New PM Articles for the Week of July22 – 28

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of July 22 – 28.  We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to!  Recommended:

  • Angela Workman-Stark recounts how the Royal Canadian Mounted Police learned to manage and drive change, after initially failing.
  • Elizabeth Harrin reflects on a heat wave, re-purposed artifacts, and the laundry, all on her first day back to work from maternity leave.
  • Scott Berkun recaps chapter 8 of his book, “Making Things Happen,” on how to make good decisions as a project manager.
  • Bertrand Duperrin observes an interesting side effect: effective collaboration reduces the number of workers needed for success, thus killing jobs.
  • Cyndee Miller comments on a report from The Economist’s Intelligence Unit, sponsored by PMI, called “Why Good Strategies Fail.”
  • Craig Brown suggests maybe we just need to simplify our strategy and focus on the main thing.
  • Will Kelly summarizes what has changed in PMBOK5, and what it means to those taking the PMP exam.
  • Glen Alleman offers some reading material on software cost estimating.  Actually, it’s a whole reference shelf.
  • Gary Nelson warns that zombies may be invading our projects.  But there’s a cure, and it doesn’t involve violence.
  • Ellen Gottesdiener explains how to manage scope as you discover requirements.
  • Martin Webster covers the basics of how to write a project plan.
  • Mike Griffiths considers the fine balance between planning away uncertainty, and executing away uncertainty.
  • Barbara Shannon tells us how to make people love our projects, by limiting the number of them.
  • Shim Marom raises the ethical question, “Are truthfulness and project management mutually exclusive?”
  • Neil Killick considers the ethics of letting his team fix bugs they didn’t create, at the expense of the work they’ve been asked to do.
  • Bruce Benson argues that your “best people” may not be the ones loudly finding fault with everyone else.
  • Andy Jordan addresses the question: how do you determine the value-add of your PMO?
  • J. LeRoy Ward notes some studies that indicate organizations with a lot of PMP holders tend to have more successful project outcomes.
  • John A. Byrne lists ten tough questions that interviewers at the Harvard Business School MBA program are asking applicants.
  • Jorge Valdés Garciatorres advocates the art of active listening.
  • Kerry Wills has some opinions on what makes for an effective EMail.  Mostly, it’s brevity.

Enjoy!