New PM Articles for the Week of August 10 – 16

Posted on by

PortlandNew project management articles published on the web during the week of August 10 – 16. We give you a high-level view so you can read what interests you. Recommended:

Must read!

  • Glen Alleman demonstrates how to estimate with minimal information, based on the question, “How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?”
  • Art Petty shares his thoughts on the courage needed to transform a business, whether it’s to avoid pending obsolescence or to take advantage of opportunities.
  • Bruce Harpham helps us develop our business acumen with some specific recommendations.

PM Best Practices

  • Suzanne Lucas lists the elements of being a manager that your employees will want to follow.
  • Elizabeth Harrin identifies seven reasons team members don’t take responsibility, and what you can do about it.
  • Margaret Meloni shares a letter from the project team to the PM, explaining their expectations. This is a companion to an earlier letter, from the PM to the team.
  • Thomas Carney reviews the issues, considerations, and challenges encountered by teams that work remotely.
  • Harry Hall provides a requirements management preparedness questionnaire.
  • Deanne Earle articulates the benefits of assessing a project in progress, to determine whether it should be continued or canceled.
  • Ryan Ogilvie gives us his insights on how to “do” incident management.
  • Matthew Squair has extensively re-written his 2009 post on epistemic, ontological, and aleatory risk. The best explanation of the continuum of uncertainty I’ve ever read.

Agile Methods

  • Patrick Mayfield, who comes from a Prince2 background, explains why Agile methods work better for today’s projects.
  • John Goodpasture gives us a brief update on the U.S. federal government’s efforts to embrace Agile methods.
  • Johanna Rothman tells a tale of two project teams, to illustrate the difference between adopting Agile rituals and exhibiting Agile behavior.
  • Mike Cohn alerts us to some new premium features on PlanningPoker.com.
  • Suman Bhownick explains the business logic behind the Agile principle of maximizing the amount of work not done.

Podcasts and Videos

  • Cesar Abeid interviews executive coach David Allen, author of “Getting Things Done,” now in the second edition. Just 44 minutes, safe for work.
  • Cornelius Fichtner interviews Susanne Madsen on applying organizational change management techniques in our projects. Just 21 minutes, safe for work.
  • Elise Stevens interviews Chris Halloran on the fine art of estimating. “The most dangerous place to plan a project is from behind a computer screen.” Just 22 minutes, safe for work.

Outside the Lines

  • Jonathan Vanian points out the Big Data linchpin that the forthcoming Hewlett Packard Enterprise will hinge on.
  • Adam Shostack has started building a model of web browser security, which should probably be constructed from Antagonistic Legos.
  • Steven Levy recommends a product I hadn’t thought of: a charge-only USB cable for those public phone-charging stations. Malware at the airport? Whodathunkit?
  • Michael Smith describes his initial (positive) impressions of Workflowy, which he describes as half to-do list, half planning software.
  • Larry Alton reports on the growing number of small start-ups focused on natural language applications for AI. Someday, this weekly list will be curated by an app, and it won’t make any money, either.

Enjoy!