Herding Cats

A Compendium of Works to Increase the Probability of Project Success

Here's a collection of presentations, briefings, journal papers and articles, white papers, and essays, used to increase the Probability of Project Success (PoPS) I've written and applied over my career in the software-intensive system of systems domain. These materials have... Read more →

The CIO's Contribution to Project Failure

IT project failure starts with demanding the project 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 →

Connecting "What" with "How" - and the Failure to Understand the Principles of Systems Engineering and Systems Management

It's been said by an agile voice that ... Progress and value delivery are not the same thing. In the end, of course, value (to someone) is important. And in the standard-for-today structure of programming for money, we divide what... Read more →

Physical Percent Complete: Knowing When You Are Done

The goal of every program manager is to have a set of practices that connect all the programmatic planning, risk, and performance information in a single unified view needed to support the decisions that increase the probability of success of... Read more →

IPMW Presentations

EVM World is coming up in May of 2018. This is one of two conferences held during the year focused on Integrated Program Performance Management. Here are the presentations from last years November Conference. What are the Five Immutable Principles... Read more →

Integrated Master Plan - Revisited

Designing, building, testing, and deploying complex systems is fraught with risk. And as always risk comes from uncertainty. And uncertainty comes in two forms - reducible (Epistemic) and irreducible (Aleatory). Much has been written about the sources of risk and... Read more →

Building the "Perfect" Schedule

I'm working on a presentation and discussion for the Joint Space Cost Council that is happening in September. Our topic is about the integration of multiple IPT (Integrated Product Teams) and how to coordinate all the work into an Integrated... Read more →

Concept of Operations

In the agile community, there is always some comment or opinion about how hard it is to define what the requirements are. How we can't possibly estimate the work since all the work is emergent. If this were the case... Read more →

Misinterpretations of the Cone of Uncertainty

The Cone of Uncertainty is a framing assumption used to model the needed reduction in some parameter of interest in domains ranging from software development to hurricane forecasting. This extended post covers The framing assumptions of the Cone of Uncertainty.... Read more →

Performance-Based Project Management®

Successfully managing projects, no matter the domain, the size, the development or engineering method starts with a set of Principles, Practices, and Processes. Here are those Principles and Practices. The Principles are Immutable. The Practices are universal. The Processes need... Read more →

Five Immutable Principles of Project Success

No matter the size of the project. No matter the project domain. No matter the engineering processes used to produce the outcomes from the project. There are Five Immutable Principles of project success. These principles are Immutable because they are... Read more →

Performance-Based Project Management®

Performance–Based Project Management® integrates five critical program management process areas with – Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance Measures. The inclusion of Technical Performance Measures (TPM) separates this approach from conventional methods based solely on managing cost and schedule. In conventional... Read more →

How to Talk About Estimates

What is an estimate? An estimate as a noun is an approximate calculation or judgment of the value, number, quantity, or extent of something. An estimate as a verb is to roughly calculate or judge the value, number, quantity, or... Read more →

Some Dark Sides to Agile

I work agile programs that are subject to FAR 34.2 and DFARS 234.2 These are Software Intensive System of Systems, starting at $20M in some domains and $5M in others and going much larger. Many are household names in space... Read more →

Increasing the Probability of Project Success

Increasing the Probability of Project Success Simple in Theory, Complex in Practice When we hear any suggestion about improving the probability of success of a project, there are some simple tests to confirm there actually is such a thing. This... Read more →

Estimates, Forecasts, Projections (Update)

There is the misuse of the terms of statistics and probability in many domains. Politics being one. The #Noestimates advocates are another of the most prolific abusers of these terms. Here are the mathematical definitions. Not Wikipedia definitions. Not the... Read more →

Agile for Large Scale Government Programs

It would seem counter intuitive to apply Agile (Scrum) to large Software Intensive System of Systems. But it's not. Here's how we do it with success. Agile in the government from Glen Alleman Related articles The Microeconomics of a Project... Read more →

Agile at Scale - A Reading List (Update 12)

I'm working two programs where Agile at Scale is the development paradigm. When we start an engagement using other peoples money, in this case the money of a sovereign, we make sure everyone is on the same page. When Agile... Read more →

What is Project Management and Why Do We Need It?

When we mean to build, we first survey the plot, then draw the model, and we see the figure of the house. Then we must rate the cost of erection, which if do find outweighs ability. What do we then,... Read more →

Earned Value + Agile a Match Made in Heaven?

At a recent conference the discussion of the integration of Agile with Earned Value Management on programs subject to FAR 34.201 and DFARS 252.234-7001 was the topic. Here's my presentation. Turns out it is a match made in heaven. Since... Read more →