New project management articles published on the web during the week of September 8 – 14. We give you a high-level view so you can read what interests you. Recommended:
PM Best Practices
- Glen Alleman summarizes the Government Accounting Office’s findings on the root cause of the HealthCare.gov website problems. “Ineffective planning and oversight …”
- Bruce Benson also reviews the problems identified by the GAO and comes to a different conclusion: they need brutal honesty in order to establish realistic expectations.
- Russell Whitworth says the key to successful projects is to identify success criteria, and then monitor and manage to them.
- Michel Dion articulates three keys to project management: identify the intended results, be decisive, and take action.
- Harry Hall helps us get past the terminology gap, between what we know about project management and what our sponsors and stakeholders don’t
- Johanna Rothman explores the relationship between cost, value, and investment for portfolio management in a new series.
- Henny Portman shares an article on building a project portfolio prioritization model, to be part of his upcoming book.
- Mike Griffiths has a few suggestions for managing the Millenials, in the modern world of frequent job changes and unrealistic expectations.
- Kerry Wills touts the virtues of planning a schedule from left to right; in other words, calculating the end date, rather than having one imposed as a constraint.
- Elizabeth Harrin reviews Glip, a project collaboration site with instant messaging and some interesting integrations with other commonly used tools.
Agile Methods
- Shim Marom shares the slide deck from his Australia PMI conference presentation, “Transform Yourself From Traditional to Agile Project Manager.”
- Dave Prior constructs a self-assessment tool for “recovering PM’s” who are embracing Agile, and want to measure their progress. “Recovering?” Egad …
- Mike Cohn explains that the primary benefits of story points is a standardized measure of effort, independent of the skill level of the programmer.
- Meghana Niranjan presents Poka-Yoke 101, or for us non-Japanese speakers, an introduction to mistake proofing. The examples are more than enough reason to read this.
- Aby League clarifies how the Pomodoro Technique works, and how such a personal time management approach can fit in with Agile teams.
- John Goodpasture assigns ownership of delivering the value described in the business case to the product manager.
Following the Trends
- Janet Wagner provides a current-state view of cognitive computing and identifies several companies producing cognitive apps.
- Zach Watson sees opportunity for project management in the Internet of Things.
- Peter Saddington reports on research linking social collaboration and the evolution of brain size.
- Bertrand Duperrin interviews Manuel Diaz on the intersection of the customer experience and digital models.
- Kailash Awati interviews organization psychologist Dr. Neil Preston on exchanging the hero myth for an ethical approach to organizational change management.
Podcasts and Videos
- Venkatesh Krishnamurthy shares a video from Masaaki Imai, founder of the Kaizen Institute, on continuous improvement across the organization. Just 5 minutes, safe for work.
- Cesar Abeid interviews Shawn Dickerson of AtTask on the future of project management, and re-connects with Farnoosh Brock. Just 35 minutes, safe for work.
- Cornelius Fichtner interviews Joan Vincent on how the Wideman Education Foundation develops project management skills in young people. Just 25 minutes, safe for work.
- Margaret Meloni expands on her last post, on strategic reserve time, to show how to avoid starting off behind schedule. Just 7 minutes, safe for work.
Enjoy!