It boils down to people, resources, decisions
When I first started writing this column back in 1998, project management didn't have the hype and sexy cach that it has today. There weren't any groupies...
Creating the perception of leadership
I once had a foreman who was about 30 years old with 10 years' experience and wanted to become a project manager so bad he could taste it. He read every...
Estimates For Some Jobs Pulled ... From Thin Air
By H. Kent Craig Project Management Authority It's been a long-standing practice in mechanical contracting to throw numbers out on some jobs that are...
Plant seeds to harvest next generation of PMs
I SAW A help-wanted ad in the 1980s that I remember to this day. With precious little exaggeration and a ton of implied irony, this company said it was...
Outcome, not output, is what matters
Project management authority THERE ARE THREE types of people in this world: those who have a basic grasp of math and those who don't. Forty percent of...
Have a clue how much workers don't work?
WHILE THE HEADLINE sounds a little harsh, I suppose, it is designed to grab your attention (which apparently it did or you wouldn't be reading this opening...
Thirty years in the game at 50
I sit here at the computer writing this column on the 50th anniversary of my birth, which, coincidentally, is approximately the 30th anniversary of my...
Atlas sighed, then died
STRANGE HOW THE best advice you've always followed all your life and for good solid practical reasons, such as never playing poker with a man named "Doc"...
The $1-a-minute man
IF I OFFERED YOU $50,000 a year salary, guaranteed by a cash bond, to do nothing but come over to my house and daily clean up my dog's droppings from...
How to become an 'instant project manager'
BY H. KENT CRAIG MECHANICAL CONTRACTOR IT'S 2 P.M. FRIDAY. You've just learned that the senior project manager for your company, Mr. Alias, was fired...
LEED accreditation will be vital to your future
MECHANICAL CONTRACTOR IF YOU HONESTLY think this socalled "green revolution" is a fad, ask yourself: Do you believe that gasoline is going to drop back...
Integration and synergy in project management
CONTRARY TO POPULAR beliefs within the trade, integration has nothing to do with forcing your bosses to actually show up on the jobsite every once in...
The difference between the truth and the facts
THE DIFFERENCE between "the truth" and "the facts" is not philosophical hair-splitting; it's actually quite orthodox. While something is either true or...
Good employees make good project managers
YEAH, AS IF A bad employee could make a good manager or a bad employee would help make a bad manager better or a terrible employee would somehow train...
Lessons from the best PM I ever knew
MY FATHER, Harold H. Craig, with whom I grew up not only as his son but also as his employee of Craig Plumbing Co. from my early childhood through my...
The five 'flavors' of project management leadership
BY H. KENT CRAIG MECHANICAL CONTRACTOR JUST AS THERE are five primary flavors we can taste that combine to create literally millions of potential food...
New mantras for residential design
EVEN THOUGH FRIDAY'S still payday and poop still runs downhill unless an ejector pump is involved, many of the old rules of residential plumbing and HVAC...
Why a project's matrices matter to you
MATRICES WITHIN A typical construction schedule are not, contrary to popular belief, a Bulgarian remake of a popular Keanu Reeves movie. They are a series...
Don't become a statistic when projects fail
MY MODEST reputation within the industry is that I'm a "garbage man." I'm the hired gun who comes in when a project is tanking and threatening the company...
Learn to anticipate what can't be anticipated
I'VE ALWAYS SAID the main difference between the true professionals in any endeavor and the amateurs is that the pros pay close attention to every little...
Learn to anticipate what can't be anticipated
I'VE ALWAYS SAID the main difference between the true professionals in any endeavor and the amateurs is that the pros pay close attention to every little...
Where are all our great field guys coming from?
OUR INDUSTRY IS engaged in perpetual hand wringing over the lack of qualified field personnel. To that constant moaning, I say, "Bull!" Plenty of qualified...
Get your degree to become or stay a PM
YES, I AM A college dropout and successful mechanical contracting project manager and senior estimator. Yes, I do regret not taking the time out from...
Save a nickel on the job now, spend $500 later
Over the course of my career, I have worked for some truly cheap employers who redefined the word "thrifty." While I was traveling, one would pay only...
Project management by defenestration
DEFENESTRATION, according to Dictionary.com, is defined as "an act of throwing someone or something out of a window." Project management by defenestration...
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