New project management articles published on the web during the week of December 19 – 25. And this week’s video: making a gingerbread house, starring Abby. Less than four minutes, safe for work.
Must read!
- Tim Urban shares the best advice he’s ever been given, from no less an authority than Chris Anderson, the man who heads the TED Talks organization.
- Joseph Grenny shares an anecdote that illustrates the need to control our emotions in tense moments.
- Michael Lopp captures the spirit of the holiday season with a story about the hole where his Dad buried their Christmas presents.
Established Methods
- Moira Alexander tutors us on how to write a more effective project charter.
- Henny Portman listed links to all 44 of the book reviews he’s published this year. A mix of English and Dutch, so it’s not 44 books. But still, there’s something here for you!
- Mike Clayton didn’t get the chance to read as much as he hoped in 2016, so this list of 15 books contains his aspirations for 2017.
- Joe Wynne starts a series on managing organizational change in HR projects.
- Harry Hall points out the ways we can create schedule risks, often by trying to resolve existing schedule issues.
Agile Methods
- Johanna Rothman talks up the merits of rolling wave planning for backlogs and product roadmaps.
- Cornelius Fichtner interviews Andy Burns on scaling Agile and adaptive project management processes at scale. Just 32 minutes, safe for work.
- Andrew Makar considers how to align PMO processes with Agile methods. If you see the boulevard as a road block, maybe you’re going the wrong way.
- Dave Prior and Richard Cheng shared their first podcast, intended to provide tips for new Scrum Masters. Just 34 minutes, safe for work.
- Eric An explains the maintainability rules for cascading style sheets. Yes, that was an example of rhetorical recursion.
- The Clever PM provides a summary and link to each of his ten most popular posts of 2016. Good stuff here – at least take a look, even if you’re not a product manager.
Applied Leadership
- Jesse Lyn Stoner walks us through an ethics check, in the event we’re faced with a situation that seems neither black nor white.
- Lisette Sutherland interviews David Mansilla, CEO of 100% remote software development firm ISU Corp, on trust and transparency. Just 32 minutes, safe for work.
- Doug Thorpe introduces us to Jia Jiang, who decided to desensitize himself to rejection by actively seeking it out for 100 days, straight. Naturally, there is a TED talk: 16 minutes, safe for work.
Technology and Techniques
- Bertrand Duperrin suggests that the Uber model – positioning oneself as a broker between the provider and its clients – might be short-lived.
- Keith Foote provides an overview of the differences between relational and non-relational databases and includes a link to a video presentation with more details.
- Brendan Toner provides a detailed review and examples of what we project managers can do with iMindMap.
Working and the Workplace
- Stephanie Lee shares the lessons she learned from working remotely, all around the world.
- Kat Boogaard coaches us on making our elevator pitch memorable.
- Oliver Burkeman recounts the history of our embrace of efficiency and time management and points out the reason it’s ruining our lives.
- Victor Tan Chen reports on the growing spiritual crisis of living in what can be an extreme meritocracy.
- Aimee Groth gets us up to speed on why holocracy is failing at Zappos and was abandoned at Medium: we’re human, and we’re better at feeling than thinking.
Enjoy!
That’s a lovely gingerbread house. She looks like she had fun!
She was on Facetime with us on Christmas Day, opening her presents. She definitely knows how to have a good time and how to share the joy. Christmas best wishes to Jack and Oliver, and a happy new year to all of you!