Herding Cats

Check List for Managing a Program

The San Diego Research Center now owned by Argon ST has a nice check list for managing programs. This list is inclusive and not all items may be applicable. But each of these is important to assess. A clear, concise... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Now, things do not, in general, run around with their measures stamped on them like the capacity of a freight–car: it requires a certain amount of investigation to discover what their measures are — Norbert Wiener, 1920 Read more →

The Mathematics of the Enterprise

Here's a mathematical diddy from Mr. Blaise Durante, Deputy Assistant Secretary (Acquisition Integration) U.S. Air Force . who coined the phrase "there are two usually two phases of a project - too early to tell and too late to stop."... Read more →

The Olde Iron Triangle has To Go

The classic Iron Triangle of lore - Cost, Schedule, and Quality, has to go. The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) approved H.R. 5013, the IMPROVE Acquisition Act. This Act is bipartisan legislation to overhaul defense acquisition spending, potentially saving billions... Read more →

Quote of the Day

If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, given them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking. – Buckminster Fuller Read more →

Quote of the Day

The fine art of executive decision making consists in not deciding those things that are not now pertinent, not deciding prematurely, not deciding those things that cannot be made effective and not deciding those thing that others should decide. From,... Read more →

"Doing" Risk Management

Pat Weaver posted a response to Michael Hatfield's PMI Blog saying Where we do agree is on the mumbo jumbo of statistical paralysis many so called risk management systems bog down in. The purpose of risk management is to identify... Read more →

Web Technologies and their actual impacts

The notion of Web 2.0, PM 2.0 and web technologies in general having positive impacts on organizations and especially projects is a popular discussion topic. Ranging from blatant marketing hype, to somewhat dubious web surveys, to actual refereed journal articles,... Read more →

Simple versus Simplistic

There is a conjecture floating around that simplistic and simple are the same thing. That making something simple means making it better. My favorite example is Michael Hatfield (his on our minds these days because of a recent PMI Blog... Read more →

Why Risk Analysis is a Continuous Process

Michael Hatfield conjectured that once the baseline schedule is established, risk management is just institutional worrying. I'm here to tell you that just ain't the case on any real program. Institutional worrying sounds like a phrase used by someone who... Read more →

Probability and Statistics for Schedule

The notion put forth by Michael Hatfield about the use of risk management after the program in on baseline is not only misinformed it is simply bad project management. Let's start with a view of a schedule from the probabilistic... Read more →

Probability Versus Statistics

Pat Weaver has a nice post about risk and uncertainty. Like all of Pat's posts, he brings out an important discussion point. This one is about how to think about risk in the context of managing projects. First let me... Read more →

Another Version of "What Does DONE Look Like"

It's the PMI, NDIA, and other organization speaking season. Here's a single slide for speaking to what done looks like. The questions asked here and the answers that are needed are a repeated theme in every project management domain I... Read more →

Knowing What DONE Looks Like

I'm finishing off 4 briefings for the 2010 EVM World in Naples Florida in June. The theme of these briefings of "connecting the dots" between Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance Measures. I finished one of three of my briefings and... Read more →

The Language of Projects

In the current issue of Physics Today, is an article on the ITER Fusion project in France. Since November, ITER partners have worked to find ways to speed up construction ... involving building more parts in parallel ... which brings... Read more →

Trade Show Dog

One reason to go to trade shows is meet potential clients, see what others are doing and get "Swag," for the office walls. Another reason is the experience a different kind of environment. One where Flag Officers or Secretaries of... Read more →

The Absolute Worst Way To Plan a Project

I recently watched the demo of several web based project management tools. While listening to the web cast or watching the demo "video," I was shocked to listen to how the demonstrated built a project: Set up the tasks Define... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Never calculate without first knowing the answer-John Archibald Wheeler When we start to do mathematics on projects - cost, schedule, risk, technical performance measures - we must have some notion of what the answer is going to look like. Without... Read more →

Program Controls

Spent the last 4 days at the National Space Symposium, working our booth and walking the floor. Nearly every prime contractor, subcontractor, military, NASA, and government agency that supplies, consumes or supports space based programs is here. Everything is a... Read more →

Quote of the Day - Quality

“In communities where men build ships for their own sons to fish or fight from, quality is never a problem.” - J. Deville Read more →