Tag Archives: Leadership

New PM Articles for the Week of July 29 – August 4

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of July 29 – August 4. And this week’s video: Nicole Eagan, Darktrace Ltd. chief executive officer, discusses the Capital One data breach and the reality behind cyber hacks with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang. Excellent insights, real-world context. 4 minutes, safe for work.

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Rosamond Hutt recaps the International Monetary Fund’s July update on the world economic outlook. They list five areas of concern. 3 minutes to read.
  • Alex Brammer reviews the impact of GDPR compliance on how business is done. Lawmakers have realized that the internet can be regulated. 6 minutes to read.
  • Kevin Coleman looks at the strategic implications of emerging technologies, including the projects that implement organizational strategy. 4 minutes to read.

Managing Projects

  • Harry Hall helps us prepare for those critical risks that metastasize into issues on those ambitious projects that always seemed like a stretch. 4 minutes to read.
  • Dale Howard coaches us on using the Task Entry view in MS Project—where the advanced users go first when things don’t look quite right. 4 minutes to read.
  • Francesco Marcatto takes us on a high-level walk through the process of creating a project plan. 5 minutes to read.
  • Ben Aston and Kelly Suter discuss tools and techniques for managing stakeholders, in the context of Kelly’s new job. Podcast, 36 minutes, safe for work.
  • John Goodpasture directs our attention to an old professional journal article on the unintended consequences of metrics, grouped into eight types. 2 minutes to read.
  • Elizabeth Harrin answers the question: what do I do when my sponsor is too busy to meet with me or even respond to my Emails? 5 minutes to read.
  • The nice folks at Clarizen list what they believe to be the six most common mistakes in project management, and how to avoid them. 3 minutes to read.

Managing Software Development

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from the need for apex predators in agile transformations to Zombie Scrum to communicating product changes to customers. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Mike Cohn tells us how to overcome four common objections to the daily Scum. 6 minutes to read.
  • Tom Cagely begins a series on daily standup meetings, from failure modes to why daily meetings might not always be the right answer. 2 minutes each.
  • Andrew Burleson tells how his team gamified their bug-tracking process and got their backlog to zero. 5 minutes to read.
  • Johanna Rothman rethinks her support for generalizing specialists, as teams become more effective at collaboration. 3 minutes to read.
  • Tamás Török interviews Katie Womersley, VP of Engineering at Buffer, on managing remote developer teams. 11 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Mike Clayton explains emotional intelligence, from its academic origins to the details of Daniel Goleman’s model of the associated skills. Video, 6 minutes, safe for work.
  • Ash Carter, former US Secretary of Defense, shares five lessons on managing high-stakes situations. 6 minutes to read.
  • Andy Kaufman explores the first rule of conflict: don’t make things worse. Video, 2 minutes, safe for work.

Research and Insights

  • Cassie Kozyrkov introduces us to a new academic discipline with powerful business implications—decision intelligence. 13 minutes to read.
  • Igor Piatnytskyi digs into data security from a business perspective. As in most things, we need to prioritize in order to maximize value. 7 minutes to read.
  • Aaron Gershwin provides a nerd-level explanation of the Stuxnet virus, possibly the most sophisticated cyber weapon ever discussed in public. 7 minutes to read.

Working and the Workplace

  • David Dye tells us how to talk with the boss when we totally disagree on something. 5 minutes to read.
  • Leigh Espy coaches us on applying the Osborne-Parnes creative problem-solving process. 7 minutes to read.
  • Suzanne Lucas got stuck in the middle of a zip line. She then realized that it was a metaphor for her career. 3 minutes to read.

Enjoy!

New PM Articles for the Week of July 22 – 28

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of July 22 – 28. And this week’s video: Suzy Welch rails against four business buzzwords that are no substitute for honest communication. 2 minutes, safe for work. And more on this from Teena Maddox, below.

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Dirk Deichmann, Violetta Rodopoulou, and Inga Hoever report on their research into selecting crowd-sourced ideas for corporate investment. 6 minutes to read.
  • Teena Maddox rounds up the 50 most overused business clichés. I’ll keep using actionable, but the rest need to be retired from our presentation vocabulary. 5 minutes to read.
  • Greg Satell explores the nature of negative reactions to innovation and why we should learn to embrace that opposition and learn from it. 5 minutes to read.

Managing Projects

  • Elizabeth Harrin tutors us on how to create a project budget, including several types of costs that you will need to account for. 7 minutes to read.
  • Mike Clayton does a deep dive into constraints, interdependency, external dependency, and task dependency. 11 minutes to read, plus six videos totaling about 29 minutes, all safe for work.
  • Harry Hall reviews the available strategies for handling overall project risk. The considerations are different from selecting strategies for individual risks and opportunities. Video, 4 minutes, safe for work.
  • Seth Godin reminds us of the balance between resilience and reliability. Not all failures are created equally. 1 minute to read.
  • Andy Silber critiques the risk management skills exhibited by Captain James T. Kirk and finds him woefully lacking. 4 minutes to read.
  • Máté Wohlmuth, who runs a software development agency, compares fixed price versus time and labor contracts, along with other outsourcing success factors. 5 minutes to read.
  • John Goodpasture lists a few good practices for managing our little data in Excel. 2 minutes to read.

Managing Software Development

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from mental models and cognitive biases to a Scrum Fail case study to suitable metrics for an innovation program. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Johanna Rothman explains how to manage projects and products portfolio in a shared services Here’s part two; each about 3 minutes to read.
  • Paul Grizzafi and Mas Kono describe a method of assigning “points” to test cases, to answer questions about, “Can we release yet?” 12 minutes to read.
  • Uncle Bob Martin recounts an anecdote from a barbecue joint that shows how software can frustrate a user who just wants to do his job. 3 minutes to read.
  • Bob Marshall offers his thoughtful analysis of the #NoSoftware hashtag, which is more about challenging assumptions than eliminating code. 5 minutes to read.
  • Alan Richardson continues Bob’s line of reasoning: maybe you don’t need a tool to solve your communication problems. 6 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Michael Lopp explains real-time wisdom, which he refers to as Spidey-sense. “Something is up, and I don’t know what.” Some might say to trust your gut. 5 minutes to read.
  • Art Petty lists six skills we should develop for career success. For project managers, gray-zone leadership is make-or-break. 3 minutes to read.
  • Christiaan Verwijs examines the elephants in the room—those invisible conflicts within the team—and identifies ways to make them visible. 6 minutes to read.

Research and Insights

  • David Balaban makes the case for not paying the pirates when attacked by ransomware. 5 minutes to read.
  • S. Deller and Robert Gaunt look at emerging developments in brain-machine interfaces. This will soon be a common thing, like eyeglasses and hearing aids. 5 minutes to read.
  • Oksana Sokolovsky and Rojit Mahajan examine the impact of GDPR after one year and tell us what to expect as more countries pass privacy legislation. 3 minutes to read.

Working and the Workplace

  • Stephanie Neal reviews the data and finds that Gen X is becoming a flight risk. Over-worked, under-rewarded, and fewer promotions are having an impact. 5 minutes to read.
  • Trace Cohen explains how he got into an Executive MBA program and why that has turned out to be right for his tech / startup career. 5 minutes to read.
  • Elise Stevens interviews Crystal Richards on how political skills can help a project manager succeed. Podcast, 19 minutes, safe for work.

Enjoy!

New PM Articles for the Week of July 15 – 21

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of July 15 – 21. And this week’s video: Elizabeth Harrin recommends her four favorite books on leadership. Less than 3 minutes, safe for work.

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Dashun Wang researched the difference in user adoption profiles between an entirely new innovation and a replacement innovation, e.g. the latest smart phone. 4 minutes to read.
  • John Galyon instructs us on building one of the fundamental documents of project management: the business case. 7 minutes to read.
  • Jessica Lis digs into regulation and legal liability as it may apply to artificial intelligence agents that damage the physical world. 12 minutes to read.

Managing Projects

  • PMI has just released the Third Edition of the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures. This edition “applies the WBS to the predictive, iterative, incremental and agile project life cycles, while also exploring several different types of decomposition in practice today.” 196 pages, free for PMI members.
  • Billy Guinan extols the virtues of Sharepoint for collaborative project management, especially when synched with MS Project. 3 minutes to read.
  • John Goodpasture reflects on the axiom that, “A process, viewed end-to-end, is not better than its worst component.” 2 minutes to read.
  • Mike Clayton explains the nature of project constraints in a 4 minutes video, safe for work.
  • Bill Yates explains the changes to the CAPM certification, a more appropriate entry point for aspiring project managers than the PMP. 2 minutes to read.
  • Elise Stevens interviews Echo Woolf on embracing the art aspect of project management, as well as the science. Podcast, 18 minutes, safe for work.
  • Brad Egeland walks us through a five-step process for managing compliance during a project, using data security compliance as an example. 3 minutes to read.

Managing Software Development

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from a new book preview to product management for machine learning to coaching the reluctant. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Gábor Zöld gives us detailed instructions for creating the culture needed for effective code reviews. With best practices and a case study. 13 minutes to read.
  • Mike Cohn clarifies the use of Fibonacci sequence or other non-sequential number in story point estimates. Think of these estimates as ranges. 4 minutes to read.
  • One Man explains defect triage—what it is, why we need it, the process, and so on. 3 minutes to read.
  • Andy Jordan opines on how the shift from temporary project teams to permanent product teams has changed software development. 6 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Suzanne Lucas suggests ten ways to deliver more specific praise than the generic, “Good job!” 3 minutes to read.
  • Greg Satell on transformation: “A leader’s role is not to plan and direct action, but to inspire and empower belief.” 5 minutes to read.
  • David Dye answers a question about when to have a meeting and when to send an Email, instead. Podcast, 9 minutes, safe for work.

Research and Insights

  • Harry First, Professor of Law at NYU, reviews the Microsoft case from the 1990’s for lessons learned about regulating and litigating Big Tech. 7 minutes to read.
  • Paul Zak describes the neuroscience findings of how our brains decide when to trust. 8 minutes to read.
  • Martin Giles explains digital encryption, why quantum computers are a threat to encryption, and the need for post-quantum cryptography. 5 minutes to read.
  • Nina Xiang curated ten expert predictions for how the artificial intelligence industry in China will evolve over the next decade. Irony alert: human intelligence predicting AI. 5 minutes to read.

Working and the Workplace

  • Seth Godin suggests that there are really two kinds of change, and we should decide which is needed before preparing our presentation. Just a minute to read.
  • Kelsey Jones says that all this “busyness” is nonsense, exaggeration, and hype. The cure is better time management, of course. 5 minutes to read.
  • Frank Sonnenberg cataloged 16 types of toxic people. Now, where did I put those antacid tablets? 2 minutes to read.

Enjoy!