New project management articles published on the web during the week of May 6 – 12. And this week’s video: Angela Lee Duckworth explains her research into grit—the power of passion and perseverance, and working toward long-term goals. While her research began with students, she also studied adults in the work environment. 6 minutes, safe for work. Tip of the hat to Johanna Rothman for the link!

Business Acumen and Strategy

• Cihan Bebek examines the Hertz Rental Car lawsuit against Accenture and believes both parties made significant errors. 8 minutes to read.
• David Epstein explains the notion of hedgehogs and foxes (specialists and generalists) as described by Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner in Superforecasting: The art and science of prediction. 9 minutes to read.
• Mark Gurman and Matthew Townsend trace the decisions that caused the Apple Store to lose its magical customer experience reputation. 9 minutes to read.

Managing Projects

• Mike Clayton goes into detail on a code of conduct for project managers, generally and as espoused by PMI, APM, the Institute of Business Ethics, and the MBA Oath. 14 minutes to read.
• Cesar Abeid interviews his colleague at Automattic, Karen Arnold, on building a geographically distributed team. Podcast, 37 minutes, safe for work.
• John Goodpasture comments on “hub and spoke” project networks, as described by Andrew Shipilov. Two interesting points of view. 2 minutes to read.
• Mike Griffiths examines the way the new PMI Standard for Risk Management in Portfolios, Programs, and Projects applies to Agile methods and finds a lot to like. 8 minutes to read.
• Glen Alleman has compiled a list of around 470 risk management resources, from papers to books to these, available from public sites. I suggest searching the page for keywords.
• Greg Satell opines on why change management initiatives so often fail and how we can improve the odds. 6 minutes to read.
• Luca Collina is conducting a survey to solicit your thoughts on failing (or failed) change initiatives and how they might be recovered. 3 minutes or less to take the survey.

Managing Software Development

• Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from liberating structures for Scrum Masters to dot voting to the Collabnet state of Agile report. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
• Kiron Bondale considers the optimal length of a sprint. OK, you guessed it: it depends. 2 minutes to read.
• Guarav Dhooper gives his opinion on sprint durations and story sizing. 4 minutes to read.
• Johanna Rothman closes out her series on product roles with Part 7 and Part 8, each about 3 minutes to read. If you missed an earlier part, she includes links to all 8.
• Valerie Senyk announces the results of her poll of REALagility Newsletter readers, identifying the skills every Scrum Master should strive to develop. 3 minutes to read.
• Scott Fitzpatrick identifies several practices for reducing the time, infrastructure, and effort spent on testing. 5 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

• Marcella Bremer points to the mid-point between the heroic leader and the servant leader: the host. 4 minutes to read.
• Mary Jo Asmus reminds us that all leaders are also followers. 2 minutes to read. Boomers: if you suddenly feel the need to listen to Jerry Garcia sing Ripple, click here.
• Sarah Hoban tells us how to network effectively as a project manager. 3 minutes to read.

Research and Insights

• Joan Palmiter Bajorek digs into the consequences of gender and race biases still inherent in voice recognition technology. 4 minutes to read.
• Amanda Woo analyzes our interactions with smart speakers and wonders whether our behavior will be affected by devices with no human capacity for taking offense. 4 minutes to read.
• Katharine Ellen Foley reports on neurological research that indicates the ideal time to tackle leadership roles is in your mid-50’s. I’m so over-the-hill … 3 minutes to read.

Working and the Workplace

• Stav Ziv lists seven actions to take that will clear out the waste in your calendar (or diary, if you’re in the UK). 8 minutes to read.
• Andy Oziemblo observes that an increasingly mobile and health-conscious workforce is leading to a revolution in office design. 4 minutes to read.
• Soomi Lee reports that even a small loss of sleep can impact productivity the following day. 4 minutes to read.

Enjoy!

Title

Article Name

New PM Articles for the Week of May 6 – 12

Description

New project management articles published on the web during the week of May 6 – 12

Author

Dave Gordon

The Practicing IT Project Manager LLC