New project management articles published on the web during the week of November 28 – December 4. And this week’s video: children narrate a Museum of London video of a man demonstrating how to cast an axe head using Bronze Age technologies. Just four minutes, safe for work, and far more thought-provoking than anything on television.

Must read / view / listen!

• Sathappan Chinnakaruppan reports on teaching project management terminology, processes, and skills to sixth-grade kids – including his daughter.
• Elizabeth Harrin recommends eleven must-have gadgets for the office worker on your holiday gift list.
• Mike Cohn makes the case for standards of excellence in Agile and stimulates a whole lot of comments.

Established Methods

• Women Testers Magazine October 2016 edition is now available for download, and it includes a variety of excellent articles. Yes, I know – it’s December …
• Scott Matteson details ten (non-mutually exclusive) ways to kill a zombie IT project. No edged weapons required.
• John McIntyre explains why the US government’s Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act is a big deal.
• John Goodpasture quotes John LeCarre in asserting that part of assessing the quality of data is identifying the source.
• Kerry Wills demonstrates the value of managing expectations when failure is a distinct possibility.
• Nick Pisano updates us on progress toward producing a user experience completely under user control.

Agile Methods

• Stefan Wolpers shares his weekly round-up of all things Agile, from Scrum to Kanban, and from teams to customers.
• Johanna Rothman explains why both pushing work (i.e. Scrum) and pulling work (i.e. Kanban) may be right for your team.
• Dave Prior interviews Derek Huether on the Triangle of Productivity, his new theory on what makes us effective. Just 30 minutes, safe for work.
• Ben Linders explains the Agile Self-Assessment Game, an interesting way for teams to discover how well they’ve embraced Agile methods.
• Henny Portman reviews “The Product Samurai,” by Chris Lukassen, which maps the seven principles of the Samurai to product management. But no swords.
• Shay Peleg debunks a half-dozen myths that senior management frequently believes about Agile methods.
• Moira Alexander provides the smart person’s guide to Agile project management. Dummies need not apply.

Applied Leadership

• Michael Wood identifies the critical “people realities” of project management, and the people skills we need to hone to deal with them.
• Dmitriy Nizhebetskiy lists the “do’s” and “don’ts” of successfully managing your project team.
• Laura Barnard deconstructs the instruction, “Be more strategic.”

Technology and Techniques

• Jennifer Zaino reports from the Dataversity Enterprise Data World 2016 conference on the existential question: Is NoSQL the future of databases?
• Jeff Boehm explains the notions behind NewSQL, which attempts to bridge the gap between traditional relational databases and NoSQL.
• Nir Eyal tells how “multiple discovery theory” explains why great minds think alike, at about the same time.

Working and the Workplace

• Rebecca Knight provides a detailed course of action in getting your manager’s respect.
• Leigh Espy talks with Bruce Harpham about how to get project management experience through volunteer work.
• Nina Semczuk points out three signs your communication skills might need some work.

Enjoy!