Herding Cats

Relations Between PM, SE and EVM

Measures of Effectiveness (MoE) Operational measures of success that are closely related to the achievements of the mission or operational objectives evaluated in the operational environment, under a specific set of conditions. Measures of Effectiveness: Are stated in units meaningful... 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 →

Quote of the Day

This is a story about four people: Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but... 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 →

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 →

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 →

Quote of the Day

In systems thinking, increases in understanding are believed to be obtainable by expanding the systems to be understood, not by reducing them to their elements. - Russell L. Ackoff 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 →

Capabilities Based Planning (Wright Brothers)

Capabilities Based Planning provides a description of what Done looks like in units of measure meaningful to the decision-makers. These measures include Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) - Operational measures of success that are closely related to the achievements of the... 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 →

Retrospective Coherence - What Does That Mean?

Why is the past easier to predict than the future? Retrospective Coherence is looking back in time and creating a coherent narrative around what happened. The accuracy of this narrative is suspect because the narrative can only be based on... Read more →

Rechtin's Paradigm and Project Management

The Agile Project Management discussion is built around a supposed paradigm shift from the past to the future. Although not as strongly worded recently, the notation that the processes of the past have failed us and we need to move... 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 →

Quote of the Day

Our conventional modernization programs seek a 99% solution in years. Stability and counterinsurgency missions - the wars we are in - requires 75% solutions in months. The challenge is whether in our bureaucracy and in our minds these two different... Read more →

Project Management + Systems Engineering = Increased Probability of Project Success

My workshop for the Project and Program Management Symposium in Canberra this August on the topic of integrating Systems Engineering and Project Management is now complete. The charts are available to the attendees and available here Projects delivered in complex... Read more →

Agile Development and Safety Critical Software

I grew up writing software for embedded real-time control system software world, out of graduate school working on Radar Systems, Flight Systems, Safety Systems, and Process Control Systems. I moved to enterprise business systems, then to product development, then to... Read more →

Rechtin Dies

Eberhardt Rechtin died today. Rechtin was a Director DARPA, helped create the Goldstone Deep Space Network, was the Chief Engineer of HP, the CEO of Aerospace Corporation, and Assistant Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His book The Art of... Read more →