New PM Articles for the Week of April 16 – 22

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of April 16 – 22. And this week’s video: Zaman gives us a tutorial on adding cascading animations to PowerPoint. Imagine using this to brief your steering committee on the results of testing, or some other data-heavy topic. 9 minutes, safe for work.

Must read!

  • Jenny Anderson reports on one of Amazon’s uncommon practices: teams prepare narrative memos rather than Powerpoints. Those of us who write are smiling. 2 minutes to read.
  • Mike Clayton explains how to develop gravitas as a project manager. 10 minutes to read.
  • Jan Schulz-Hofen shares an action plan for GDPR compliance. Yes, you need to care, even if you aren’t in Europe. 20 minutes to read—call it an investment.

Established Methods

  • Andy Makar shares a checklist to support transitioning responsibility to a new project manager. 5 minutes to read.
  • Leigh Espy shares a list of basic project management steps for those who have unexpectedly become project managers. In case you were asking “for a friend.” 6 minutes to read.
  • John Goodpasture explains the notion of the project balance sheet. Not Assets = Liabilities + Shareholder Equity but the relationship between the investment and how it’s being spent. 3 minutes to read.
  • Elizabeth Harrin reviews CornerThought, a new tool for capturing lessons learned throughout the project and reviewing them at the right point in time in future projects. 6 minutes to read.
  • John McIntyre notes that the value of producing a weekly project status report lies in the “mini-project audit” required to prepare it. 6 minutes to read.
  • Greg Satell captures the key points from a survey by Deloitte on big data and cognitive technology projects. 5 minutes to read.

Agile Methods

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his list of Agile content, from large-scale Agile to BDD treaties to protecting the product creation process. Seven outbound links, 2 minutes to read.
  • Kiron Bondale wishes the Agile Manifesto had one more value: “We value Agility over Agendas.” Not meeting agendas—the other kind. 2 minutes to read.
  • Alex Novkov returns to the manufacturing roots of Agile to consider the wisdom of “stopping the line” in the name of improving the process. 5 minutes to read.
  • Doron Bar describes endgame testing—end to end from the user’s perspective. 6 minutes to read.
  • Tom Cagley notes that Kaizen is more of a mindset than a process or workflow. 3 minutes to read.
  • Mike Griffiths notes that software projects are evolving, to the point that the project manager role may disappear. Or at least, be less visible to the development team. 5 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Alexander Maasik curates his list of leadership articles, from the dangers of unicorn worship to being wary of the next big thing. 2 minutes to read.
  • Jeffrey Kotler describes how resilient leaders respond to failure. 4 minutes to read.
  • Ron Carucci dismantles the three common reasons leaders give to avoid making hard decisions in a timely manner. 5 minutes to read.

Technology, Techniques, and Human Behavior

  • Anne-Marie Charrett examines the practice of and inherent risks to quality assurance in a continuous delivery environment. 3 minutes to read.
  • Andrew Conrad shares five Powerpoint techniques that beat the crap out of whatever you’re doing now. Or maybe I’m just projecting. 5 minutes to read, set aside an hour to experiment.
  • David Geer notes six barriers to test automation, all of which cry out for project manager attention! 5 minutes to read.
  • Nir Eyal describes the Peak-End Rule, which explains why your last impression is the most lasting impression. 5 minutes to read.

Working and the Workplace

  • Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman note that reliably productive people have a certain set of traits and skills. 4 minutes to read.
  • Paul Sellers tells of the sudden outburst of anger by one of his students, and how it all turned out. 2 minutes to read.
  • Francisco Sáez shares ten tips that will help us stay focused. 3 minutes to read.

Enjoy!

Title
New PM Articles for the Week of April 16 – 22
Article Name
New PM Articles for the Week of April 16 – 22
Description
New project management articles published on the web during the week of April 16 – 22
Author
The Practicing IT PM LLC