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"They say" that trust is essential to any project team working effectively. To not trust is to layer on ineffective and non-value add efforts at surveillance, double checking, micro-management, etc and so on.Yet, nearly all projects of any significant scope are organized hierarchically:Some one is in chargeOthers "report to."Rules Rules are a tool; they can substitute for face-to-face. human factors Teamwork MORE
The worst error in scheduling is to have a milestone depend upon two or more tasks scheduled (planned) to finish at the same time.Here's a footnote to that witticism: It's assumed the two tasks are independent, meaning:They don't share resourcesThey don't have the same vulnerabilities to a common riskThe progress, or not, in one does not affect progress in the otherSo, what's the big error here? schedule MORE
Stage gates and Agile? To some, that might sound horrifying! Not exactly! One of my Agile Project Management students asked me about stage gates and agile. My first response was this: Agile is not a gated methodology, primarily because scope is viewed as emergent, and thus the idea of pre-determined gate criteria is inconsistent with progressive elaboration and emergence. Agile does. agile MORE
If there's no Plan B, then the first rule is "Make Plan A work!"And And it might require that you be aggressive about making Plan A work. no fooling around.No Plan BWait! Isn't there always a Plan B somewhere?A A general officer once told me: If there's no Plan B, invent it!Insure Insure for failure?Maybe Maybe you can insure against the failure of Plan A. Perhaps that's your Plan B -- just get your money back, human factors risk Risk Management MORE
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. Theodore Roosevelt Actually, that's Teddy's version of cousin FDR's famous "Try something!" But what if it's all about a threat -- something external -- for which you have no experience? Call in your PMO team and brainstorm? Perhaps game theory Risk Management MORE
You ask: What's he best thing I can do to manage risk?Answer:Make Answer:Make time your friend. Insert time buffers in your schedule around every uncertain event, around milestones that are critical to success, and around major blocks of scope that determine whether project objectives will be met.Time is your friend if it is allocated in your schedule to give you space to work, and rework, mitigations. Time Risk Management schedule MORE
If you only know one thing about Risk Management, know this: Schedule slack is your most powerful tool Poorly developed instincts and skills in the use of this most powerful tool are leading causes of poor risk management If you are a Systems person a strategic thinker; an integrator; a "it all has to work" person -- you'll translate schedule slack into to "loose coupling" Loose. Risk Management system engineering MORE
"Whether in government or private business, office reorganizations are invariably touted as efficiency moves, when just as invariably—as anyone who has experienced one can attest—their short-term effects are redundancy and paralysis. Naturally, the extent of these ill effects correlates to the amount of thought and planning—or lack" Scott Anderson “The Quiet Americans". What to do?As Project Management MORE
Number One: It's a bell, unless it's not For nearly all of us when approaching something statistical, we imagine the bell-shape distribution right away. And, we know the average outcome is the value at the peak of the curve. Why is it so useful that it's the default go-to? Because many, if not. MORE
Define counter-party: In a transactional relationship, the other party to -- or participating in -- the transaction is your counter-party. In project situations, there are usually many counter-party transactional arrangements, such as contractors and suppliers with transactional relationships. And within the business there may be transactional relationships among business units and the PMO. Oh business analysis contract Risk Management MORE
To be mensurable is to be MeasurableCalculableEstimableDeterminableAnd, why do we care?Enter: Enter: risk managementTo compare two dissimilar risks violates the rule that risks to be compared must be similarly mensurable.In a recent post, Matthew Squair, writing at 'critical uncertainties' makes the point that early on.(and and I quote Squair)". lockdown sceptics were pointing out that your risk of. Risk Management MORE
In every book written about project management, the PMO is at the apex of a pyramid. Sometimes, as in Agile project methodology, the pyramid is flatter than most, but always there is an identifiable top figure. Fair enough. But Robert Gates, former Defense Secretary [and holder of many other government titles] writes that he often felt like the pyramid was inverted and thus took the look of a. leadership pmo MORE
This is not about the A/B argument in Agile methods. This is about get the elements of project scope sequenced in the right time order Does "A" come before "B", or not, and Is there a dependency between "A" and "B"? If not, then the sequencing question may be moot. If they are truly independent, then they can be scheduled for convenience, or according to some other dependency, "C" But if the "A" schedule MORE
Most of us -- that is, all but the few formally trained in risk assessment -- really suck at risk assessment, a necessary first step toward managing risk. Why so? Bias, for one thing. Confirmation bias being a biggie: we all want confirmation that our thinking, experiences, and instincts are right for the situation we find ourselves in. But, of course, we know objectively, even if not. Risk Management MORE
Here's the challenge: On your project, can you spend $1M in a month?Take Take a minute and think about it.Consider:If you've got 100 people with an annual payroll of $15M, then yes, it's possible, even likelyIf you've got 20 people with an annual payroll of $3M, then maybe, with overtime and some material charges.Got your answer?Good! Then here's another challenge: If you can spend $1M in a month, can estimate MORE
Can there be scope creep in Agile? Doesn't agile define creep away in a stroke: "Scope is whatever is prioritized in the backlog that fits within the budget (OPM, other people's money) and the time." "The The backlog changes all the time, but that's not creep, it's just backlog management." MORE
Applying agile methodology in your software project? Working for an organization large enough to be called an 'enterprise'? Probably that's good.Why so?Access Access to resources is the main reason. You may have heard that agile is all about small self-directing teams -- yes, that's part of the doctrine. But how many teams are needed for your project? Dozens? Hundreds even? Where do those people, Project Management MORE
I'm a sequentialist.When planning a project, I think first about how to sequence the scope: do this first, then that. Or, do these things in parallel, followed by this or that.MS Project, and similar tools, are the sequentialists go-to tool for planning sequences and establishing the sequential order of the project. Not so fast!What What about cumulative, non-sequential, scope and effects?For For these, human factors planning Project Management MORE
"In war [projects] nothing goes according to plan, but always remember your objective" Israeli generalGood advice. And, of course, your objective always is -- or always should be: Apply your resources to maximize their value added while taking the least risk to do so.But our general's admonition begs the question: Is "nothing goes according to plan" the same as there's "no value in planning"? And Bayes estimate planning Project Management Project Value MORE
"In carrying out the task assigned. you will be governed by the principle of calculated risk. which you shall interpret as avoidance of [risk] exposure. without good prospect. as a result of such exposure. of greater [benefit]" (*)Admiral Chester Nimitz to his subordinate admirals, Battle of Midway, June, 1942"You will be governed by the principle of calculated risk"What does. Risk Management MORE
Leading -- leadership -- without risk; without taking on risk?!It It can't be done.End of posting.Perhaps a bit more:To be a leader is to put yourself out front. exposed, as it wereAnd, out front you'll find there are no easy answers. If there were such, leadership would be more like management: Follow the rules; stay within the guides; take little personal risk to reputation and career; work for human factors leadership Risk Management MORE
Ideas about extreme risk management have been around a long time. No news there, so let's press on. Here's a working definition: Extreme risks are those for which the consequences are nearly irreversible, and the impact is near-catastrophic. MORE
You can't have too much data. correct?Actually, Actually, not correct.The first rule of data: Don't ask for data if you don't know what you are going to do with it Or, said another way (same rule) Don't ask for data which you can not use or act upon And, your reaction might be: Of course! The data plan You may be shocked to learn that often there is no data plan! My experience: In the PMO there. data management Project Management MORE
Are you busy building your project budget?Are Are you going to include a budget for training your project's working staff? New developer and testing tools; New frameworks; New process and workflow management?If If that's a Yes and Yes, have you thought about this? You may need to train your project robots also. Really?Really! Really! Robots, whether mechanical and real, or virtual, all depend on training data. AI cost management Project Management MORE
What can I say here that you've not heard before?First: First: we are living in a time of scarcity, and so strategies for allocating scarcity come to the fore.Second, demand for the scarce drives price -- no news there -- but demand itself may color supply and thereby schedule. Supply will not be directly correlated with price. Because supply is what is going to be allocated, and price in dollars. Project Management Risk Management schedule MORE
The other side: the counter-party In a transactional relationship, the other party to -- or participating in -- the transaction is your counter-party. In project situations, there are usually many counter-party transactional arrangements, such as contractors and suppliers with transactional relationships. And within the business there may be transactional relationships among business units and. human factors Risk Management Strategy MORE
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.Today, it's those plus social media; scripts and plans for podcasts and videos; and other duties as assigned (ODAS)But, if you're a ghost writer for. communication MORE
I was recently directed toward an interesting site (blog, presentations, etc) by Simon Brown, and his download presentation about "sketching the architecture" that more or less reinforces my idea that: "If you can't draw it, you can't build it." Box modelFrom this idea flows my "box model" approach to setting down high level narrative (business story with context), major functions (boxes) and. agile architecture system engineering MORE
Sometimes, people use big words and I have to pause and look them up -- using an online dictionary, of course. Here's three of the biggies from the domain of risk management which are explained below with some examples: Knowledge errors and omissions: There's a project event coming up. The circumstances and factors for success are not really random. it's the knowledge base for the assumptions. Risk Management MORE
There comes a point where more planning can not remove the remaining uncertainty, instead execution must be used to provide data and remove uncertainty. This quote comes from a nicely argued case -- from the agile blog 'leading answers' -- for mixing agile methods in rather traditional businesses, like the oil and gas exploration/production business If ever there was a business that. agile MORE
Now, this could be a bit stuffy, but it's actually quite readable: "The Requisite Law of Variety" Reduced for a quick understanding, 'the Law' is an interesting concept to consider, to wit: Essential Elements (E): these are outcomes, results, or other artifacts that you want to have some control over; or they are controls and mechanisms that you have to influence outcomes and results and. Project Management risk value MORE
Agile means: ‘Agile’ means small teams, working collectively and collaboratively, with this mission: To deliver frequent, incremental releases of innovative functions and features, prioritized for need and affordability;Evolved iteratively from a vision according to user reflection and feedback; And produced at the best possible value.(*) Agile ideas to keep in mind Requirements are too. agile MORE
Under stress, the biases come out Not only do the risks change, but risk attitudes change as well The stakes may be higher; the consequences greater. Now is the time to revisit the best book ever written on risk management -- in my opinion "Against the Gods, The remarkable story of Risk" by Peter L. MORE
Yikes! My backlog is blocked! How can this be? We're agile. or maybe we've become de-agiled. Can that happen? Ah yes, we're agile, but perhaps not everything in the portfolio is agile; indeed, perhaps not everything in the project is agile. In the event, coupling is the culprit. Coupling? Coupling is system engineering speak for transferring one effect onto another, or causing an effect by agile Risk Management system engineering MORE
Musings on Project Management
JULY 23, 2021
Number One: It's a bell, unless it's not For nearly all of us when approaching something statistical, we imagine the bell-shape distribution right away. And, we know the average outcome is the value at the peak of the curve. Why is it so useful that it's the default go-to? Because many, if not.
Musings on Project Management
FEBRUARY 2, 2021
"In carrying out the task assigned. you will be governed by the principle of calculated risk. which you shall interpret as avoidance of [risk] exposure. without good prospect. as a result of such exposure. of greater [benefit]" (*)Admiral Chester Nimitz to his subordinate admirals, Battle of Midway, June, 1942"You will be governed by the principle of calculated risk"What does. Risk Management
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Musings on Project Management
OCTOBER 21, 2020
Define counter-party: In a transactional relationship, the other party to -- or participating in -- the transaction is your counter-party. In project situations, there are usually many counter-party transactional arrangements, such as contractors and suppliers with transactional relationships. And within the business there may be transactional relationships among business units and the PMO. Oh business analysis contract Risk Management
Musings on Project Management
DECEMBER 1, 2021
Applying agile methodology in your software project? Working for an organization large enough to be called an 'enterprise'? Probably that's good.Why so?Access Access to resources is the main reason. You may have heard that agile is all about small self-directing teams -- yes, that's part of the doctrine. But how many teams are needed for your project? Dozens? Hundreds even? Where do those people, Project Management
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Musings on Project Management
MAY 15, 2020
Under stress, the biases come out Not only do the risks change, but risk attitudes change as well The stakes may be higher; the consequences greater. Now is the time to revisit the best book ever written on risk management -- in my opinion "Against the Gods, The remarkable story of Risk" by Peter L.
Musings on Project Management
AUGUST 28, 2021
The worst error in scheduling is to have a milestone depend upon two or more tasks scheduled (planned) to finish at the same time.Here's a footnote to that witticism: It's assumed the two tasks are independent, meaning:They don't share resourcesThey don't have the same vulnerabilities to a common riskThe progress, or not, in one does not affect progress in the otherSo, what's the big error here? schedule
Musings on Project Management
JULY 29, 2021
You ask: What's he best thing I can do to manage risk?Answer:Make Answer:Make time your friend. Insert time buffers in your schedule around every uncertain event, around milestones that are critical to success, and around major blocks of scope that determine whether project objectives will be met.Time is your friend if it is allocated in your schedule to give you space to work, and rework, mitigations. Time Risk Management schedule
Musings on Project Management
OCTOBER 30, 2021
What can I say here that you've not heard before?First: First: we are living in a time of scarcity, and so strategies for allocating scarcity come to the fore.Second, demand for the scarce drives price -- no news there -- but demand itself may color supply and thereby schedule. Supply will not be directly correlated with price. Because supply is what is going to be allocated, and price in dollars. Project Management Risk Management schedule
Musings on Project Management
FEBRUARY 10, 2020
Ideas about extreme risk management have been around a long time. No news there, so let's press on. Here's a working definition: Extreme risks are those for which the consequences are nearly irreversible, and the impact is near-catastrophic.
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Musings on Project Management
OCTOBER 3, 2021
"Whether in government or private business, office reorganizations are invariably touted as efficiency moves, when just as invariably—as anyone who has experienced one can attest—their short-term effects are redundancy and paralysis. Naturally, the extent of these ill effects correlates to the amount of thought and planning—or lack" Scott Anderson “The Quiet Americans". What to do?As Project Management
Musings on Project Management
SEPTEMBER 5, 2021
I was recently directed toward an interesting site (blog, presentations, etc) by Simon Brown, and his download presentation about "sketching the architecture" that more or less reinforces my idea that: "If you can't draw it, you can't build it." Box modelFrom this idea flows my "box model" approach to setting down high level narrative (business story with context), major functions (boxes) and. agile architecture system engineering
Musings on Project Management
SEPTEMBER 21, 2021
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.Today, it's those plus social media; scripts and plans for podcasts and videos; and other duties as assigned (ODAS)But, if you're a ghost writer for. communication
Musings on Project Management
SEPTEMBER 6, 2020
"In war [projects] nothing goes according to plan, but always remember your objective" Israeli generalGood advice. And, of course, your objective always is -- or always should be: Apply your resources to maximize their value added while taking the least risk to do so.But our general's admonition begs the question: Is "nothing goes according to plan" the same as there's "no value in planning"? And Bayes estimate planning Project Management Project Value
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Every year Dresner reviews the state of the BI market as it stands today. This 12th annual report breaks down customer perceptions of BI and how well each vendor performs. See for yourself how all the major BI vendors stack up.
Musings on Project Management
APRIL 2, 2021
If there's no Plan B, then the first rule is "Make Plan A work!"And And it might require that you be aggressive about making Plan A work. no fooling around.No Plan BWait! Isn't there always a Plan B somewhere?A A general officer once told me: If there's no Plan B, invent it!Insure Insure for failure?Maybe Maybe you can insure against the failure of Plan A. Perhaps that's your Plan B -- just get your money back, human factors risk Risk Management
Musings on Project Management
AUGUST 21, 2021
This is not about the A/B argument in Agile methods. This is about get the elements of project scope sequenced in the right time order Does "A" come before "B", or not, and Is there a dependency between "A" and "B"? If not, then the sequencing question may be moot. If they are truly independent, then they can be scheduled for convenience, or according to some other dependency, "C" But if the "A" schedule
Musings on Project Management
APRIL 5, 2021
Leading -- leadership -- without risk; without taking on risk?!It It can't be done.End of posting.Perhaps a bit more:To be a leader is to put yourself out front. exposed, as it wereAnd, out front you'll find there are no easy answers. If there were such, leadership would be more like management: Follow the rules; stay within the guides; take little personal risk to reputation and career; work for human factors leadership Risk Management
Musings on Project Management
JULY 5, 2021
You can't have too much data. correct?Actually, Actually, not correct.The first rule of data: Don't ask for data if you don't know what you are going to do with it Or, said another way (same rule) Don't ask for data which you can not use or act upon And, your reaction might be: Of course! The data plan You may be shocked to learn that often there is no data plan! My experience: In the PMO there. data management Project Management
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Musings on Project Management
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021
Now, this could be a bit stuffy, but it's actually quite readable: "The Requisite Law of Variety" Reduced for a quick understanding, 'the Law' is an interesting concept to consider, to wit: Essential Elements (E): these are outcomes, results, or other artifacts that you want to have some control over; or they are controls and mechanisms that you have to influence outcomes and results and. Project Management risk value
Musings on Project Management
AUGUST 25, 2021
Here's the challenge: On your project, can you spend $1M in a month?Take Take a minute and think about it.Consider:If you've got 100 people with an annual payroll of $15M, then yes, it's possible, even likelyIf you've got 20 people with an annual payroll of $3M, then maybe, with overtime and some material charges.Got your answer?Good! Then here's another challenge: If you can spend $1M in a month, can estimate
Musings on Project Management
FEBRUARY 23, 2021
Agile means: ‘Agile’ means small teams, working collectively and collaboratively, with this mission: To deliver frequent, incremental releases of innovative functions and features, prioritized for need and affordability;Evolved iteratively from a vision according to user reflection and feedback; And produced at the best possible value.(*) Agile ideas to keep in mind Requirements are too. agile
Musings on Project Management
AUGUST 12, 2021
To be mensurable is to be MeasurableCalculableEstimableDeterminableAnd, why do we care?Enter: Enter: risk managementTo compare two dissimilar risks violates the rule that risks to be compared must be similarly mensurable.In a recent post, Matthew Squair, writing at 'critical uncertainties' makes the point that early on.(and and I quote Squair)". lockdown sceptics were pointing out that your risk of. Risk Management
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As the analytics landscape continues to evolve, application teams who need to embed dashboards, reports, and other analytics capabilities in their applications can choose from dozens of solutions. How do you differentiate one solution from the next?
Musings on Project Management
JANUARY 30, 2021
Sometimes, people use big words and I have to pause and look them up -- using an online dictionary, of course. Here's three of the biggies from the domain of risk management which are explained below with some examples: Knowledge errors and omissions: There's a project event coming up. The circumstances and factors for success are not really random. it's the knowledge base for the assumptions. Risk Management
Musings on Project Management
AUGUST 20, 2020
Most of us -- that is, all but the few formally trained in risk assessment -- really suck at risk assessment, a necessary first step toward managing risk. Why so? Bias, for one thing. Confirmation bias being a biggie: we all want confirmation that our thinking, experiences, and instincts are right for the situation we find ourselves in. But, of course, we know objectively, even if not. Risk Management
Musings on Project Management
SEPTEMBER 9, 2020
Are you busy building your project budget?Are Are you going to include a budget for training your project's working staff? New developer and testing tools; New frameworks; New process and workflow management?If If that's a Yes and Yes, have you thought about this? You may need to train your project robots also. Really?Really! Really! Robots, whether mechanical and real, or virtual, all depend on training data. AI cost management Project Management
Musings on Project Management
JUNE 28, 2021
In every book written about project management, the PMO is at the apex of a pyramid. Sometimes, as in Agile project methodology, the pyramid is flatter than most, but always there is an identifiable top figure. Fair enough. But Robert Gates, former Defense Secretary [and holder of many other government titles] writes that he often felt like the pyramid was inverted and thus took the look of a. leadership pmo
Speaker: Melissa Wilks-Cunningham, VP, Marketing + Brand at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach | Clark Fuller, Engagement Manager at Wrike, a Citrix Company | Renee Thomas, Head of Customer Success - North America, East at Wrike, a Citrix Company
In this fire-side chat, Melissa Wilks-Cunningham and Clark Fuller will detail the most effective way to manage a successful hybrid team
Musings on Project Management
APRIL 3, 2020
If you only know one thing about Risk Management, know this: Schedule slack is your most powerful tool Poorly developed instincts and skills in the use of this most powerful tool are leading causes of poor risk management If you are a Systems person a strategic thinker; an integrator; a "it all has to work" person -- you'll translate schedule slack into to "loose coupling" Loose. Risk Management system engineering
Musings on Project Management
APRIL 14, 2019
Stage gates and Agile? To some, that might sound horrifying! Not exactly! One of my Agile Project Management students asked me about stage gates and agile. My first response was this: Agile is not a gated methodology, primarily because scope is viewed as emergent, and thus the idea of pre-determined gate criteria is inconsistent with progressive elaboration and emergence. Agile does. agile
Musings on Project Management
JUNE 25, 2021
The other side: the counter-party In a transactional relationship, the other party to -- or participating in -- the transaction is your counter-party. In project situations, there are usually many counter-party transactional arrangements, such as contractors and suppliers with transactional relationships. And within the business there may be transactional relationships among business units and. human factors Risk Management Strategy
Musings on Project Management
MARCH 24, 2021
Yikes! My backlog is blocked! How can this be? We're agile. or maybe we've become de-agiled. Can that happen? Ah yes, we're agile, but perhaps not everything in the portfolio is agile; indeed, perhaps not everything in the project is agile. In the event, coupling is the culprit. Coupling? Coupling is system engineering speak for transferring one effect onto another, or causing an effect by agile Risk Management system engineering
Speaker: Tim Hughes, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Leadership Associates
Join Tim Hughes, Author of Social Selling – Influencing Buyers and Changemakers and Co-Founder/CEO of Digital Leadership Associates, as he details how investing in sales coaching will teach your team how to navigate social media and therefore create greater sales success.
Musings on Project Management
MAY 17, 2021
"They say" that trust is essential to any project team working effectively. To not trust is to layer on ineffective and non-value add efforts at surveillance, double checking, micro-management, etc and so on.Yet, nearly all projects of any significant scope are organized hierarchically:Some one is in chargeOthers "report to."Rules Rules are a tool; they can substitute for face-to-face. human factors Teamwork
Musings on Project Management
JULY 9, 2020
Can there be scope creep in Agile? Doesn't agile define creep away in a stroke: "Scope is whatever is prioritized in the backlog that fits within the budget (OPM, other people's money) and the time." "The The backlog changes all the time, but that's not creep, it's just backlog management."
Musings on Project Management
APRIL 24, 2020
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. Theodore Roosevelt Actually, that's Teddy's version of cousin FDR's famous "Try something!" But what if it's all about a threat -- something external -- for which you have no experience? Call in your PMO team and brainstorm? Perhaps game theory Risk Management
Musings on Project Management
DECEMBER 5, 2020
I'm a sequentialist.When planning a project, I think first about how to sequence the scope: do this first, then that. Or, do these things in parallel, followed by this or that.MS Project, and similar tools, are the sequentialists go-to tool for planning sequences and establishing the sequential order of the project. Not so fast!What What about cumulative, non-sequential, scope and effects?For For these, human factors planning Project Management
Speaker: Brynne Tillman CEO | LinkedIn Whisperer at Social Sales Link
In this 1-hour session, Brynne Tillman from Social Sales Link will teach you why Sales Enablement teams should own Social Selling
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