Herding Cats

Quote of the Day

Every man, however wise, who begins by worshiping success, must end in mere mediocrity. - G. K. Chesterton When we start with self promotion in place of improvement in the society or work place, it usually ends up being a... Read more →

Heliotropic Abundance

In the #Stoos discussion on LinkedIn there is suggestion that "people based" management is the next new thing. Of course that's unlikely. Beyond the Hype: Rediscovering The Essence of Management is a good place to start the conversation. The book... Read more →

Never Ask a Question If You Don't Know The Answer

As a project or program manager, your job is to ask questions. These questions appear in meetings, as a result of reports and data, from observations on people, processes, and technology. But just asking questions is pretty a waste of... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Money is what people without talent use to keep score - Jeremy C. Epworth This is common in many domains, where the underlying technology or work processes are beyond the comprehension of management. I have direct experience with this in... Read more →

Quote of the Day

An error of commission is unfortunate An error of ommission is unforgivable Nicholas Pisano, Navy Commander - Retired, US Navy Nick is the President of Safran North America. I'm a member of the Safran team working a US Army BioPhrama... Read more →

If It's Opinion and Personal Keep It To Yourself

There are almost unlimited opinions in the project management world that are personal opinion, ancedotes from personal experience, and applied to a specific domain and a context in that domain. This is all good, it's a source of information and... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Conceit is the quicksand of success — Arnold Glasow Read more →

Management of Complex Programs Through Change Management

The book Making the Impossible Possible is a case study the management of Rocky Flats. Rocky Flats was the most contaminated nuclear weapons plan in the country. It was a environmental disaster and the site of rampant worker unrest. Although... Read more →

Running a Project Status Meeting

Lynda Bourne has a nice post on managing meetings. While there are lots of reasons for meetings, a critical meeting is the weekly project status meeting. In this meeting the project team determines if they are on schedule, on budget,... Read more →

Project Breathalyzer

Long ago there was a large program, the Worrld Wide Command Control and Communications Systems, that was supposed to replace the AutoDIN. After many billions of government dollars, there was no Dial Tone. From the after action report the Software... Read more →

Quote of the Day

“All men can see the tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved” - Sun Tzu, Chinese Philosopher I'm starting a new engagement to triage an Army program that has... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Eminence based medicine — The more senior the colleague, the less importance he or she placed on the need for anything as mundane as evidence. Experience, it seems, is worth any amount of evidence. These colleagues have a touching faith... Read more →