failure

Oh yeah, more anecdotal data tells me silicon valley wants SO MUCH MORE for so much less!

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How many times have we been brought in to rescue a project, and we find out that the engineers had started work without really taking the time to define what success looks like?
Here’s a lesson on thinking before you act from a recent police blotter from my neighborhood. Yes, it’s a true story.

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Here’s one of those really good (and at the same time really irritating) questions to ask yourself – why is it that I know so much more than I actually do when I want to be successful at something?  This time of year always reminds me that even though I know the plan for just [...]

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 [...]

PROJECT MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES
TO AVOID CAREER LIMITING MOVES – PART 3 of 3
Jeff Schlageter
President, Project Acceleration
Jeff@ProjectAcceleration.com
Wouldn’t it be great to have a list of project management “best practices” that would help you benefit from the experiences of hundreds of other program managers? In a way, these best practices would be like having your own project [...]

More than 50% of all new products fail to meet their goals because they fail to meet the needs of the target customers and because they are released with unacceptable quality issues. Depending on the industry, between 60 and 90% of all new products fail to meet customer expectations.
Do the math. The world is full [...]

It seems to me that too many High Tech companies have become so bureaucratic that the processes and meetings and inability to make decisions bog projects down unitl they die from boredom.
I see meeting after meeting after meeting of people afraid to take risks and actually make working decisions.  Instead, everything is discussed ad-nausium.  Is [...]

Do you recognize that your current project is late, but you haven’t taken steps necessary to rescue it, except for saying “we’ll work harder to bring it back on schedule?” If you admit that you should do more to handle your project lateness, then the next question is what steps you should take? Actually, the [...]

I believe we need to rethink our views about failure. Truly, the only failure is if we fail to learn from each and every project, regardless of the outcome.

Technorati Tags: best-practices, common-sense, communication, failure, project-management, teamwork

Some parts of a project are just: slam dunk. They’re straightforward, sweet, smooth and easy. Everybody knows what to do, does it, and it works: with no blood left on the floor. Then there are the issues that make everyone roll their eyes: areas that are high risk. But not just [...]

I haven’t quite put my finger on it, but something I’ve noticed about the human condition that retards our ability to be successful project managers. When we see someone else fail we can easily assume that it’s because they’re stupid, but when we ourselves fail it’s an honest mistake or just bad luck. “They” [...]