Herding Cats

Back To Basics: Increasing the Probability of Project Success

It's time (beginning of the 2nd Quarter) to remind ourselves of the basics of project success criteria: Identify the Needed System Capabilities - define the set of capabilities needed to achieve the program objectives or the particular end state for... Read more →

Standish Report and Naive Statistics

The 2009 Standish Report is out. Many Blogs have made comments. All obvious comments. But there is a fundamental flaw in any report of this type: The concept of a assessment baseline is missing from the conversation. Is there a... Read more →

The Profession of Project Management is a BIG Tent

Tonight's posts on PMHut, brought an interesting contrast Pawel Brodzinski speaks about the issues of projects that encounter wrong or missed estimates Robert Prieto continues his series on Lessons Learned from Major Projects Both are in the business of managing... Read more →

Speaking Engagements

Tis the conference speaking season. So far this year I've done Denver Milehigh PMI Symposium - Earned Value Management using Deliverables Based Planningsm Colorado Springs PMI Tools Symposium - Integrated Earned Value with Programmatic Risk Management Colorado State Department of... Read more →

The Mathematical Side of Managing Projects

One common concept in project management is the three independent elements of a project: People Processes Technology The people side is being hashed out in previous posts. Processes of PM are debated all the time and technology for managing projects... Read more →

Managing in the Presence of Uncertainty

There are some in the project management and software development community that insist on use Waterfall, determinism, and point estimates as the starting point for the counter argument in support of their favorite method. For those sign up for the... Read more →

Earned Value Issue of SoftwareTech

SoftwareTech is magazine from the Data & Analysis Center for Software, US Department of Defense, Rome Air Force Based, Rome, NY. The current edition is focused on Earned Value Management. There is one article on using earned value concepts in... Read more →

The Gardening Analogy for Project Management

The garden analogy suggested by Jurgen Applelo is a great concept. Gardening around the world takes dramatically different approaches. Here in the United States there are many gardening zones. Having grown up in a "gentleman rancher" environment in North Texas... Read more →

Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and Projects

The side discussion of late around Complex Adaptive Systems and their applicability to project work became clear tonight. I attended the University of Colorado lecture series, where Brian Greene spoke on String Theory and his book The Elegant Universe. He... Read more →

The Mathematics of Project Management

I've an interesting exchange of sorts on Jurgen Appelo's blog. It started with me making a comment about the application of Complex Adaptive Systems to projects and software development. I've somewhat familiar with CAS through several channels - my physics... Read more →

Earned Value Means Measuring Progress Against Plan Cost Not Actual Cost

The Project Management Institute has several Blogs. Michael Hatfield writes about Earned Value - a topic near and dear to my heart and paycheck. I was excited to see the title of the Blog. When I read the content I... Read more →

Why We Need Professional Project Managers

The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, Title V states, “the head of each executive agency should achieve, on average, 90 percent of the cost and schedule goals established for major and nonmajor acquisition programs of the agency without reducing the performance... Read more →

The Peter Principle Lives

Bob Sutton's Blog has a nice piece applicable to nearly every malady in today's headlines, from the financial crisis to failed project management. In Praise of Simple Competence Read more →

Opinion on PMBOK(r)

Dr. Jame Brown has an opinion piece on the current state of PMBOK(r) 4th Edition. I've read and reviewed Dr. Brown's book The Handbook of Program Management. The book is a "must read" for any serious project or program manager.... Read more →