New 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!