Good Requirements are SORTA NUTS

Have you ever let someone down even though you had tried your best and thought you were doing what they wanted? Few things are frustrating as putting forth tons of effort only to find out you were working on the wrong things.

Expectations are such an essential and common component of human relationships and communication that most of the time they are taken for granted. Taken for granted is exactly what expectations should not be.

In project management, we have a plethora of tools and techniques to help us understand expectations and meet them. We understand and fulfill those expectations through good requirements management. (more…)

Avoiding spirit-killing project management

Someone asked me recently “How do I know whether I’m using ‘just enough’ project management on my project?”

My thoughts went immediately to the environments I’ve witnessed or experienced on projects - because the use of too much or too little project management typically shows up in the emotional state of the team. I refer to the use of ”too much” project management as spirit-killing project management.   Wow, sounds horrible, doesn’t it?  Well it really should, since in the end it can produce the exact opposite results of what we want.

My first experience with spirit-killing PM was when I was a line manager in charge of a hardware engineering department in a start-up, and we were bought by another company.   (more…)

PM disappointment - no silver bullets for the hard problems!

Last week I led a workshop aimed at project managers who are ‘beyond the basics’ and looking to take a next step in their skill-set, their ability to handle the projects on their plates and get the desired outcomes in the face of the very messy real world. They had led projects long enough (generally 2 to 5 years) to know the basics of scheduling techniques, running project meetings, tracking progress, etc. But of course they had also determined that those “mechanical” PM techniques were not enough! (more…)

The Startup Boogie

Hiya PM bloggers.  Looking for some oppinions, wild or fabulous experiences and words of wisdon.  Doing the startup boogie myself and as we all know this poses some different challenges than the typical corporate beaurocratic mud.  What was your experience? 

Is it really project management?

The more I think and learn about project management the more I realize I had it all wrong in my early days of beating my head against the wall to get my projects completed within the triple constraints.  Being an accidental project manager with no formal training and also being from an engineering background pointed me in exactly the wrong direction for getting things done through other people. I always was a “hands on” guy who loved to find solutions to technical problems.  My viewpoint was that the project team was there to help me get the project done. I would never have guessed that I, as the project manager, was there to help the team get the project done. I finally figured out that this twisted mindset was one reason I was so exhausted on every project.

(more…)

The Project Office – Not a Free Lunch

Hello PM Bloggers.  I have been away from the site for a few months and I have been playing catch up on all the inputs since then. WOW, there is a lot of wisdom out there.  Reading these blogs is almost equivalent to actually experiencing the trials and tribulations of real world projects.  I think the PMI should award PDUs for reading and participating in this dialog. Where else can you find opinions and exchanges about fast swimming in mud, hollow bunnies, multicolored thinking hats, and puff – a project office in three steps? Great stuff!!! Thanks Kimberly for wringing this exquisite stuff out of us.

As the blogger of the week, I am suppose to blog something sensible and worthy of this fine intellectual community. Let’s see now, how about project offices. Randy does a fine job telling us about how great they are but……
(more…)

Are you a Hollow Bunny?

(Posted on behalf of Michele Jackman) When I was a kid, I got so excited about the Easter basket, only to find the big chocolate bunny was HOLLOW inside. I just went for the jelly beans instead.

Likewise, the thing I loathed the most in MY own project work was staff with no crisis skills –those skills of coping, creative leadership, and positive attitude when bad or dumb stuff happens from poor decisions. (more…)