New PM Articles for the Week of May 8 – 14

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of May 8 – 14. And this week’s video: TED’s Chris Anderson interviews Elon Musk on his projects, from boring tunnels under Los Angeles to a permanent colony on Mars. Just 41 minutes, safe for work. The future is a work in progress.

Must read (or Hear)!

  • Chad Rigetti and Chris Dixon discuss the physical limits that apply to Moore’s Law and prospects for quantum computing in machine learning. New term: “neuromorphic processor.” Just 27 minutes, safe for work.
  • Yuval Noah Harari looks out to 2050 when most jobs that exist today will have disappeared, and the “useless” class will be a far greater challenge than the working class.
  • Bertrand Duperrin updates on the end of search (as we know it) and the rise of non-benevolent assistance (“Let me help you select a product from our sponsors.”).

Established Methods

  • Harry Hall identifies five actions we can take to improve project communication
  • Charmaine Karunaratne suggests strategies and tactics for managing a project team distributed around the globe.
  • Colin Ellis catalogs a few ways to really suck at project management.
  • Geraldine O’Reilly steps us through the creation of a RACI matrix, and points out a few other variations, like CAIRO and RACI-VS.
  • Dmitriy Nizhebetskiy suggests a relatively simple project risk management plan.
  • John Goodpasture addresses the definition and handling of extreme risks.
  • Rich Maltzman notes the risk management implications of a recent discovery that climate change is releasing long-frozen viruses and bacteria into the water supply.
  • Glen Alleman recommends “The Death of Expertise,” by Tom Nichols. The Age of Enlightenment is but a dim memory …

Agile Methods

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of all things Agile, from refactoring Agile to schizophrenic dichotomies in Agile frameworks to dual track development.
  • Leigh Espy delivers an excellent summary of Agile principles and philosophy, and a short overview of the leading methods. Highly recommended for project managers looking for a point of entry.
  • Dave Prior interviews John Le Drew, host of The Agile Path on his approach to the craft of podcasting. Just 46 minutes, safe for work.
  • The Clever PM presents a product manager’s guide to technical debt.
  • Bart Gerardi introduces voting using the Fist of Five. It only sounds like a Kung Fu movie.

Applied Leadership

  • Art Petty provides some guidance for managers on dealing with a toxic employee.
  • Mike Clayton provides action plans for dealing with each of six different types of difficult project sponsors.
  • Coert Visser notes that positive stereotypes are just as depersonalizing as negative stereotypes and thus should not be used as a compliment.

Technology, Techniques, and Human Behavior

  • Thomas Fox-Brewster reports on the quick action by a malware researcher which shut down Friday’s WannaCry ransomware. Still running XP on some device? You’ll surely get another opportunity to regret it.
  • Jennifer Zaino catches us up on recent attempts to develop standards for the Internet of Things, notably a new W3C working group and services based on Linked Data.
  • Nir Eyal shares an excerpt from Nathalie Nahai’s new book, “Webs of Influence: The psychology of online persuasion.” Specifically, this excerpt is about persuasive video.

Working and the Workplace

  • Michael Lopp describes his daily morning calendar scrub. “If unscheduled time is zero, die a little inside.”
  • My Nguyen outlines what we need to know about ergonomics to stay healthy while riding a desk all day. Desk, monitor, keyboard, mouse, chair, and regular movement – all important!
  • Sara McCord considers the pros and cons of deleting LinkedIn connections you don’t actually know.

Enjoy!

Title
New PM Articles for the Week of May 8 – 14
Article Name
New PM Articles for the Week of May 8 – 14
Description
New project management articles published on the web during the week of May 8 – 14
Author
The Practicing IT Project Manager LLC