Herding Cats

Little's Law

David Anderson's presentation at a recent PMI Orange County Chapter confer fence presentation contains some nice slides about managing software development efforts using agile methods. The ideas of natural and unnatural variation in projects is a point worth restating -... Read more →

Project Management v. Systems Engineering

There is an on going debate on New Grange regarding the need to separate Project Scope from Product Scope. This likely appears esoteric to most readers and probably down right useless to some. I share that view ate times. Here's... Read more →

Systems Engineering

INCOSE defines the certification for a Professional Systems Engineer. These include: Requirements Engineering: analyze customer and stakeholder needs, generate/develop requirements, perform functional analyses, derive requirements, ensure requirements quality, allocate requirements, control requirements, maintain requirements database, develop and implement Requirements Management... Read more →

Value

A common term in the agile community these days is VALUE. We increase value to the customer We manage the value stream in an agile and adaptive manner Our method allows the customer to receive increased value Blah, blah, blah... Read more →

Space Ship 1 versus Delta 4 Heavy

There is always a discussion that breaks on in the agile community about how Burt Ruthan got to win the X-Prize with a minimal set of processes and how this is an illustration of how agile processes can be applied... Read more →

Teams, Centers, and Agile

A long time colleague, Darrell Raymond, is always on the lookout for interesting ideas and connections. He sent me a note a few days back about the connection between Toyota and General Tommy Franks. In Micheal Cusamano's Thinking Beyond Lean:... Read more →

Mars Reconnaissance Orbitor

Although I had absolutely nothing to do with this project, I did walk by the viewing gallery in the high bay nearly every day to see the assembly of this space craft. What makes my job interesting is the simple... Read more →

Risk Retirement

There is a term in aerospace program management called Risk Retirement. This describes the specific project events that reduce the identified risks for the project. Risk Retirement activities are explicitly identified in the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) (the project plan),... Read more →

What can be learned from large aerospace projects

I've worked off and on in aerospace over the past few decades. I started our of graduate school as a programmer on radar and sonar systems. Moving from there to design, then management, then commerical products when aerospace crashed in... Read more →

Systems Engineering View of Project Management

In a previous post there was a discussion of the Systems Engineering view of project management. Over on New Grange a similar discussion tool place about the need to separate product from process. In my current position we're making use... Read more →

Simple is Best?

I heard a quote today Simple is good as long as you get it right The context was a discussion about allocating budget across Control Accounts and Work Packages in an Integrated Master Schedule. This approach to project management resource... Read more →

Agile Enterprise Attributes

Agile Project Management has something to say about managing the enterprise through Program Management, Business Strategy and the execution side of delivering value to the stakeholders. With that said, the success factors for an agile enterprise must be addressed directly... Read more →

DoI and Quality

The Declaration of Interdependence doesn't speak directly to quality but implies reliable results and return on investment as the source of quality. In David Garvin's "What Does Product Quality Really Mean?" is a discussion of the five (5) views of... Read more →

Here we go, making up new terms again

There is a posting about Multi-Projects and Program Management in the context of Agile Program Management. The descriptions provided appear to be aimed at Theory of Constraints and the management of multiple projects, but this is not your fathers Program... Read more →

Requirements Management

I attended a briefing this week of requirements management in preparation for a proposal kickoff. There were several sources used for the materials along with some "killer" bullet points: Customers stated requirements are never the real requirements Technical development is... Read more →

Project Success Factors

There are many approaches to identifying project success factors, and equally many efforts trying to identify these factors. If the approach to project management is performance based, then the success factors must also be performance based: The quality of the... Read more →

Where's the "Management" in Agile Project Management?

An IPMA (International Project Management Association) mailing had a quote Project is stratgey, management is delivery In the Agile Project Management paradigm, where is the management part? The delivery? If we start with the principles of Agile Project Management, say... Read more →

Program Management v. Project Management

There was some discussion on Gantt Head about the differences between Program Management and Project. As well I'm working on a publication piece describing Agile Program Mnagament processes. This brings up the issue - what's the difference between Program and... Read more →

Integrating Risk and Program Management

There was some discussion on New Grange awhile back about risk management and opportunity. I work in a high risk business domain (flying spacecraft to Low Earth Orbit and Mars). This domain is also risk adverse, since getting paid for... Read more →

Theory and Practice - Again

Many project managers cringe when the talk of project management processes are compared to the broader business process or organizational processes. Trained as specialist and wary of sweeping generlaizatons, they flinch when the "soft sciences" attempt to speak directly to... Read more →