New project management articles published on the web during the week of July 6 – 12. We give you a high-level view so you can read what interests you. Our theme this week is taking a skeptical look at extraordinary claims. Recommended:
Must read!
- Kailash Awati takes a critical look at knowledge work and the flimsy basis for claims of expertise.
- John Goodpasture summarizes a few revolutionary ideas for the 21st century technocrat organization, despite his misgivings.
- Bruce Benson compares the fault in his GPS that said he ran a four-minute mile with the claims made by methodology advocates.
PM Best Practices
- Harry Hall reviews some strategies for dealing with the process by which sub-par resources get assigned to our projects.
- Jim Anderson gives us some pointers on how to take control of a negotiation.
- Elizabeth Harrin interviews Mark Woeppel on his new book, Visual Project Management.
- Glen Alleman outlines the three major strategic themes underlying most IT projects.
- Allen Ruddock suggests that the PMO can have an important role in maintaining stakeholder engagement.
- Dan Patterson advocates for risk analysis as part of the process of green lighting a new project.
- Bruce Harpham bullet points the characteristics of a good summer project. The kind you choose for yourself, of course!
- Margaret Meloni composes an open letter to project team members.
- Toby Elwin drives home the need to understand the action objective before communicating.
- Ryan Ogilvie lists a few specious claims to avoid when pitching change. My favorite: “No testing is really needed.” Yup, that’s why we have production …
- Braden Kelly starts a series on using Six Sigma / DMAIC to drive innovation.
Agile Methods
- Johanna Rothman has gathered some insights for program-level product owners, and shares three of them with us.
- Henrico Dolfing shares his lessons learned from using Scrum on an actuarial modeling project.
- Nada Aldahleh has some suggestions for improving Scrum.
Podcasts and Videos
- Cesar Abeid interviews author, podcaster, and strategic business coach Gene Hammett on leaving the corporate world and learning from failure. Just 55 minutes, safe for work.
- Cornelius Fichtner interviews project management coach and mentor Jeff Furman on his approach. Just 30 minutes, safe for work.
- William McKnight presents his TED talk on information as the next natural resource. Well, maybe not natural, but definitely a resource. Just 15 minutes, safe for work.
Outside the Lines
- Peter Saddington shares a two minute video, ”Did I Get the Job?” Funny, not safe for work, but there’s nothing good on TV, so why not?
- Seth Godin relates an interesting technique for getting an audience involved.
- Vivek Prakash describes what he claims is, “The only technique that resolves conflicts.”
Enjoy!