shannon kalvar

Blog Post

Setting priorities as an IT consultant

December 3, 2009 9:50pm PST

Separating priority from immediacy in business is more complex than it might appear. Here's how one consultant found a way to do it.

8 Latest comment by rajathanda82

Blog Post

OS upgrade myths and Windows 7

September 10, 2009 12:51pm PDT

Many IT organizations are resisting the idea of wide-scale Windows 7 deployments for reasons that are time-honored retreads of traditional points of view. Here's why you may want to step past...

65 Latest comment by dethvader

Blog Post

10 things you can do to turn useless meetings into productive ones

May 29, 2009 9:31am PDT

We've all had to sit through meetings that were nothing but a waste of our time. Here are some tactics you can use to salvage something productive from the ones that drag on forever or go...

6 Latest comment by Osiyo53@...

Blog Post

Lessons learned the hard way in an architectural document disaster

September 18, 2008 2:05pm PDT

Delivering project reports in radically different formats gave the client a bad impression of this consulting firm. Here's how the staff remedied the situation and learned from their mistake.

4 Latest comment by tuomo@...

Blog Post

Good consultants know when to be "invisible"

June 26, 2008 2:27pm PDT

Sometimes you need to take a backseat to the client team so that they can fully develop the skills they'll need after you're gone. Shannon Kalvar describes becoming an "invisible consultant" in...

7 Latest comment by jaytaylor5555

Blog Post

Dealing with a mistrustful client

June 23, 2008 6:46am PDT

A CIO hires a consultant to examine the feasibility of outsourcing his IT team. When the consultant tries to handle the inevitable bad feelings of the in-house team, he finds that this extreme...

6 Latest comment by alan williams

Blog Post

Proving to business leaders that new technology is not just a gimmick

June 17, 2008 5:56am PDT

Learn how to overcome the resistance of business leaders to new technology projects through more effective communication.

Blog Post

A consultant's technical pride causes his team considerable delays

June 16, 2008 8:45am PDT

Don't make this consultant's mistake: taking on project issues that don't suit your technical abilities. Letting your team apply its strengths to project work will allow you to focus on planning...

4 Latest comment by mattfrye@...

Blog Post

Two ways to envision a project in order to select the correct resolution techniques

January 13, 2008 5:40pm PST

Every few months someone comes to me and asks for help with the same problem. They don't know it's the same problem. In fact, it manifests differently each and every time. Fortunately a wise...

9 Latest comment by Jaqui

Blog Post

How consultants are like Santa's elves

December 2, 2007 6:29pm PST

I know that I take myself and my profession far too seriously. After all, managing projects for other people is how I pay for the roof over my family's head and the food they eat. However,...

4 Latest comment by RoseJM1884

Blog Post

Three things I wish someone had told me when I started consulting

November 25, 2007 6:39pm PST

Years ago I had a choice of what career path to take. I chose to be a consultant, working long hours for modest pay in a field which at the time seemed pretty stable. The roller-coaster ride...

14 Latest comment by buyer@...

Blog Post

Three tricks for dealing with the holidays as a consulting project manager

November 18, 2007 8:03am PST

Travel costs have skyrocketed. No one is available to finish off those last ugly bits of work before the budgets run out. Everyone seems to want to hang out with their families, generally in...

Blog Post

Some thoughts on passing as an extrovert

November 11, 2007 5:12am PST

A lot of professional project management consultants choose to pass rather than reveal their true colors. We choose to pretend to welcome people to our cubes, to speak up during the unending roll...

40 Latest comment by ibd@...

Blog Post

Three ways project managers give in to threats

October 28, 2007 7:14am PDT

We live in a corporate environment (and indeed a social one) where the fear of personal, financial, or political harm counts for more than the honest calculation of risk. Economists are slowly...

2 Latest comment by imhorwood@...

Blog Post

Some advice on taking advice

October 21, 2007 5:11pm PDT

Many project management blogs, including this one, talk a lot about what to do in a specific set of circumstances. We share “tricks of the trade�, ranging from organizational tips to silly...

Blog Post

Three practical tools for clarifying where you want things in new locations

October 13, 2007 4:34am PDT

As a consultant, part of what I do involves perceptions and manipulations. A larger part of what I do is drudgery, involving constant sorting and resorting of information. The smallest part, the...

Blog Post

Four reasons people like failing projects

October 6, 2007 6:25am PDT

I am personally from the “kill projects early and often� school of program management. I like to see project ideas come up, go though preliminary investigation, then die a deserved death...

1 Latest comment by apotheon

Blog Post

Three tricks to help sort out work from activity

September 30, 2007 7:07am PDT

Over the years I've written a great deal about the difference between activity and work. However, I don't know if I've ever actually explained what the heck I'm muttering about or why it's...

1

Blog Post

Use one simple question to help get the project back on track

September 22, 2007 7:19am PDT

Have you ever listened to people talk about how, when, and why they failed? Or, for that matter, listened to your own stories about how circumstances and events conspired to create a “perfect...

2 Latest comment by meryllogue@...

Blog Post

How to leverage a project assistant's unintentional role as project archivist

September 9, 2007 3:22pm PDT

Today, I'm going to talk about a resource most of us don't have the opportunity to utilize often enough. The project assistant, a combination secretary, record-keeper, and general project minder...