Musings on Project Management

JANUARY 19, 2024

My advice is always to schedule loosely, spreading buffers at strategic points to protect the critical path and even the feeder paths. Strategically: sound advice. But. If you do this, your schedule is going to have idle time or 'white space'. Some would look at that and see schedule dollars slipping by. What's a good tactical thing to do?

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Musings on Project Management

JANUARY 15, 2024

I've written a couple of books on project value; you can see the book covers at the end of this blog.One of my themes in these books is a version of cybernetics:Projects are transformative of disparate inputs into something of greater value.

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Musings on Project Management

JANUARY 6, 2024

It happens: a successful project is a business bust. Put it down to "tactical brilliance but strategic blindness"And by "strategic blindness" we mean being oblivious, either deliberately or unwittingly, to the impact to, or needs of strategic success for the enterprise. (meaning: long-term success).

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Musings on Project Management

DECEMBER 22, 2023

Your project is in trouble.You've spent all the money and have little to show for it.There's a decision to be made: Shut it down, or take a gamble on resurrection?A gamble on resurrection is a financial theory about risk taking that posits taking on more risk or leverage in a hope that circumstances -- mostly beyond your control -- will turn favorably and bail you out.

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Musings on Project Management

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Are you accountable?Most of us want to answer 'yes, of course!'; how could it be otherwise? Most of us would endorse these ideas:I'm always accountable for what I do. I'm accountable for that which I am responsible.

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Musings on Project Management

DECEMBER 1, 2023

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. B.F. Skinner Like this blog? You'll like my books also! Buy them at any online book retailer!

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Musings on Project Management

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

Let's keep the basics in front of us:Projects are transformative processes packaged togetherInputs (cash, people, buildings and tools, overhead like training) are transformed into deliverables that don't remotely look and feel like the inputsDeliverables are much more valuable than the sum of the inputsToo often, the focus of the 'business' is on the inputs being consumed, like cash-flow and

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Musings on Project Management

NOVEMBER 12, 2023

Philip Crosby is credited with the idea that "Quality is Free", and he made some money on the book by the same title. still available from e-book sellers.When I first heard that phrase -- around the time Crosby's book came out -- my thought was: If so, what is that line item in my budgeted WBS for quality planning and QC? It's not $0 for sure. So how is "quality free".

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Musings on Project Management

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

In the government domain, the government often contracts for an SI -- system integrator -- whose scope of work is to be an independent evaluator of program plans and progress, an expert adviser to the program executive for risk management and value engineering, and a voice in the project office not beholden to the prime contractor(s), system architect(s), or other implementers.

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Musings on Project Management

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Is this the worst news possible in project management?All the money has been spent, and nothing has been delivered. nothing has been earned!Yikes! What happened to get the project to this point?Did you fear the data?Were you fearful of the data, unwilling to measure or unwilling to believe the measurements of value attainment?

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Musings on Project Management

OCTOBER 10, 2023

It seems that every PM framework and tool set now has a co-pilot app fired up by a generative AI engine of some kind. And, it's not just our domain: MS Windows, various cloud services, and others all now have the requisite co-pilot.

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Musings on Project Management

OCTOBER 7, 2023

General Nakasone, the Director, NSA, has announced the formation of the NSA AI Security Center in a speech at the National Press Club, as reported on the Security Week website:Army Gen. Paul Nakasone said the center would be incorporated into the NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, where it works with private industry and international partners to harden the U.S.

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Musings on Project Management

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Have you noticed this?Have you noticed that some people seem firmly planted and comfortable with their surroundings, but there are others that can't operate a hammer or a screwdriver?

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Musings on Project Management

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

It's so damn frustrating!You spend a lot of time planning, coordinating, evaluating.And then it's D-Day, circumstances intervene, and nobody follows the plan ? (Well, they follow bits and pieces, but the plan as such is almost unrecognizable)That's a few sentences to say what we all know:No plan survives the first touch with realitySo, if this is all too obvious, what is it you do?

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Musings on Project Management

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

First comes the planningYou've followed all the standard protocols for setting up your risk management program.You've put slack in your cost estimates, and you've put slack-buffers in your schedule plan.All good.Risks have been listed, prioritized, and the minor ones to be 'unmanaged' set aside (minimize distractions)Otherwise, mitigation planning has been done.All good.

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Musings on Project Management

AUGUST 28, 2023

Somewhat very akin to the conventional "use case" structure that many are familar with, and borrowing the power of a conversational narrative from Agile methods, and sundry psychology systems, Daniel Miessler posits a threat model framework which he says is a target for for policy makers, but I say it's a target for any PMO working in software services.

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Musings on Project Management

AUGUST 19, 2023

If you follow this blog you've read several references to the project balance sheet. So, is this about accounting? Yes, and no: Yes, it's about a double entry tool to keep track of "mine" and "yours", but no, it's not the accountant's tool used in your father's accounting office. Take a look at this figure: What have we got here?

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Musings on Project Management

AUGUST 7, 2023

There is a growing threat that the person to whom you are video conferencing is really a deep fake. For projects, this threat arises in recruiting strangers remotely by video call, but also in other situations when the 'familiar face' is really fake. (But I know that person! How could the image I'm seeing be fake?

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Musings on Project Management

JULY 28, 2023

Regression -- as a process -- is an analytical look back through past events (that relate to one another) to find or calculate a smooth path or relationship that more or less represents an optimum way through the events (or dots, or data).

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Musings on Project Management

JULY 12, 2023

Do you read Mike Clayton? You probably should.Here is his idea of the 12 points of a perfect proposal, augmented and paraphrased with my spin on it. You (better: your value-add)If you've been solicited by "them" to present a proposal, then "they" already know a good deal about "you". Your (very short summary) narrative should reinforce what they already know about your value-add to their need.

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Musings on Project Management

JULY 5, 2023

Boom! Sometimes we react without conscious thinking. That's survival impulses kicking in.But there are not a lot of "booms!" in the PMO.Thus, there's time to think.And thinking is what occupies most of the time in the PMO domain.So, if thinking is what we do, then we should be thinking of the quality of our thoughts.

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Musings on Project Management

JUNE 23, 2023

Concerned for threats to your project's intellectual property (IP)?Tasked with a project to shore up the threat resistance of your business, or your client's businesses, to operational denials?If the above, then you may benefit from one of the many modelling methods for addressing threats.SEI at Carnegie Mellon has been looking at this for a number of years.

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Musings on Project Management

JUNE 4, 2023

Vanity Metrics: Actually, until recently, I had not heard of vanity metrics, aka VM. Now, I am writing about them! Does that make me a VM SME? So, some definition, as given to us by VM inventor Eric Ries, as posted at fourhourworkweek.com The only metrics that entrepreneurs should invest energy in collecting are those that help them make decisions.

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Musings on Project Management

MAY 28, 2023

There are endless headlines and debates about the downside of the A.I. revolution that is (likely) coming, some of which is upon us. Since most project people are knowledge workers or skilled trades workers, the seeming threat of A.I. job replacement is always just hanging a bit off stage-left.

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Musings on Project Management

MAY 8, 2023

Which are you? Government department; non-profit or voluntary; or a "for profit" business?Whichever. Have you ever thought closely about these ideas (*) when thinking about the value of your project?

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Musings on Project Management

APRIL 27, 2023

So, you work in project communications, perhaps directly for the PM. Great job, and it can be a lot of fun being creative.In the 'old days', that probably meant long-form press releases and updates to the project web page or communications dashboard.

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Musings on Project Management

APRIL 10, 2023

Though not intending this posting to be rigorous for accountants or tax preparers, there is nonetheless a need for the PMO to be in touch with the three "dollar dots" that monetize project value: Cost, Price, and Margin.And, as my book title (*) says, the PMO should be one of those seeking maximum project value. So, here's a quick look at the three 'dollar dots':1.

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Musings on Project Management

MARCH 13, 2023

Working on your project staffing plan?Looking at resumes for positions to fill?That may be "old school"How so?Psycho dramaMore and more, PMOs are realizing that there's a psychological divide among those suited to remote work and those suited for in-house work. For some, remote work is 'lonely' and for others it's inspiring.

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Musings on Project Management

MARCH 4, 2023

Charlie Warzel has posed an interesting thought in an essay about the sundry impacts that may come about with ever more sophisticated AI tools in the workplace:Talking to AI may be the most important job skill of this centuryFor the moment, it's about writing or constructing a 'prompt'Warzel makes this point: "AI evangelists will similarly tell you that generative AI is destined to become the

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Musings on Project Management

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Who needs bureaucracy?You might, if some of these situations are yours:If you don't know your people well enough to trust themAnd, you don't have time or opportunity to get to know themAnd there are consequences beyond just undoing a bad decision they might make,Then the management solution is simplicity itself:Invent a bureaucracy and assign them to it!

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Musings on Project Management

JANUARY 23, 2023

"Link and Buffer" is a leadership concept for a leader positioned between a governing board, to whom they must link the project, and a project team which must be buffered from the whims and biases of the board.Fair enoughBut it's not that easy.

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Musings on Project Management

JANUARY 10, 2023

The presentation -- in the link below -- that I gave to PMI some years ago that makes an analogy between sailing a boat and Agile methods is still relevant, and probably will remain so.Why?Because a sailing "project" is has much in common with an Agile project:Tactics overlay a strategic goal, though there are broadly stated limitations and rulesSmall teams have to work together, or else someone.

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Musings on Project Management

JANUARY 7, 2023

When you read stuff like this, you have to wonder: what's this all about?! The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function - Albert A. Bartlett, The Essential Exponential! For the Future of Our Planet Sounds profound! And so it is. Exponentials are the way we bend the project around the corner, or move out quickly.

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Musings on Project Management

DECEMBER 27, 2022

One of the big differences between a team and a group is cohesiveness around the goal: There's no success individually unless there is success collectively. Don't let idle ruin cohesivenessInevitably, keeping the team together to promote cohesiveness raises the question: How to keep everyone busy all the time -- other than 'painting rocks' (which is the way the Army used to do it)?

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Musings on Project Management

DECEMBER 19, 2022

How many ways are there to say "Cost"?Certainly, more than one!When "they" ask: 'How do YOU manage cost?", your answer is: 'It's complicated' because there are so many varieties of 'cost'.Project managers certainly have at least this list:Estimated cost (of course, an estimate has to be made in the context of a plan: scope and schedule and resource plans)Baseline cost (estimated cost at the.

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Musings on Project Management

DECEMBER 4, 2022

'The mistake' to avoid in scheduling is to construct a milestone-success situation that strictly depends upon two or more tasks scheduled (planned) to finish at the same time.So, what's the big error here?First, as regards milestone success, each of the tasks leading into the milestone is a risk to success (success means: it is achieved on time)Second, total risk is the product of all the input.

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Musings on Project Management

OCTOBER 25, 2022

"Generative AI" is mainstreaming seemingly everywhere since coming on the scene in 2018 as described by a paper from OpenAI.Introduced in 2020, we've had GPT-3, a text-to-text auto-generation system, commonly used in natural language translation where context is integrated into the translation; and for text generation from simple prompts. (*)The next thing up the generative AI ladder is.

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