Herding Cats

What Do Systems Engineers Do?

The role of Systems Engineering says what its name says - "engineering of systems." SE is found on most every project outside of IT projects. SE provides the "glue" that integrates all the parts of the project and ensures that... Read more →

A Bit of Road Warrior Humor

Planning a trip outside the US (OCONUS) and using US State Department Per Diem rate tables for SOW costing. Hotels, meals, car rental... uh guess there are no hotels. Don't worry that's not my destination. Read more →

Quote of the Day

“It appears incontrovertible that understanding failure plays a key role in error-free design of all kinds, and that indeed all successful design is the proper and complete anticipation of what can go wrong.” Henry Petroski Design Paradigms Case Histories of... Read more →

Tom Gilb's Work on Agile Project Management

John Goodpasture left a link to the Mary Popendieck Essay, that needs a response. A positive response and I'll try to connect his activities with our Deliverables Based Planning® This is straight forward: Control projects by the "critical few" -... Read more →

Predictive Approach As The Foil For Agile?

It is common in the Agile community of voices to compare Agile Software Development with something else to sell it's benefits. Something the Agile audience can see as undesirable. Some phrase those looking for a reason to move to Agile... Read more →

The Fallacy of Planning

Jerry Bishop's blog post titled The Fallacy of Planning raises an interesting question. Jerry mentions cognitive bias as one source of the problem. But this bias only exists in those who fail to recognize they are biased. But a much... Read more →

Mary Popendieck Essay

Mary has a new essay titled Don't Separate Design from Development. It's one of those "looking back, to see forward" style of essays. I suspect Mary delivered software successfully because she was a subject matter expert and knew what the... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Vision without action is a day dream. Acton without vision is a nightmare - Japanese Proverb So when I here "emergent requirements," is the desired approach to software development, where is the system going? What is the vision to the... Read more →

A CIO with a Mission

When we read about innovative CIO's and their plans for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their organizations, I'm reminded of a CIO heard speak at a conference. General Pollett is the Director, Defense Information Systems Agency. DISA is a... Read more →

What Does "DONE" Look Like?

There is a discussion on the Agile Usability Forum about "done." Several interesting things: Done is being discussed around what the team perceives as done for the day A post Done is *not* about some feature being delivered in glorious... Read more →

Quote of the Day

From team member back from the field, having worked software updates to deployed systems. When we speak of agile and responding to customer needs as they emerge, there are simple problems and their are hard problems. Updating software in the... Read more →

I Don't Need No Stink'in Earned Value

Came across a nice You Tube video of applying EV. There are three simple reasons for EV to monitor a project Knowing where you are against the plan Knowing how much you spent against the budget Knowing what is left... Read more →

Projects are systems

When the agile community speaks about complex systems, chaos, and the management - or not management - of such thing, they rarely use the vocabulary of Systems Engineering or Systems Theory. As a systems engineer (MSSM 1980) I get a... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Why IT Projects Fail - No Systems Engineering

I'm working two proposals now (just one yesterday). One is for a public agency IT Program Management Office, the other is for a federal (military) supplier. The notion of systems engineering as the basis of all project processes is common... Read more →

Portfolio Management and the Program Management Office

I'm working a proposal for a Program Management Office deployment in a government domain. While I've lead project portfolio management processes, the development of program offices, and the program management office itself, I come across two books that moved my... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Planning efforts can never go waste, if a detailed plan targeting activities that have to start, finish, and are in-progress is prepared and adhered to keeping the over all schedule in mind can generate wonderful results for the project, professional... Read more →

Measuring Business Value

When we talk about "business value," and in the same sentence say Earned Value is not Business Value, therefore Earned Value is of no interest to the business, it's likely that we don't actually understand how projects are managed at... Read more →

Project Management Success

The July 18/25, 2011 edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology has a Viewpoint article by Aaron Shenar titled "The Shuttle Era: Lessons Learned." In it he speaks of four lessons that are directly applicable to project and program success... Read more →