Tag Archives: Leadership

New PM Articles for the Week of October 14 – 20

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of October 14 – 20. And this week’s video: Harry Hall explains all the ways that the project charter provides value. 7 minutes, safe for work.

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Victor DeMarines looks at the need to balance privacy and data protection constraints with legitimate business goals. 4 minutes to read.
  • Graham Kenny suggests five keys for defining strategy in a way that makes it executable. 5 minutes to read.
  • Simon Evans reports that in 3Q2019, renewable energy sources generated more electricity than fossil fuels in the UK. One of the largest industries in the world is being disrupted! 8 minutes to read.

Managing Projects

  • Balloon LandingElizabeth Harrin presents a seven-point plan for helping your project team to manage project risk. 7 minutes to read.
  • John Goodpasture shares a slide deck on Monte Carlo simulations and answers a few questions that are bound to come up. 6 minutes to read.
  • Leigh Espy posts her notes from a long airplane conversation with Olu Jinadu, Director of Quality at ThyssenKrupp on what is critical to success when managing quality projects. 8 minutes to read.
  • Tim Liu expounds on five common reasons that data integration projects fail. 7 minutes to read.
  • Kiron Bondale finds a few project issue management lessons in classic horror films. 2 minutes to read.
  • Johanna Rothman notes that some project constraints are impossible to meet—fixed cost, scope, and date—even using agile methods. 3 minutes to read.

Managing Software Development

  • Chapel in the SkyStefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from time-based estimates to useless standups to Output vs. Outcome vs. Impact. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Mike Cohn explains what software developers want from their product owner. 4 minutes to read.
  • Kristin Jackvony shares an anecdote that illustrates why we should test in the Production environment immediately after deployment. 2 minutes to read.
  • Angie Jones posts her ten commandments of navigating code reviews; stone tablets not required. 8 minutes to read.
  • Gojko Adzic has released a free card deck as a printable PDF containing 50 ideas to improve user stories. Based on the book he wrote with David Evans.
  • Peter Rombouts briefly examines software maintainability in low-code, cloud-based environments. 3 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Jory MacKay coaches us on overcoming indecision and helping your team improve the quality of their decisions. 12 minutes to read.
  • Sarah M. Hoban tells us how to deal with a difficult project sponsor. 3 minutes to read, or 5 minutes to listen to the podcast; safe for work.
  • Alister Scott suggests an alternative to the MoSCoW model for prioritizing requirements. Just over a minute to read.

Cybersecurity and Data Protection

  • Adam Shostack curated a list of content on risk management and governance, threat modeling, and security design flaw detection. 5 outbound links, one minute to read.
  • Alyza Sebenius reports on the creation of the new Cyber Directorate at the National Security Agency. 4 minutes to read.
  • Akash Deep tutors us on proxy servers—what they are, how they are used, and the business benefits that they provide. 3 minutes to read.
  • Curtis Franklin alerts us to “glitching”—hardware-fault injection attacks. Still rare in the wild, hardware security, including physical security, needs to be part of the plan. 4 minutes to read.

Pot Pourri

  • Nir Eyal argues that the most important skill we can develop is the ability to be indistractable—to selectively control what gets our attention. 10 minutes to read.
  • Lindsay Curtis tells us how to succeed as project management professionals in the gig economy. 5 minutes to read.
  • Sharlyn Lauby interviews labor attorney Alex Dunn on the changes coming to the Fair Labor Standards Act beginning in January 2020 that define who is eligible for overtime. 7 minutes to read.

Enjoy!

New PM Articles for the Week of October 7 – 13

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of October 7 – 13. And this week’s video: Mike Clayton gives us some tips for better project communication, which is 80% of project management. 11 minutes, safe for work.

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Steve Blank explains why most companies and government agencies engage in innovation theater, rather than actual innovation. 5 minutes to read.
  • Greg Satell analyzes the rapid stock price collapse of WeWork, a real estate firm incorrectly and unreasonably valued like a software firm. 5 minutes to read.
  • Amber Lee Dennis summarizes Evan Terry’s presentation on current trends in enterprise analytics. 7 minutes to read.

Managing Projects

  • Nehal Padia looks at global system rollouts, from who and why to implementation approaches and methods. And yet only 3 minutes to read!
  • Cornelius Fichtner talks with Susanne Madsen about the second edition of her book, The Power of Project Leadership. Video, 44 minutes, safe for work.
  • Mike Glen walks us through a manufacturing process example to illustrate how network analysis takes us from a list of tasks to an actionable work plan. 7 minutes to read.
  • Henny Portman recounts the origin of an article he wrote with Marisa Silva describing project “creatures” (such as the Pufferfish project). 2 minutes to read, plus 12 minutes for the article.
  • Glen Alleman defines capabilities-based project planning and explains why it’s so valuable. 6 minutes to read.

Managing Software Development

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from liberating structures to Swedish-style agile leadership to pair coaching. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Gábor Zöld curates his monthly engineering management roundup for October 2019. 11 outbound links, 4 minutes to read.
  • Gil Zilberfeld concludes his short series (part 1 here) on why the technical debt metaphor isn’t useful as a metric. 4 minutes to read both parts.
  • Johanna Rothman points out possible sources of extra work in an iteration, and a few strategies for managing it. 4 minutes to read.
  • Jay Geethan makes the case for microservices, as an alternative to monolithic mountains of code. When you say it that way … 2 minutes to read.
  • Victoria Bezsmolna briefly describes seven great continuous integration tools for DevOps. 6 minutes to read.
  • Dave Prior interviews Scott Ambler on PMI’s acquisition of Disciplined Agile. Yes, this is a big deal. Podcast, 34 minutes, safe for work.

Applied Leadership

  • Nancy Settle-Murphy illustrates the need for shared principles between service provider and client and how to arrive at them. 6 minutes to read.
  • Matt Plummer presents a short guide to building our team’s critical thinking skills based on the Critical Thinking Roadmap. 5 minutes to read.

Cybersecurity and Data Protection

  • Gene Marks briefs us on the three attack vectors being used to defeat multi-factor authentication. 3 minutes to read.
  • Curtis Franklin explains four attacks on network infrastructure, using techniques known as “poisoning.” 6 minutes to read.
  • Neha Malhotra shares some effective ways to promote cybersecurity in your organization. 3 minutes to read.

Pot Pourri

  • Elizabeth Harrin shares ten tips for giving a presentation, from preparation to delivery. 8 minutes to read.
  • Sarah M. Hoban recommends that we write a personal mission statement, based on Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” 3 minutes to read; 5 minutes for the podcast, safe for work.
  • Nigel Warburton suggests that in order to make laziness work, we have to put some effort into it. 5 minutes to read.

Enjoy!

New PM Articles for the Week of September 30 – October 6

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of September 30 – October 6. And this week’s video: Harry Hall explains how to categorize risks for a more comprehensive view of the project risk profile. 8 minutes, safe for work.

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Nicolas Crouzet and Janice Eberly found that companies are investing less in “property, plant, and equipment” and more in intangible assets like software and intellectual property. 6 minutes to read.
  • Peter Williamson and Arnoud De Meyer explains how to (and why you should) monetize a business ecosystem. 4 minutes to read.
  • The World Economic Forum has published their Regional Risks for Doing Business 2019 report. 40 pages of data and analysis, well worth the read.

Managing Projects

  • Mike Clayton goes through the elements of the project planning process in a simplified sequence. Video, 12 minutes, safe for work.
  • Brenda Taylor explains the concept and value of component-based work breakdown structures. 8 minutes to read.
  • Thomas Redman and Roger Hoerl tell us how to identify and conduct analytics projects that don’t require a lot of data but deliver a lot of value. 5 minutes to read.
  • John Goodpasture pooh-poohs percent complete as a worthless metric; remaining effort, however, is actionable. Just 1 minute to read.
  • Tammy Graves makes the case for defining and aligning key roles from the start of large, complex projects. 4 minutes to read.
  • Dave Prior interviews Mike Anderson on the case for the role of the agile project manager. Podcast, 35 minutes, safe for work.

Managing Software Development

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from discussion gridlock to coach assessments better product decisions. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Tom Cagley delineates five types of meetings and then maps them to Scrum ceremonies. Each post about 2 minutes to read.
  • RJ Gazarek reports on what’s new and what’s changed in the newest iteration of the Scaled Agile Framework, SAFe 5.0. 7 minutes to read.
  • Mike Cohn and Brendan Wovchko collaborate to present three free (for a short time) Kanban training videos. 3 minutes to read, 15 minutes for the first video, 10 for the second.
  • Songtham Tung provides a few examples of refactoring to reduce technical debt. 3 minutes to read.
  • Piet Hadermann assesses the cost of waiting for feedback in software development. 5 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Leigh Espy gives us detailed coaching on keeping the inevitable team conflict productive and non-destructive. 7 minutes to read.
  • David Dye coaches us on what to do when our team resists changes. 3 minutes to read.
  • Anne Shaw shares an infographic on making a globally distributed team feel a “local” bond. 2 minutes to read.

Cybersecurity and Data Protection

  • Ericka Chickowski identifies five disruptive trends transforming cyber security, from Cloud sprawl to micro-services and API’s. 5 minutes to read.
  • Isaac Kohen catalogs twenty security risks. Most organizations face nearly all of them. 7 minutes to read.
  • Robert Muggah analyzes the threat to city governments and urban infrastructure posed by cyber attacks. More than 70% of all reported ransomware attacks in the US target state and local governments. 7 minutes to read.
  • Seth Godin points out the superstition and security theater behind most corporate password rules. 2 minutes to read.

Pot Pourri

  • Sharlyn Lauby shares an infographic showing the key components of both types of non-disclosure agreements. Vital for every contract negotiation! 4 minutes to read.
  • Radhika Chugh tutors us on Heat maps and how to use them in analyzing traffic to a website. Include a link to an ebook. 8 minutes to read.
  • Stav Ziv tutors us on the three most common resume formats and explains how to choose the right one. 8 minutes to read.

Enjoy!