New PM Articles for the Week of February 6 – 12

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of February 6 – 12. And this week’s video: Kevin Kelly’s TED talk on “cognification,” the inevitable process of making things smarter so humans can focus on inefficient things like innovation and discovery. Best line: “Efficiency is for robots.” Just 14 minutes, safe for work.

Must read!

  • Samad Aidane tells what you should keep in mind when leading multi-cultural teams. Global projects are here to stay, and so are the people who will plan and execute them.
  • Nancy Settle-Murphy provides detailed guidance on making much better decisions with a distributed / virtual team.
  • PMI released the 2017 Pulse of the Profession survey, which says that more projects are meeting their original goals and fewer are failing.

Established Methods

  • Harry Hall tells a story about a project launch two different ways, with two different endings and a soundtrack by the Kingston Trio.
  • Cornelius Fichtner interviews Jay Payette on aligning projects with strategic goals. Just 30 minutes, safe for work.
  • John McIntyre posts a few PMO events scheduled for this month.
  • Michael Smith tutors us on tracking task dependencies.
  • Kenneth Ashe gets us back to the basics with a look at the stakeholder register.

Agile Methods

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of links to Agile content, from strategic agility in the enterprise to the clumsy corporate comedy of Dilbert.
  • Natalie Warnert contemplates whether it is useful to estimate technical debt and defect resolution, in addition to new development work.
  • Johanna Rothman looks at a backlog consisting of tasks, rather than stories. Not a good way to create value!
  • Chris Thelwell proposes a maturity model for design teams adopting Agile methods.
  • Derek Huether notes some gaps in making Scrum work in an organization where the team is just one part of a much larger whole.
  • Bart Gerardi considers the question of whether the ScrumMaster should attend the daily stand-up.
  • The Clever PM debunks the myth of consensus. Agreement on next steps is more important and immediately actionable.
  • Ryan Ripley interviews Zach Bonaker and Amitai Schleier on the monetization of Agile and the nature of coaching.

Applied Leadership

  • Art Petty lists some excellent examples of real leaders being effective in the corporate workplace by quietly doing the things that help others be successful.
  • David Cotgreave examines the need for conflict resolution skills by the project manager.
  • Chris Cook reviews three biases that can negatively influence our decision making.

Technology and Techniques

  • Kara Swisher interviews former New York Times technology reporter John Markoff, who explains why we need robots to take our jobs. Just 58 minutes, safe for work.
  • Cade Metz reports on the Asilomar conference on artificial intelligence, where the conversation turned to the looming loss of middle-class jobs.
  • Belle Cooper reviews the science that tells us we need to reduce the noise level, for productivity and health.

Working and the Workplace

  • Hired released the second edition of their Global State of Tech Salaries report. Looks like there’s more to Austin than just the City Limits.
  • Lisette Sutherland interviews Nick “The Podcast Monster” Jaworski on building authentic relationships with remote clients. Just 39 minutes, safe for work.
  • Suzanne Lucas reports that IBM is acting to dramatically reduce the number of employees working from home.

Enjoy!