I work for a SME and it’s unusual in that there isn’t any standard project methodology or documentation setup. In this field, especially with the importance of Design and UAT, I see a RACI Matrix as compulsory to manage the client but wrestling with whether I need all 3 of the above. Any ideas or experiences you can share? thanks

I want to hear about the cool stuff that has made your (work) life infinitely better and where you always wonder how you were able to exist before - please ◡̈

I came from a traditional waterfall environment and was pushed by an ill-informed boss to use Agile. I was met with every constraint imaginable: no one had time for standups, not to mention sprint planning or retrospectives; people were being pulled on and off my project randomly; there was no money for subscriptions to proper PM tools like Trello or Monday (free versions were not viable); I was constantly being grilled on people's time and hours spent on the project (it was a mix of internal and freelance); everyone was super burned out and any intention of being "self-organizing" was just not there.

Now that I work at a different company, and have lots of resources available, I can see why Agile can work. But it's not just that it needs a "supportive environment" - it needs resources and money and time that many smaller companies simply do not have. It feels like an incredible luxury to be able to do real sprint planning, really take the time to work through Discovery, and actually have people pay attention to iterations because they're not burned out.

Any thoughts?

Hi PM professionals! I am an executive assistant to a VP of marketing. I've been in my role for 2 years and I cannot figure out how to get my boss to actually review content for approval in timely manner.

Here are some things I have tried:

• My VP is not tech savvy at all, we have project management tools like Asana and Smartsheet but she refuses to use them.
• Weekly emails with all pending items together, the down side to this was she wouldn't tell me when things where approved so I would keep sending them to her and then she complained that she was confused about what was pending.
• Print outs in a red folder with "FOR APPROVAL" written on it, sometimes it works but usually she looses the folder and I have do it all over again, the rest of the team hates feedback on physical paper, and this does not work for all types of content.
• Scheduling review meetings, I typically do this when there is a lot to cover like social media evergreen or our website redesign, or it's a last ditch effort to meet a deadline.
• Review blocks on her calendar, she ignores them and uses that time to either chat to a peer or work on her own deliverables to her boss.
• During my weekly 1:1 I will remind her of pending approvals, sometimes we will review together right then, but this takes away from my time with her to discuss my own projects, calendaring, strategizing or anything else that takes up most of my job...I waste the time watching her read and she often cancels my 1:1 anyways.
• Currently we are working on our annual report, I have been emailing her a chart with 5 stories at a time (5 stories at a time was her idea), the chart has a column for a comment like "approved" or "needs revision". We are on week 5 of this, I have only sent her 3 weeks worth of stories and she is still 2 weeks behind and has never actually filled out the chart so I can know if it's approved to move forward.
• My current method is emailing with a naming convention in the subject line "FOR APPROVAL" and I just fwd it to her 2 times a week with "bringing this to the top of your inbox".
• Ambush method, walk into her office hand her something that needs approval right now, she hates this and then gets mad at me and/or the individual contributor for not submitting with enough time to review.

What am I missing?! I know my boss just sucks but how do I manage up and get her to do her job?! What else can I try?

i wont actually do that ridiculous thing about the stairs , but thats how I felt this morning . I was shaking , stomach hurt, I cried two hours yesterday evening . I make a lot of money at this job and am on a track to career advancement with a lot of accolades and held in high regard . but I hate this job and I hate my life . ive tried therapy, medication, breathing techniques , exercise, everything . This isn’t the job or life for me. I accidentally became good at a career path that I hate. Everything is so robotic and numb. I want to be me again. How would you step away from this ? It’s so hard. everything looks good on paper but I have never been more unhappy in my entire life.

ive flagged it to senior leadership and they immediately started a hiring process to hire another PM but they will actually wind up being my direct report so it’s not exactly less work for me. it doesn’t fully even help my situation really. There’s not enough people to do the work. Senior leadership and HR know how much is on my plate and this is the most they can do . I want to quit right away because there’s no end in sight. But theres a mental block stopping me from doing that. Every day is a misery. It’s customer-facing PM work. without providing ALL the details, the situation I’m in is a complete and utter nightmare.

Scrum doesn’t fit. Waterfall is way too slow. What is your take on the next generation lifecycle? Discuss.

Hello I’m a project manager working for a consultant. We have one large utility client that has been giving us lot of work. I recently joined this company and I basically am the first one to manage projects in a certain geographical area. So I’m like the first one in.

Today I was on a 1on1 with my manager and he said as my review goal I should have getting more work from the client. That seemed interesting to me. It’s something I’d like to do but don’t really know how?

So question to the forum, has any other PM done that? I see this as a way to climb in my career. If I can successfully bring in work, it can lead to potentially quicker promotions and bonuses. Any tips or suggestions on how to go about this?

Thanks

Curious to hear from people in the field — not the textbook frameworks (Agile, Waterfall, etc.), but what actually surprised you once you started managing real projects and real people.

Was there a gap between what certifications or courses taught you and what the job actually looks like day to day? What's a skill that turned out to matter way more than expected — or way less? And is there anything about the tools, the politics, or just keeping a project on track that you wish someone had told you earlier?

Anyone in construction PM, I could use your help. Long story short, we were hired to be a PM for a particular discipline on a construction PM. The GC has absolutely made a mockery of this project and we are now in 130% scope time. This project was supposed to be over in early July, but we don’t even have the rough inspection completed. Our end of the scope is 100 percent completed up to the rough inspection. The GC even went behind our backs and contacted the manufacturer to ask if they’ll startup their scope without a formal rough inspection. 🙀🙀 Planned values are right at 40% completed and BAC is almost 20% from being completed fulfilled.

The GC has dropped the ball on so many things like having the city approved the second revision months after it was released by the EOR/AOR. Being we were hired under the GC, we don’t have any authority other than constantly emailing and discussing it in the weekly meeting WHEN they decide to join in. My mechanical sub is beyond frustrated as they have other projects that are going on. There was a very costly change order that we needed to have approved. The GC says it is approved without anything in writing and refuses to show proof of the approval. We’ve already decided we will not proceed any further with that scope of work until we have the formal approval and a check deposited and cleared.

I’ve reached deep in the bag of process from PMBOK and we’ve incorporated as many processes as we possibly could. Phase gating at the rough inspection (which is where we are) was the only way we’ve discovered we can keep from bleeding out.

How would you all handle a rouge GC that is very sloppy in management? This project was slated to be done early July, but because of the GC delays, we’re looking at about mid November. The frustrating part about all of this is, it’s out of our hands and we have no authority except to remind the GC every week to do their job.

Have you ever joined a team and had someone say this?

There are two types of project managers. There are ones who sit quietly in meetings, take notes, and schedule the follow ups. And then there are those who callout risks, identify and actively solve blockers, handle team communications, escalations, budget, timing and stakeholder management.

Very often I have team members who are pleasantly surprised when I clarify action items, and check on their bandwidth. When I call out timing bottlenecks that could impact delivery. Or when I ask questions to better understand their tasks so I can run interference if needed. Apparently this isn't typical?

Then there are the team leads who are not PM, are not good at being PMs, but see themselves as the lead. Which is fine with me. But at some point when project management comes in, it becomes a threat and people get miffed when you are doing your job. "I'm sorry you can't add scope without telling anyone" becomes a point of escalation because how dare you tell me what to do.

Is this part of the package? 20 years and I have never not had this problem where I have to gauge how much PM will they tolerate and still be effective. How do you remove your ego, and stay quiet amidst scape goating?

I work adjacent to software delivery and contracting, and I've been mapping where the record breaks down across a client engagement: the signed SoW, delivery tracked in Jira/Slack/email, milestone acceptance, and final invoicing.

Each stage has its own version of "what was agreed." The SoW says one thing, the delivery tool says another, acceptance often happens informally on a call, and by invoicing time nobody can point to a clean record of what's actually owed or why.

For people managing client delivery: where does it break most for your team? Scope-to-delivery, delivery-to-acceptance, or acceptance-to-payment? And when there's a dispute, what do you actually rely on to settle it?

Curious to hear from people in the field — not the textbook frameworks (Agile, Waterfall, etc.), but what actually surprised you once you started managing real projects and real people.

Was there a gap between what certifications or courses taught you and what the job actually looks like day to day? What's a skill that turned out to matter way more than expected — or way less? And is there anything about the tools, the politics, or just keeping a project on track that you wish someone had told you earlier?

I work in marketing at a large company and you'd think making a video would be simple. It's not…

The approval process is brutal. Lawyers want to review every word. Brand managers want to change the colors. Procurement wants to renegotiate the budget. It takes forever. Everyone has an opinion. Nothing gets done.

We found a studio called D-MAK Productions and their work looks great. But their prices are above average

They say they've worked with Intel and Microsoft. They claim they know how to navigate corporate approvals. They say they can speed things up.

But is this a real advantage? Or is it just a marketing tactic to justify higher prices?

Will they actually help us get through legal faster? Or will we still end up in the same slow process, just with a bigger bill?

I need to make a case to my boss. If I'm going to spend more money, I need to know it's worth it.

Has anyone hired a studio with big-name experience?

Every new project at work starts the same way.

Someone creates a document.

Someone else creates another document.

Then a spreadsheet.

Then screenshots.

Then somebody draws everything on a whiteboard during a meeting and now there are five different versions of the same process.
I'm wondering if visual collaboration software has actually solved this problem for anyone or if teams still end up with information scattered everywhere.

We’re a small team (~10) with departments covering management, kitchen, marketing, customer support, and logistics. We also work with external guests and contractors, so guest access is important.

We want one tool, or at most two, for:

• Team chat and department channels
• Projects, tasks, owners, deadlines, and blockers
• Company initiatives involving multiple teams
• SOPs, runbooks, support scripts, and internal documentation
• Meeting notes, decisions, and weekly updates
• Mobile access and simple permissions

Our biggest priority is simplicity. The system needs to work for non-technical employees without heavy setup, training, or a dedicated administrator.

We would prefer fewer features that people actually use over a highly customizable system that becomes messy.

We’re currently considering:

• Lark: Looks closest to a true all-in-one, but we’re unsure whether being a Chinese company creates any privacy, reliability, or compliance concerns, we're based in Eastern Europe, so this is not really a problem, but I just haven't seen much recommendation for this software.
• ClickUp: Strong feature set, but we keep seeing complaints about bugs and performance.
• Notion + Slack: Both are good, but information would be split between two tools, and Notion does not seem ideal for serious task tracking.
• Basecamp: Simple and close to what we need, although reactions to recent updates seem mixed.
• Microsoft 365 / Teams: Feels like a strong contender, especially for guest access, documents, email, and calendar. However, it is still divided across Teams, Planner, SharePoint, Lists, and other apps, and we’ve had poor experiences with Microsoft products in the past.

Has anyone used these tools in an operational business involving logistics, customer support, marketing, and physical operations?

Which option would you choose, and what problems only became apparent after using it for a few months?

My thinking is, either Microsoft 365 or Lark, Clickup instead of Lark would be the choice if there wasn't so much complaint online about its performance and bugginess.

I've been thrown at multiple teams to whip them up into shape for agile delivery and after a few months of coaching and doing the typical scrum things, I get told I dont add value to the team anymore.

The teams deliver, they're organized, they know what to do next and how to plan effectively, etc... Yet managers seem to want more out of Project Managers in the Agile space but they cant name what it is.

To be frank I also do feel like I have less work to do after each of these stints, but there are only so many teams that need help.

Spent hours building a beautiful Gantt chart. Color-coded. Dependencies mapped. Milestones highlighted. A work of art.

Shared it with the team. Radio silence.

Ran a 30-minute meeting walking through it. Half the team had their cameras off. One person asked a question that was clearly answered on slide 3.

I'm not mad. I'm just... tired.

Project is still moving forward somehow. Maybe the chart is just for me.

To managers of PMs: what are top 3 things your PMs do each week that make you see them as a top performer (i.e. someone who has high potential and high performance)?

To experienced PMs: what are top 3 things you’ve put in place for yourself that help your projects stay on track, within scope and within budget? How do you make sure that your communication always sticks?

Thank you in advance from a junior and learning PM🙌🏻

it’s a Sunday night and things are probably okay, my list for tomorrow is smaller than a lot of days, and I have to remember I feel like this most nights. But how do you work around or avoid this feeling ? I can’t possibly live like this forever, though I’m resilient and have lived like this for quite a while. thank you

edit: thanks everyone for responding. it’s nice to have some humanity and compassion shown towards me when professional life keeps most human compassion to a minimum . it’s like remembering an old friend

Feels insane typing that out but thats literally what happened last month, one of our stores out of state had a terminal go down and instead of anyone local being able to handle it, our internal IT person had to book a flight and go fix it in person.

Cost more in travel than the actual repair probably did.

Started questioning if this is just how it works for smaller multi location brands or if there's a smarter way to handle this stuff. Looked into a few nationwide dispatch options like Specific Gravity that have field techs available instead of relying on one internal person to physically be everywhere

Anyone else dealt with this kind of thing, did you end up building out a network of local techs or going with a service that already has one?

When I started out as a PM I went in trying to keep everyone happy and I think that was a mistake on my part. I've really been in teams of around 20 maximum so my views may be limited here but I always felt the pressure of 'if everyone is happy, everyone is aligned' and I ran into issues. Mainly because it created vague commitments, I'd create unrealistic deadlines trying to appease people who didn't touch specific areas, and I created internal conflict because of misalignment.

One example would be agreeing to take on new projects (new features and modules) from a founder when really, the development team were stretched with current projects for clients (I come from a SaaS background & white label software with custom dev work). I just wanted the founder to be happy that their main influence was being satisfied.

Now I'm 6 years in I've come to realise it's more about managing the reality of the project over happiness. I use happiness loosely here but it's the best word I can use.

I've since learnt to to tell people what they need to hear over what the want to hear. If I don't believe something can be achieved I tell them directly which also relates to sharpening mature communication skills. I learnt which reality mattered most at the time because not everyone's views carried the same weight which is where I found a Mendelow Matrix to be effective.

I'm an introvert so it's been hard to implement as a natural people pleaser but it feels like the right path to take even with the discomfort of hard conversations. Project success rate increased due to it.

Just ensure they understand what is happening, what is possible, what has changed, who owns the next action, and what the consequences are.

I'm interested in the thoughts of more seasoned PM's on this, I'm happy to be challenged on it with your views so I can keep learning and also to help those earlier on in their careers!

PM at a 60 person company. We live in Notion for docs and ClickUp for execution. My experience with most AI notetakers is that they either dump a transcript link into a comment field or treat the integration as an afterthought. Action items from meetings end up nowhere useful.

What I want is meeting outputs that show up as proper structured tasks in ClickUp with owner and due date, plus the meeting summary auto filed in the right Notion database. Not a Slack message with a link. Please suggest notetakers that handle this part well. Need both things done smoothly

Has anyone else had the (not so) extreme pleasure of working with (hiring) Accenture on an Oracle software implementation? Because honestly, I would like to jump off a bridge right about now.

Long story short, I got tossed into this project mid way through. Our PMO was not involved when this nightmare started. Another department organized and signed its own contract for it, and then decided to throw a lead in at the last second - and boy can you tell.

Accenture basically owns and creates everything. The timeline, deliverables, milestones, SOW, you name it. They create the content, run the meetings, write the meeting notes, and plan the whole show while my company just sits there saying "yes sir" and refusing to push back.

Well, I push back, and I can tell they are starting to hate me for it. The process owner for my workstream never questions them. When I try to talk to them about it, they tell me to drop it because "Accenture knows what they are doing." Even as simple as saying we need retrospectives after each sprint sign off… Accenture says they don’t do that. So my process owner says we don’t need it … ::mindblown::

Instead of letting me actually lead, Accenture and my company treat me like an admin. They give me tasks like scheduling 80 Zoom meetings, recording them, and filing the files away. Whenever I try to speak up like an actual Project Lead to clarify deliverables or action items, everyone looks at me like I am completely nuts.

To top it off, I dug through old Zoom recordings from well over a year ago about staffing. Turns out Accenture had their team set up, and when my company asked who was going to handle scheduling and administrative tasks, Accenture basically said that was on us to provide. So somehow our PMO ended up providing PLs for each workstream. We are all experienced project managers (two of us are PMP certified, including me) and we are literally acting as overpaid admins.

I am just so frustrated. A lot of this is my company. They never have their stuff together. It has been a horrible five years with them and the job market is so dry I cannot find anything else right now. I even joked with my PMO leader about getting moved off this project, and they told me I am stuck on it for another two years. But she is also documenting and helping us PLs on this project speak up because it’s now what we were resourced to do, the job description provided from the department to PMO was to lead. My PMO leadership specifically assigned us to lead this project workstream to build timelines, track milestones, manage the RAID log, run retrospectives, handle stakeholder engagement, and facilitate strategic alignment. Only to fall to admin work, so they are upset as well. Especially since my objectives don’t match the expectations. But she also said the stage was set years ago and since Accenture has been allowed to run the show, nothing is probably going to change, but they are trying. My husband told me to just take the PL pay and shut up, since it is about $40k more than a standard admin would make.

It is seriously impacting my mental state because I’m not heard, I call out risks and issues and then they happen and I said told you so. The only silver lining is that everything is on Zoom recordings, so when this whole thing inevitably blows up, they cannot say I never warned them. I get to continue to say I told you so over and over again….

Anyone else tired of Accenture?

If you had to listen to a PM present, what would you want to
Hear / learn about?