Project Manage This holds a unique spot in PPM Community: to date, it’s the only one we’ve come across that posts on a purely anonymous basis. We intend to protect the anonymity of its editor-in-chief whilst opening your minds to what this PPM blog can bring to the table, primarily as a blog with an unmatched perspective and narrative.

“The voice isn’t meant to be me; instead its a conglomeration of PM types,” says the editor, who we’ll respectfully refer to as PMT. “I’ve been managing projects and programs for over a decade. I currently manage 12 pm types and am inspired each day by them. Watching the challenges they face, and witnessing them overcome each with grace is what keeps me going.”

The blog is the newest on the PPM Community, premiering on a weekly basis 8th October 2011. PMT effectively deals with the ins and outs of project management, tackling the Yin and Yang inherent with such a job.

“Simply put – it’s an outlet. I wanted to create a space to post tips, tales and observations about the career I love and hate,” PMT says. “Project managers, program managers, producers, account managers, coordinators, and the like. (They are) the unsung heroes. We’re the ones that keep things moving and get it done on time and on budget. We keep our teams motivated and on track, make sure our boss and/or client is happy, and ensure that the community we’re building for get the best product possible. You never see us sweat, rarely hear us swear, and are amazed at how calm we are when fires erupt. That’s because we’re good at what we do.

“We absolutely love our job. Making things happen, getting things done, that’s our nature. We never ever vent at work. Ok, rarely do. But we do have tales to tell. ‘Project Manage This’ is a place for PM types to love and hate the career we’ve chosen.”

The brief time away from the job – weekends – allows PMT the ability to reflect on what would make for good content in the blog.

“When the weekend rolls around, I simmer on the events of the week,” PMT says. “Instead of just thinking about it, I’ve decided to type something up.”

As PMT wants to protect their anonymity, the most we can tell you about their professional background is that PMT “was born a PM type, as I’m sure most people visiting your blog were.” PMT also made clear that the blog “isn’t about me. It’s about PMs.”

Considering that Project Manage This is in its early days, PMT had only one post they could really shed light on:

Top 10 Plus 1 – Personality Traits of a PM

Follow Project Manage This by way of the official Twitter handle – @pmthis

URL: http://projectmanagethis.wordpress.com/

RSS: http://projectmanagethis.wordpress.com/feed/

If you enjoy the Project Manage This, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too!

PM Notes is a blog hosted by Nina Braschler, a senior project manager based in Switzerland. A bilingual professional, Nina blogs in German, but English translations are available through Google Translate.

“I do some coaching for project management in my company,” Nina says. “The questions of the ‘coachees’ inspired me to write about project management issues.”

Nina offers up to two posts each month since she premiered PM Notes in October 2010. She describes the blog thusly: “The posts highlight some stories of my project management workday life. It’s intended for everyone who is interested in project management.”

With modern translation tools like Google Translate and a strong command of the English language, Nina has crossed over between two leading EMEA languages and cultures, due in part to her Tweeting practises (@ninusch01) in both English and German.

Nina currently works as an FH Information Specialist & Senior Project Manager for Namics, a internet company based in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Previously, she’d worked at the Social Security Institute and Helvetia Gruppe, also in St. Gallen.

Her most popular post talks about a communications matrix:
The trade-off matrix as a basis for communication in the project (German original)

Some of her favourites include these three:

Project management on the road to Web 2.0 (German original)

Caution in dealing with rough cost estimates (German original)

The unpleasant Project …. (German original)

URL: http://pm-notes.blogspot.com/

RSS Feed: http://pm-notes.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

If you enjoy PM Notes, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too

PDU Of The Day, or pduOTD.com for short, is a blog from the editorial direction of Martin Chernenkoff, PMP. As one would expect from the header, the blog delves into the realm of project management related professional development units readers should make a note of for continued professional development.

“Weekdays we present PDU and learning opportunities for PMs BAs and Agile Professionals,” says Martin, who is widely known to Twitter followers as @EdmontonPM. “We provide learning opportunities in a variety of Categories and we support PMP Self Directed Learning programs. pduOTD presents PDU opportunities by review and referral. We encourage comments on the opportunities and feedback from the project management community.”

Currently, the blog maintains a “Foreign Correspondents” program, a chance to share worldwide opportunities for PDUs in a variety of languages. Martin told us that it consists of “a group of volunteers who discover non-English PDU opportunities for our site, (and earn Category E PDUs). Interested PMs should drop us a line at opportunity@pduotd.com. We are currently looking for Arabic, Portuguese, Russian and German assistance.”

Martin’s career to date has seen him work as a certified PMP, IT Team Manager and PM Mentor. He has also taught in academic institutions and facilitated business operations in numerous industries, and displays a clear motivation for imparting the lessons from his life’s work on matters related to team building. Particularly, he attempts this through improved communication, better self-regulation, utilising strengths of team members, improving productivity through accomplishments and more. In general, the pduOTD Model seems to be a win-win for both back-end providers of the website, and front-end website readers in part because Martin encourages a collaborative nature of the blog.

“We are a group of volunteer professionals who wish to support the community to educate themselves, select quality PDU opportunities and assist with Self Directed Learning opportunities without the stress and expense that some of us have experienced in the past,” he says. “As Senior Project Management Professionals throughout our careers we have been given advice and mentoring by others in the profession that have helped us develop the skills and habits we use on a day to day basis. For us it is time to give back – We want to support the professional community in their learning endeavors.”

The blog premiered on New Year’s Day, 2011, and maintains a daily weekday feed of new posts.

The most read article on pduOTD.com is:

Project Management Process Groups & Knowledge Areas (PMBOK® 4th Edition) – S. Babou’s Mind Maps™ – Martin adds: “Mind Maps™ are an excellent way of communicating information visually. This article describes and links to PMBOK® mind maps by Babou.

Some of Martin’s favourites (and his thoughts about each post) include these three:

Five Monkeys, a Banana and a Flight of Stairs: Peeling Away the Fear That Complicates Change – A webinar, “This session has proven to be very popular and was repeated at the #boat conference in Calgary and with the impact 2011 conference. We also include a link to the original story of the ’5 Monkeys a Flight of Stairs & a Banana’”.

EdmontonPM’s Top Ten Pirate Booty on Project Management – Aargh! – “This article links Project Management practices and philosophies to Pirates.

The Sinking of the Titanic: PM Lessons on the 99th Anniversary – “This article on Sinking of the Titanic on April 14/15, 1912 offers many valuable lessons for the Project Manager, from both a popular perspective and from a more serious academic perspective.”

In addition to his @EdmontonPM handle, Martin’s pduOTD blog posts can be regularly monitored on Twitter @pduOTD.

URL: http://pduOTD.com

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/pduOTD

If you enjoy the PDU Of the Day blog, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too.

Keeping the Peace is a blog run by Margaret Meloni, a successful working coach and former PMO & project manager that is based in America after several years working in corporate roles, many of which included Fortune 500 companies.

“The blog helps you keep the peace with tips and stories on how to become free from the work related conflict that prevents you from having good working relationships and impacts the quality of your personal life,” Margaret says. “We spend lots of time working. Sometimes we see our co-workers more than we see our friends and family. Obviously those interactions make a huge impact in our lives. What happens at work on Friday can stay with us ALL weekend. I believe we can and should make those interactions positive. I believe we all have the power to navigate workplace conflict peacefully. That is why I am here.”

Margaret definitely sees a great deal of material for project managers to use in a working capacity. Her career is testament to the importance of projects in her career’s development: originally, she started her career as a mainframe computer programmer.

“I wanted to work in more of a leadership role but was not sure how,” she recalls. “One day opportunity knocked and it was in the form of project management. I did not know it at the time, but I was an accidental project manager. As I progressed from project manager to program manager to PMO manager I was given the opportunity to coach other project managers. I also unofficially coached others at the office. When I left, literally my wake up call was the calls I received from the people I had helped. This made me realize that I really wanted to work in a supporting role. I wanted to help people learn how to deal with difficult people and situations that occur throughout the project lifecycle.

“An intended audience of the blog includes project managers who understand that project management is an art and a science and who are looking to successful manage the human side of project management.”

Her most popular item at Keeping the Peace deals with a PMP application. “This is the most visited because it is a free item I give to people to help them with the application for the PMP exam,” she says.

Sample PMP Application

That said, she says the most widely read post deals with workplace compassion:

Compassion is not a weakness

She has three other posts she lists as her personal favourites…

How a Cup of Coffee can Ruin Your Day

Conflicted About Compassion

Goodbye Lee

Be sure to follow Margaret and the Keeping the Peace blog by way of Twitter @MargaretMeloni.

URL: http://blog.melonicoaching.com/

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/melonicoaching

If you enjoy the Keeping the Peace blog, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too.

The Project Whisperer is a blog run by Pam Stanton, an author, speaker, and consultant with over 20 years of project leadership experience. The title of the blog coincides with Pam’s recent book of the same name, a chronicle of her two decades of insight into the human element of project success.

“I am extremely passionate about recognizing and growing people’s talent,” Pam says about the blog, one of many hats she wears for the advancement of project management. Additionally to being a long-time practitioner, blogger and author, she hosts the monthly webTV show ‘PDU For Lunch’, which features special guests from the world of leadership and project management.

Pam is also the founder of Heart, Brains, & Courage LLC, which houses two successful consulting practices: The Project Whisperer, and My Mastery Map. She told us that she “is passionate about enabling people to apply Emotional Intelligence to drive positive outcomes at work and in their personal lives.”

“The blog aims to give insight, tips, advice, and guidance on how to lead a project team to success.”

A born and bred native of New Jersey, Pam graduated from Yale with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychobiology. Her career includes leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, Integrated Computer Management, MARC Inc., Prudential Insurance, and United Way. As a consultant, she has also worked in dozens of other business environments. She encourages people to learn more at her self titled website PamStanton.com or email her directly at pam@pamstanton.com.

The most widely read article on The Project Whisperer deals with presentation advice…

The Project Manager as Orator: Top 10 Presentation Tips

Other favourites include these three…

Dashboards & Pumpkin Muffins: A Confession

PMI Certification: Is It Worth It?

Broadway’s Spider-Man: A Tangled Web of Lessons in Project Management

Pam’s can be found at the website and email address listed above, but you can also keep up with her latest news on Twitter @pamstanton.

URL: http://pamstanton.wordpress.com/

RSS Feed: http://pamstanton.wordpress.com/feed/

If you enjoy The Project Whisperer blog, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too.

Susanne Madsen is the blog run by the certified PRINCE2 practitioner, project/programme manager, mentor and coach of the same name, with over 15 years experience in the trade.

“The majority of my experience stems from working with investment banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Standard Bank, both as a consultant and as a permanent employee. I am currently employed as a Program Director for one of the world’s largest financial instritutions,” she says. “I have recently developed a 6 step project management coaching framework which is currently in the process of being published as a book.

“I believe that a great project manager is first and foremost able to manage his or her own state of mind and that project management success is as much about leading people as it is about managing tasks.

“In my work, I mainly focus on helping the individual to look inwards and become a better leader; someone who sets a great personal example, who is excellent at inspiring and focusing the team and who also understands how to effectively liaise with the sponsor and senior stakeholders.”

Relatively new to blogging (the blog premiered in January 2011), Susanne says she gave it a try in an effort “to reach more project managers and enable them to learn from my experiences. It is all about contributing to the community really.”

Admitting to being more a micro-blogger on Twitter (see link below), Susanne blogs for longer about once a month. “My blog is filled with tips, tools and techniques for everyone who wants to coach themselves and others to become highly valued and truly successful project management leaders,” she says. “I’m motivated by wanting to contribute and help more junior project managers to become project management leaders.”

The most popular post on Susanne Madsen lists ways to handle stakeholders effectively, a post she also lists as one of her personal favourites:

6 principles for building trusting and lasting relationships with your stakeholders

She also has two PDF uploads on her blog that she includes amongst her favourites:

Managing Risks & Issues (PDF)

Stakeholder Management (PDF)

Follow what Susanne and her blog are up to on Twitter @SusanneMadsen.

URL: http://www.susannemadsen.co.uk/blog.html

RSS Feed: http://www.susannemadsen.co.uk/1/feed

If you enjoy the Susane Madsen blog, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too.

SpanishPMO is a Spanish-language project management blog run by Fermin de Rojas that focuses on elements within PM, namely methodologies, tools, jobs and coaching. A bilingual project management expert educated at Brighton University, Fermin was startled to find a wealth of PM blogs available in English, compared to the relative lack in his native Spanish, and decided to take care of such matters himself as a major audience seemed to be missing out.

“I took for granted that everybody could speak english or at least could read it, but realised that there were very little information regarding Project Management in Spanish,” Fermin told us. “Bear in mind that there are 350 million Spanish speakers, mainly in Latin America, EEUU and Spain.

“This is the main reason why SpanishPMO.com was born, a website focus in project management in spanish, specialized in articles of how to set up a PMO, methodologies like Prince2 and PMI, tools, cyber security, coaching, negotiation and leadership skills.”

Fermin uses SpanishPMO as a portal in “specialized in articles of how to set up a PMO, methodologies like Prince2 and PMI, tools, cybersecurity, coaching, negotiation and leadership skills.” He says his audiences not only centers on those practising or interested in practising project management and leadership, but also those who work in an office environment.

“I motivated to blog through my own goals of personal self-improvement and self-satisfaction. I want to evangelise the word of Project Management and Agile method in the Spanish mentality.”

Fermin says his most popular post concerns Spanish-language books fellow speakers can turn to as PPM-related resources (links in Spanish only)
Libros

Among his favourite posts are:

• Creacion de Una Oficina de Proyectos (PMO)
• JIRA la herramienta perfecta para la administración de proyectos
• Funcionalidad Frankestein

Be sure to keep track of Fermin and SpanishPMO on Twitter @spanishpmo

URL: http://spanishpmo.com/

If you enjoy the Spanish PMO, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too

The AFA blog is one of the most recently established blogs on PPM Community, premiering 1st November 2010. It’s company blog for AFA, established as a management consultancy organisation 15 years ago and since developing into a reputable training course provider.

Alan Ferguson suggested AFA to PPM Community, as the blog updates 3-5 times per week.

“As one of the most successful and well known project management specialists throughout the UK and Europe, AFA would like to give a unique insight into the mind of some of the most respected managers within the community and a unique ‘all access’ view of our organisation,” he says. “We hope the AFA blog will give people an insight into practices for delivering change, including portfolio, programme and project management as well as AFA as an organisation.

The newness of the blog creates an uncertainty as to where the content of the blog will lead over time, though change could be a key area of focus.

“What will we be discussing? Of course we don’t know – that is the beauty of a blog,” Alan says. “When AFA was founded by me over 15 years ago the world was simple – we used project management. But as time has moved on we have all realised that we need more tools, methods, methodologies, disciplines, practices… Then there is programme and now portfolio management, offices, maturity models and a whole range of super-techniques: benefits, risk, value. And below all this sits the softer side of achieving change – change management. Well we have found ourselves referring to this set of methods as Practices for Delivering Change. So I think the theme of the blog will be Practices for Delivering Change.”

Alan’s experience includes updating the most recent Best Practice management guidance. AFA, he says, is in demand to deliver master classes and other training events throughout Europe. Since founding AFA, Alan has delivered assignments in numerous locations as far afield as New York and Canberra; he has experience in working with both public & private sector organisations.

“Here at AFA, we are having more and more fascinating discussions on blogs and discussion groups and thought we would like to pull these debates together in one place,” he says. “The best way to do this was to a create a blog, which we hope in time will become a community, a place like minded colleagues can share their views and ideas.”

The most widely read post on the AFA blog is:

Are you a true Project Manager?

Some of Alan’s favourites include these three:

PRINCE2 with UNIFIL in South Lebanon

Evaluating a P3O Initiative

Are you a true Project Manager?

Follow the AFA blog on Twitter @AFA_Alan, on LinkedIn and on Facebook.

Blog: http://www.afaprojects.com/blog/

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AFAblog

If you enjoy AFA, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too.

The Hard-Nosed Project Manager tends to gravitate in scope toward its given title: hard-nosed, as well as practical, first-hand experience and observation as opposed to theory. Specifically, it is written from the hard-nosed experience of Patrick Richard, a Montreal-based PMP, with Combat and Chemical Engineering experience across a variety of industries. Admittedly, Patrick says he was surprised that his approach to project management was anything but “out there” when he started Hard-Nosed in January 2010.

“It was NOT a New Year resolution,” Patrick says. “I attended a class by Harold Kerzner and was surprised that my approach to project management was not “way out there”. I started reading other PM blogs and decided that I could contribute.”

Patrick adds new posts a “few times a week” to Hard-Nosed, and says word or mouth or relevant buzz in the industry inspires him to write.

“I’m motivated to post by something I read or heard, something that happens in one of my projects, questions from peers or those looking for mentorship,” he says. “I intend to reach other PMs, those who aspire to become PMs, those who face team leadership issues.”

Follow Patrick and The Hard-Nosed Project Manager on the following portals:

Blog: http://thehardnosedpm.typepad.com/

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHard-nosedProjectManager

Twitter @hardnosedpm

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickrichard?trk=btn_typepad

If you enjoy The Hard-Nosed Project Manager, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too.

Ask Rick A. Morris about his blog, and he’ll tell you that Project Management That Works! is “a collection of ramblings, tools and free consulting” on a weekly-updated blog that allows the veteran PMP and ITIL Practitioner “to be able to share the latest best practices.”

Rick has the background that lends itself to sharing a wealth of expertise in a public forum. He owns R2 Consulting and wrote a pair of project management books in 2008, “The Everything Project Management Book” and “Project Management That Works”. He also is in demand as a public speaker at PMI Chapters, civic organisations and a frequent guest lecturer at universities. In addition to the Project Management Professional (PMP) and ITIL qualifications, Rick is further up to standard as an MPM, OPM3, Six Sigma Green Belt, MCITP, MCTS, MCSE, TQM, ATM-S and ISO. He says he endeavours to blend real world experience and down-to-earth delivery style in his consultations.

“It makes my passion for the profession contagious,” he says. “I have worked for organisations such as GE, Xerox and CA and have consulted to numerous clients in a wide variety of industries including financial services, entertainment, construction, non-profit, hospitality, pharmaceutical, retail and manufacturing. I’ve tried to inspire project managers by taking the experience of my youth and blending it with the knowledge I’ve attained throughout my career.”

Rick says the most widely read post on Project Management That Works! was a tribute to the life of Rita Mulcahy, a project management pioneer:

Death of a Pioneer: RIP Rita Mulcahy

He also talks about the people behind numbers, an organisation’s own capacity and a Microsoft Project Formula:

Beyond the ID Number is a Person

What About My Capacity

Date Compliance Check – Microsoft Project Formula

Project Management That Works and Rick can both be monitored on Twitter @rickamorris

Blog: http://www.pmthatworks.com

RSS Feed: http://pmthatworks.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

If you enjoy Project Management That Works, leave a comment and share your thoughts with others. Leave a ranking feedback too.