I want to explain why I wrote my latest book - The Project Management Book, and why you should read it. Any new project management book should be challenged with the question – why? There are thousands of project management books, and amongst those thousands there are quite a few that are very good. On top of this there is a constant stream of new books. So it’s easy to conclude we can’t possibly need any more. I am convinced there is space for a different kind of project management book organised in a different way. That’s why I wrote and published The Project Management Book.

Organisational change programs are more and more common nowadays, in the era of economic uncertainty and crisis. While change is good, one of the most common problems in change programs is that they pay insufficient attention to middle management and its importance in implementing change. In this article, my colleague Richard Newton tries to propose a different approach to organisational change programs, so that middle management is appropriately involved and used successfully to implement the desired change.

A common point of tension for many organisations is the way strategy converts into projects. I am assuming there is a meaningful strategy. This is obviously not true everywhere, but that is a whole different sort of problem which is not covered in this article. There are some organisations in which there is a clear and logical relationship between the things being delivered and the organisational strategy. The result is a poor alignment between the organisational strategy and what the delivery functions are doing and have the capability to do. So what can be done about this? Let’s explore together, in this article.

This week, the CMI Management Book of the Year competition, has announced its winners. And happy we were to learn that Richard's The Management Book: How to Manage Your Team to Deliver Outstanding Results won the big prize. If you would like to learn more about the book, this award and where to purchase the book, don't hesitate to read this article.

I have been involved in the development and implementation of many methods in my career. Often these are related to project management or change management, but I have also been involved in the development and rollout of consulting engagement management processes, new product development processes and improved software development approaches.

Obviously I have learned a great deal about this subject. I would like to share some tips about how it is best to approach the design and implementation of different methodologies, inside your business organisation(s), so that you are more successful in achieving your real goals.

The development of standardised approaches, the capturing of best practices and the creation of project management accreditations have improved the project management profession significantly over the past few decades. Arguably, it is only since we have these things that we can really call ourselves a profession rather than just a loose affiliation of people with a relatively similar role to perform.

Anyone who has read much of my project management writings will soon realise that whilst I welcome standards, best practice and accreditation – it is a somewhat cautious welcome that I give to them. In this article I want to talk a little more about methodologies. There are three things I want to mention specifically: the source of methodologies, the danger of a “one size fits all” mentality and the application of methods as rules and the consequences of doing that.

I would like to continue the discussion I started last month on highly performing project teams. This is a topic that I think is very important, but one that we do not discuss often enough as project managers. In this article I want to focus in on preparing team members for a project. In a future article, which I will post soon, I will look at the wider aspects of a highly performing project team. In both cases I am as interested in your comments and views as sharing mine. This is an area we can all learn more about, and if you have any great advice or ideas, please share it!