New PM Articles for the Week of May 2 – 8

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of May 2 – 8. And this week’s video: a TED Talk interview with Linus Torvald, the man behind Linux and Git, who explains, “I am not a visionary, I’m an engineer.” Just 22 minutes, safe for work.

Must read!

  • Elizabeth Harrin shares a video of her Imposter Syndrome presentation at PMI Synergy. Just 16 minutes long, safe for work.
  • Susanne Madsen begins a series on balancing positive and negative stress with the relationship between job pressure and job performance. There is an optimum level of stress!
  • Kevin Coleman describes the principles of managing what is being called a hybrid project, mixing Agile and Traditional methods.

Established Methods

  • Dimitriy Nizhebetskiy gets us back to the basics on the Work Breakdown Structure.
  • Bart Gerardi shares five techniques for earning and keeping the trust of your project team, stakeholders, and sponsors.
  • Margaret Meloni posts an infographic that describes the four basic components of quality management.
  • Kailash Awati applies Oliver Williamson’s economics research in order to identify the hidden costs to IT outsourcing. Just 5 minutes, safe for work.
  • Elise Stevens interviews Barbara Trautlein, who explains how to be a confident change leader. Just 24 minutes, safe for work.
  • Shuba Kathikeyan profiles twenty notable project management professors from around the globe. If you’re looking for an academic program, this could be very useful.
  • Harry Hall lists twelve questions that will help you diagnose the effectiveness of your project risk management activities.
  • John Goodpasture explains the basics of fault and root cause analysis.

Agile Methods

  • Mike Cohn explains how triangulation can prevent your story point estimates from escalating over time.
  • Johanna Rothman proposes a minimalist working definition of Agile.
  • Lynda Bourne looks at the maturing of Agile, as “the ridiculous excesses promoted by consultants and experts” fade into obscurity and pragmatism takes hold.
  • Pawel Brodzinski shows how Real Options helps achieve commitment from decision makers at the portfolio level to implementers at the feature level, in return for autonomy.
  • Peter Saddington shares an infographic that tells you everything you need to understand about the user experience.

Applied Leadership

  • Moira Alexander points out the most common challenges in software project (and portfolio) management these days.
  • Liane Davey recommends, “When faced with emotion at work, focus on the issue, not the emotion.”
  • Nancy Settle-Murphy outlines Radical Civility, which she defines as, “A kind of personal armor that can help repel the damaging effects of rude behavior.”

Virtual Teams

  • Lisette Sutherland explains how to discover the culture on your virtual team. Just 8 minutes, safe for work.
  • Danielle Koehler continues her series with HR expert Gail Rolls with a Q&A on managing remote workers.
  • Suzanne Lucas reports that the single most important thing needed for a productive team is psychological safety – the way the team interacts.
  • Hubstaff has a nice infographic on how to run a remote meeting. Since I lead such meetings several times a day, I can say: well done!
  • Michael Girdler provides a few tips on how to work from home effectively and efficiently.
  • Abby Wolfe presents the counter-point: working from home is over-rated.

Enjoy!