New project management articles published on the web during the week of October 13 – 19. We give you a high-level view so you can read what interests you. Recommended:
PM Best Practices
- Elizabeth Harrin defines two key terms – dependencies and constraints – and then provides guidelines on how to identify them.
- Glen Alleman shares the notes from his recent presentation on using technical performance with earned value.
- Michael Ipsaro argues that large procurements need to link acquisition life cycle management with a product team that can give them continuous feedback.
- John Goodpasture takes his turn at debunking the #NoEstimates movement.
- Donald Patti applies a different experience set to the often-quoted Standish Report project success rates.
- William Forgrave gives us the executive summary of his new book, on applying lessons learned from the Monty Python films to project management.
- Brad Egeland concludes his series on why project deadlines get missed, and how to get back on track.
- Deb Krizmanich and Frank Erschen give us the short version of their white paper on a structured decision-making process.
- Ron Rosenhead approves of the UK government’s plan for a national exercise of their ability to respond to Ebola, and asks how we’re testing our project roll-out?
- Nick Pisano points out that Excel and Powerpoint are not good platforms for managing strategic data.
- James Brown reminds us that no tool can be better than its content.
Agile Methods
- Sondra Ashmore and Kristin Runyan continue their series summarizing the requirements chapter of their textbook, “Introduction to Agile Methods.”
- Molood Noori Alavijeh recommends we write our user stories with the same values that fiction writers use in crafting their stories.
- David Anderson begins a series on when Kanban is appropriate approach for a specific workflow.
Leadership
- Bruce Benson recounts an anecdote that illustrates the power of knowing when to, “not fight it.”
- Kevin Lonergan approaches risk management from a leadership perspective, to get the maximum participation from the team.
- Rob Saxon summarizes several critical leadership habits and behaviors, as espoused by great historical leaders.
- Mike Griffiths links worker retention and productivity with leadership and compassion.
- Lynda Bourne summarizes the evolution of ethics and maps the PMI Code of Conduct to several historical belief systems.
- Patti Gilchrist has assembled a “how-to” list for those who aspire to be bad managers. And for those who aspire to be good
- Gina Abudi notes that the key to managing change is helping employees get past the obstacles to embracing that change.
- Adriana Girdler enumerates a few things we should never do when managing organizational change.
Enjoy!