Project Success

In this episode, Ricardo reflects on a conversation with a project manager who claimed it wasn’t his responsibility to consider the long-term impact of his project. Ricardo argues that today’s project managers must go beyond delivering on time and within budget. They should evaluate the ethical and societal impacts of their work, ensuring it aligns with the greater good.

In this episode, Ricardo talks about why statistics is of great importance to the project manager and recommends a free online course at Udacity: “Intro to Statistics” by Sebastian Thrun.

In this episode, Ricardo emphasizes that one of the project's main success factors is the project manager's behavior and his sense of purpose, the motivation that drives him/her toward a satisfying future.

In this episode, Ricardo talks about the DICE Framework, developed by Boston Consulting Group members to evaluate the chances of success of your project or of your chance management initiative. The factors on the acronym DICE: D – Duration, I – Integrity, C – Commitment and E – Effort receive a score from 1 to 4 and after a simple calculation, the result will help you compare if your project is more likely to be successful or to fail.

In this episode, Ricardo talks about a kind of invisible contract that governs people's relations within organizations and that can have a significant impact on the project's success or failure.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the cultural differences within a project environment. He gives valuable tips on how the project manager must address the differences within his team, the sponsors and the stakeholders and can thus create an effective communication process, based on respect and cultural integrity of all parties.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the dangers of underestimate the complexity of the procurement management. He gives three tips on how we can increase the chance of success in our projects. They are: 1 - Seek knowledge about what will be purchased; … 2 - Analyze the total cost of acquisition, not just the price; … 3 - Associate payment events to deliveries on your project.

In this podcast, Ricardo proposes to us a reflection: why, in both our professional and personal lives, the fear of failure bothers us so much? He says that many societies value the success and penalize failure at the same intensity, and leaves the question: does this logic is the best one?

In this podcast, Ricardo concludes the series on megaprojects, talking about communication, teams and some success factors. He comments especially the importance of forming the core team of the project as soon as possible and to be careful on planning the outsourcing of some roles.

In this podcast, Ricardo continues the series of three podcasts about the world of megaprojects. In this episode, he talks more about the concept of FEL (Front End Loading) and its great importance. In the next and final episode, Ricardo talk about teams, communications and how to engage the community in megaprojects.

In this podcast, Ricardo starts a series of podcasts about the world of mega projects. What makes a project a megaproject? Ricardo talks about the characteristics, risks, and impacts of the failure or success of a megaproject. He also begins to introduce the concept of FEL (Front-end Loading), which will be discussed in the next podcasts.

In this podcast, Ricardo addresses the factors that matter when you're controlling a project. He describes the top 3 factors that every Project Manager should address to effectively control the project.

In this podcast, Ricardo explains that the project manager should seek to simplify the way he/she leads the projects. In the quest for perfection, many people often create methodologies which are too complex to be used and end up not being used at all. He mentions a methodology he once created, pinpointing ways that enable the simplification of the procedures necessary to manage projects.

In this second podcast of the series, Ricardo talks about the success in projects from the perspective of the sponsor or the executive. He explains that the project must be aligned with the company's strategic planning, generate strategic benefits, financial results and that these benefits should be defined at the initiation of the project.