Herding Cats

A Compendium of Risk Management Resources

This blog page is dedicated to the resources used to manage the risk encountered on a software-intensive system of systems (SISoS) using traditional and agile development methods. Let's start with a critical understanding of the purpose of managing risk on... Read more →

Compendium of Resources

Materials used to increase the probability of project success in the presence of uncertainty, with Capabilities needed for a defined cost on a defined date. Briefings, Papers, and Presentations are publications developed for clients, journals, books, and book chapters, and... 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 →

A Compendium of Blog Posts on Project Management

Project management is a collection of techniques for proposing, planning, implementing, managing, and evaluating projects, combined with the management of the people executing the project. It is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of... Read more →

Compendium of Blog Posts on Agile Software Development

In software development, agile is a set of practices intended to improve the effectiveness of software development professionals, teams, and organizations. It involves discovering requirements and developing solutions through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customer/end... Read more →

A Compendium of Monte Carlo Simulation Resources

Estimation of cost, duration, and technical performance activities is one of the most difficult aspects of project management. Monte Carlo simulations are based on the manipulation of random numbers to evaluate probable outcomes, with applicability in a variety of different... Read more →

Compendium of Blog Posts on Agile

In the software development domain, Agile is a set of practices intended to improve the effectiveness of software development professionals, teams, and organizations. It involves discovering requirements and developing solutions through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and... Read more →

Compendium of Blog Posts on Estimating

Estimating is a critical part of project planning, involving a quantitative estimate of project costs, resources, or duration. Here's a starting summary of Estimating Want To Learn How To Estimate? Part Troisième And blogs that speak to estimating projects in... Read more →

Compendium of Blog Posts on Capabilities Based Planning

Capabilities-Based Planning is planning, under uncertainty, to provide capabilities suitable for a wide range of business challenges and circumstances, while working within an economic framework. Capabilities-based Planning emphasizes flexibility, adaptiveness, and robust capabilities, implying a modular building-block approach to Enterprise... Read more →

Compendium of Blog Posts on Root Cause Analysis

Root cause analysis (RCA) is the process of discovering the root causes of problems in order to identify appropriate solutions. Increasing the Probability of Project Success Naivety of the 5 Whys's (Updated) How to Think Like a Scientist How Do... Read more →

A Compendium of Blog Topics

Over the past 16 years of the Herding Cats blog, there have been a consistent collection of topics on topics critical the increasing the probability of project success. Here's the collection. It's incomplete but will be complete soon. Project Management... Read more →

Compendium of Blog Posts for Managing in the Presence of Risk

Risk Management is How Adults Manage Projects - Tim Lister What is Risk? What is Risk Management? Six Common Pitfalls of Risk Management Retrospective Coherence - What Does That Mean? Risk Management is Project Management for Adults - Tim Lister... Read more →

Resources for #PMChat Talk

I was invited to participate in the Twitter #PMCHAT session today to speak about the principles of Increasing the Probability of Project Success. The #PPChat process is based on asking questions and engaging with those providing answers. Here are the... Read more →

Compendium of Resources for 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 →

Compendium of Resources of Mathematics for Project Management

This page is dedicated to the resources of the mathematics needed to successfully manage software-intensive systems and their related hardware and work processes when applying traditional and agile product development methods. These Books, Papers, and Thesis and other resources -... Read more →

Cybersecurity in the Modern World - A Compendium of Resources

Finished writing a "cybersecurity for contract specialist" course for US Coast Guard. Like all course development work, the research is the starting point and a learning experience. While many of these documents are for federal acquisition shops, the NIST SP's... Read more →

Summary of No Estimates Posts

After a contentious exchange on twitter about a contentious topic of managing complex adaptive systems - the other side of the exchange doesn't actually MANAGE Complex Systems - he just talks about non-actionable outcomes aspect of his theory of how... Read more →

Compendium of Briefings, Papers, and Presentations

This web page contains presentations, formal briefings, papers, and workshops with the Principles, Processes, and Practices needed to increase the probability of project success in any domain, with any methods, or any tools With the previous summary in Compendium for... Read more →

A Compendium of Root Cause Analysis Resources

When mistakes occur, blame the process, not people. Root Cause Analysis is the means to fix the cause, rather than treat the symptom. • What allowed the mistake to happen? • What will prevent mistakes from occurring in the future?... Read more →

The Profession of Risk Management and it's Value to Project Success

I've had an engagement on social media recently, where it was blatantly clear there is a low level of understanding of how managing in the presence of uncertainty is sorely missing in the agile development community, where the focus is... Read more →