In Praise of MBWA (Management By Walking Around)
I am, at heart, an analyst. There is nothing that would please me more than being able to shut my …
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Value of Education: Project Manager v. MBA
OK. It’s not really a battle. I have, however, recently been asked by many people whether they should consider getting …
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A Dangerous Bias: action over thinking
Don’t just do something, stop and think!” Probably haven’t heard that one recently, have we? I do an exercise with …
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Is Project Management a creative process?
Is Project Management a creative process? Full disclosure: I believe it is. I’ve had some colleagues vigorously take the opposing …
Is Project Management a creative process? Read More »
Difficult People – not!
Difficult people. I really don’t like that term. Think back… haven’t all of us been perceived as “difficult” at least …
Difficult People – not! Read More »
Dealing with Difficult People… or are they?
Recently, I had a relatively young (at this stage of my life, it seems most people are in this category) …
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90%?
“Project management? That’s just a lot of useless overhead!” I remember hearing variations of this a lot years ago. …
Traditional versus Agile — false war?
On this theme of Conventional Wisdom…. Not too long ago I was hearing lots of things about Agile. Most of …
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Conventional Wisdom?
I have been lucky enough to witness (and in some cases be a part of) several overturns of conventional wisdom. …
Conventional Wisdom? Read More »
Control – the Illusion
Know any control-freaks?
For many of them, control is an illusion. Paradoxically, by grasping for more control, they often get less.
Politics or influence?
The ability to influence people is a good skill for a project manager. Isn’t it?
Isn’t it our job as PMs to influence people on the project? To find ways to get our stakeholders onboard?
Could it be that one person’s influencing can be another’s political manipulation?
Teams? Why not just have a meeting?
Teams. It seems like such an obvious part of project life. Or, is it? Recently, I’ve been noticing some things …
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The PM as saleperson?
I was recently working with some relatively young (well, pretty much everyone seems to be younger these days) software developers …
The PM as saleperson? Read More »
talking about risks
One often-used lament I hear on projects and in project management classes is, “No one here wants to deal with …
talking about risks Read More »
Hope?
As I write this, the US is in a presidential transition. President-Elect Obama won, at least in part, on a …
Whose time is it?
Global projects. Teams in five different time zones. Team members traveling. “We will meet again on the telcon at …
Face to Face Communications – A must-have or nice-to-have?
While I’ve never encountered any significant resistance to the idea that a PM has to do a lot of communication …
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Are We Crazy?
Why would anyone want to be a project manager (PM)? It’s a lot of work. It’s been said, only partly …
Some thoughts on On the Job Training and formal learning
An increasing number of organizations are listing project management (PM) skills as a requirement for their managers. It’s no surprise …
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General versus Project Management
I’ve been asked by many beginning project management students about the difference between general and project management. My simple answer …
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