New project management articles published on the web during the week of December 9 – 15. We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to! By the way: I’d really like you take my reader survey, so I can tailor the blog and other content to your needs in the New Year. Recommended:
Get Ready for the New Year!
- Elizabeth Harrin makes her predictions for how the practice of project management will continue to evolve in 2014.
- Kevin Kern also looks out to 2014, and sees some key trends for business and IT project management.
- Cheri Baker looks back at how her personal strategic plan for 2013 helped her manage herself, and shares her template for 2014. And check out her new website!
Leadership
- Vincent McGevna weighs in on the sources of a project manager’s authority: (mostly) soft power and (rarely) hard power.
- Jeff Stibel tells the story of how his organization changed their culture to properly deal with failure, by simply writing on the wall of the office.
- Steven Levy analyzes two aircraft crash landings, and finds some interesting lessons for project managers.
- Mike Myatt, author of “Hacking Leadership,” argues that courage is a learnable trait.
- Dave Wakeman shares his thoughts on what it takes to build a strong team.
- Kailash Awati notes that flexibility is a platitude, disguising trade-offs that we might not otherwise make.
PM Best Practices
- John Goodpasture has distilled eight safety critical principles from a list posted by Matthew Squair. Save them for your next risk management meeting!
- Rich Maltzman interviews Mel Bost, author of “Lessons Learned: Taking Project Management to a New Level.”
- Marian Haus continues her series on scheduling in an environment where there are several related projects, but no over-arching program.
- Mary Shacklett has a list of actions that will help keep your project execution on track.
- Mike Tressler suggests some guidelines for determining the appropriate level of documentation for a project, by relative sizing.
- Henny Portman reviews “A fully documented sample PRINCE2 project,” from Frank Turley and Nadar Rad.
- Brett Beaubouef explains his method for troubleshooting ERP implementation projects.
- Mike Clayton distills managing a great project down to eight steps, and then compares them to some of his other favorite frameworks.
Podcasts and Videos
- Cesar Abeid interviews fellow blogger Francis Hooke, who left a good job to start his own consulting business. A whole 54 minutes, but safe for work.
- Dave Prior interviews Sam Barnes, former project manager who evolved to a development team manager, about his struggles as a client. Just 24 minutes, safe for work.
- Cornelius Fichtner interviews Dave Cornelius on social media, mobile devices, analytics, and cloud computing converging to a disruptive force. Just 22 minutes, safe for work.
Agile Methods
- Terry Bunio summarizes his approach to applying Agile methods on a recent data warehouse project. This one is a “saver!”
- Andy Berner explains why constant velocity is a myth, and how you can still use velocity for planning and forecasting.
Pot Pouri
- Anya Faingersh fields a question on how to act on our knowledge of the source of our biases, in our daily lives and professional interactions.
- Michael Lopp thinks we can judge a conference by the badges they issue.
- Allen Ruddock shares his letter to Santa Claus. “A fully engaged, committed, and understanding sponsor.” Not sure I’d want to come downstairs and find one under my tree …
Enjoy!