Herding Cats

An Example of Probabilistic Risk Analysis

The past post on Thomsett's probability density functions brought up the point of "what does a properly formed risk analysis picture look like?" Here's one This diagram shows the increasing maturity of a Technical Performance Measure as the program progresses.... Read more →

Another Target Process Observation

Target Process has got me hooked. I think it's because that make such outlandish statements. The suggestion that MSFT Project is not integrated with the products they list is puzzling. As a planner and project architect (yes there is such... Read more →

A Less Than Complete Risk Management Paradigm

While paging thought Rob Thomsett's site from the provious post I came across this presentation. Figure 8 describes the difference between a low risk profile and a high risk profile. Tomsett has is backward or at least has missed on... Read more →

Waterfall as a Red Herring

The posting on Target Process elicited as response from Brian, that was useful. But what triggered my little mind was a quote on the Target Process site How is the project going? Fine The response to the question and answer... Read more →

Learning from Failure

Friday's Houston Chronicle had an Op-Ed piece on "learning from failure." http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3618476 Fear of failure is a motivator in some domains. "Let's never repeat that mistake again," is an operational phrase that strongly incents those working in dangerous and life... Read more →

Foundations of PM

I'm convinced even more these days that the PMI approach to "guiding" a project manager is flawed. I have this Jeckel and Hyde view of PMI. The Project Management Journal has some very useful papers. All refeered, highly researched and... Read more →

Churchill Quote and Motivation

Brian Kennemer posted a Winston Churchill quote asking if anyone else thinks this is the worst management quote ever heard? In Project Apollo: The Tough Decisions and Managing the Apollo Moon Program the authors speak of how the management processes... Read more →

MSFT Project for Software Projects?

Through a chain of links starting at Jack Dahlgren's site I came across a post on Target Process. Ignoring the fact that they sell a competitor to MSFT Project, the post raised some interesting questions. MS Project is based on... Read more →

Mary's Lean Software Development Field Guide

Mary Poppendieck has a new Field Guide for her book Lean Software Development. The Field Guide has many good things to say about how to build software. I am always troubled though about how our profession - project management -... Read more →

Start with the end in mind

The success of the Integrated Master Plan / Integrated Master Schedule (IMP/IMS) paradigm depends on several critical things. One is to start with the end in mind. Covey uses this term in his Seven Habits book, but it is too... Read more →

Reading List

In the NASA ESAS (which I've been plowing through all weekend) there's an interesting statement on page 89 of the Lunar Architecture chapter... The team established a "required reading" list of documents... Where's the required reading list for a Project... Read more →

0% / 100%

The concept of 0%/100% in Earned Value Management Systems is the bed rock of project performance management. If a task is started but not complete it get a Percent Complete of 0. When it completes according to the exit criteria... Read more →

What Does a Vision Document Look Like?

The NASA Exploration Systems Architecture Study describes the "Vision" of the Crew Exploration Vehicle. The document set that describes this program is in several sections in moderate sized PDFs Executive Summary Introduction Ground Rules and Assumptions Lunar Architecture Crew Exploration... Read more →

Development of Knowledge

I've been sitting in meetings and listening to public briefings on all sorts of program and project management topics. Several of these encounters where from "presenters" that claimed to have the problem well defined and the solution in hand -... Read more →

60 Hour Work Week

The recent post on the 40 Hour work week - or the sustainable pace - has met a "reality check." The Final RFP for our program has arrived in the email (several 1,000 pages of requirements). The plan is to... Read more →

Is This Lean?

Mary Poppendieck recounts her experience with a Toyota Sienna. Full disclosure requires me to state that I don't like Toyota's. We have a Honda Pilot, a GMC truck and a full size Chrysler sedan. I never like how mushy they... Read more →

40 Hours Work Week

David Anderson mentions that the 40 hours work week is part of the agile software development practices he used in the past. The concept of a sustainable pace has somehow gotten lost in the software development world. Here's a little... Read more →

What Can We Learn from Aerospace?

What can we learn from how an aerospace program is managed? Lots in fact. My official role is "IMP/IMS Architect" on a large Manned Space Flight program. This means basically that participate in the development the programmatic side of the... Read more →

Stardust Return

A child is returning. After a 2.88 billion mile trip, Stardust returns to earth, January 15, 2006. Launched on Feb 7, 1999 on a Delta II to gather particles from Comet Wild 2 and return to earth orbit, landing in... Read more →

Things Not to Do in 2006

From the various postings and comments here and other Blogs on PM, I thought it might be useful to list what "not" to do as a project manager in 2006. Don't use the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) as a model... Read more →