Category Archives: Project Management/Leadership

Waddell Group consultants have worked with all sizes of companies. One of the questions asked quite often is “why would a small company hire an outsourced project manager?” The question of hiring a Project Manager is driven by balancing the needs of investors, the experience and talent of the CEO and staff, and the market opportunity of the product. Project managers aren’t just for the big companies Project Managers are often seen as only useful in big companies.   In our experience that isn’t the case at all. An effective PM…
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In an earlier blog post we discussed how a project can go off the rails. A key cause is failing to scope a project properly. So this begs the question – how DO you scope a project properly? What belongs in your Project Scope: There are two key ways to look at this: Scope is set by defining what you are going to do Scope is set by defining what you will NOT do – this is critical When crafting a project plan draw a firm line around your product…
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Updated on June 2022. You know the scene. The team has tried to get back on the plan but everything in the medical device project seems to be running disastrously off the rails and no one quite knows why. The budget is shot, the team is disorganized and the finger-pointing has begun. Senior executives meet in a fact-finding effort to identify the problem and hope to find a solution. If this were a movie, this is when a stranger walks in with sage advice that cuts through the fog and…
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  One of the most frequent questions we are asked is how we, as outsourced project managers, can expect to deliver superior results for our clients over internal project managers. The perceived challenges we supposedly face include having to adapt to a culture, learn a product, meeting the people, and work within a new team. Concerns with Project Management Some of these concerns are standard questions to outsourcing anything, but when it comes to project management, often these perceived obstacles to success are actually accelerators. We often step into an…
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Wouldn’t it be great if everyone wanted to attend your project meetings? I am not saying anyone should be rolling out a red carpet anticipating your entrance into the meeting, but it would be nice if you put on a meeting where people were enthusiastically engaged. Well, that should be happening. If you are scheduling and running meetings that are pointless or unconstructive, your team is not going to give you their best work, because clearly, you are not giving them your best. Attributes of an effective team meeting In addition…
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Project management needs people Project management is a profession that will never be done by an app or machine. It needs people and here’s why: Work gets done through people On the most basic level, project management software and tools can tell you where you are and what needs to get done, but only with the input from a human. For example, Asana is an amazing app for task management, but in no way can it run a team without a human. Businesses need real, live project leaders to assess…
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You have probably noticed we use the term “project leader” more often than “project manager.” That is no mistake. The two terms are not synonymous and we believe project leaders have the ability to take projects and teams to a whole other level. What is the difference between project managers & project leaders? A project leader is a project manager, but a project manager is not necessarily a project leader. Both managers and leaders are professionals who are tasked with planning, executing and closing a project. Both are in charge…
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