Creating the Project Office – Part One – cautionary tale
Creating a project office may be the “in thing” to do. It is also fraught with perils. A goal may …
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The 6 Emotional-Basket-Case Thinking Hats
The most challenging aspect of being a project manager is dealing with (mostly) humans. They’re emotional, unpredictable and down right …
Lesson Learned, but…
I loved Kimberly’s blog entry of Jan 14. Why do we keep making the same mistakes on every project? Why …
What’s Your Greatest Project Challenge?
Many of my project management students have indicated that most of their project crises can be traced back to the …
Agile Phases
Earlier this week I described my experience with Agile in pre-history (pre-Internet days). As I’m engaging again in SW development, …
Agile PM … Is there such a thing?
Back in history, pre-Internet days, I was in charge of developing a new IT system to support Marketing. While this …
Trust: moving from “when” to “how”
This week we’ve covered two powerful tools to determine when trust is appropriate. 1. Invest time in getting to …
The critical trust question
Many years ago I was the manager for a large website when one day, the phone rang. On the line …
Laying the groundwork for trust
I once worked for a semiconductor company, in a business development role. I was new to the industry and so …
Trust Week 1: Getting smart about trust
So this guy goes to an all day workshop on trust. And in the supportive environment of the workshop, he …
Creating Passion in Projects
This week I’m working with an R&D team in a company that makes bathroom fixtures. As I walked into their …
Lessons NOT Learned!
Have you ever noticed that the topics raised at project post mortems tend to be pretty much the same every …
Computational Modeling of Project Organizations Under Stress
Can we design organizations the way we design products? Can we change their designs to make them more efficient/effective? These …
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Embracing Failure
I believe we need to rethink our views about failure. Truly, the only failure is if we fail to learn …
The Bad PM Olympics
Recently I realized that I have become a little cynical about project management. Maybe I’m just negative, and most projects …
Give Them An Example
At first I was disappointed in the quality of action plans prepared at the end of professional development short courses …
Foreigner? No Such Thing!
Imagine an astronaut lands on Neptune and finds living creatures. What would they be called, aliens? There are no more …
New Years Rez: Deal with Bottlenecks BEFORE they Choke Your Project
(Posted on behalf of Michele Jackman, PM Consultant extraordinaire) I recently gave a UCSC presentation on the “art and science” …
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Let’s Not Talk About the Vampire in the Living Room
Some parts of a project are just: slam dunk. They’re straightforward, sweet, smooth and easy. Everybody knows what to do, …
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Fruits ‘n’ Nuts in a Basket
It’s that time of year: the break room tables are piled with boxes of candy and littered with crumbs. Workplace …