The Planner Tutorials Hub is a blog for project managers, controllers, schedulers and planners alike with a need for quality guides on how to work with certain tools common to the trade. Planner Tutorials is headed by Michael Lepage, a “a Primavera and Project Management expert working with companies large and small.”

Lepage also works as a trainer and instructional designer and holds a Project Management Professional cerfication from PMI.org. He says he started the weekly blog in August 2011 because he felt those occupations would be well-served in a weblog format.

“I write tutorials because I love to teach and I’m pretty keen on technology,” Michael says. “There seems to be a lack of tutorials and how-tos on the web for the tools that project managers and planners like Oracle Primavera. We’re trying to help fill that gap by providing real-world step-by-step tutorials for beginners or the advanced user.”

What motivates Michael to post? “Well, there’s a need to pass information on and to make it available to the community. The community as a whole becomes stronger when it’s engaged and resources are available to foster best practices and insightful discussion. Our tutorials are for planners, schedulers, project managers and other project controls professionals.”

The most widely read blogis a video that explains how to include Excel data in a Primavera update

Video Tutorial: Activity Splitting in P6 Using User Defined Fields

Two other posts, including User Defined Fields, serve as his own personal favourites:

How to Convert a Project’s WBS to Activity Codes in Oracle Primavera P6

adaQuest blog is a relatively newer addition to the PPM blogosphere, having originated in June 2011 under the stewardship of “experienced program management professionals who recognized the need for a more efficient project management model.”

Based in Bellevue, Washington, USA, “adaQuest specializes in a unified approach to Localization Services, Project Portfolio Management (including Enterprise Project Management), and PMO Solutions. adaQuest is a Microsoft_^® Certified Partner in Enterprise Project Management Solutions and an authorized Reseller of all Microsoft products. adaQuest has been assisting clients in meeting project and corporate objectives since 2001.

The adaQuest blog has featured sections covering PPM, PMO, Localization (“including but not limited to Localization from the Project Management point of view”), and Professional Services, which adaQuest says are applied primarily to adaQuest’s project management services.

We spoke with Paola Taylor, PMP, who serves as the adaQuest’s Marketing Manager, about the adaQuest blog. She informed us that the blog presented great opportunities to showcase the company’s expertise.

Says Paola: “We started the blog to spreadout knowledge on the fields of Project Management and PMO, and feature adaQuest’s expertise in the Localization Project Management area. In terms of our motivation to post, we love to be able to talk about Project Management and Localization to spread knowledge and to get feedback from readers.”

The intended audience for the adaQuest blog includes project managers, PPM directors and practitioners, PPM clients, PMO directors and localization project managers.

Paola says the most popular post tackles PMO maturity:

Project Management Maturity – The Role of the PMO

Two other posts – in addition to the one above – were mentioned by Paola as personal favourites:

Differences between Globalization, Internationalization, Translation, Localization

Configuring Sharepoint 2010 to seemlessly run Project Server Excel Report

Keep up with Paola and the adaQuest blog on Twitter @adaquest_kat and @Adaquest_Paola.

URL: http://blog.adaquest.com/

RSS Feed: http://blog.adaquest.com/feed/

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Business-Driven PPM is a blog directed by Matthew Barnett for PowerSteering Software, which is a “leader in business-driven project & portfolio management (PPM) solutions for managing IT Governance, PMOs, Performance Improvement, Product Development, and other strategic initiatives.”

“Our easy-to-use software provides business executives at BayCare, Frito-Lay, Merck, PolyOne, Shaw Industries, UK National Health Service, US Department of Defense, and over 140 other customers with executive visibility, strategy alignment, and team productivity to drive strategy and accelerate results across the organization,” Matthew says.

The blog is relatively new to the PPM blogosphere, premiering in April 2011, and has since gone on to offer 3-4 posts each month.

“Our blog is about applying the discipline of PPM to achieve better results from the strategic initiatives that impact your business,” Matthew says. “The blog explores the unique value, benefits and best practices of a business-oriented PPM approach.

“PowerSteering has long held the view that PPM delivers the most business value when it is aligned with strategic objectives, focused on a top-down portfolio management approach, and adopted across the organization rather than remaining the exclusive domain of the IT group. We started our blog to share this perspective – which we call ‘Business-Driven PPM’ – and related best practices and customer success stories.”

“Though we are seeing a gradual shift, much of the PPM space remains focused on PPM within IT, or emphasize tactical project & resource management over what we believe to be the higher value, more strategic practices of portfolio management and project selection. We blog to promote this more value-driven approach to PPM.”

Matthew, who serves as Director of Marketing at PowerSteering Software, says he doesn’t often contribute directly to the blog. He cited the contributions of a variety of writers for Business-Driven PPM’s content, including Jay Hoskins, David Boghossian, Susan Go, Linda Duchin, Terry Melnik and Randy Clark. “The intended audience of our blog are executives responsible for the results generated from PPM practices, such as PMO Directors and Directors of Program/Portfolio Management,” he adds.

The most widely read post tackles an introductory piece for the blog:

What is Business-Driven PPM?

Three other posts rank amongst Matthew’s favourites:

Can IT PPM Be Business-Driven?

Which Comes First – PPM Process or PPM Software?

You Think You Have a Resource Management Problem?

Follow the company and subsequent blog posts on Twitter @powersteeringsw.

URL: http://www.powersteeringsoftware.com/blog

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

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The Project Management Center is an Italian competence center about project management methodologies and tools by HumanWare Consulting Services run by Claudio Fratta, a senior partner at HumanWare. Claudio’s background involved previous work at Accenture within ICT Project management.

“HumanWare started the blog for corporate communication purpose,” Claudio told us recently. “The blog is all about promoting research and communication about Project Management.”

The Project Management Center’s blog is listed in Italian; for those seeking an English-only version of the blog, click here. For popular blogs and favourite blogs below, the Italian and English links will be made available.

The most widely read blog post at Project Management Center is

Controllo progetto monitoraggio avanzamento

Some favourite posts from Claudio include:

Program Management Processi Strategie/ – English

Gestione Progetti – English

PMO Funzioni Competenze – English

Follow Claudio and the Project Management Center on Twitter @humanware.

URL: http://www.humanwareonline.com/project-management/ – English

RSS Feed: http://www.humanwareonline.com/project-management/feed/ – English translation not available

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Fixing Projects is a blog that premiered in May 2010 under the direction of Carol Long, CEO for Three Triangles Performance Ltd. Carol has experience as a programme and project manager, interim manager and consultant in high-tech, public and not-for-profit sectors. She specialises in assisting senior management get value from their project, and also has an expertise in project rescue.

It is the notion of rescuing projects that drives Fixing Projects posts.

“I’m motivated to post by a desire to stop projects failing – I have some insights and experience to share that might help and look for comments and ideas from other managers,” Carol says. “I hate to see the results of failed projects: wasted talent and resources, the demotivated teams, the stakeholders failed.

“If I can reduce the failures by sharing what I see and do in a few organisations with managers and executives around the world, then I will have done something worthwhile.”

The insights and tips from Carol’s experience shine through in Fixing Projects, which usually provides a single post a week (though more are available in other weeks).

“Programme and project management is more than following a method: it is running a temporary organisation with an objective to bring change,” she says. “This blog gives insights, experience and hints to senior managers and project managers to help them improve their project portfolio, programmes and projects. There are tips for PMO, quality and risk managers, too.

“We bring experience, insights and techniques to Boards so their organisation chooses an effective and balanced portfolio of programmes and projects, independent and knowledgeable support to enable board members to be great programme/project sponsors, coach project managers to achieve excellent delivery.”

Carol listed two posts as the most widely read Fixing Projects pieces:

What is IDEF0?

PRINCE2, PMBoK, Agile

She also three other pieces she lists as her favourite:

The delivery of benefits is moderated by risk and quality

Kanban: visualizing work in progress

Planning Communication for Governance

Fixing Projects particularly tries to entice readers with specific weekly topical writings. For instance, Carol pointed to a 2010 series she did on communication for project managers.

Be sure to monitor Fixing Projects and Carol on Twitter @fixing_projects.

URL: http://3triangles.co.uk/

RSS Feed: http://3triangles.wordpress.com/feed/

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PGPSI is a project management blog edited and updated by Ramon Costa, a veteran of project management and IT roles. The blog premiered in 2009 under Ramon’s watchful eye and is updated two times each month in the midst of his busy schedule. He holds down a variety of responsibilities:

• Business Productivity Advisor at Microsoft Innovation Center – Productivity Center.
• Associate Professor at Technical University of Catalonia – UPC and EU Gimbernat.
• Adjunct Professor at Business School EADA.
• Co-Director of IT PM Postgraduate (EU Gimbernat + MICProductivity).
• He also runs two other blogs, including the Spanish language blog for the Microsoft Innovation Center – Productivity Center.

“My original goal, and it still is today, is to exchange notes, articles and resources about project management, IT and Web 2.0,” Ramon says.

Ramon says he is motivated to blog by the concepts of project management, IT and web 2.0 elements. He adds that its his intention to reach out to project managers, PM practitioners, and “non-technical” functional managers.

The most popular post at PGPSI is:

20111 IT trends for Business and Companies

Three other favourites include the following:

Four Generations at Silent Generation

iProductivity: How to Present it

Project Management as Strategic

Follow Ramon and the PGPSI blog on Twitter @pgpsi

URL: www.pgpsi.com

RSS Feed: http://www.pgpsi.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

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Project Management Files is a blog edited by a project management veteran identifying himself only by one name: Alvin

Alvin has been involved in projects and project management for most of his career, and took a shot at blogging through Project Management Files in 2010 as a means to get some of his thoughts published.

“I’d been wanting to share my ideas for a few years now and thought this would be something fun to do,” Alvin says. “I’m motivated to blog because I like having my thoughts on paper and helping others.”

Alvin does not point to any particular posts as either his most popular or his favourite: “No single one stands out yet. I like them all so far.”

Blog: http://www.pmfiles.com/

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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/

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publicsectorpm.com is a blog headed by veteran public sector project & programme manager Jon Hyde that allows him to share several of the working life lessons he has come to embrace. In the midst of a belt-tightening recession, the blog he started in November 2010 can help fellow project managers in public life.

“The blog is about real life project management from the heart of the public sector. Resources are tight and the public sector is being forced to transform at an unprecedented rate, just to maintain current service levels,” Jon says. “Effective project and programme management lies at the heart of successful business change. This blog aims to identify and celebrate best practice.”

“I enjoy sharing knowledge and learning from others, and my intended audience include project and programme managers from around the world.”

The most widely-read article on Public Sector PM is about portfolio management:

Economy-Class Portfolio Management

His personal favourites since he started in November include:

Desert Island PM Tools

Council Responses to the Cuts

Agile Project Management the Cure for Perfectionism and Missed Deadlines?

To keep abreadst of happenings at Public Sector PM, follow Jon on Twitter @publicsectorpm.

URL: http://publicsectorpm.com

RSS Feed: http://www.publicsectorpm.com/feed/

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The PMOSIG – Project/Programme/Portfolio Office Specialist Interest Group – is a voluntary UK organisation focused on PMO. The blog features as part of a recent revamp of the PMOSIG website.

The PMOSIG blog is a recent new feature – launched in December 2010 – to compliment the group’s website and LinkedIn group. The blog’s aim is to share news, articles, competitions, book reviews, links to useful resources – all within the PMO domain

The PMOSIG is a group staffed by volunteers and welcomes guest blog articles from anyone with an interest in the PMO industry – contact can be made through the website

The PMOSIG regularly holds conferences throughout the year and has a thriving commmunity of over 1000 members, membership is free

Recent articles include – Return on PMO Investment and a New Year Greeting inviting members to share their aspirations for the new year.

You can also follow the PMOSIG on Twitter: @pmosigUK

Blog: http://www.pmosig.co.uk/blog/

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