Norms and Rules
Filed under: Leadership, Process, Project management, Quality
I was chatting with someone the other day about my upcoming trip to Germany (I’m actually writing this one in the departure lounge). He was over there during the summer, and as a way of helping me ensure I had a good time, he noted “just remember, there are social norms over there, but there are no social rules”. Makes me ponder the relationship between the two. Read more
Pitching Value
For almost all of the projects that I have seen, the most difficult challenge for the project manager is to be able to clearly express what the expected value for the project will be for the sponsor. Without this, though, all that you are proposing is to spend some someone’s money in a given time period. Read more
The 5 Biggest Team Delusions
Filed under: Agility, Process, Project management, Teamwork
Over the years, there are a number of statements that I hear that make me step back for a moment. Some are relatively new, some have been around as long as I can remember, but every one of these, in my experience, usually means something very different (and less effective) than what the words might indicate. I’m sure there are more, but this is a start. Read more
The Project of France
We’re ramping up for an extended trip to France, the first trip that the kids will have been overseas. This turns out to be a great opportunity to apply some of the tools of the PM trade. Read more
Feet to the Fire
In recent years, there have been several movements in software development that would suggest that we wait until the latest possible moment to make decisions, so as to avoid or delay the associated costs of change that would seem inevitable if we decide too early. Read more
Delivering Value
It is hard enough to get a project team to focus on delivery of value when we are initiating a project, but it is all that much tougher to remain focused on this prize as the project plays out. I would argue that the main reason for this is that the tools we use to manage projects tend to divert our focus. Read more
The Down Side of Good Tools
Often, out of the sea of different opinions of how things should be done, there rises a few techniques that make it to the level of becoming a standard way of doing things. They can be codified in a Body of Knowledge, if such a thing exists for that discipline, or become generally accepted as a ‘best practice’, though we all know that these things are quite rare. Even when they are raised to that level, there is danger that they can become overused: while every technique has it’s niche, no technique should be used too broadly. Such is the case with Work Breakdown Structures and Gantt charts. Read more
The Future is Never Certain
We can look at what has happened in the past on projects, what is currently
happening, and what is happening in the future. If we are sloppy with our
records, we can easily have different versions of the past. If we are weak in
our communications, we can even have different perspectives of the present. With
care we can avoid both of these issues, but it is safe to say that when we are
looking into the future, we can never be certain of what will happen. This is a
limitation we need to appreciate. Read more
Why This Project?
I have heard all sorts of reasons for taking on projects. If you dissect these reasons, many boil down to rationales that are actually irrelevant. It may be that we have found some cool new technology that we can justify solves a problem if we can get it to work, or that we always kick off a new project after the last one ended, so it is time to get going on this one. Insert your inappropriate justification here. In the end, there needs to be 2 reasons for running a project: it benefits us as a business, and there is a net gain in benefits for the stakeholders over the competition (which begets the first reason). Read more
Education and Experience (Chicken and Egg)
I ran into an interesting situation yesterday, as a mentor for an intensive PM program. The session had just started this week, and I was face to face with a person that was adamant that she did not qualify for the program, while I saw things quite differently. This was quite the opposite of most situations of this type, where the candidate is overstating their qualifications to get into a program. Read more
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