Construction managers are looking for increasing efficiency and reducing costs. In a construction company there is a need for good project management software for contractors to cut costs on some areas and make products affordable. But, there are so many packages that it is difficult to choose. In this article, Jenifer Whitmire (a professional web content writer) writes how to choose good project management software for contractors. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.manufacturing.net/articles/2012/04/wrongly-doing-design-for-six-sigma

To transform the customer experience from traditional methods to better and newer methods, business authorities are relying on agile technology development. When Capital One started using agile development in 2011, Rudy Wolfs, Senior VP of Card IT at Capital One said, it amounted to only 1% of software that was delivered. Today, 85% of softwares are delivered by the agile development method. Also with agile, Capital One now also releases approximately 400 products a month, which has reduced the delivery times to three to six months while "cutting costs significantly," and finds 95% of products meet expectations on the first release. Presently, Capital One has more than 3,000 developers and business users trained on the agile methodology to get a better product. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.banktech.com/channels/capital-one-delivers-85-of-software-thro/240166887?_mc=MP_IW_EDT_STUB

Maintaining the quality of a project is a cumbersome job because while maintaining the quality we must also take into account cost and time consumed for it. Proper planning at the beginning of a project is an absolute necessity. Well established and distinct communication system is also crucial for quality management of the project.  Please go through the link for more details: http://www.pmhut.com/five-steps-to-quality-management-of-your-project

To successfully complete a project, a line must be drawn reaching which a project can be declared as complete. All obligations and requirements from the client must be checked and taken care of. Most importantly every project makes a contribution to the project management team as a lesson; good or bad. The team must take some positive feedbacks from every project and move on to the next one. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.pmhut.com/5-ways-to-end-projects-well

Validating assumptions for a project is an important criteria which should be done carefully and upgraded timely. New assumptions are also very important during various phases of a project. Tracking and defending assumptions during implementation of a project is extremely crucial for a project to see the light of success. To know more, kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.drharoldkerzner.com/the-need-to-validate-project-assumptions/

Sometimes certain phrases spoken by senior executives or managers/team leaders can create confusions among employees of the company. Hence, managers/senior executives should be highly cautious about what they are saying because their words can be a reason of dissatisfaction or sending a wrong message to employees. To know more, kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.drharoldkerzner.com/nine-often-misused-cliches/

Managing an event as vast and big as olympics is a complex and huge job. But from a management perspective, the success of an event does not mean that it was a successful project. In olympics, providing real time data to the spectators and broadcasters’ requires a huge software and hardware setup and also preparation and testing of data flow to avoid any glitches during execution of the games. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.drharoldkerzner.com/lessons-learned-in-program-management-the-olympics/

Metric Management or dashboard implementation is a useful and a systematic way of providing data, only if it is properly implemented. Making unnecessary rush or incomplete information can lead to disastrous results which can lead to lose faith in the Metric Management system completely. It is also important to track whether people accessing the data from dashboard are correctly interpreting them or not. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.drharoldkerzner.com/five-ways-that-metrics-management-can-fail/

The chances of getting into trouble are always there in any project. Project management can be very affective when the project managers were not pressurized in any decision making and also project sponsor assist time to time whenever problem appears. To know more about project governance and other various reasons of project slowdown, please go through the link: http://www.business2community.com/strategy/project-management-warning-signs-project-may-trouble-0642386?tru=RKQB4#gT1e3qKb5Wk2eQ6S.99

Not always does every project get completed within the targeted date. But, when the dates are determined and announced by the top management, very little things are consulted from project managers about the constraints and time frame required for the development of the project. Mostly political and promoter’s convenience is looked after, but when the blame game starts, the top executives quietly distances them from the negativity of the project and starts denying any involvement with the project. This article also talks about few typical scenarios that may occur throughout IT projects. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.drharoldkerzner.com/beware-of-the-dark-side-the-force-will-not-be-with-you2/

Satisfying the social needs of employees is directly proportional to the productivity of employees. Companies often take initiatives like arranging dinner parties and outings, but sometimes, these initiatives may fall flat. Companies must ensure that the benefits or facilities provided interest everyone and is not against the likes of some people. For example, couples dinner parties might upset the bachelors. It has been found that people who associate well outside the office also work better in the office as a team and has higher productivity. To know more, kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.drharoldkerzner.com/satisfying-social-needs/

Politics in offices is an important part of corporate culture and no one can escape it. Ignoring it is not a solution. A successful project manager should be politically good also handle adverse and difficult situations and turn them in his/her or in company's favor. Project managers should try and involve in good politics for betterment of the company. There are few important points that will help project managers to survive politics. Please go through the link for more details: Please go through the link for more details: http://www.pmhut.com/practical-project-politics

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