Herding Cats

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 →

Increasing the Probability of Program Succes

Cost and schedule growth for any project or program is created when there are: Unrealistic technical performance expectations, Unrealistic cost and schedule estimates, Inadequate risk assessments, and Unanticipated technical issues, all based on poorly performed and ineffective risk management. Each... Read more →

Quote of the Day

We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality. —Ayn Rand Causal relationships are defined by a cause-and-effect principle. Understanding these principles creates the structure of reality where we can be responsible for our success. To... Read more →

A Solution Looking for a Problem to Solve (Part II)

When you come across a product or service and think Who wants or Needs this? What would I do with this if it were free? Why would I pay 100's if not 1,000's of dollars for this? From Solution Looking... Read more →

What Does Done Look Like?

I started using the phrase "do we know what DONE looks like?" at Rocky Flats. It was first coined by a project manager in our PMO (I was VP PMO). He started reminding me "No Glen it's not Done, it's... Read more →

Quote of the Day

He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet - Joseph Jourbet a French moralist and essayist, remembered for his Pensées, published posthumously. A corollary in our software development domain might be he who has practices without principles... Read more →

A Solution Looking for a Problem To Solve

We see solutions being sold everywhere. From household cleaners to complex software management processes and tools But would you go to your favorite hardware store and buy a tool, because there was a salesman at the front door demonstrating a... Read more →

Strategies to Detect, Prevent, and Correct Causes of Project Stress and Failure

From yesterday's How to Think Like A Scientist, which spoke to encountering and countering, claims with no evidence, here's what was going to be a Master Class at PGCS 2020, but was canceled because of Covid. Hoping we'll be in... Read more →

How to Think Like a Scientist

A book in my library The Seven Secrets of How to Think Like a Rocket Scientist rings true in our time of SAR-COV-2 pandemic when I encounter not only blatant science deniers, along with the climate deniers but just the... Read more →

Quote of the Day

This is the true joy in life, the being recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish... Read more →

Making the Impossible Possible

There are many voices on how to manage projects, from traditional to agile. Here's how a large, complex, mission-critical program was managed using the principle of Heliotropic Abundance. I was a participant in the success of this project, through the... Read more →

History of Rocky Flats

While cleaning up the office this week, I found a book on the History of Rocky Flats. I worked as VP Program Management in the Information, Communications, and Technology organization, where we used PeopleSoft ERP to manage the efforts of... Read more →

Fallacy of the Week - Use and Misuse of Goodhart's Law

Goodhart's Law states when a feature of the economy is picked as an indicator of the economy, then it inexorably ceases to function as that indicator because people start to game it. Without a Macro Economics context, the Law is... Read more →

Management Principles

When I worked at Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS), for Kaiser-Hill (Joint Venture for the National Nuclear Security Agency) who was the prime contractor for $7B of nuclear weapons plant clean up (I was a VP of Program Management... Read more →

Book of the Month

In our current political turmoil, as well as project management and software development turmoil, claims are made - sometimes wild unsubstantiated claims - of how to NOT do something, how some process can fix your problems, without ever stating what... 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 →

Project Management According to Yogi Berra

There are many, almost unlimited examples of project management guidance. Here's Yogi Berra's advice Planning - You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going because you might not get there. Communicating - I didn't really... 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 →

Program Management Office Services

Just watched a webinar on Increasing Program Management Office Collaboration to Improve IT Portfolio Management from www.qsm.com. Here's a summary of how we've installed and operated Progam Management Offices in a variety of domains, from Federal Agencies to commercial firms... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Regard the engineering system as having the same criticality as that of the system being engineered. - Robert John Halligan The result of this paradigm is Process is King. If we don't have the proper process, the resulting engineered system... Read more →