“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” – either way, project managers have to manage time carefully if they want to work effectively and complete projects successfully. As one of the three constraints, time is the hardest one to control as it depends on so many, often uncontrollable, factors. 

The Pomodoro Technique is one of the most popular time management methods, not least because it’s so easy to implement. You can start immediately, all you need is a timer and a bit of discipline.  

‘Home office’, the dream scenario for a lot of workers. Flexible work times, no stuffy work attire, no commuting – what’s not to like? Various studies show that employees who work from home are actually more productive - but to be productive in the home office you will need solid time management skills. 

“Unclear project contract“, “fuzzy project goals” or just a simple “we’ve completely talked past each other” – a lot of times a project is missing an important foundation for its success from the very beginning: a clear scope specification, which functions as an essential guideline throughout the progress of the project. Client and contractor should both be clear about what they expect from each other and clearly define what they consider a successful project completion. 

It’s always important to look back and identify what went wrong, but also what went really well, which aspects you can improve and what you want to achieve next. The same goes for our blog so we compiled a list of your, our readers’, favorite posts on the InLoox blog – a little flashback, if you will. 

Photo by Pixabay User Comfreak (edited)

‘Thought Leader’ is one of the buzzwords in business nowadays. What distinguishes a thought leader from a ‘normal’ leader?  Simply speaking, thought leaders are what the internet would call influencers, they are those with high Klout scores and high follower numbers on Twitter because they are experts in one specialized field. 

Photo by Pixabay User stux

When people hear ‘design’ they automatically associate it with the appearance of a product, but ‘Design Thinking’ goes much further than that. It’s not just about how the end product looks like, it focuses on the process of developing a product and places the human factor at the center. 

Photo by Flickr User JD, Licensed under CC BY 2.0

Time is a commodity that we always need more of desperately, but there is never enough of it. Don’t take the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland as your role model when it comes to keeping time, because if he had exercised better time management he wouldn’t have been late all the time. 

For businesses in general and project managers in particular the Gantt Chart and the Critical Path are vital tools that can make or break a project and business undertaking. This might sound exaggerated, but while they are not a magic cure-all, they can assist in keeping a project on the right track. 

A successful, motivating project start is indispensable. That’s why experienced project directors invite their team members at the beginning of the project to a kick-off meeting.

A kick-off meeting is a meeting of all relevant project members which also marks the official start of the project or of a new, important project phase. On this occasion, the team members often meet for the very first time in person. This is particularly important in virtual or distributed teams, because the team members might not meet very often during the implementation phase. 

Usually, the kick-off meeting takes place after the project planning and before the implementation phase begins.