Herding Cats

Principles of Program Governance

When there is discussion around development, management of projects, agile, earned value and all the other "bottom up" processes that occupy the blog space, it's sometimes best to step back and consider what is really needed in the business and... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Years ago I came to the realization that the most poignant of lyrical tensions comes from the awareness that we are living an dying at once. To embrace such knowledge and yet remain compassionate and whole is the consummation of... Read more →

Success of Complex Projects comes from System Management

The disucssion of agile development seems to be anchored in the development of code, from lists of "features," described in Stories, assembled from iterations into a releases. In the domain of "true" complex systems, this approach fails to address the... Read more →

Leadership and Management

Lots has been written about management and leadership. When something goes wrong, ask at the end, “Could our process, properly followed, have detected this situation? From John Goodpasture and his quote from Alistair Cockburn... ... to “lead” already implies “change”.... Read more →

Quote of the Day

The very complexity of the natural systems with which the epidemiologist is faced often makes it difficult to tell which of the correlations that he observers are biologically significant. This difficulty is not lessened by the fact that it is... Read more →

21st Century Motivation

When think about "agile" and the motivation of participants in projects based on agile, take 18 minutes to see how to think about WHY we want agile. Read more →

The Naive Notion of Simplicity

Many speak about simplicity, the search for simplicity, the quest for reducing complexity But or the term complicated there is no clear and concise unit of measure. Neither is there a unit of measure for simplicity. It's like anything of... Read more →

Quote of the Day - Risk

Without metrics, you’re just another guy with an opinion. — Stephan Leschka, Hewlett Packard When I hear words from almost anyone about how their approach is better than some other approach, I think of this quote. And as Daniel Patrick... Read more →

Alert - Canadian Forces Software Course

The Canadian Forces Intensive Course in Software Engineering contains many useful ideas applicable to current problems in enterprise class software projects. Read more →

The Use, Misuse, and Danger of Metaphor

Metaphors are common in the discussion of project management, software development, and agile methods. Metaphors are simple, intuitive and appeal to the reader by making a connection between the author and the reader through a common language mechanism. Metaphors appear... Read more →

Alert - How Not to Use Earned Value

In a recent post on PM Hut, it was suggested that the Earned Value Management terms should focus on the "value" of the outcomes of a project, rather than the measures of performance for the work efforts of a project.... Read more →

LinkedIn Network

Why Wikipedia is a poor reference source for complex issues

Wikipedia is a pretty good source of information for topics that can be conveyed across a web pages and a small set of references. But you should be always be careful in referencing Wikipedia when entering into the scientific domain.... Read more →

The First Agile Organization

In 1943 Kelly Johnson built the XP-80, with these principles: The manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher. Strong but small project offices must be... Read more →

Ride the Divide

With the season just starting, motivation movies keep us focused, since we're out of shape, over weight, and pretty much whipped from skiing all winter - that is letting gravity do a lot of the work, except in the bumps.... Read more →

Alert - Oh My Gawd

We have found the enemy and he is us. Status of FY 2010 Federal Improper Payments Report. In paragraph two of the summary the number is $125,400,000,000. Yep $125.4 BILLION. Read more →

Quote of the Day - Propensity to Believe

We are magical beings in a scientific age. Notwithstanding all the remarkable achievements of our species in terms of understanding and harnessing nature, we are born to magical thought and not to reason. From the introduction paragraph to "Propensity to... Read more →

Quote of the Day

The trouble with Americans is that they haven't read the minutes from the previous meeting - Adlai Stevenson This might be said of others outside America as well. Much of the discussion (of sorts) is missing the connection with the... Read more →

Alert - Australian Ministry of Defence

The Australian Ministry of Defence has a wonderful site for all kinds of guidance for acquisition activities, including risk management, systems engineering, technology management, project and programme (sic) management. Thanks to Shim Marom and Craig Brown for their inriduction to... Read more →

Rocky Mountain Cycling Season is Offically Open for Business

Courtesy of Jacob Nie Read more →