New project management articles published on the web during the week of March 27 – April 2. And this week’s video: Ward Cunningham reflects on the history, motivation and common misunderstanding of the “debt metaphor” as motivation for refactoring.
Must read (or Hear)!
- John Le Drew curated extracts of interviews with Agile thought leaders and statistics to tell a very NPR-sounding story about safety from abusive work environments, and why we need it. Just 37 minutes, safe for work.
- Natalie Warnert contemplates how technical debt contributes to the cost of delay in future changes, and why we should talk about that future cost before incurring additional debt.
- Johanna Rothman shares a few anecdotes that describe how servant leadership works in practice.
Established Methods
- Laura Barnard describes the activities that should happen in the Discovery phase before the project is approved and the charter created.
- Susanne Madsen bullets six things to do when starting up a new project.
- Dave Prior interviews Don Kim on his new book, “I Think, Therefore I Plan.” Just 32 minutes, safe for work.
- Nick Pisano defends the analysis of historical data to identify and act on trends as more than just “telling them history they already know.”
- Glen Alleman lists five principles of project success and then ties them to the processes needed to implement them and practices that have been proven to be widely applicable.
- Jeff Collins gives us a tutorial on earned value management.
Agile Methods
- Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly roundup of Agile content, including the Agile mindset, the neuroscience of trust, structured conversations, experimentation, and more.
- Dmitriy Nizhebetskiy has a truthful conversation with a prospective client about Scrum: how it works, what it demands of the product owner, and why they’re called “sprints.”
- Esther Derby describes experimentation as a method of driving incremental organizational change.
- The Clever PM provides a recommended reading list for product managers – also applicable to project managers, Scrum masters, and anyone else leading people.
- Bart Gerardi describes three kinds of dependencies that would make a Scrum team want to align their sprint calendar with that of other teams.
- Margaret Kelsey interviews Misael Leon of Nearsoft, who shares his insights on how to understand your users’ motivations. Just 37 minutes, safe for work.
Applied Leadership
- Harry Hall identifies four common reasons we get stuck and suggests corrective actions that can get our teams moving again. Plus a three-minute video, safe for work.
- Michael Greer describes five critical conditions that have to be present in order to enable team success.
- Mike Girdler lists four key actions needed to change a toxic corporate culture.
- Gina Abudi concludes her series on getting buy-in for a large project.
Technology, Techniques, and Human Behavior
- Mike Clayton gives us a solid tutorial on persuasion and influence.
- Gavin Martin links us to a table from the National Conference of State Legislatures, with links to the security breach notification laws in each state.
- Teena Maddox reports on the successful recycling of a SpaceX booster rocket—just one more step on the way to 4,425 satellites delivering internet service to the entire globe.
Working and the Workplace
- Bertrand Duperrin notes that the young are virtuoso users of technology that they don’t understand and don’t care to learn about. So how will we find enough geeks?
- Leigh Espy explains what project managers really do in terms of roles and responsibilities. This is an excellent resource for coaching an “accidental project manager.”
- Coert Visser collates a checklist of questions to support your professional development.
Enjoy!
Title

Article Name
New PM Articles for the Week of March 27 – April 2
Description
New project management articles published on the web during the week of March 27 – April 2
Author
Dave Gordon
The Practicing IT Project Manager LLC
