Herding Cats

Software is not an Engineered System?

I love this quote... You've assumed, incorrectly, that a software project is an engineered system. It comes from a popular voice in the agile software development community. I'd just love to bring this person with me on my travels around... Read more →

10,000 Hours

All the discussion around certification - from PMI or from the counter-PMI competency based PM certifications - ignore the core understanding of improvement. 10,000 hours of experience. This is the notion in the Outliers. In order to actually be successful,... Read more →

Black Swan, White Swan, they are all Swans, you just have to look for them

Jurgen Appelo's post on Black Swans, Broken Windows, and Magicians, brings up an important point in the discussion of technical and programmatic risk. Technical and programmatic risk are amenable to mathematical models. These models are well developed ranging from Monte... Read more →

Schedule Margin

The term schedule margin is well known in the project management world. What is not well known outside the US Government (USG) contracting world is how schedule margin is treated in the Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB). The PMB is the... Read more →

Making the Impossible Possible

I'm writing materials for an upcoming Department of Energy meeting and came across a book on the program I worked as a Program Manager. From the book jacket: The most contaminated nuclear plant in the country, Rocky Flats was an... Read more →

Role of Program Controls for Business

The application of Earned Value is mandated in the US Government for programs greater than $20M. A Validated Earned Value Management Systems is mandated for all programs greater than $50M. The application of EV is many times seen as a... Read more →

When We Say "Project" What Do We Mean?

The term Project is used everywhere when people are speaking about projects. That is a tautology. But there is an important missing feature. What kind of project. A software project, a construction project, a process improvement project? What kind of... Read more →