Herding Cats

If you want to pretent you're a Pro, then starting acting like one

In the cycle game, there are all sorts of riders. Here in Boulder, Colorado we have several professional riders currently in France. As well there are several development teams feeding riders to the pro teams. Our (left picture is Dave... Read more →

Earned Value says its Name

When the term Earned Value is used and the associated Earned Value Management, what we need to understand is this is a method of measuring progress to plan that no other method can provide. There is a common myth, even... Read more →

Everything is a Project

Flagstaff Mountain fire, 12 miles south of our home. Started with a lightening strike, like the Fort Collins fire and the fire in Colorado Springs. Listening to the news when the Fire Coordinator was briefing the press and mentioned the... Read more →

Deadlines versus Must Finish On or Finish No Later Than

There are several (or at least two) ways to show that the schedule is pushing to the right of a planned completion date. FINISH NOT LATER THAN or MUST FINISH ON and a DEADLINE. Here's the two ways in MSFT... Read more →

The Failure to read "Statistical Surveys for Dummies"

This is from the Standish Blog, introducing the interview with Jeff Sutherland. So let's think a bit about the survey of 300 IT Executives. You call them up and ask do you thing skills are important in executing a software... Read more →

Quote of the Day

When it was fist said that the sun stood still and the world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei, as every philosopher knows cannot be trusted... Read more →

Quote of the Day

You cannot manage what you cannot measure... and what gets measured gets done - Bill Hewlett, Hewlett Packard Without a performance measurement system, you'll not be able to tell if your project is actually performing to plan. Without a plan... Read more →

The Train Wreck for all Projects Starts With These Problems

There are many reasons projects and programs fail. It is assumed that requirements are unclear, change can't be managed, sponsors aren't on board, and the plethora of other problems found in projects. But those problems are pretty much traceable to... Read more →

PM as a military process

Lynde Bourne has a nice post at PMI Use Military Ideas to Get Buy-In From Your Project Team. All good stuff. Having been a VERY MINOR military leader in the 1970's (C/159 ASHB, 101st Airborne) I must add that no... Read more →

Empowered to do WHAT?

Derek Hunter's blog presents and idea of how to capture the team's decision making. Nice idea, but what struck me is the statement If the team is not empowered, they are not an Agile team. Empowered to do what? I... Read more →

Managing in the presence of all things

Came across this Twitter from Dave Snowden The notion of trying to manage risk, chaos, or anything with an underlying probabilistic driving process is futile. But attempts to reduce complexity or chaos. Or reduce risk, without understanding the underlying probabilistic... Read more →

How to be a Master Scheduler

The GAO Schedule Assessment Guide is out. This is a handbook for anyone looking for advice on how to construct credible schedules. This may sound obvious, but it is not obvious, otherwise we'd have beautiful, credible, executable, assessable, and risk... Read more →

Issues with Deploying Earned Value Management

On the EVM LinkedIn site there is a post from a supplier of EV services (one of those infomercials) about the problems with deploying Earned Value. Now I'm not one to comment on business development types posting on public forums,... Read more →

Why You Need A Plan and a Schedule To Go With It

At the College of Performance Management, EVM World 2012, a colleague told me about this video he uses for training program management staff at the major defense contractor where he works. This is a perfect example of not knowing what... Read more →