She Writes Change

Debunking a Persistent Project Management Myth: It's not just Time and Budget we manage. One of the biggest misconceptions in project management is that PMs are simply “deadline-and-budget enforcers.”  In reality, the best project managers know that success is measured by more than on-time delivery and cost control. While timelines and budgets are essential constraints, modern PMs balance a wider set of priorities, quality, stakeholder satisfaction, team morale, and business

Stop annoying your sponsors: 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 "𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧". Escalate too often, and you look incapable. Escalate too late, and you become a liability. Sound familiar? Before even thinking about your sponsor, ask: "Can my team and I solve this without external help?" and "Is this issue significant enough to warrant executive attention?" This shows you respect your own authority and your sponsor's time.

Your project dashboard is a sea of green but you know something's off.  Your status updates say everything is on track, your weekly reports are all positive. But you know that it's not accurate. 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞!

You've integrated all your project dashboards into one view. So why is your Steering Committee still confused? I've seen organisations invest heavily in Project software and unified dashboards, integrating every project management tool, all to create the perfect "single pane of glass" view. Then they sit in Steering meetings where executives still ask the same questions: "Are we on track?". "What does this really mean for the business?". "Should we be worried?".

Whilst AI can handle more of the technical and admin work, the uniquely human aspects of project management become MORE critical to success, not less.

Launching a new digital product across 12,000 retail locations taught me that scale isn't about size, it's about psychology. You can't just double the resources for double the locations. The real challenges are human. Here's what I learnt about scale:

So when I talk about the business risk of siloed delivery, I'm talking from real experience. And I've seen it in so many other places too. Disconnected projects undermine what could be powerful business outcomes, it puts pressure on people already overloaded with change.

After years of working in project delivery and transformation, I've seen 3 leadership types stand out.

It's easy to think that 'digital natives' will adopt new AI tools easily. However, the reality is that training, communication and trust are just as critical, if not more so, for AI projects.

You're doing two jobs, and we know how that works out. Strategic leaders need to be able to steer the ship, not row it. 

Navigating AI Adoption: What's your biggest challenge and how do you solve it? Trying to harness AI can feel overwhelming. It's complicated and it's not SaaS, there are key challenges that need to be faced. From decision paralysis and a lack of skills to trying to grapple with infrastructure, ethics, data, security and change management.

Project resource wars aren't just a theoretical issue, they're a real challenge for project managers and teams.

The reality is that the rigid application of either Agile or Waterfall rarely fits the messy reality of complex delivery. 

Successful projects are more than just on-budget and on-time, real value comes from benefits realisation. You can deliver the best project in the world, but if it doesn't deliver the benefits, then it's all been for nothing. Make sure there are measurable benefits at the start of the project, review them regularly and host post-project reviews with Business Owners.

The difference between strategy and success is delivery. Without it, every brilliant idea remains just that - an idea. Brilliant ideas don't deliver outcomes, unfortunately. It's project management that ultimately makes those ideas a reality.