Ask Cadence: The Project Management Podcast

When the economy turns sour, it is easy to let fundamentals slip. When you find you are in danger of making reactionary decisions in place of strategic ones, it is critical that you step back, evaluate, and review the overall state of the business. This week, John Patton and Scott Lissit join host Pete Wright to review the importance of project management in a recession, and the role of smart portfolio management and prioritization in strategic decision making.

What do you do when you’re working on a project and your vendors are behind, unresponsive, or incompetent? This week, John Patton and Scott Lissit will show you how to take vendors to task when appropriate, manage them smartly, and target a mutually beneficial relationship.

When it’s time to make the tough decisions, does everyone have to agree? This week, we wrap up our two-part conversation between John Patton and Scott Lissit on project management by consensus, the perils and pitfalls of finding agreement on projects.

When it’s time to make the tough decisions, does everyone have to agree? This week, we begin our two-part conversation between John Patton and Scott Lissit on project management by consensus, the perils and pitfalls of finding agreement on projects.

This week, a listener email: “I have now moved on to a new company, a global bank in Europe. I intend to continue using the cadence methodology and would like to introduce it to the Bank. Do you have any advice on how I can pick up new projects quickly while instilling a sense of trust with my new project team?” It turns out it’s a bigger question than a single episode can answer. This week we offer part 2 of our discussion on porting project management from one company to another with John Patton and Scott Lissit.

This week, a listener email: “I have now moved on to a new company, a global bank in Europe. I intend to continue using the cadence methodology and would like to introduce it to the Bank. Do you have any advice on how I can pick up new projects quickly while instilling a sense of trust with my new project team?” It turns out it’s a bigger question than a single episode can answer. This week we offer part 1 of our discussion on porting project management from one company to another with John Patton and Scott Lissit.

You’re the lone project manager in your group. Your organization is resistant to change. How lead the charge for project management as a key success factor in your group without alienating people creating ill will toward project structure? This week, John Patton and Scott Lissit cover politics, tools, and strategies for helping you move your organization up the project management maturity model.

Executives have to manage the portfolio of projects across the organization in spite of staffing changes, potential layoffs, operations scaling and other complicated market conditions. The decisions they make about projects and programs inside the organization will have a ripple effect with broad reach. Join John Patton and Scott Lissit this week as they cover the issues that come with increased demands, and give you suggestions to make the right portfolio decisions and deliver results.

Companies are being driven to take on projects with fixed due dates in spite of having to complete engineering development tasks which they have never attempted before. What are the costs of implementing your project while your engineering team is struggling to invent? Join John Patton and Scott Lissit this week as they cover the issues that come with these increased demands, and give you suggestions to streamline project management and deliver results.

The election for the 44th president of the United States of America has reset the bar against which campaigns will be measured. From unprecedented volunteerism to savvy strategy, the 2008 campaign season offers telling lessons in progressive project management. On today’s show, join Cadence CEO John Patton and Scott Lissit as they draw their own project conclusions as the polls, and this season, draws to its close.