Dr. Ó Conchúir PMP has coached and trained hundreds of PMP candidates from many countries to success. This Project Managment Professional accreditation is awarded by the Project Management Institute, “the leading global association for the project management profession” and is based on their PMBOK^® Guide.

It is not surprising that Scatterwork GmbH where he is a Senior Virtual Teamwork Collaboration Consultant also uses this standard for implementing its client collaboration projects.

Nevertheless he finds that the PMBOK^® Guide is too complex at first reading, particularly for those for whom English is a learned language. Even so the pressures of globalization and company guidelines mean that many prepare for the examination in English. Now he has written a book which demystifies and mirrors the PMBOK^® Guide.

His book is particularly useful for applicants for the PMP and CAPM examinations. It can also be studied alone by anyone as a general introduction to Project Management.  The style and language have also been selected to make it particularly suitable for readers who use English as a learned language.

Which of the following titles do you think is best for this publication?

• Understanding the PMBOK^® Guide
• Deciphering the PMBOK^® Guide
• PMP by Half-time
• PMP in less time but without stress
• Reduce the study time to PMP
• Short Guide to the PMBOK^® Guide

Or do you have a better suggestion?  Please add your comments as a reply below.  Many thanks!

When Employers want…

• To save office space and building costs.  This is the most immediate benefit for many companies.
• To increase capability by reducing commuting dead time.
• An Environmentally friendly image. Continue reading »

A basic requirement for teamwork is human skills, such as leadership, trust, motivation, mutual respect, motivation and so on.  Of course it is possible to start a successful team with people who never meet but we would expect this to be more difficult than when people already know each other.  I am not convinced that this is always true: existing teams may need a lot of effort to give up some of the excess “team building activities” such as long coffee breaks! Continue reading »

Teambuilding is a great buzzword. Sometimes you get the feeling that if management wants “team players” this really means “employees who do what they are told”.  This is a pity as teamwork is really much more useful than this and does increase what can be achieved.

Spring

Economists tell us that for greatest efficiency everybody should do what they are best at.  For example if a good cook runs a restaurant but also gets involved in paying salaries, organising deliveries, making tablecloths and so on, then the result is less impressive than if s/he sticks to the cooking and delegates the rest. Continue reading »

Traditionally business was “technology limited”, in the sense that we had to use what was available.  A couple of examples to clarify:

Paddle Steamer Engine

It is all a matter of emphasis:

Telecommuting is about using telecommunications to avoid commuting. This implies that somewhere there is a workplace where much of the business is carried out which the telecommuter links into.  If there are several telecommuters, the pattern can is like a star, with a central hub. The telecommunications are seen as a way of reducing the overhead, such as daily travel and the time it takes.

Virtual Teamwork is about the team being geographically distributed, whether there is a central workplace or not. Continue reading »