Herding Cats

The Myth of Traditonally Structured Projects

There is a well worn myth in the agile community, that large complex projects are developed using waterfall methods, where all the requirements are defined upfront, (BDUF), rigid processes are used to execution the program and the outcome is defined... Read more →

Connecting Business "Value" with Project Performance Measures

Many in the agile community use the term "value" to mean business value, but in fact do not define the units of measure for this "business value." They leave that to the customer. The customer in many cases has no... Read more →

Virtual Projects Aren't About Web 2.0, They're About Leadership.

The notion that EWeb 2.0 is the enabler of PM 2.0 and the management of virtual teams does not hold up to research outcomes. "Leadership Substitutes and Personality Impact on Time and Quality in Virtual New Product Development Projects," Project... Read more →

Looking for a Credible Project Management Framework?

There are several project management frameworks around. PMI's PMBOK® is a popular one. PRINCE2 from the UK. And then there are the Agile Software Development methods masking themselves as project management processes. While we make use of PMBOK® and participate... Read more →

Does Agile Need to be Named?

There was a suggestion that Agile should drop the name Agile. What just when we're starting to get that name syndicated in our large, cumbersome, domain. No Way. When someone asks whats in the name, I've started using two pictures.... Read more →

Just a Thought

From John Baez's blog. I've followed Dr. Baez as a mathematical physicist from his early days in m-brane theory (super strings) and my later interest post-grad school. Read more →

Calling BS On Self Proclaimed Gurus

Scott Burken has several wonderful posts on "Calling BS on Gurus," Social media gurus and gurus in general. For this post "guru" is a self proclaimed expert. We had a early discussion in our firm when we were trying to... Read more →

Alert - The Elephant in the Agile Room

Phillippe Krutchen posted about “elephant in the room” from the 10 year reunion of the Agile Snowbird meeting. His comments resonated not only with me, but wioth those in our community of agile in the defense and government business. Some... Read more →

Best Business Model Book Ever

Business Model Generation is the best book on this topic I have encountered. We're using it in place of several approaches to business modelling. By business modeling I mean the work processes for the business. We're in our third year... Read more →

Alert - NASA Toyota Report

The results of a ten-month study by 30 NASA engineers of possible electronic causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles was released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). NASA found no evidence that a malfunction in electronics caused... Read more →

The Seven Deadly Sins of Project Management

Mike Cohn has a good post titled Seven Deadly Sins of Project Management. Using the notion of the Seven Deadly Sins, Mike raises interesting points around project management. Like many in the agile community, Mike suggesting replacing BAD project management... Read more →

There is always an Average, But It Is Not Always Meaningful

There was a recent post titled there is no "average." From the mathematical point of view, for any two numbers there is always an"average." This possible langauge gap aside, here's the problem with using the term "average." This is probably... Read more →

Quote of the Day

The great thing about science is it is true whether you believe it or not. - Neil deGrasse Tyson Read more →

My Six Sigma Miscalculations

In Black Swans, White Swans, They Are All Swans, I used a figure for parts per million (PPM) at six sigma z=6.0. My excel formulas produced this value at 3.4 PPM. Pretty low by not zero. William Nicholas (Software Engineering... Read more →

Alert - MIL-STD-881C

The next version of the Work Breakdown Structure guidance is out for review. MIL-STD-881C is now a Military Standard rather than a Military Handbook. Why do we care? Let me count the ways: Without a properly formed WBS, it is... Read more →

Alert - NASA to Change EVM Requirements

NASA proposes to scale back its requirements for establishing and maintaining an Earned Value Management System for firm-fixed price (FFP)contracts, in order to reduce the reporting burden and in recognition of the lower risk associated with FFP contracts. The proposed... Read more →

The Integrated Baseline Review (IBR)

The Integrated Baseline Review (IBR) is an important assessment of a program's ability to perform according to plan in government procurement. This concept is missing from every Commercial Enterprise project I have worked or been associated with. The purpose of... Read more →

A Radical Book

A few years back I came across an interesting blog - Rogue Project Leader. There are lots of self-proclaimed "project leaders" out there. There are lots of book authors that make claims about how they are the ones to follow,... Read more →

Aglie is Coming, Agile is Coming

The NDIA (National Defense Industry Association) Information Systems Summit II is being held in Baltimore April 4-6, 2011. For those not familiar with this organization, it is an industry group with members from industry and the government - both DoD... Read more →

A Software Intensive System

The initial flight of the X-47B is a success. This is an example - possibly an extreme example - of an engineered software system and an engineered team of software developers. I know there is lots of discussion around how... Read more →