Tag Archives: Project Planning

New PM Articles for the Week of November 26 – December 2

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of November 26 – December 2. And this week’s video: A film created from 4K video shot from the International Space Station as it passes through one orbit. One hour and 33 minutes; safe for work, but way too long. Enjoy it at home!

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Nils Backe considers the ethical ramifications of smart home devices, specifically Amazon’s Echo. 5 minutes to read.
  • Joe Toscano says we need to get serious about regulating technology companies and outlines three possible ways forward. 8 minutes to read.
  • Tang Ziyi reports from China on an interesting facial recognition false alarm by a traffic offense-detection system. I won’t spoil it since it’s less than a minute to read.

Managing Projects

  • Mike Clayton answers twenty of the career and practice questions he’s commonly asked in his project management training classes. 14 minutes to read.
  • Dale Howard shares a brilliant technique for scheduling tasks to always occur on the first working day of each month. 6 minutes to read.
  • Lenka Pincot expounds on business process design, as it fits into system implementation projects. 3 minutes to read.
  • Sylvie Edwards argues that we should start a “lessons learned” log at the beginning of a project. 3 minutes to read.
  • Cornelius Fichtner interviews Andy Burns on transforming the “heritage” PMO with Lean and Agile principles and processes. Podcast, 32 minutes, safe for work.
  • Mike Griffiths likens the proliferation of project management credentials to the proliferation of television channels. 5 minutes to read.

Managing Software Development

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from agile transformation lessons to user research to why cooperation and collaboration are different. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Peter Pito makes the business case for jagged delivery: an approach that doesn’t pretend everything will be complete on the same day. 5 minutes to read.
  • Mike Cohn suggests several alternatives for including the impact of holidays and time off in estimating team velocity. 5 minutes to read.
  • Michael Solomon explains how to include security considerations in user stories. “As a hacker, I can …” 5 minutes to read.
  • Kristin Jackvony provides detailed instructions for those who must reproduce a bug report lacking in relevant details. 6 minutes to read.
  • Pete Walen explores a few subtle points to be addressed in the pursuit of better software quality. 7 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Alexander Maasik curates his weekly list of leadership articles, from the paradox of scale to lessons learned from hi-performing remote teams to stoicism for mental toughness. 5 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Dan Rockwell shares a few tips about managing up—coaching your boss in a way that works for both of you. 2 minutes to read.
  • Matan Borenkraout advocates a more subtle approach to interviewing candidates for technical positions. 5 minutes to read.
  • Simone Stolzoff repeats an insight from Scott Belsky, Adobe’s Chief Product Officer, on what to look for in candidates instead of cultural fit.” 3 minutes to read.

Research and Insights

  • Jared Lindzon makes five predictions related to remote working tools and how they will further change the nature of teams and collaboration. 6 minutes to read.
  • Pavan Belagatti identifies eight DevOps trends we should watch as they develop in 2019. 4 minutes to read.
  • Renee DiResta analyzes the developing information world war and sees that our institutions are busy creating a digital Maginot Line to defeat abandoned pirate strategies. 15 minutes to read.

Working and the Workplace

  • Elizabeth Harrin shares her current reading list, chock full of titles that address career and workplace concerns in a problem-solving manner. 7 minutes to read.
  • Dmitriy Nizhebetskiy reveals his approach to maintaining his productivity at a high level. 2 minutes to read.
  • Jennifer Moss has some recommendations for helping remote workers avoid burnout and loneliness. 5 minutes to read.

Enjoy!

New PM Articles for the Week of November 12 – 18

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of November 12 – 18. And this week’s video: Erin Meyer explains the concept of a culture map, showing similarities and differences among cultural behaviors. As organizations become more global, understanding cultural differences can be a key to success. 11 minutes, safe for work.

Business Acumen and Strategy

  • Paul Irving considers the business impact of the aging population and the possibility of five generations in the workforce. 12 minutes to read.
  • Andrew Chakhoyan reports on deep fakes—undetectable forged videos of people doing outrageous things—as a threat to democracy. Of course, they could also be used in commercial competition. 4 minutes to read.
  • Alison Schrager notes the downside of Amazon’s selection of New York and Crystal City as the sites of their headquarters expansion: smaller cities might have benefitted more. 4 minutes to read.

Managing Projects

  • Susan Irwin explains agility in project management, from the perspectives of both the project manager and project management processes. 8 minutes to read.
  • Mike Clayton provides a comprehensive view of ITSM and ITIL, concluding with a brief interview with Ivor MacFarlane, one of the founders. 12 minutes to read.
  • Cornelius Fichtner interviews Benjamin Anyacho on the increasing need for knowledge management as so many of the Boomers retire. Podcast, 34 minutes, safe for work. Click on “Play Now” in the upper left to begin.
  • Elise Stevens extols the virtues of saying yes to new opportunities. 4 minutes to read.
  • Glen Alleman explains how we use ordinal and cardinal numbers in decision analysis. 5 minutes to read.
  • Dmitriy Nizhebetskiy reviews the basics of project management for those transitioning in from another discipline. 7 minutes to read.

Managing Software Development

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from product backlog to creating an experimentation culture to contrasting LeSS and Nexus. 7 outbound links, 3 minutes to read.
  • Greg Paciga has been reflecting on the practice of measuring velocity, and he has his doubts. 4 minutes to read.
  • Chou Yang tells us how to maximize the ROI from your investment in test automation. 6 minutes to read.
  • Jory MacKay describes the process of creating technical documentation that actually helps the reader. 12 minutes to read.
  • Konrad Pogorzala shares how his team changed the organizational culture at Siemens Digital Factory to extend the use of agile methods. 3 minutes to read.
  • Geshan Manandhar explains how to use feature flags to deploy code to production that isn’t quite ready for general release. 3 minutes to read.

Applied Leadership

  • Frank Sonnenberg considers the consequences of blurring the line between right and wrong. 4 minutes to read.
  • Jordan Gross list seven habits of highly ineffective leaders. 8 minutes to read.
  • Sydney Finkelstein honors the memory of the late Stan Lee as a Super Boss who knew how to spot and develop creative talent. 4 minutes to read.
  • Shawn Willett analyzes Amazon sales data to identify the most popular leadership books in each of the fifty states and finds eleven winners. 3 minutes to read.

Research and Insights

  • Dan Schawbel recaps research showing that remote workers are less engaged and more likely to quit. 4 minutes to read.
  • Betty-Ann Heggie advocates for laughing in the office, and she has the science to back her up. 3 minutes to read.
  • Erin Wildermuth tells us how to apply the lessons of Kahneman and Tversky’s work on the Planning Fallacy. 4 minutes to read.

Working and the Workplace

  • Jennifer Pauli notes nine silly ideas we need to abandon in order to become more productive. 4 minutes to read.
  • Jamey Austin points out six workplace traits that attract and retain smart people and have nothing to do with perks like free beer. 7 minutes to read; 9 over a beer.
  • Mary Jo Asmus refutes the recent claim that people would rather work for a competent jerk than a likable fool. 2 minutes to read.

Enjoy!

New Post at MPUG: Add a Calculated Status Indicator to MS Project

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My latest article for MPUG was published today: Add a calculated status indicator to detail tasks in MS Project.

This is an update to one of the most popular articles I’ve ever written. It shows how to add Red / Amber / Green stoplights to the detail-level tasks in an MS Project plan, based on the task Start and Finish dates and the % Done fields. This is an abbreviated version of a chapter in the second edition of my book, Microsoft Project Hacks, due out later this year. I’ll announce here when it’s available.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read my stuff.