New project management articles published on the web during the week of February 3 – 9. We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to! Recommended:

PM Best Practices

• Michael Wood takes a comprehensive look at the challenges and benefits of virtual teams.
• Glen Alleman announced that his new book, “Performance-based Project Management,” is available on Amazon in hardcover and Kindle versions.
• Martin Webster considers wicked problems and clumsy solutions.
• Michel Dion examines the business case for project information management, and best practices.
• Carl Manello shares what he learned from using earned value metrics (badly) to manage a project.
• Michael Lopp thinks we need to improve the universally hated status report. His solution: context. And a bit of snark, of course.
• Geoff Crane looks at a project that went horribly over budget and over schedule, yet was unarguably a success.

Project Governance

• Aaron Smith extracts key points from the PMI 2014 Pulse of the Profession survey: to be competitive, organizations must focus on people, processes, and outcomes.
• Johanna Rothman introduces an opportunity cost metric: the Cost of Delay. Here’s part two.
• Mike Clayton concludes his series on project governance.
• John Bauer continues his series on how to pitch your favorite project. There’s more than just a business case.

Getting Your Point Across

• Jo Ann Sweeney considers the nature of communication in a joint venture.
• Ben Ferris coaches us on our negotiation practices.
• Patti Gilchrist explores the recent Duck Dynasty controversy, from the perspective of stakeholder management.
• Susanne Madsen analyzes resistance to change, at the emotional level.
• Melanie McBride explains how to conditionally say ‘yes,’ in order to buy time to say ‘no.’

Podcasts and Videos

• Cesar Abeid interviews Chuck Frey, author of “Up Your Impact!” Just 51 minutes, safe for work, with a short comment from Peter Taylor near the beginning.
• Cheri Baker interviews Richard Sherman on how to manage your management career, from his perspective as a recruiter and coach. Just 48 minutes, safe for work.
• Cornelius Fichtner explains how to earn PDU’s by listening to the PM podcast. Just six minutes, safe for work.

Agile Methods

• Aakash Srinivasan tells how to get the most value from a retrospective.
• Catia Oliviera shares her FAQ on velocity
• Rohit Ratan Mani continues his series on resistance to Agile adoption in the organization.

Pot Pouri

• Greg McKeown explains how to capture the “joy of missing out.” Simplify!
• Amy Morin explains how we can apply the psychology of color when choosing paint for our office. New from Sherwin-Williams: “Joyful Yellow” and “Bored Pink.”
• PMI has published a graphic novel (comic book, for us older folks) telling a tale of how an Agile practitioner saves the day in a blizzard. No, really!

Enjoy!