plan is the first thing you should do when undertaking any kind of project. Often, project planning is ignored in favour of getting on with the job at hand. However, many people fail to realise the value of a project plan in saving time, money and many problems.

Below are five important facts to know about a sound plan for your project:

Project plans are dynamic
A project plan is not a fixed object; it is a set of ‘living’ documents that will evolve and change as the project progresses and unfolds. Like a roadmap, it provides the direction for the project. But, if an obstacle arises, so it is the responsibility of the Project Manager and the project team to find a detour to a better path.

Project planning is a creative process
The creativity that is required in planning a project should be derived from all parties who have a vested interest in the project and its success. As ideas and decisions change and new thoughts and information become available, so the project plan should be adapted to incorporate these changes.

Project planning is not a linear process
The processes involved in creating a project plan do not necessarily run in a straight line. Sometimes planning activities are related to and dependent upon other decisions. As an example: developing project objectives is dependent upon finalising the project’s scope; while enumerating the deliverables can only occur once the scope and objectives are completed.

Project plans need to be revisited and updated constantly
The Project Manager and the project team must constantly reaffirm the scope and objectives of the project plan so that the plan stays current and relevant.

Project planning should not go on indefinitely
The planning stage of the project and the project plan need to be a controlled process with a finite end. It needs to be a managed process that is kept to a tight schedule. The aim is to avoid becoming paralysed in the planning process. Set realistic time frames and planning goals.

The fundamental premise of good project management states that the project manager’s greatest challenge is effectively balancing the components of time, cost, scope, quality, and expectations. All of which are components of a project plan that will act as a defined guideline for the project at hand.

One solution to your project management software requirements could be Microsoft Project 2003. And the key to becoming well-versed in this application is with training for Microsoft Project 2003.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on training microsoft project 2003, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

[tags]training microsoft project 2003[/tags]

When it comes to managing rental properties, nothing is more helpful than reliable accounting software. Undoubtedly, this software makes your various tasks much easier, helping you get them done faster and more efficiently. Downloading these programs offline is easy, although they do come for a fee. It?s important to find a software program that has everything you need to manage your properties. The money you spend to buy the software is an investment you will be happy you made.

There are many different functions of accounting software, depending on which program you decide to use. However most of the programs do the same basic functions like helping you keep track of late fees, maintenance reports, and rent payments. The online software will allow you to keep track of all your tenants rent payments if you couple it with an online payment system. Not only is this method convenient to your tenants it?s convenient to you as a landlord since you won?t have to worry about collecting rent payments or going through paperwork to find out who didn?t pay their rent. You will also have a list of all of the delinquent accounts as well.

Online accounting software will allow your renters to email you and help you stay in better touch with them. This also allows you to send them friendly reminders that there rent is due with the click of a button. Tenants can also use the software to send out work orders or comments. This also allows for managers to view the messages with ease and get things set in motion.

One of the most indispensable features of these software programs is their ability to keep track of unlimited data. Obviously, larger data bases will cost more, but it can be extremely helpful if you mange several large complexes. When it comes to organizing you inventory, you can use this data space to record small details about the rental properties that are available. New customers will have instant and accurate information on the type of apartments you have open, without having to wait for you to figure it out on your own.

The accounting programs also offer advanced calculating features. This allows for a manager to enter in all of the expenses and profits of a property and then have the program organize it and add it up. You can keep track of the data over a long time period or short and even have it print out the information that you will need for your taxes. Since the system is so automated you don?t have to worry about having an assistant to do all the smaller tasks for you.

Having this software really takes away the workload that a property manager would normally have to handle on their own or hire an assistant to do. Managers that take care of many properties should already have this software, seeing as it is so helpful. It ensures that you make fewer mistakes so you have more time to handle the other issues that come up in management. The investment is something that will make your career extensively easier from that point on.

Graham McKenzie is the content coordinator for a leading property management software review website which connects people with the leading property management tools.

[tags]Software, Management, Property, Real Estate, Property Management, Investing, Real Estate Management,[/tags]

Managing a rental property is not as easy as many people expect. Besides having to collect rent payments every month, you also have to keep track of mountains of paperwork and fill out reports and spreadsheets. After that you will have to handle complaints and work orders that are sent out. New property managers are often overwhelmed by just how much work is involved and may hire an assistant to help them get through it all. With online property management software becoming more popular you won?t have to worry about any of these problems, and there is no need to hire an assistant.

Property management software comes in many different types and forms. Some software has different features from other software however all of the basic functions are the same. All property management software has the basic functions that are required by managers such as the ability to track rent payments and open apartments. Managers can use the software to enter detailed information about the units that are available for rent. If a guest comes in asking about a specific apartment the manager can print off all of the specifications of the apartments that the guest is looking at. The software has unlimited storage space so that you can store everything that you wish about the apartments including dimensions.

Another handy feature of the software is that it can keep track of all of the rent payments that are made. This means that you won?t have to worry about trying to shuffle through paperwork to see who has and who hasn?t paid rent. You can organize the lists in various orders so that you can see who paid late, who paid on time, and who has yet to pay.

You can also use the software to create various reports that you will need throughout the year. If you have a tenant that is getting evicted you can print out his or her rent history along with the rental agreement. You can also create and print forms such as balance sheets that you will need for tax season. All of these forms can be created instantly rather than having to hand produce them or type them up separately.

Property management software has come a long way in revolutionizing the way the reality industry works. It allows for managers to have less hassles with paper and for all the information to be safe on a database that?s accessible from any computer with the internet. The software also allows for one person to be able to the job of many people. This means that a manager doesn?t require an assistant which can save a lot in monthly costs. Also you won?t have to worry about losing paperwork or it getting destroyed in the event of a fire. Property management software is almost a must for any manager in today?s world. It works for managers that manage 10 properties or just 1.

Graham McKenzie is the content coordinator for a leading property management software review website which connects people with the leading property management tools.

[tags]Software, Management, Property, Real Estate, Property Management, Investing, Real Estate Management,[/tags]