Tag Archives: Leadership

New PM Articles for the Week of May 13 – 19

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of May 13 – 19. And this week’s video: Mike Clayton explains the Voice of the Customer, a process for understanding stakeholder needs. 3 minutes, safe for work. Mike has produced over 80 of these brief videos on a wide variety of topics; check them out here.

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Ronald Smith lists some Worst Practices for outsourcing IT. Yes, these are guaranteed failure drivers—go thou and do otherwise. 11 minutes to read.
  • Michael Li recaps several very public failures of AI business solutions where inherent bias crept into the system because no one was managing the risk. 5 minutes to read.
  • Hites Ahir, Nicholas Bloom, and Davide Furceri examine the impact of uncertainty, driven by political forces, on business investment and economic results.

Managing Projects

  • Elizabeth Harrin posted two webinars this week: How to Succeed as a Project Manager, based on her book, and How to Manage Multiple Projects. Each a little over an hour, safe for work.
  • George Freeman gives us his thoughts on Architectural Awareness, the newest addition to the PMI Talent Triangle. At some point, will this become a square? 6 minutes to read.
  • Kiron Bondale observes that project information radiators require behavior changes on the part of the senior stakeholders in order to actually communicate. 2 minutes to read.
  • Leigh Espy introduces us to the Lean Coffee meeting and tells how to organize one. 6 minutes to read.
  • Gerri Poling shares her thoughts on ITIL 4, the version introduced earlier this year. Just over 2 minutes to read.
  • Johanna Rothman begins a new series on Agile methods for budgeting; here’s part 2. 7 minutes to read both.

Managing Software Development

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from Friday deploy freezes to electronic vs. visual boards to unintended consequences of your metrics. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • “Uncle Bob” Martin, who is a pilot and a programmer, shares his thoughts on the Boeing 737 Max 8 software failure that caused two crashes. 6 minutes to read.
  • Jason Skowronski explains staging environments—what they are and how they fit into the deployment cycle. 7 minutes to read.
  • Bas Dijkstra looks at two main reasons test automation doesn’t meet expectations, then outlines six steps to avoid falling into these traps. 7 minutes to read.
  • Alexey Gayduk describes the implementation of a chatbot system using an automated insurance agent as an example. 4 minutes to read.
  • Marija Cvjetkovic is a product owner and a cartoonist. Here are a few “graphical” thoughts about her day job. 6 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Cornelius Fichtner interviews Agata Czopek on being an inclusive leader of a diverse project team. Podcast, 18 minutes, safe for work.
  • Mike Cohn tells us what the team wants from their Scrum Master. And any manager, for that matter. 4 minutes to read.
  • Sarah Hoban shares her experience with community goal setting. 3 minutes to read or download the podcast and listen for less than 5 minutes; safe for work.
  • Andy Makar recommends three must-read books to help a leader build better teams. 4 minutes to read.

Research and Insights

  • Gemma Read and Jason Thompson expect that if pedestrians can step into the road without fear of an autonomous vehicle hitting them, traffic will grind to a halt. 4 minutes to read.
  • Andreas Sandre summarizes 14 trends shaping consumer technology, transportation, and more. 4 minutes to read.
  • Colin Jones shares his notes on AWS security essentials, based on a video by Aaron Bedra. 6 minutes to read.

Working and the Workplace

  • Alice Boyes, author of The Anxiety Toolkit, explains what anxiety does to us at work, and it’s not good. 4 minutes to read.
  • Mike Vardy advocates for working at the speed of right—taking the time for critical thought and working on the right things. 2 minutes to read.
  • Michelle Cheng give us the executive summary of a survey on the most disruptive office distractions. If at least five make you feel guilty, there’s hope for you. 2 minutes to read.

Enjoy!

New PM Articles for the Week of May 6 – 12

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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

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!

New PM Articles for the Week of April 29 – May 5

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of April 29 – May 5. And this week’s video: Harry Hall tells how to plan project risk responses. 4 minutes, safe for work. This is the first of a series of four short videos on the general topic of managing project risk; the others are How to respond to project threats, How to respond to project opportunities, and How to respond to overall project risks.

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Glenn Fleishman reports on the current state of artificial portrait generation: one more technique for internet fraud. 9 minutes to read.
  • Noah Smith says that while blockchain technology might surprise us and change the world someday, your skepticism is completely justified. 4 minutes to read.
  • Greg Satell reminds us that the future is not something that will happen, it is something that we will make. 4 minutes to read.

Managing Projects

  • Glen Alleman conducts a root cause analysis using the publicly available information on the Hertz Rental Car lawsuit against Accenture following their failed website redesign. 9 minutes to read.
  • Mike Clayton explains the use of a variation order in a contractual relationship. Video, 3 minutes, safe for work.
  • Eric Smith shares his techniques for making daily stand-up meetings as effective as possible. 4 minutes to read.
  • Leigh Espy gives us an introduction to Edwards Deming, the father of modern quality improvement, and his 14 points (no relation to Woodrow Wilson). 9 minutes to read.
  • Michael Wood revisits the history of Total Quality Management and notes some of the lessons we’ve learned since then. 8 minutes to read.
  • The nice folks at Team Clarizen tell us how to identify project constraints before they become major issues. 3 minutes to read.

Managing Software Development

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of agile content, from “budgeting” an agile project to technical debt to managing the emergence of architecture. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Rich Mironov explains the microeconomics of industrial hardware and enterprise software—two very different categories of products where synergy is achievable but challenging. 10 minutes to read.
  • Johanna Rothman closes out her series on agile product roles. 4 minutes to read.
  • Cesar Abeid interviews Dr. Mik Kersten, author of Project to Product. Podcast, 39 minutes, safe for work.
  • Dan Ashby posted a series on a different approach to testing, based on the types of product risks. Here is part two and part three. 15 minutes to read all three.
  • Jean-Pierre Lambert reports on his experiment with a one-day Sprint. This seems like an interesting approach for getting the team from storming to performing. 7 minutes to read.
  • Keith Foote gives us an overview of in-memory database architectures, for transaction processing in real-time systems. 6 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Sharlyn Lauby reminds us to set a good example for those we manage: unplug. 2 minutes to read.
  • Madhumita Murgia and Siddarth Shrikanth report on the struggles Big Tech is having with their approach to managing the ethical implications of AI. 5 minutes to read.
  • Emmanuel Goossaert reflects on reputations: how they are formed, how to verify them, and how to help bring them closer to reality. 8 minutes to read.

Research and Insights

  • Eleonore Pauwels reports on an AI-driven malware created by researchers that hacks CT scans; call it data poisoning. 5 minutes to read.
  • Jennifer Zaino describes the emerging concept of DataOps—automating data delivery with the appropriate levels of security, quality, and metadata. 5 minutes to read.
  • Edd Gent summarizes new research by BloombergNEF that projects electric car prices will fall below internal combustion engine car prices by 2020. This isn’t just a business opportunity for electric car manufacturers. 3 minutes to read.

Working and the Workplace

  • Jade Emmons rounds up a variety of projections about the future of networking. Will mixed-reality and AI replace wine and cheese parties? 4 minutes to read?
  • Sabina Nawaz tells us what to do after an uncomfortable conversation with a co-worker. Choose to live with the person, not the guilt. 4 minutes to read.
  • Art Petty coaches us on moving from the idea that we need to do something different with our careers to taking action. 4 minutes to read.

Enjoy!