Herding Cats

Quote of the Day

Agile is about inspecting and adapting, but most of the things that will get in our way during Transformation are actually knowable up front. And those real, knowable constraints are often what make organizational change difficult. - Mike Cottmeyer Agile... Read more →

Modeling Fault-Tolerant Computing

While working from home, I decided to clean up my document server. One of the documents laying around for years was my Master's Thesis This thesis was written in support of a Master's Degree in Systems Management. Which at the... Read more →

Capabilities-Based Planning

Over the years, the success rate of traditional project management methods applied to software development projects has been underwhelming. Capabilities–Based planning provides a defined outcome that is not a conclusion but lays the groundwork for the continued delivery of value.... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Here's some quotes from Damon Hancock, Samsung Australia, speaking about the challenge of big infrastructure at PGCS 2018 Pick your partner well. Bad partners bring bad fortune. Some uncomfortable conversations today will save much pain later. Context drives behaviour. Inadequate... Read more →

What We Knew in the 1940's About Managing Projects

In Bent Flybjerg's book there is a chapter by Sylvain Lenfle and Christoph Loch (Google both for good solid papers and books on project management) describing how projects were managed in the 1940's. The Manhattan Project, Atlas launch vehicle, Polaris... Read more →

Capabilities-Based Planning is Foundation of All Project Success

The foundation of all project success starts with a Capabilities‒Based Plan. What Capabilities does the project need to produce to accomplish the Mission or Fulfill the business strategy for those paying for the work? Without knowing that, along with the... Read more →

Eliciting Capabilities

All project success starts with knowing what done looks like in unitys of measure meaningful to the decision makers. These units start with effectiveness and performance. These Capabilities are the foundation of defining the technical and operational requirements of the... Read more →

The Practitioner's Handbook of Project Performance

Our two chapters in The Practioner's Handbook of Project Performance: Agile, Waterfall and Beyond, edited by Mark Phillip's Routledge, 2019 is now out. Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 are principles and practices of risk management contributed by me, Tom Coonce,... Read more →

A CIO Contribution to Project Failure

The failure starts with demanding the project to maintain its budget and delivery times in the absence of a “Plan” to go along with the “schedule” of the work. Failure starts with the lack of an adequate description of what... Read more →

Capabilities Based Planning

Over the years, the success rate of traditional project management methods applied to software development projects has been underwhelming. These traditional methods are based on a retrospective approach that measures variance against plan rather than providing a performance–forecast that can... Read more →

Presentations from PGCS 2019

This was my second year at the Project and Program Symposium in Canberra Australia. This year's conference focused on the integration of Systems Engineering and Project and Program Performance Management. Here are my talks and a workshop and other papers... Read more →

Start with the End in Mind

The notion - a fallacious notion - that done will emerge, is common in some circles of Agile and especially those agile advocates proferring No Estimates. The Greeks and Romans had a good understanding of most things we take for... Read more →

Compendium of Works to Increase Probability of Project Success

This collection of presentations, briefings, journal and conference papers, essays, and book content has been used to increase the Probability of Project Success (PoPS) written and applied over my career in the software-intensive system of systems and other business and... Read more →