Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Visual Project Management
    Visual Project Management
    Visual Project Management
    Ebook235 pages2 hours

    Visual Project Management

    By Paul Williams

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Today’s project manager has more to manage than just project scope, deliverables, communications and teams. They are also expected to manage large volumes of project-related data. And the expectation goes beyond just managing the data. It extends into creating great visualizations that allow stakeholders to fully digest that large volume of data in a manner that is quick, effective and clear. They are also expected to serve as facilitators in the use of visual thinking tools as a method for working through project issues, risks and problems. These new expectations require new skills. The era of multi-page, text-based project status reporting is over. The era of visual project management is here. Time to “skill up!”
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateJan 18, 2015
    ISBN9781312822351
    Visual Project Management
    Author

    Paul Williams

    Professor Williams has had a long-standing research interest in geomorphology and hydrology and is a Fellow of the International Association of Geomorphologists. He is co-author of the seminal reference text ‘Karst Hydrogeology and Geomorphology’ and a senior advisor to IUCN/UNESCO concerning natural World Heritage.

    Read more from Paul Williams

    Related to Visual Project Management

    Related ebooks

    Business For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      How NOT to Sell Your Idea at Work

      Jun 20, 2022

      “I work for a business strategy firm that encourages input from employees on ways of expanding our menu of services. Every few months we have ‘Pizza and Proposals Day,’ where employees are encouraged to pitch new marketing programs. “After lunch we l

      2 min read

    • Article

      AGILE: It Is All About Trust

      Oct 22, 2019

      AGILE: It Is All About Trust
      6 min read

    • Article

      Build And Organise A Kanban Board

      May 5, 2020

      Project management is a tricky skill. What can start out as a relatively simple task can spiral out of hand when you get underway and discover new angles, fresh requirements and who knows what else. It’s hard enough managing a project on your own, bu

      6 min read

    • Article

      Both Sides Now

      Mar 20, 2018

      Many agency suits, strategists and even creatives switch from agency to client side at some point in their career. Maybe it’s the ability to focus on one thing and do it well or the opportunity to call the shots on what gets done. Often, it’s just th

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Roots of Entrepreneurial Success

      Jan 1, 2020

      You have been involved in start-ups for many years as a founder, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. In your experience, does entrepreneurship demand specific traits, or can anyone with a great idea do it? I don’t subscribe to the idea that it t

      6 min read

    • Article

      Louis Camassa

      Oct 30, 2020

      Louis Camassa
      10 min read

    • Article

      Reflecting On The Future Of The Profession

      Jan 29, 2023

      The concept of authorship is of growing interest for the profession. At the commencement of my career, authorship of a project seemed clear-cut. As a practising landscape architect, you were typically appointed for the life of a project, remained at

      2 min read

    • Article

      Lest We Forget

      Dec 2, 2021

      Lest We Forget
      3 min read

    • Article

      3 Surprising Insights from a Former Financial Adviser

      Jun 7, 2018

      It's been more than a year since I've moved on from being a financial adviser to providing financial education. This transition has given me the benefit of both time and perspective, enabling me to take a fresh look at the financial advisory business

      2 min read

    • Article

      Q&A

      May 1, 2023

      Three ‘impact objectives’ have guided you in your career. Please describe them. I crafted these objectives over the years as I thought about the impact I wanted to have in my career and the principles that meant the most to me. The first objective is

      7 min read

    • Article

      4 Steps to Leadership

      Sep 1, 2022

      4 Steps to Leadership
      3 min read

    • Article

      Taking The LinkedIn Lead

      Jun 6, 2018

      Taking The LinkedIn Lead
      5 min read

    • Article

      Design Debate

      Oct 16, 2019

      The idea of an operational process, without a philosophy or values, without a specific stance on how to look at the world, is highly problematic because every groundbreaking design has a philosophy behind it, good or bad. I’m certainly not at the top

      1 min read

    • Article

      Keep Some Old, Add Some New

      Jul 6, 2021

      Keep Some Old, Add Some New
      2 min read

    • Article

      Design Thinking: Mastering the Tensions

      Jan 1, 2019

      INNOVATION AND DESIGN have been part of my life for decades. As a former innovation manager in the packaged goods industry, I worked closely with creative people to design products, packaging, communications and services; and as a professor at the Ro

      5 min read

    • Article

      Leading With Empathy

      Sep 1, 2020

      When some people hear the word empathy being used in a business context, they think ‘What does that have to do with business?’ How do you respond to that mindset? I would argue that empathy has everything to do with business. If you accept that innov

      6 min read

    • Article

      Championing The Practice Of Professional Marketing

      Sep 16, 2018

      A big thanks to all the judges who give up their time and brainpower, and our new convener of judges, Michael Friedberg. On the theme of showcasing, we speak to a group of innovative MA member marketers about what matters most. Data, technology and c

      13 min read

    • Article

      More Than The Numbers

      Jun 24, 2018

      More Than The Numbers
      5 min read

    • Article

      Nail Your Dream Job

      Jul 28, 2021

      Nail Your Dream Job
      7 min read

    • Article

      Customer-centric From Its Core

      Sep 16, 2018

      What’s been the biggest change you have seen in your career? I think one of the biggest things I am seeing recently is data becoming more and more important in how businesses operate and how they deliver customer experiences. Even a few years ago whe

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Visual Project Management

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Visual Project Management - Paul Williams

      Visual Project Management

      Visual Project Management

      Visual Project Management

      Paul R. Williams, PMP

      Think For A Change™ Publishing

      Green Bay, Wisconsin USA

      Copyright

      Ordering Information:

      Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, educators and others.  For details, contact the publisher at the address listed below.

      Discounts also exist for readers purchasing hard copies directly from Lulu Press.

      U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers: Please contact Think For A Change™ Publishing via email: VisualPMOrdering@thinkforachange.com

      Legal Disclaimers:

      Paul R. Williams d/b/a Think For A Change, LLC and ThinkForAChange.com™ does not receive compensation for listing any product or other resource in this work, unless specifically noted. References herein to any specific commercial products, books, websites, or services by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favored status. 

      As a reader of this work you agree to do your own due diligence before conducting any personal or professional business with any person or company listed in this work and take full responsibility in doing so, not holding Paul R. Williams d/b/a Think For A Change, LLC and/or ThinkForAChange.com™ as well as its subsidiaries, employees, staff, contractors, administrators, moderators and Webmaster responsible for any actions that may arise out of your relationship created with an individual, company, organization or other resource referenced in this work. 

      All internet addresses, reference works and products/services listed in this work were active and available at the time of printing.

      All references listed in the notes and bibliography sections of this work, including all graphics, photographs and other visual media not produced by Paul R. Williams d/b/a Think For A Change, LLC and ThinkForAChange.com™ were either verified under Creative Commons as available for use for commercial purposes with proper attribution on the date of first publication or used with permission of the copyright owner.

      Copyright © 2015 by Paul R. Williams, PMP

      All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

      First Printing:  February 2015 via Lulu Press, Inc. and On-Demand via Amazon.com

      ISBN 978-1-312-66522-4

      Think For A Change™ Publishing

      1678 Cady Lane

      De Pere, Wisconsin  54115      United States of America

      Printing number

      10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

      Dedication

      For Michelle…thank you for your patience, your willingness to listen without judgment, your gentle nudges in the right direction and your encouragement to take calculated risks.  This thing we call life and a career has been a wonderful, interesting and blessedly rewarding journey thus far, and I wouldn’t change a single minute.  Here’s to the second half!

      ***

      If you don’t build your own dream, someone else will hire you to help build theirs. – Tony A. Gaskins, Jr.

      ***

      If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it and share it with the world. – Toni Morrison

      Acknowledgements

      Ultimately, the seed for this work was planted about seven or eight years ago while I was working as a senior project leader at a former employer.  Sometime around the midpoint of my tenure there, I was invited to participate in a kaizen event (they were all the rage at the time) to improve the project management process.  During a brainstorming exercise on how to communicate project status in a more executive-friendly manner, someone mentioned that a certain project manager, not in the PMO at the time, was consistently receiving high praise from executive leadership for his ability to deliver results and communicate effectively at their level.  It turned out that this project manager was managing projects with far greater detail than anyone else in the organization.  His projects were managed primarily on cost, balanced to the penny and brutally honest in the presentation of the project metrics.  Most notable, however, were the project status binders he published, full of colorful graphs, charts and other data visualizations that allowed executives to fully and quickly understand the health of the projects they were sponsoring.  In fact, it wasn’t uncommon to see executives walking around with these binders under their arm as they moved from meeting to meeting.  It was then that I realized the tremendous impact and potential that data visualization had in project management and leadership success.  That project manager, Kent Holzworth, eventually became EPMO Director for the organization, not to mention my boss and mentor.  Thanks to his leadership and guidance, I have had a very successful project management career following his model of presenting project facts, in an easy to understand manner, so decisions can be made quickly and with high confidence.

      Also, special thanks to the many people who took time out of their busy lives to help proofread the early drafts, offer suggestions on edits, ensure I was attributing all of the quotes and usage of graphics and photographs correctly, and for simply playing the role of editor as I was focused on trying to get these concepts down on paper. 

      For those who volunteered to review the final draft of this work and provide professional feedback, along with honest reviews and recommendations, I owe each and every one of you a debt of gratitude and thanks.

      Finally, I want to recognize the many people who have attended my conference and workshop presentations regarding this topic and have shared feedback and encouraging remarks.  Many of your suggestions have found their way into this work!  And to those with whom I have had the pleasure of working directly within this visual project management niche over the course of the past decade, your ideas and recommendations have refined and improved the concepts, tools and thought leadership that you now see in use across the globe today.  Thank you!

      Introduction

      My journey into this unique niche of the project management world came about as a result of two experiences, one of a more general nature and one quite specific.  As anyone in the innovation management field can tell you, the best innovations typically come about from the combination of two widely disparate ideas.  Combining visual thinking techniques with project management discipline has always seemed to be a natural fit to me.  But it wasn’t until I started searching for other best practices of applying visual methods to project management that I realized there was virtually no thought leadership on this topic outside of some agile software development methodologies.

      The first generalized influence that visual thinking had on my project management career stems from my life-long passion and professional experience in creative problem solving, ideation and innovation management.  Within the unstructured realm of the fuzzy front end of innovation, tools like mind-maps, sketches and infographics rule the day.  These visual-based tools help to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas for further examination. 

      In the slightly more controlled processes of the messy back end, where ideas and concepts become tangible, visual thinking tools organize the work flows, help with decision making and bring structure to a traditionally unstructured process.  Visual management at this level improves stakeholder communication, facilitates robust cross-functional collaboration and brings clarity to complex processes and task lists. 

      The primary key influence, however, that visual thinking has had in my project management practice resulted from a very specific episode of workplace rebellion.  I was working as a Senior Program Manager for a financial services company at the time.  The organization had a well-defined project management process and methodology.  Some would say the process was a bit too well-defined.  The use of templates was not only encouraged, they were required.  Teams of project auditors would occasionally troll through project documentation folders to verify that the templates were not only being used, but were not modified in any meaningful way.  Consistency and conformance were the mantra. 

      As in most organizations with formal Project Management Offices, new concepts that were green-lighted for project initiation from the executive leadership ranks or through the budget appropriations process were asked to prepare a formal Request for Project Approval document.  This document artifact came in the form of a Microsoft PowerPoint® slide deck and would be presented to the Project Approval Committee, made up of executive team members with titles like CFO, COO, CIO and the like.  The RPA deck was a well-choreographed document with strict rules for what could and could not be included.  Minimally encompassing eight pages of required information, some legendary decks tipped the scales at twenty to thirty pages of extraneous information contained within the appendix of the document.  Anyone who put material after the Appendix title slide knew that the odds of any information actually being read post-meeting were a loser’s bet.

      As a Senior Program Manager, my role included frequent trips to the Project Approval Committee for the presentation of project approval requests.  In this role, I would build deck after deck after deck, each one staying within the PMO prescribed guidelines.  Because these were C-level executives, the date and time of each Project Approval Committee meeting was set well in advance.  The Project Leadership Team’s preparation time, however, would typically begin two to three weeks ahead of the actual meeting. 

      This process would start by taking selections of data from various project initiation documents such as the project charter, the budget worksheet or

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1