New project management articles published on the web during the week of April 21 – 27. We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to! Recommended:

Leadership

• Peter Saddington shares the high points of a recent Inc.com article contrasting average bosses with extraordinary bosses.
• Zach Watson looks at the growing trend toward “flat” organizations and empowered teams of workers.
• Martin Webster begins a series describing the popular leadership models, at a high level.
• Mike Cohn gets in touch with his inner Hippie, and worries about our growing inability to live in the moment.

PM Best Practices

• Glen Alleman explains why the concept of operations has to come first, followed by capabilities, and then, finally, requirements.
• John Goodpasture notes that one organization may have different components, each with it’s own risk tolerance, perceived exposures and opportunities, and politics.
• Andy Jordan lays out the case for engaging the project managers in the implementation of portfolio management.
• Chuck Morton explains why tailoring formal processes to the project helps ensure those processes will actually be followed.
• Francis Hooke shares a project health check in the form of an acronym, PROJECT. Naturally!
• Peter Tarhanidis walks us through his approach to turning a large, complex project into something more manageable.

Agile Methods

• Johanna Rothman continues her series on designing your Agile project.
• Derek Huether has names for ten of the disruptive behaviors exhibited during the daily stand-up. What, no Dora the Explorer?
• Nick Pisano disputes the selective quotes of Deming by Agilistas, looking for reasons to avoid the hard work of measuring quality.
• Jai Singhai claims that Scrum supports all seven Lean principles. And then he tells us how it does it.

Professional Development

• Elizabeth Harrin lists five more things you should know, as a new project manager.
• Michel Dion reflects on a year of intense professional development, and finds seven principles for personal growth.
• Tom McFarlin extols the virtues of code reviews, as a path to personal development. Note: this principal applies to project reviews, too!

Podcasts and Videos

• Mark Phillippy interviews the legendary Frank Saladis, founder of the International Project Manager’s Day (and the Project Manager’s Blues). Just 44 minutes, safe for work.
• Cesar Abeid interviews Jeff Goins on how he got his start as a writer. Just 48 minutes, safe for work.
• Cornelius Fichtner interviews Margaret Meloni, who addresses our biggest uncertainty: are they really working on our project, or doing something else? Just 26 minutes, safe for work.
• Michael Greer shares a six-minute video on the balance between responsibility and authority. Safe for work.

Enjoy!