Doug Bedinger

As an incognito project manager, I found it quite motivating when our team leader acknowledged and made use of background and skills that I possessed beyond the task I was brought in to provide. 
 
Tapping into these skills to help solve the problems we were facing and to better manage our stakeholders established a higher [...]

As an incognito project manager, I found it very refreshing to watch and participate in discovering and applying lessons learned throughout the life of the project.  It seemed like just about every other week we were talking about some level of lessons learned and how we were going to apply them – both to this [...]

Once again as an Incognito Project Manager, here are some observations on the Power of being Proactive…
 
Prior to my coming onto the team, our project manager had been hard at work preparing the way for our initiative.  Many hours strategizing plus preparing and presenting the business case clearly made all the difference for our success.  [...]

I recently changed hats from project team-builder to project team member.  As the e-learning course developer on the team, it has been a very enlightening experience to watch and support our most excellent project manager in action. 

This week I will share what this PM and others I have known have done that has made [...]

Halloween Bonus:
What Do These 3 Tales Have in Common?

PM Horror Stories 5, 6, and 7

The Incompetent Estimator

The Messy Contributor

The “Gotcha!” Boss

Technorati Tags: case-studies, Difficult-people;-timelines, Dysfunctions, human-factors, Interpersonal, Managing-stakeholders, people, Project-Horror-Stories, Risk

Horror Story No. 4
This collection of project horror stories would not be complete without a tale concerning: MICROSOFT PROJECT
Listen now to the saga of The Project Toolkit Gone Awry
We were expanding, and expanding FAST.  Not five, not ten, but 200 stores were to be built-out, and it was my job to create a project [...]

Horror Story No. 3:
Buried Alive in a Project Graveyard

What to do when the answer is 6 ft under:

After two years of problem solving with nothing to show for it, my Manager finally handed me a new project.  “What I need is a breakthrough, and it’s your job to make it happen.” 
The Horror: As I [...]

 Horror Story No. 2: Project Doldrums
It’s budget time. The team is listless – no enthusiasm for the project as no one believes that the product will work. Yet here we drift toward starting a new clinical trial.
The intrepid PM declares a willingness to present a ‘no go’ budget to management – inquiring: “What new data do [...]

This week, in anticipation of Halloween, I asked several of my project management friends to give me their PM Horror Stories.  Of course the names and faces have been masked to protect the innocent.  But hold on to your Trick-or-Treat bags as there are some truly scary lessons to be learned as we move into: [...]

A friend of mine once told me about a technique for keeping track of lessons learned.  She keeps a file labeled “DNDTA.”  That stands for “Do Not Do This Again.” 
The idea is to write a note to yourself describing something you did that would not be such a good idea to do ever again, then [...]

Just as there are many ways to manage a project, there are many ways to cook a turkey.
We all have our favorite way to do it:  Oven-baked, Bar-B-Cued, Deep fried, or even Outsourced.  And we choose the best technique using various success criteria:
-          Results
-          Taste
-          Moisture content
-          Effort
-          Expense
-          Convenience
-          Novelty
-          Familiarity
All these factors impact what [...]

Thanksgiving at our house is a family affair.  Everyone from the youngsters to the elders all come together under a single roof to enjoy the holiday feast.
Now that’s not to say we all come to this occasion with the same perspective.  There are many differences in how we approach the event.
For the elders, it’s a [...]

Why is it that we need a special day on the calendar to remind us to say thank you?
I guess it’s because we get so tied up with our day to day tasks that we forget to appreciate and acknowledge what others do for us.
Fortunately there are exceptions to this rule.
For example, I received a [...]

Mike Witley, PMP at Fireman’s Fund in Novato notes that “Often times life as a project manager seems more like crisis management rather than project management: ”
So at the PMI Breakfast Roundtable meeting this morning Mike invited us to share “the phrases, philosophy, and places of strength” that we latch onto to keep us going [...]

Bob is consistently late to meetings.

Sara’s tasks are always doing “just fine” up until the last minute: then suddenly there is a crisis and it can’t be done on time.

Your overall team effort seems to be losing momentum compared to your pace at the beginning of the project.

Michael and Susan are strong team players and [...]