New PM Articles for the Week of November 24 – 30

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Balloon Over the WallNew project management articles published on the web during the week of November 24 – 30. We give you a high-level view so you can read what interests you. Recommended:

PM Best Practices

  • Patti Gilchrist has prepared a checklist of essential skills required in order to manage a Big Data project.
  • Kailash Awati tutors us on the Issue-Based Information System; how it has evolved, and how Glyma implements IBIS.
  • Glen Alleman lists the critical success factors from a 2010 IBM report on managing complex projects and programs.
  • Elizabeth Harrin summarizes James Brown’s presentation on organizational change management at Synergy 2014.
  • Ryan Ogilvie explains the numbers used to express availability and uptime.
  • James Clifton does a quick overview, including pros and cons, of four digital project management apps: Wrike, Mavenlink, Clarizen, and ProWorkflow.
  • Mario Trentim points out that the key to stakeholder management is managing for the benefit of the stakeholders.
  • Henny Portman shares his updated stakeholder register.
  • Bruce Harpham publishes another one of his resource lists: 33 conflict management resources for project managers.
  • Allen Ruddock recommends that the PMO start with governance and work backwards from there.
  • Emanuele Passera applies the law of diminishing returns to explain why no solution is infinitely scalable.
  • Harry Hall reduces the “lessons learned” session down to three key questions.

Agile Methods

  • Johanna Rothman shares some recommendations for tackling complex, “wicked” problems.
  • Esther Derby considers the question: Has Agile crossed the chasm?
  • John Goodpasture summarizes key points from Scott Ambler’s presentation at a PMI event in Orlando. Not a receptive audience for this message, I’d guess.
  • Pawel Brodzinski relates the “happiness metric” used to gauge team morale with blood pressure, as a metric for impending damage to the organism.
  • Derek Huether reports that a patent for sale by Penn State might be the basis for future infringement suits, if you happen to be using certain common collaboration tools. Like a whiteboard and Post-it Notes.

Podcasts and Videos

  • Cornelius Fichtner interviews Elizabeth Larson on using time management approach to improve our ability to manage project requirements. Just 17 minutes, safe for work.
  • Craig Smith interviews Gojko Adzic on Agile methods ranging from XP to impact mapping to hamburger slicing. Just 45 minutes, safe for work.

Becoming More Effective

  • Seth Godin contrasts the last minute with the deadline, and notes that they are two different things.
  • Mike Girdler lists five keys to achieving a rhythm of continuous improvement.
  • Soma Bhattacharya won’t tell us her New Year’s resolution, but she does share her strategy for keeping it.
  • Tony Adams channels Nathaniel Hawthorne, on the difficulty of getting the message just right, for the intended audience.
  • Kerry Wills invokes Stephen Covey and Bruce Willis with the admonition, “SFTU or STFU.”

Enjoy!