As it is #TimeManagementMonth, we’ll look at how the four hottest PM Trends - IoT, Remote Teams, Customer Service, and Measurable Results - will help you accelerate project delivery, grow your business or simply save you valuable time.

It’s the age old question: is it better to have a project manager or a subject matter expert (SME) leading a project? You will find heated discussions on this subject in various PM forums and groups, with each side presenting very convincing arguments.  

Motivational quotes are extremely popular, it’s not a coincidence that the hashtag #MondayMotivation is trending on Twitter every Monday. Why are quotes so motivating? It’s because they usually come from important people, often people who are leaders in their respective fields, and like to share their wisdom and experience with others. Over time, we have stumbled across quite a lot of inspiring quotes on all aspects of project management that are worth sharing with our readers. 

To be successful, a project needs to have a clear plan to make sure that it’s completed on time, within scope, and on budget. That’s all there is to achieve project success, right? Not quite. Many businesses overlook one vital aspect: project sponsorship. Having a sponsor who is involved and engaged in the project from day one can make the difference between success or failure of a project. 

“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. 

“Being able to look into the future” is probably on every project manager’s New Year’s wish list. [Tweet this] Unfortunately, that’s not possible. What is possible, is to look at the past and make predictions for the future. 

Photo via public domain archive

Every project has a goal or objective – but it’s not always easy to communicate these goals to the project team. Clear goals are important to motivate and energize the team and to achieve better project outcomes. On the other hand, not knowing or understanding goals will lead to confusion and ineffectiveness. 

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.