New PM Articles for the Week of July 6 – 12

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Balloon SunriseNew 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!