New project management articles published on the web during the week of October 20 – 26. We give you a high-level view so you can read what interests you. Recommended:
PM Best Practices
- Samad Aidane notes that the project kickoff is not the place to “sell” the project to the stakeholders – that should have already been done.
- Peter Saddington shares a video on how our assumptions and biases prevent us from being objective. Just four minutes, safe for work.
- Elizabeth Harrin has some advice for project managers asked to manage an internal project with little or no spending authority.
- Jerry Manas investigates the resource management and capacity planning choices we make when responding to increasing demand.
- Glen Alleman points out the logical fallacies in anecdotal evidence, and applies Carl Sagan’s bullshit detector.
- Gary Nelson returns from a wilderness first aid course with the observation that medical emergencies have many of the same attributes as projects.
- John Goodpasture reminds us that exposure to risk is cumulative: “The risk that at least one thing will fail is way more than the risk that any one thing will fail.”
- Kevin Coleman lays out the potential impact of a security breach, and the aftermath.
- Janani Dumbleton tells how to kick off a data governance initiative.
- Sean Williams begins a series on improving federal acquisition decisions through comprehensive financial analysis.
- Nick Pisano continues his criticism of how organizations misuse Excel as an analytical “filler” between specialized applications.
- Allen Ruddock sings the praises of Sharepoint as a project management tool.
- Kerry Wills zooms in on three “course corrections” that can keep a project on track.
Agile Methods
- Mike Cohn begins a series on two approaches to sprint planning: velocity-driven and commitment-driven.
- Sondra Ashmore and Kristin Runyan conclude their series extracted from their new testbook, “Introduction to Agile Methods.”
- Sandeep Lad fleshes out the definition of “servant leader.”
Leadership
- Paul Ritchie shares some insights into how the best influencers convince the CEO.
- Martin Webster shares an infographic that ties together employee engagement, stress, and leadership.
- Shoaib Ahmed invokes Frederick Herzberg, who linked employee dissatisfaction to “hygiene factors” and employee satisfaction to achievement.
- Johanna Rothman recounts an anecdote that illustrates the potential blowback from executive-dictated culture change.
- Pam Stanton recalls an instance where a visionary leader ran into problems by not focusing on execution.
- Coert Visser gives us the executive summary of “Rethinking Positive Thinking,” by Gabriele Oettingen.
Professional Development
- Bruce Harpham explores networking, in three dimensions.
- Don Kim eyes with skepticism a claim that PMI-ACP credentialed project managers are the highest paid – especially coming from a training provider.
- Geoff Crane shares the slide deck from his keynote on emotional intelligence, “Why Smart People Fail,” presented at the PMI Durham Highlands monthly meeting.
Enjoy!