Herding Cats

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 Resources for Agile Project Management and Earned Value Management

The growing importance of quickly and affordably delivering software intensive systems requires programs to swiftly react to changing demands of the operational environment and has led to an increased focus on capability-based planning and iterative product development. Capability based planning... Read more →

Compendium of Resources for Digital Twins, Model-Based Systems Engineering and Integrated Program Performance Management

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of... Read more →

White Papers, Essays, and Journal Papers

White papers covering a wide range of topics while engaged in delivering outcomes. Ranging from software development, software and systems management, management of the project in several different domains, electronic document management, risk management, work breakdown structures, and science and... Read more →

Earned Value Management World Presentations

Earn value Management (EVM) is a project management technique for measuring project performance and process in an objective manner. EVM has the ability to combine measurements of scope, schedule, and cost in a single integrated system. It's notable for its... Read more →

IMP/IMS Conference Briefings, Training Materials & Master Classes

Building, deploying, and executing an IMP/IMS requires a change in the conventional paradigm of project planning and controls and the management processes. This chain starts by measuring progress as the completion of accomplishment criteria in the fulfillment of significant accomplishments.... Read more →

Managing Development of Complex System of Systems with Traditional and Agile Methods

The Immutable Principles of Project Success Leading on the Edge & Managing IT Departments - following the principles of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition Project Breathalyzer - asking and answering the breathalyzer test questions every week keeps the project team, management,... Read more →

Risk Management - from Conference Briefings, Training Materials and Master Classes

Risk Management is essential for the success of any significant project. All project risl comes from uncertainty - Epistemic uncertanty which is the lack of knowledge, handled by buying knowledge to reduce the risk. And Aleatory uncertainty, which is a... Read more →

Compendium of Resources for Integrated Master Plan / Integrated Master Schedule

The Integrated Master Plan (IMP) is a hierarchical collection of Program Events (PE), with each event supported by Significant Accomplishments (SA), and each SA is based on satisfying Accomplishment Criteria (AC). The Integrated Master Scheule (IMS) is an integrated, networked... Read more →

A Compendium of Managing Complex Systems

The picture is used by a Complexity advocate to conjecture that complex systems cannot be managed. This is not correct, as many of the claims made by self-proclaimed complexity experts. I've seen this scene of flocking birds first hand. It... 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. Comparison of Common Root Cause Analysis Tools and Method Increasing the Probability of Project Success Naivety of the 5 Whys's... 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 Uncertainties Creating 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 →