New project management articles published on the web during the week of October 8 – 14. And this week’s video: Celeste Headlee’s TEDx talk on how to have a good conversation, even with people you profoundly disagree with. 12 minutes, safe for work, and a tip of the hat to Alison Mai at Steelray for the link.
Business Acumen and Strategy
- Vanessa Bates Ramirez reports on a new robot-staffed warehouse in Tel Aviv that fills orders in under 5 minutes and fits in 6,000 square feet of floor space. 2 minutes to read.
- Rebecca Addison notes the growing use of Cobots—robots design to collaborate on tasks with humans, rather than work independently. Like Amazon’s warehouse robots. 4 minutes to read.
- Shahab Arif updates us on how automotive manufacturers are speeding up the production line with automation, assisted by humans. 7 minutes to read.
Managing Projects
Leigh Espy tutors us on the Critical to Quality tree, a requirements elicitation tool to help you get your customer from general to specific success criteria. 4 minutes to read.
- Mike Clayton explains the value of a quantitative business case as a decision-making tool. Video, 5 minutes, safe for work.
- Tony Adams reminds us to keep the stakeholders engaged during a long, long project. 3 minutes to read.
- Toby Elwin tells us why we shouldn’t let a skeptic drive business change. 3 minutes to read.
- Michael Wharton shows how to estimate annual budgets for your department projects using Project Online of Project Server. 4 minutes to read.
- Cornelius Fichtner interviews PMO consultant Hussain Bandukwala on setting up a fully functioning PMO in 100 days. Podcast, 44 minutes, safe for work.
Managing Software Development
- Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from what constitutes a team to coaching to mindsets. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
- John Yorke begins sharing his assignment to “create, build, and run a virtual office comprising of cross-functional teams that create software”—sustainably and profitably. 4 minutes to read.
- Johanna Rothman concludes her series on creating a product-based development organization. Part 5 and 6 are here; each has links to the earlier posts. Total for the series about 25 minutes to read.
- The Clever PM addresses prioritization of product feature development from three perspectives: value, difficulty, and instinct. 4 minutes to read.
- Nishi Grover Garg explains how to optimize your hardening sprint to produce the best possible quality before release. 5 minutes to read.
- Amir Ghahrai insists that the problem with modern QA is the retreat from manually exercising the software. You can’t automate unless you identify the scenarios. 9 minutes to read.
Applied Leadership
Alexander Maasik curates his weekly list of leadership articles, from OKR’s to AQ to making a dent in the universe. 5 outbound links, 3 minutes to read
- Melissa Boggs reminds us that exhaustion is not a status symbol. Well-managed teams work at a sustainable pace. 3 minutes to read.
- William Malsam coaches us on delivering constructive criticism—expressing a valid and well-reasoned opinion. 5 minutes to read.
- Dan Rockwell notes the dangers of being over-helpful—in other words, doing someone’s job for them. 2 minutes to read.
Research and Insights
- Gabrielle Coppola reports on a new line of R&D for autonomous cars: helping AI predict what human pedestrians are about to do—what human drivers do intuitively. 4 minutes to read.
- Mary Haskett help us understand face recognition—biometric identification of a live face image, validated against a stored (enrolled) image of that person. 5 minutes to read.
- Adam Shostack reviews a GAO report on the Equifax breach and shares his own follow-up questions. 2 minutes to read.
Working and the Workplace
- Heather Landy curated a list of the top ten Quartz at Work stories about life at the office, from awkward eye contact to dorky motivational posters to cushy office perks as a form of oppression. 5 minutes to read.
- Rebecca Knight explains how to stay focused in a noisy open office, from setting group expectations to noise-canceling headphones. 8 minutes to read.
- Lisette Sutherland reports on five new tools for remote work and collaboration at a distance. Podcast, 8 minutes, safe for work.
Enjoy!
Title

Article Name
New PM Articles for the Week of October 8 – 14
Description
New project management articles published on the web during the week of October 8 – 14
Author
Dave Gordon
The Practicing IT PM LLC
