Jan Mihalus

What should we do if our superior keeps making promises but never fulfills them?

One of very important unintended consequence of unreasonable excessive prevention approaches is generation of CAPEX programmes to fake innovations with virtual ROI/ROE or fictive S-ROI.

Inflated or fake project´s ROIs (Return on Investment) can finally lead to inflated corporation´s ROCEs (Return on Capital Emloyed) and to the red ink bottom lines. Too many inflated corporation´s ROCEs finally can succesfully pin down to the touch pad the Adam Smith´s unvisibe hand by well known Quantitative Easing visible hand. Such devil race can usually bring well known market and monetary bubbles which historicaly represents a full manifestation of global financial crisis. Above mentioned two wisdoms or rather approaches, are famous quotes of two wise men. The “Festina Lente - Make haste slowly“ quoted by Octavianus Augustus, Roman Emperor and the „Time is Money“ quoted by Benjamin Franklin, US President. Two wisdoms seems to stay in oposition one to another. But are they really? And even more important question, what are their implications to the global financial crisis?

Multi-million USD capital project in execution phase of the piping part dismantling and installation while normal production process. An interference with adjacent duct system had been disclosed in an area inaccessible during project planning phase. After evaluation of the adjacent system backup I have decided to switch the adjacent system water supply to the backup ducting located out of our area of concern. Since it was a "standard" operational practice manipulation, I had decided to keep available contingency of project schedule and do not ask project sponsor and company management for an unplanned outage. When we had commenced to open the backup duct and simultaneously to close the interfering duct located at buildings roof, an immediate rupture created at the closing valve causing a huge waterfall almost jeopardizing adjacent valuable special refractory technological facilities with potential of explosion upon contact of water with produced liquid steel. Arisen situation tested maturity of our team. I had instructed my deputy to manage not standard water closing activities at the building roof while myself with two supervisors and couple workers hurried up to ground zero level to prevent accumulated water spilling into the valuable special refractory furnaces or to get into contact with liquid steel. Upon arrival under the waterfall I had directed one supervisor to monitor and report situation at the adjacent valuable furnace refractory technology and liquid steel operation. Observing more detail the site I had discovered a very old manhole. I sent the another supervisor to check its potential connection to the adjacent sewage. Upon his confirming of interconnection of this old manhole to the functional sewage I directed the workers to create a little temporary dam-like earthwork confining the further spillage of water and driving the water spillage into the discovered manhole. While our drainage activities at zero ground level, my deputy together with operators and contractors had successfully managed redirecting of whole water discharge comparable with Deadwood Idaho river into the backup duct-line located out of our workplace and stop the unwanted waterfall.

You can’t change people. You must be the change you wish to see in people and be their mentor.

How do you identify a project management methodology or process that is over-engineered? How do you draw the line to minimize time/effort wasted on building a tool or process that may be unnecessary?

We all make assumptions. Wrong assumptions can have devastating impact not only on a project but also in other areas of our life.

Time Management When There’s Not Enough Time. Project managers are taught from the very start that how they manage their time will be critical to their success. Choosing what to focus on first, where to concentrate their efforts and what to defer or delegate is critical not just for the PM, but also for the project. Sometimes PMs just don’t have enough time to do everything. What do you do then?

In many companies including some large ones, Board members risk do not use or, underuse the strongest tool for strategy realization of any company – management of project & program portfolio.

To the owners or executive managers of SMEs looking for serenity and time control, even if they rarely think of it spontaneously, I like to advise to start with the implementation of a 5S system.

Since project as a subject of Project Management discpline is a unique journey, as such in fact it represents also a change, the subject of Change Management discipline.

We are currently fully facing the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to overcome the obstacles that this time brings to our companies and organizations. What could this situation tell us? Could we have been better prepared as managers on strategic level?

Is it important to think "green" when implementing a project?

Hello, I wonder how do you manage conflicts between team members? Thank you.

New PM is on board. Several companies is going to employ a new PM after they find that their customer project service obligations are weak. In a short time, large PM results are expected after projects are taken over by him/her. It does not matter whether it is one or more different projects at once.

Project owner left company, another one was not nominated.

The content and the preparation of the project plan.