Cutting's Edge Project Management

April 6, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 6

2009-04-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

NOTE: On January 12, Computerworld published an article I wrote entitled Covert PMO. This series of entries is a fictional account based on the Project Manager in that article. Any resemblance to anyone from my past, present or future is purely coincidental. To start at the beginning, jump to January 1, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 1.Day 27, Tuesday – Management meetings have been switched to

March 2, 2009: Leadership requires Involvement

2009-03-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

"Every soldier deserves competent command. Air conditioned officer's quarters are no place for a leader whose troops are under fire. General Fred Franks once said, "You gotta get onto the fight. Commanders must be visible. They must be present in order to ignite the soldier's resolve. They must provide a bottomless supply of courage for soldiers to feed on when their own supply begins to dry

February 16, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 5

2009-02-15T22:57:00.000-08:00

NOTE: On January 12, Computerworld published an article I wrote entitled Covert PMO. This series of entries is a fictional account based on the Project Manager in that article. Any resemblance to anyone from my past, present or future is purely coincidental. To start at the beginning, jump to January 1, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 1.Day 21, Wednesday – Finally, a piece of good news: the designer

February 1, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 4

2009-02-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

NOTE: On January 12, Computerworld published an article I wrote entitled Covert PMO. This series of entries is a fictional account based on the Project Manager in that article. Any resemblance to anyone from my past, present or future is purely coincidental. To start at the beginning, jump to January 1, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 1.Day 16, Friday – Wow! It’s Friday already. Payday is always nice.

January 19, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 3

2009-01-18T22:35:00.000-08:00

NOTE: On January 12, Computerworld published an article I wrote entitled Covert PMO. This series of entries is a fictional account based on the Project Manager in that article. Any resemblance to anyone from my past, present or future is purely coincidental. To start at the beginning, jump to January 1, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 1.Day 14, Wednesday – Had lunch today with a couple of other Project

January 8, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 2

2009-01-09T00:42:00.000-08:00

NOTE: On January 12, Computerworld published an article I wrote entitled Covert PMO. This series of entries is a fictional account based on the Project Manager in that article. Any resemblance to anyone from my past, present or future is purely coincidental. To start at the beginning, jump to January 1, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 1.Day 12 – Monday. Take a deep breath….hold it…let it out slowly.

January 1, 2009 – Going Covert, Part 1

2009-01-01T22:02:00.000-08:00

Day 1 – It should have been an easy operation: go in, implement the update and get out. But it was anything but easy. It led to the Incident. Years from now I’m sure the Resource remaining with the Company may laugh about it, but this week the PMO was hit hard. The Head was chopped…gone. They pulled rank, brought her a box to go with the termination speech and brought in a Yes Man.It may have

December 15, 2008 - Killing False Confidence

2008-12-14T18:16:00.000-08:00

You leave for your flight well ahead of schedule. Traffic is light and you arrive, unhurried, at the airport. Strolling up to the counter you secretly laugh at the frantic people running toward the crowded ticket line or scanning the flickering departure screens in panic. Being the saint that you are, you even let a mother with a screaming child ahead of you in line, silently praying they are not

November 26, 2008 – Watery Lessons

2008-11-26T00:15:00.000-08:00

I'm in the middle of a "working vacation." Those are the ones you use to catch up on all the pieces that have been dropped over the last several weeks...or months. This blog was supposed to be one of those things. I had one topic started, but ran the concept by the Computerworld Project Management Editor. She likes it, so I will be developing an article on it...which means I needed another

October 27, 2008 – Back to the Basic: Communication – How

2008-10-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

Once, in the midst of a long distance relationship I had the grand idea of sending a Western Union Telegram to my girlfriend. From my vast knowledge of telegrams, based solely on movies and TV, I knew that every time you put a period they say "STOP" to indicate the end of the sentence. I envisioned a hand delivered envelop with the words “Don’t STOP loving me and I won’t STOP loving you” on

October 13, 2008 – Back to the Basic: Communication – When

2008-10-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Rarely do you hear a project sponsor say, “There is way too much communication going on here.” Unfortunately a common complaint is the lack of communication. True, the loudest complainers are often those that opted out of the weekly status meetings and never responded to your emails. You are left wondering when it is appropriate to connect with them.When to Speak Up. This weekend I was listening

September 29, 2008 – Back to the Basic: Communication - What

2008-09-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

While waiting in line at Costco to buy my $1.50 hot dog and soda, I watched the manager collect money from the tills and seal it in plastic, oblong containers. He walked over to the wall and stuck them in a pneumatic tube. With a muted *phoomp* they shot up and out of sight.Long before email, the quickest form of interoffice communication was the dial switch message tube. Plastic cylinders were

September 15, 2008 – Back to the Basic: Competing Project Constraints

2008-09-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

Following last week’s edition, one of my project management co-conspirators dropped me a note informing me that the triple constraint (see The Troubling Triangle) is officially dead. The upcoming release of the PMBOK Guide 4th edition has killed it.In lieu of the binding, restricting, tri-legged barer of logic, PMI has opted for “Competing Project Constraints.” The new PMBOK includes Scope,

September 8, 2008 – Back to the Basic: The Troubling Triangle

2008-09-08T23:05:00.000-07:00

In our quest to return to the basic of project management we have already tackled the stakeholders. Next we take on the triple constraint in the form of a triangle. The concept of a triangle to represent the Scope, Schedule and Cost of a project is actually quite ingenious. Adding more scope dictates an increase in the schedule, cost or both. Reducing the cost or timeline for the project

September 1, 2008 – Back to the Basic: Stakeholders

2008-09-01T23:40:00.001-07:00

On July 17, 1999 I was sitting in an emergency room waiting for x-rays to confirm something obvious. My six year old daughter had broken her left arm just above the elbow. On the television a worse parental nightmare was unfolding for the Kennedy family. The night before, John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane had crashed off Martha’s Vineyard, MA (USA) and the news was covering the ongoing search. It

August 18, 2008 - Stand up and act like a... PM?

2008-08-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

For the past few weekends I have been pulling together training material to cover Project Initiation, Tracking and Reporting for HP’s Project and Program Management tool (PPM). Not the most inventive of names but it seems to be a fairly robust system that integrates Financial and Project Management at the corporate level with add-ins for QA and other project pieces. For that reason all of my

August 4, 2008 - Failure to Manage

2008-08-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Our house recently went through some medium size renovations. It began with replacing the hot water heater with a tankless model. During the installation the plumber explained that our galvanized pipes were badly corroded. In some places the rusty build up was seeping through to the outside of the pipe and in other it was clogging the water flow.Scope change #1: add $5500 to re-pipe the house

July 20, 2008 - Random Thoughts

2008-07-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

While on vacation I am pulling together a chunk of my blog entries to publish in book format entitled Project Management RX: 101 Daily Doses. This hasn’t left me much time to sit down and write anything new, but I did have a couple of random thoughts to pass on to you.Red, Yellow, Green. The often used RYG symbols indicating project status risk levels have proven very useful. But what if you

July 14, 2008 - Postponed...

2008-07-13T22:39:00.000-07:00

Too busy this weekend with house renevations, family stuff and prep for vacation. Should be able to add an update later this week.Until then....

July 7, 2008 – Making the Time Tracking Switch

2008-07-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

Over the next several months, our company will be upgrading the project management system and adjusting our processes to take advantage of new features. One of the features getting a significant amount of interest is resource management. The ability to plan resource availability in advance will allow us to understand our project capacity and identify bottlenecks in time to adjust.The key to

June 30, 2008 – Muskrats in Your Levee

2008-06-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

Last week the Mississippi River broke through the levees holding it back despite the efforts of hundreds of people fortifying it with sandbags. What caused the problem? Muskrats. Their burrows in the grounds along the river weakened it to the point that a breach was formed, flooding miles of farm land.As managers we strive to make sure the project stays within the course set by the river banks

June 23, 2008 - 10 Ways to Avoid Falkirk

2008-06-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

The Falkirk battle scene in the movie Braveheart has William Wallace engaging the English army. At a crucial point in the fight, the Scottish nobles that were supposed to be his allies betrayed him and withdrew from the field, leaving him to be defeated. Knowing who your allies are is important. Knowing you can trust them is vital.This goes both ways. You need to know your team is behind you

June 16, 2008 - Along for the Ride

2008-06-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

For Father’s Day yesterday, we went to Knott’s Berry Farm, technically the oldest theme park in the United States. Father’s Day has to be the best day to go to an amusement park because there were no lines. While we were waiting to board one of the roller coasters I snapped a picture of the warning sign: “Many rides at Knott’s Berry Farm are dynamic and thrilling. There are inherent risks in

June 9, 2008 – Project Success…at What Cost?

2008-06-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

Great things can be accomplished if Scope, Budget and Duration are no object. Here are some historical examples:Hoover DamScope: Stop a river and produce 2080 megawatts of power. Budget: $49M US cost (under budget)Duration: < 5 years (2 years ahead of schedule)Added Expense: 112 DeathsEgyptian PyramidScope: Started as a grave. Scope creep resulted in one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient

June 2, 2008 - Under Construction

2008-06-02T00:16:00.000-07:00

I am in the middle of multiple construction projects. Last week it was the guest bathroom. A trip to IKEA netted a new vanity, sink, faucet, medicine cabinet and wall shelves. For good measure I purchased a new light. Because nothing is ever simple, I had to drywall part of the hole where the old medicine cabinet was and add a layer of paint to that wall. All things considered it turned out