Herding Cats

A Two Volume History

The second volume of Development of the Space Shuttle arrived today. The first volume Space Shuttle Decision describes not only the shuttle but the early concepts of a reusable vehicle. While these books are interesting reading (at least to me)... Read more →

A Bit More on Estimating

Let's assume we can get over the confusion as to why estimating can and does add value in many project management situations. The next step in our maturity - this is maturation in the sense of CMMI IPPD SE/SW maturity... Read more →

What Does a Good Schedule Look Like?

There has been some discussion on the New Grange forum about recognizing a "good" schedule. PMBOK provides some general purpose wording, but no real guidelines for building a "credible" schedule. The assessment of a "good" schedule has several dimension, independent... Read more →

More "Estimating is Muda"

David Anderson has suggested that doing estimates is a waste (muda). David always stimulates a discussion, but in this case there seems to be confusion over the role of estimating as well as what is good and what is bad... Read more →

The Only Risk Management Book You'll Ever Need

It's been a week of reading books for work. I'm deep into Effective Risk Management: Some Keys to Success, Second Edition, Edmund H. Conrow, AIAA Press, 2003. This book is a comprehensive discussion of technical and programmatic risk management. It... Read more →

Another Book

Here's a useful book for project management Ministry of Defence - Driving the Successful Delivery of Major Defence Projects: Effective Project Control is a Key Factor in Successful Projects, HC 30, Session 2005-2006: Reported by the Comptroller and Auditor General,... Read more →

Three New Books in my Life

Books are powerful forces in my life. I'm the son of a University Librarian and have grown up with books, reading books, owning books, using books as the means to an end. There are nearly an endless list of books... Read more →

Metrics

I'm involved in several metrics initiatives lately. One question that doesn't get asked is... How can we determine if the measured indicator (KPI) can forecast a beneficial outcome? By this I mean if you're measuring something, say defects per source... Read more →

What Does Agile Mean?

I was cruising through some favorite web sites tonight and came across the INCOSE UK proceedings from their Autumn (Fall) 2002 slides. I know, I've got to get a life. In there was a presentation titled "Intelligent Enterprise for Systems... Read more →

Three Erroneous Assumptions of Traditional Project Management

If we consider the traditional linear phase–centric approach to project management as described in places like PMBOK, assumptions emerge that negatively impact a project manager's ability to deliver value: Planning – it assumed that it is possible to produce a... Read more →

Turning Desire into Action

I spend most of my time on the strategy side of project and program management. Ranging from enterprise approaches to program management to specific project management activities. I'm exposed to a variety of ideas about how to improve products or... Read more →

NASA Project Management Challange

NASA Project Challenge is an annual conference for NASA Project Managers 2005 Conference 2004 Conference There are a variety of papers, including agile and earned value. These sites are worth the effort, but remember this is a group that provides... Read more →

Project Management Drucker Style

I was conducting a Probabilistic Risk Management briefing this week and came across a quote from Drucker... “Above all, disagreement is needed to stimulate the imagination. One may not need imagination to find the one right solution to a problem.... Read more →