Blog Posts | APMP for PRINCE2 Practitioners

What is Prince2?

Jan 182012

Were you aware that more than half of all business projects which are started are never finished? Among the projects that are completed, most could have been done sooner, to a higher degree of quality or at a lower cost. A well designed project management system helps managers use their time well and lead their team in the best possible way, by making sure that the project is planned and carried out using a proven system that yields results.

The acronym PRINCE stands for PRojects IN Controlled Environments and is a project management method that helps you run a project efficiently and successfully. This system is both generic and flexible so that can be used for all types of projects. PRINCE2 was developed from the earlier version, PRINCE. This second version improves on the first one by having detailed input from users, project management specialist and a panel of 150 organisations from both the public and private sector. It’s the standard project management system used extensively by the UK government, in North America and around the world.

Why Use PRINCE2?
Using this project management system in your business or organization will save hours of time and a great deal of money on man-hours. Get projects done on time, at cost and deliver top quality results to your customers. You’ll be able to start projects with a clear vision on how you will get to the end result and how the inevitable problems are solved.

This system helps project managers organize the project in the areas of starting a project, initiating the project, directing the project, controlling a stage, managing the stage boundaries, delivering the project and closing the project. The system is generic in nature and can be tailored and scaled to fit the needs of your situation.

Benefits of Training
1. You’ll learn how to apply this management approach to your company and improve the quality and speed of the projects that you complete.
2. You’ll decrease your chances of being short listed since you’ll possess a valuable skill set that employers will look upon highly.
3. Increase your work efficiency so that you free up valuable time for other tasks. This method can even be applied in other areas of your life, not just in the office.

Get Trained Today
Help your team run its next project smoothly and successfully by getting trained and accredited. Parallel Project Training offers the training that you need to become an accredited project manager. Don’t waste your time trying to learn all the details of this project management system by yourself when you can learn from someone who is experienced in using it and can show you how to maximize your results. You’ll receive all the training, using innovative active learning methods, that you need to apply and use this method in your company. When you are done you’ll be able to sit the exams to become a certified practitioner. Don’t delay, call us today!

5 Essential Building Blocks for Project Managers

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Jan 122012

It would be good to think that there is a formula for projects that would guarantee their success. Sadly this is never the case, partly because a project consists of such a broad spectrum of activities so if projects are often very dissimilar, then project management is generally tough to get right. Yes, of course there are methodologies to follow and best practices but when you are embarking on something entirely new for your organisation, these will only help you so much. In addition to the well-recognised methods of managing projects for success there are some basic building blocks that are always an important foundation and that will help you when your project does not quite fit a standard mould.

If you focus your efforts on getting these building blocks right then you will have a greater chance of delivering a successful project that will contribute real business benefits to your organisation.

But just what are these essential components? Broadly speaking they can be divided into 10 areas.

STRATEGY

The overall business objectives and goals need to be clearly defined, documented and communicated to all interested parties, both external to your organisation and internally. This will ensure that everyone is aware of what the project is aiming to achieve and if the benefits are clear it will be simpler to secure the budget, the right people and the commitment of those people.

PROCESSES

Best Practices and Lessons Learned from previous projects should all be captured into well-documented processes with standard templates for documenting, planning and reporting every aspect of the project. Where a Project Office team exists, it would normally be their responsibility to ensure that project management follows a common approach across all parts of an organisation, whilst, as the same time, recognising the need for flexibility within the standards when required.

PEOPLE

The commitment and motivation of the people involved at all levels with the project is a key factor in delivering successfully. There also needs to be a good balance of skill levels (just as you would not expect a team to consist entirely of junior staff, neither should it be composed entirely of highly-experienced staff) and all of these people need to be managed effectively.

DECISIONS

It is important that the decision-making process for all the critical elements within a project combine logical thinking with creative thinking in order to make the best possible decision. For this reason no critical decision should be taken by a single individual without consultation.

RISKS

Actively manage potential risks by predicting them before they occur, where possible, assigning responsibility for certain risks to experienced individuals or teams and taking immediate action to mitigate a risk when it does occur. Although, obviously, not all risks can be anticipated by being prepared for the risks you can anticipate will make it easier to deal with the unexpected.

Using these building blocks does not obviate the need for those working in project management to have the appropriate experience and training such as a PRINCE2 qualification, a PMP Certification or one of the professional APMP accreditations. But they will provide a focus and a reminder that if the foundations of a project are strong then the chances of success are higher.

The Project Office and Why You Need It

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Dec 132011

Large corporations typically have a portfolio of projects all running simultaneously in areas such as Marketing, IT, Operational Improvement, Product Development, Product Improvement, Research, in fact, almost all areas of a business will have some sort of project running at some point. And being able to manage those disparate projects efficiently for the greatest business benefit can determine the overall success of the organisation.

All of the projects need to be planned, implemented and controlled in the most efficient way possible and senior management need have a good overview of the status of each project in the portfolio. But at the same time the stakeholders of each project – the sponsors, project managers and team members need to be allowed to work efficiently without being bogged down in bureaucracy.

Any project management framework has a number of essential components that determine success or failure across all projects in an organisation and it is the project office that oversees each component. The role of the project office should always be a supportive one and provide a link between the project manager and team, and senior management to ensure resources are always available and that the project manager is kept informed of business objectives and priorities if they change after the start of the project.

The Project Office also provides a single, central repository for all project documentation and, more importantly, access to this repository – a vital element if an organisation and its project managers are to learn from both their past successes and past failures. Many corporations are actively striving to use formal project management methodologies to bring improvements to their business or deliver better value to their customers (or both) and access to the documentation from previous projects is a vital part of this process. It allows members of the project teams to learn from other projects; it allows teams to easily shares best practices with other teams and provides an easy way to exchange knowledge. The Project Office may also enable forums to be set up for sharing knowledge that has never been written down or well communicated, which is particularly useful for teams within the same organisation but in different geographical locations who have no chance to chat over coffee and pick up tips and advice along the way.

So teams can learn from each other and, by doing so, improve their own projects more easily with the support of the Project Office but the Project Office also enables senior management to have easy access to the current status of all projects and review projects either from a strategic or a detailed level. Access to the detail of a project is vital for senior management to gain a full understanding of the status because facts and figures about budgets and schedules do not always present an accurate picture of how well (or how badly) a project is progressing. The detailed view of the project should always be provided by the project manager, not the project office, as it is only the project manager who can provide clear and accurate insight into the status of the project.

The Project Office also ensures a common approach to projects is taken across the organisation, which in turn, reduces duplication and minimises effort with, for example, the re-use of existing templates.

So these are just some of the many reasons why a supportive project office can make the life of the project manager and the project team easier by relieving them of some of the administrative tasks and reporting responsibilities involved in running a major project. The best project office will include some team members who have received professional project management training, such as APMP or PMP Certification so they will have a good understanding of how projects should be managed and can add value to their supportive role.

Effective Project Management and How to Achieve It

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Nov 082011

There is no doubt that every project requires good management if it is to deliver what the customer is expecting. And deliver it in an acceptable time frame and for an acceptable cost without any disasters along the way.

Even a team well-experienced in their individual roles need direction and every project requires efficient use of its resources: time, people and money. The right sort of management will also ensure a team achieves to their full capacity and doesn’t just trundle along in a low gear.

So we know we need to manage our projects effectively to achieve success but just what are the core skills that will enable us to be effective project managers?

Be Thorough

Well, the first “skill” is not really a skill at all or maybe we could call it the skill of being thorough. During the initiation phase and throughout the life of a project you must ensure that you understand all elements of the project and all external factors affecting the project. On complex projects this is a highly demanding task but without a knowledge and understanding of how all the elements of a project work and fit together there is little chance of understanding potential risks and how they might affect the end-result.

Plan Well

Once you have a good grasp of the basics of the project the next skill is thorough and detailed planning from the initiation of the project through to the delivered product and beyond. Although many projects, and particularly software development projects, usually end up being completed through an iterative process that adapts to change during its life, it is still important to start out with an end-to-end plan. The route you plan to achieve the objectives of the client may not always be obvious; there might be many inter-dependencies and options for scheduling particular tasks so this is not a process to be hashed together on a spreadsheet in a hurry.

Employ experienced team members

No project manager can hope to run a project effectively without the right team members and that doesn’t mean just the right experience but the right attitude and the right personality mix so that the members work co-operatively as a team and not as competing individuals. And when you have put your perfect team together don’t forget to put as much effort into retaining them as you did in selecting them. And if you can’t find team members with the right experience consider those that could become experienced with the right project management training.

Put Milestones in place

People always work to a milestone or deadline – without one we could all continue fine-tuning a task long after it was completed. Milestones should be set at strategic points within the project. As it is likely that some parts of the project will change as the iterative process starts to reveal more efficient ways of completing a task and a clearer understanding of the requirements the estimates of many tasks will change but try to keep milestones the same wherever possible to prevent the underlying structure of the project plan from changing too often. Focus more on achieving the milestone and less on how much is delivered at the end of every day, week or month. But at the same time keep your finger on the pulse of progress to make sure there are no impending problems.

Stay Calm

All good project managers will have put in place risk management and change management strategies to plan for a range of eventualities but it is impossible to be able to predict all risks or changes that could possibly occur. External factors that are outside your control can often throw up problems that could not have been anticipated in advance and for which there is no mitigating action plan. In situations like this you need to remain calm and level-headed – make a thorough assessment of the problem (remember skill #1) and consider all options before deciding on how to tackle the problem.

These are just 5 skills that will help you to manage your projects more effectively: be thorough, plan well, employ the right team members, set milestones and stay calm. With the right project management training (in any of the recognised methodologies such as PMP, PRINCE2 and APMP) and an understanding of these important project management skills you will have a greater chance of managing your projects effectively, and effectiveness equals project management success.

Controlling Change Requests in Projects

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Sep 302011

Changes requested once a project is underway are an inevitable part of any project. They can either be the result of external changes in the business or they can be internal changes requested because the original aims of the project were not clearly defined or clearly understood.

Change requests resulting from external factors are usually beyond the control of a project manager and there is usually little choice but to deal with them. Most successful project managers will have already put a process in place at the start of the project to handle such requests and the plan will be flexible enough to cope without unduly affecting the final outcome.

But change requests resulting from internal factors should be handled very differently. In an ideal project many of these would have been avoided by ensuring that the project objectives were well-defined and that the requirements were clearly documented and communicated to all stakeholders. And that the stakeholders understood what to expect from the final product. Of course, we don’t always live in an ideal world and no matter how thorough and detailed the initial stages of a project are there will always need to be an effective change process in place.

Not all stakeholders and end-users can visualise an end-product by reading documentation and studying diagrams. Even when prototypes are used to enhance the production of the requirements they are, by their nature, not fully functioning products and misunderstandings and assumptions will be inevitable on complex projects.

Nevertheless, good documentation and clear communication of the project objectives and requirements will minimise the number of change requests.

So what is the best way of controlling change requests in a project and still being able to deliver the completed project within an acceptable budget, time and scope?

Distinguish between the necessary and the “nice-to-have”

Every change request should have a business case to back it up in the same way as the overall project had. Of course, this can be a very simple and short description but is a necessary element of all change requests before they can be considered for inclusion in a project.

The most important element of the change request business case is the expected benefit, which should indicate the value that will be added to the project by the change. This, in itself, will indicate which changes are likely to be necessary. It is important to recognise that the description of some business cases may not necessarily benefit the project in terms of time and budget but are necessary for the client to remain competitive in their marketplace.

If the benefits are not explicitly stated then discuss the issue with the person who requested the change t determine if there is a genuine business benefit.

Better designed solutions, or nicer, more attractive features are not benefits unless they can be backed up by how this will have a positive impact on the project budget and schedule or a positive impact on the end-user’s effort required to complete regular tasks. Typical questions that the business case of a change request should answer are:

“What external business change has resulted in this change request?”

“What internal factor has resulted in this change request?”

“How will this change affect the time taken to complete the project?”

“How will this change affect the use of the end-product?”

“What cost-savings will be made by implementing this change?”

Avoid wasting time & effort

The most obvious way of avoiding wasting valuable project resources on excessive change requests and the whole change management process is to ensure the project starts with clearly defined objectives and requirements. It is also important that the criteria which will be used to determine project success are documented succinctly at the start of the project. Ensure that all of these documents are distributed to stakeholders and end-users and that copies are easily accessible.

Schedule time into the project plan for dealing with change requests and if that time has been eaten up then defer outstanding requests until the following week. Ensure that all interested parties know that this is how the process works.

Have clear acceptance/rejection criteria

Use some clear criteria to screen out those requests that will not, or cannot be, implemented. One essential criterion is a business case so any request without one can immediately be sent back to the requester. Do not waste time tracking down the requester to find out what the business case is – it should be their responsibility to provide it initially (even if you later need to have discussions to refine it).

Be prepared to back up your reasons for rejecting change requests with a well-thought out description of why there is no case to include the change. Stick by your decision unless the project sponsor is prepared to increase the budget or time available for the project.

But do be prepared to be flexible and negotiate a trade-off by dropping a planned task in favour of the change when no budget or extra time is available.

Always apply project management best practices throughout every area of a project if you want the highest chance of success. Your can study best practices, including change management, on project management courses for PMP Certification, APM Introductory Certificate or Prince2.

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome in a Project Management Environment

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Sep 152011

The US Marines mantra “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome” could be adopted by project managers for projects not going to plan – adversity does not have to cause project failure. Be flexible and make the most of available resources for more successful projects.

The commonly used US Marines mantra “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome” is used to remind Marines on missions which are not going to plan, that they can still succeed by taking a different approach to the mission.

This mantra could equally well be applied in a project management environment when a project is not going to plan, or when a project is initiated in such a way that makes it impossible to create a good plan at the outset. If, like US Marines, project managers could be trained to improvise, adapt and overcome all eventualities, this could improve the success rate of many projects.

Consider the very common scenario when a project manager is presented with a pre-defined deadline for the completion of a project (usually imposed due to sales and marketing activities) and a pre-defined product but with nothing more than a sketchy outline of the actual requirements and the ultimate business goal. Often the budget and other resources have not even been assigned so are unknown quantities.

This is a very familiar situation and any project manager with a substantial amount of experience will have developed their preferred way of dealing with such situations. This will depend very much on your industry and the corporate culture within your and/or the client organisation.

But whatever is your favourite method of handling such a situation, maybe we can all learn something from the US Marines, at the very least, “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome” is a very useful phrase to motivate us when all is not going to plan.

Improvise

Improvisation is dealing with unforeseen circumstances by making the best of what is available. So in a project management environment when you have been assigned fixed resources (whether that’s funds or people) which are not adequate for the task you need to look for ways of getting the most out of those resources. This may mean thinking creatively or looking at innovative ways of completing a task.

Adapt

If a client has stated what they want as the final outcome and there is a fixed deadline then adapting to the clients needs is critical. Certainly you could go down the route of using your skills of persuasion to convince the client that the deadline is unreasonable and the budget too small, but this is not always feasible. But a lack of detailed requirements at the outset is not necessarily a disadvantage as it is then able to steer the requirements decisions to ones that will, of course, deliver the required outcome, but perhaps need less skilled staff or can be delivered more economically.

Overcome

You could view a lack of resources and a lack of detailed requirements as a hindrance to a successful outcome but they are merely obstacles and obstacles can be overcome by improvising and adapting to the challenge. No project manager was ever successful without relishing a challenge – that is, after all, what we all thrive on.

This approach is not perhaps one that would be advocated on a project management training course but, backed up by experience and the right training in a formal methodology such as PMP, PRINCE2 or APMP, a little bit of improvisation and adaptability can be another weapon in a project manager’s armoury to help overcome obstacles and challenges.

Ways to improve IT Project Success

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Jul 262011

IT projects have never had a great reputation for successful project delivery – of course, technology has always been complex but it is becoming more and more so with every year that passes. So it is understandable that IT projects are not the easiest to deliver on-time, on-budget and on-scope.

But there are three main areas of project management that are most likely to result in a less than successful outcome to an IT project:

Failing to recognise the importance of the end-users – they are the ones who will be using the system, probably on a daily basis so any concerns, requests or requirements of theirs (however seemingly trivial) must be taken into account during the requirements gathering and planning phases.
Being too stringent in defining the areas of responsibility of both the project manager and the team – it is not always clear where the boundaries of project management lie so some degree of flexibility and adaptability may be required on certain projects.
Sticking too rigidly to a formal methodology and not being prepared to be innovative where there may be some advantage in doing so.

If, as a project manager, or member of the project team, you are prepared to do whatever it takes to progress the project to the satisfaction of the client, you just might find that this leads to more successful projects. Naturally, there can be downsides to this approach – allowing changes to requirements and scope to go unchecked can also be a recipe for disaster. But in a properly controlled project environment with a strong change management process in place, one that manages change but doesn’t prevent it, the advantages can be significant.

When project managers become involved in every aspect of the project right from its initial justification, this can also contribute to a more successful outcome. Again you could argue that there are aspects of any project that are simply not the responsibility of the project manager but getting involved (without necessarily taking full responsibility) can give the project manager a better understanding of the business perspective and enable him/her to better judge decisions that have to be taken with respect to the business environment.

IT project teams, in particular, do not always appreciate the value to the business of various components of the project. There can be complex and time-consuming IT tasks in the project that do not always deliver good business value. The business users, conversely, cannot appreciate why seemingly minor features can be so complex to implement. Creating new ways of bridging this divide can enable both sides to reap benefits.

Ultimately, projects can be delivered more successfully by a creative and flexible team that is focussed on the business objectives, understands the value placed by the business on different aspects of the project and is prepared to go the extra mile to achieve what is required.

But how exactly can innovation be incorporated into project management? Here are just some examples:

Don’t assume the client knows exactly what they want. Question their stated business objective to elicit further information that might help in clarifying what the client really wants to achieve.
Try to deliver the system in stages so that the business starts to see benefits early on in the project. This motivates the project team and ensures the client continues to support the project through the subsequent stages to completion.
Educate the business to understand the capabilities of the team and what is possible.
Educate the project team to focus on business value and to view the project from a business rather than technical perspective.
Treat the project plan as a guide not as an inflexible schedule and expect to rework the plan at various points during the project.
Establish a no-blame culture but one which actively looks for solutions to problems and implements them as soon as possible.
Encourage everyone involved in the project to question decisions and think creatively.
Put together a team with complementary skills, both technical and personal, who can be motivated throughout the life of the project. Train the team, where necessary, on appropriate project management courses so that they all work to the same principles.
Formal project management methodologies (such as PMP or PRINCE2) are important factors in controlling projects but just be prepared to break the rules every once in a while.

Motivating your Project Team

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Jul 112011

Projects, of course, involve people; those who have initiated the project, the end-users and, more importantly, those who will manage and carry out the work to make the project a reality. And the success of any project depends on these individuals, which is why good teamwork is essential for successful project delivery. So let’s consider how a project manager can improve teamwork.

It is never enough to have a good project plan, a well-defined risk management process and effective communication even though plenty of project managers would be glad of those right now. For a chance of delivering a project successfully, the project team also need to be motivated and work well together. One way of encouraging and motivating a team is to identify their strengths and any opportunities that might be presented by the project. By having frank and open discussions with the whole team you can also highlight the weaknesses in the team and any risks to completing the project successfully. Openly discussing such potential problems can help to minimise the risks. This in turn motivates the team because they pro-actively tackle issues instead of just reacting when a problem occurs.

A project team can range from a few people from a single business area to several groups from different organisations across the world. Whatever type of team it is, it has just a few clear, but vital, objectives: to understand what activities must be completed and to finish them to a defined timetable, at a specified cost and level of quality. During the course of the project they must also efficiently report progress, issues and changes to priorities or requirements to all concerned.

By supporting and encouraging individual team members, with the aim of developing a fully-motivated team, the project manager can ensure that these objectives are achieved. To this end, the project manager would typically gather the whole team together in person, wherever possible, at the outset of the project. The purpose of such a gathering is to build the confidence and enthusiasm of the team by putting in place a detailed project plan that includes the team’s input, ideas and concerns.

What needs to be done to gather the information needed can be very different from project to project but some basic questions that should always be raised are:

Has the project been allocated a sufficient budget?
Are the required skills and experience readily available?
What benefits will the finished project bring to the organisation?
Are end-users enthusiastic about the new project?
Has the project manager or team worked on similar projects?
Who will decide deadlines and provide time-estimates?
Will contingency funding be available if required?

Encouraging honest and realistic discussions about both the positive and negative aspects of a project, and promoting a flow of ideas about what tasks can be done well and what problems might occur will motivate and enthuse a team. Remember to build on your strengths, tackle weaknesses, exploit opportunities and monitor risks, and you will find yourself with a team capable of delivering even complex projects successfully.

Less experienced project managers can learn more about team-building by attending one of the readily available project management courses which provide guidance on the importance of a motivated project team. All of the internationally recognised project management methodologies such as PRINCE2, PMP Certification and APM PQ can be particularly beneficial.

Is PMP Certification compatible with PRINCE2

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Jul 042011

PMP certification is the standard for professional project management from the project management institute in the USA and PRINCE2 defined project management method from the UK Office of Government commerce. Initially they seem to represent different standards and approach to project management courses from two very different perspectives. On close examination however the two standards have significant compatibility with could even be complementary.

PMP Certification

Based on the PMI guide to project management the PMI BoK Guide to the Body of Knowledge, the PMP is one of the most widely recognised project management qualifications. Its aim is to demonstrate overall competence to deliver challenging projects. To achieve the PMP then you need to show both that you have a knowledge of the project management but can also demonstrate significant project management experience. In terms of knowledge then you need to know the PMBoK in detail but also other areas of project management including ethics and quality management. The PM Bok itself defines at in a detailed level the stages and processes a project manager should follow. However much of the guidance is at a high level and lacks detail.

What is PRINCE2

PRINCE2 is a project management method. As with all methods it defines three key areas 1) Key roles and responsibilities of the management team including the Project Manager, Project Sponsor Senior User, Senior Supplier and the work package managers. Each role has a detailed explanation. . The detailed template required to run the project. And the management processes to be followed at each stage

So can PMP and Prince2 work hand-in-hand

PMP certification can deliver the competence required to deliver successful projects, while PRINCE2 provides the detailed processes, roles and responsibilities and template. We think that combining the two approaches would give project managers a powerful tool set to deliver project successfully.

Disadvantages of this approach

The disadvantage of this combined approach it that the project team have to reconcile the different terminology behind the two approaches. For example the slightly different approaches to the analysis of risk or the differences between a project brief and a project charter. However this seems a small barrier to overcome to real the benefits of a complete approach to project management training.

SWOT Analysis in Project Management

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May 112011

SWOT Analysis is one of a number of different techniques used by professional project managers to help with decision-making. It is most useful in the planning and risk elements of large, complex projects.

SWOT is an acronym of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and as these titles suggest it is not purely a method used for controlling areas of planning and risk but it is also used to highlight areas of the project that could be maximised to the benefit of the whole project or individual areas where some competitive advantage may be gained. It is used to evaluate particular activities of the project in order to optimise their potential as well as to evaluate risks in order to determine the most appropriate way of mitigating those risks.

SWOT analysis is normally performed during the initial project start-up phase so that the elements of the analysis can form the basis of the project plan, but it can also be used later in the project if the project is running into difficulties with scheduling, deliverables or budget and needs to be brought back on track.

For example, if a certain key activity in the project requires new software, a SWOT Analysis can be used to assess the risks and the opportunities of purchasing the software and training staff in its use in order to help with the resource planning.

Performing a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis session should always have a clear objective and it is the Project Manager’s responsibility to communicate that objective to all those present at the session. A typical session will include all stakeholders, where possible, and key members of the project team. If the analysis is being performed at the start of a project, the objective is likely to be fully identifying all required activities and potential risks so that a proper plan can be put in place. However, if it is being conducted during an ongoing project, the objective may be to re-assess the budget or schedule.

Because the objectives of a SWOT Analysis can vary so too can the questions used to elicit the required information. For this reason there is not a standard set of pre-defined questions that will meet every situation but every session must have a set of questions written down before the session to ensure the attendees remained focussed. This, again, is the project manager’s responsibility. Depending on the urgency of completing the analysis and starting the project planning phase, it may be necessary to send out the questions in advance to allow attendees the opportunity of gathering any relevant information in advance.

Typical questions for each part of the SWOT Analysis are listed below:

Strengths

Does the company have the necessary skills in-house?
Has a budget been assigned to the project?
What are the business benefits of completing the project?
Will the project require new technology or equipment?
How experienced is the project team on similar projects?

Weakness

Is there a reliable estimate of costs available?
Does the company have the budget to provide contingency funding?
What are the drawbacks of the project?
Will parts of the project need to be outsourced?
Is the proposed schedule realistic?

Opportunities

Can a local project be leveraged nationally or internationally?
Do the competitors have any weaknesses?
What are the latest industry trends?
Are there any new, or imminent, technology developments?

Threats

Is there well-established competition already in the marketplace?
Are experienced staff difficult to replace?
Has new technology been fully tested?
Could national or global economic conditions affect the project?

The list of questions to use in a SWOT analysis should, obviously, be much longer than the basic questions listed above, but these will provide a good starting point. Most professional project management courses will cover this technique in more detail and give guidance on establishing a more comprehensive set of questions for your own particular project. A SWOT analysis can be used with any of the recognised project management methodologies such as APMP, PRINCE2 or PMP as it is independent of any particular method. Performing a SWOT analysis will provide you with detailed information to help you in the planning and decision-making processes of any project and is one of the essential project management skills that every project manager should have.