The Practicing IT Project Manager

New project management articles published on the web during the week of July 25 –31, 2011.  We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to!  Recommended:

• Janis Rizzuto interviews Scott Ambler on scaling Agile to create value across the enterprise.
• Ty Kiisel uses the occasion of his recent return to Japan to reflect on “knowing where you’re going” and engaging the team to map the route.
• Peter Taylor, author of “The Lazy Project Manager” is campaigning for real sponsors, and he has a detailed list of behaviors, good and bad, to guide the search.
• Jason Hiner has been studying the trends in IT, and says we will soon see only three kinds of IT professionals: Consultants, Project Managers, and Developers.
• Elizabeth Harrin quotes a survey that indicates most women don’t want to move into management roles.  And then disputes those findings.
• Geoff Crane is back in school, finally finishing his undergraduate degree, but takes the time to write about assertive dialogue.
• Glen Alleman takes a look at a figure from a McKinsey report, using data from the Standish reports on success rates of IT projects, and finds the picture less than illuminating.
• Kelly Waters is proposing some basic extensions to the PMBOK to address Agile methods, as part of “Direct and Manage Project Execution.”
• Jeff Sutherland says he started practicing Scrum in 1967, while bombing North Viet Nam.  And in the seventies, while teaching medicine.  Fourteen minutes, safe for work.
• Meanwhile, Terry Bunio writes a “Dear Scrum” letter.  “I guess I just need space.”
• Rob Prinzo presents the case for a “project assurance” methodology.
• And Bruce Benson argues against “quality assurance” becoming a substitute for project management.
• Josh Nankivel shares an update from Cornelius Fichtner on the changes they’ve implemented to The PM Prepcast in advance of the changes to the PMP exam, effective August 31.
• Andrew Makar suggests we “move beyond” certification, toward putting all we’ve learned into practice.
• Todd Williams recalls using unshelled peanuts as bait to get scurrying managers to stop by his cube and communicate.
• Curt Finch and Dan Vickers advocate for succeeding as a project manager by building influence.
• John McKee writes about leadership in the modern, “challenged” organization, and the Law of Unintended Consequences.
• Avinoam Nowogrodski wants to kill the project status meeting.  Personally, I just to make them about exceptions, rather than affirming the obvious, but to each his own.
• Rick Swanborg notes five ways to “win” at project management.  And no, Charlie Sheen didn’t make the list.
• Brad Egeland has posted a three-part series on project management benchmarking.
• Paul Boos continues his “Government Gone Agile” series with the five characteristics of the innovation personae.
• Bill Krebs writes about using kinesthetic intelligence in Scrum team meetings; techniques like “The Fist of Five” and “Chickens sit, Pigs stand.”  Note: neither of these is a Kung Fu movie.
• Samad Aidane interviews Jonathan Jordan on the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Brains.”  An hour and seven minutes, but well worth the time.  Safe for work.
• Project Shrink Bas de Baar touches on introversion, mirror neurons, and the potential virtues of less-than-precision feedback.
• And Ted Hardy writes about subconscious information processing.  Yes, it’s neuroscience week in the blogosphere …
• Derek Bruff reflects on what he learned about measuring progress from watching “Lost.”
• Matthew Saunders lists the couple of dozen tools he’s used over the years to manage various aspects of his projects, from MS Project and Jira to Omnigraffle and DropBox.
• Kerry Wills updates us on “consultant-speak,” using the Dilbert-language dictionary.
• Scott Jennings rebuts Michael Pachter on “crunching” as normal.  Worth the click just for the picture of the puppy Michael is alleged to have kicked.

Enjoy!

I’ve been curating a weekly list of articles related to project management published on the web during the prior week for over a year now.  I decided it would be a potentially valuable contribution to the blogosphere, and it would give me a reason to read every week.  I didn’t realize when I started how much reading I’d do, but I’m enjoying it tremendously.  Earlier today, after finishing this week’s list, I realized that I’d never really said anything about what I’m looking for, and how I find it.  For writer and readers alike, I thought that might be useful information.  After all, you might want to do something similar, either for your own blog, or for your own reading.

I use three primary tools to gather likely articles: Google Reader, Google Alerts, and Twitter.  Each has its merits and flaws, but taken together, they net me more than enough useful material, week after week.

• Google Reader is an RSS subscription reader.  I simply plug in the RSS feed URL for any sites I want to monitor, and unread items are gathered for each site.  I add feeds all the time, but it seems like the same fifteen or so sites generate most of the traffic each week.   Stalwarts like PM Hut, Projects at Work, and Gantt Head are essentially on-line magazines, each for a different project manager audience.  Practitioner bloggers publish irregularly, but in any given week, I find at least thirty to fifty posts to read.  I also monitor a variety of consulting firm sites that publish less often, but generally have something interesting to say when they do.
• Google Alerts allow me to scan across the web for occurrences of a specific phrase, like “project management professional” or “PMBOK.”  This lets me find sources I would never think to look for, including news articles from all kinds of sources, world-wide.
• Twitter is useful, primarily for checking on what the other project management practitioner bloggers are writing, reading, and commenting on.  It’s a rare day I don’t see a reference to several articles or blog posts.  Of course, there’s also a lot of drivel, but you could say as much about any source.

As I identify articles, I read them, identify those of general (or specific) interest, capture the URL, and write one of my pithy descriptions.  I don’t keep track, but I’d guess I include maybe 30% of what I find in the weekly list.  Some of the stuff I find is just poorly written, or factually questionable, or just rants with no socially redeeming value.  Over the course of a week, I assemble these bits when I have time, and on Sunday afternoon, I compile the list, scheduling it for publication at 9:00 PM, Pacific time.

Naturally, I take feedback from readers.  You can comment on the posts, or you can reach me at davegordon@practicingitpm.com.  Several bloggers have called my attention to their articles, and I now follow their sites via Google Reader, and added two to my Blogroll.  I’ve also gotten tips from colleagues, and even a few from groups on LinkedIn.  So, if you see an article or blog post you want me to read, let me know about it.  And most of all, thanks for taking the time to read it!

New project management articles published on the web during the week of July 18 –24, 2011.  We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to!  Recommended:

• Bob Tarne interviews Troy Tuttle, a self-described “pragmatic Agilist,” on his adoption and use of Kanban in software development.  Highly recommended.
• Alan Shefveland provides an extensive overview of project portfolio planning.
• Kerry Wills talks about three ships in the fleet of success: ownership, stewardship, and leadership.
• Elizabeth Harrin looks at two surveys on the effectiveness of project management training, draws a few conclusions, and makes some recommendations.
• Peter Saddington has discovered Yet Another Flavor of Agile – OpenAgile, “the world’s only open source Agile method.”  No, it only sounds like a concatenation of two randomly selected, high-usage buzz words …
• Derek Huether shares his Guide to Sprint Planning.  By the way, he’s also working on a PMI-ACP prep course – stay tuned for details!
• Saira Karim takes a look at the notion of “best practices,” and argues that what was once best might now be less than optimal.  Time to look for “better practices.”
• Now that Ted Hardy has written about what innovation is (and isn’t), he’s ready to write about innovation in … developing requirements.
• Bruce Benson argues in favor of tracking expenditures “by hand,” rather than depending on financial systems to cough up critical project budget data.
• Michael Young expounds on a well-established process – stakeholder analysis.
• Josh Nankivel answers an Email from a PM student, wondering if he should pursue the CAPM credential to compensate for his lack of work experience.
• Kristen Lora, an English major, tells how she discovered project management was the best career choice for her.
• Cornelius Fichtner, host of The Project Management Prepcast, lists three ways to fail your PMP exam audit.  Applicable to PMI-ACP, too!

Enjoy!