143 posts from: Undocumented Features
PMS Relief: What Type of Coworker Are You?
(Indexed 2010-07-02):
Ever had a coworker no one would ever miss? You probably have one today (most of us do). Here’s the PMS (Project Management Syndrome) relief of the week: CIO Magazine’s 10 Type of Coworkers No One Would Miss. Enjoy! Like this post? Buy me a...
PMS Relief: Spot the IT Consultant!
(Indexed 2010-06-18):
This week’s PMS (Project Management Syndrome) relief comes from Video Gone Viral: Can you spot the IT consultant just from the pictures? Enjoy!http://videogoneviral.com/2010/05/spot-the-it-consulta...(truncated)... this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
Assumptions: The (Project) Killer App
(Indexed 2010-06-14):
Every real project manager knows that the foundation of project management is communication. You can abandon work breakdown schedules, budgets, gantt charts, the whole nine yards of project management structure, and the project will still have a chance to succeed. If you abandon communication, you’re...
PMS Relief: How Not to Stay Employed
(Indexed 2010-05-28):
Picture from Women’s DayFor your PMS (Project Management Syndrome) relief this week, we find a fun little article from Women’s Day Magazine entitled, simply enough, The 7 Stupidest Employee Mistakes Ever. Sadly, I’ve seen one or two that might’ve been stupider in my time, but...
A Way to Better Meetings, Projects and Communication
(Indexed 2010-02-01):
Scott Berkun wrote an excellent post a while back over at his blog about stopping over-communication. He makes some great points on why over-communication happens and how to fix it. I agree with his main points, and I think they particularly apply to meetings. As Scott advises:Overcommunication is a symptom of lack of clarity over [...]
How much sausage making do you want to see?
(Indexed 2009-05-04):
My company’s CTO has a saying about building software. He says that it’s a lot like making sausage. There’s a level of detail you want to know in order to be happy with it- are you using quality ingredients, when will I get the finished product, is the facility clean… and then there’s a level [...]
Brief Flurry of Activity
(Indexed 2009-05-02):
The site has been “dark” for a while now as I’ve been involved in a lot of other projects (work, remodelling the house, being happy, etc). While I’m not necessarily expecting to go back to my full blogging schedule again right now, you should see some new posts coming in the coming days (weeks? months?). [...]
Who Needs to Know This?
(Indexed 2008-12-08):
How many times has this happened to you:A key task in the critical path of your project is completely out of control. It’s not getting done, what is done is all wrong, and everything is late. You go and talk to the person who is in charge of it, and you hear those fateful words, [...]
Projects versus Operations- who wins?
(Indexed 2008-12-03):
The best project management organizations and companies out there understand that projects compete for resources, and they plan accordingly. They have governance bodies that weigh the importance of one project versus another, and they have an elaborate ranking system for establishing the priorities of projects so that everyone can see clearly what project comes first [...]
Preparation as a team multiplier
(Indexed 2008-12-01):
As managers and project managers, we often talk about planning. There is more to planning, of course, than building your project documentation. Preparation is also an effective way to multiply the capabilities of your team. A properly prepared team have the following advantages:People understand the tasks assigned to them better, thus able to complete more [...]
PMS Relief: Modern Design
(Indexed 2008-10-17):
Ever worked on a project where things just seemed to be more and more designed by committee? Ever think there’s probably a better way? Today’s feature will probably be all too familiar.Here’s a great commentary on how things are done today and a little what if thrown in…What if the stop sign were designed today?Enjoy!Like [...]
Exit Strategies as part of Project Plans
(Indexed 2008-10-13):
Many types of projects involve prolonged engagements- client implementations, the building of large software systems, legacy migrations, the list goes on and on. Most of us have led or been involved in these types of projects. Many of us have been involved in projects that failed, were cancelled, or just needed to be killed before [...]
UF Postings Past: Second Week of October 2007
(Indexed 2008-10-12):
Here’s what was being talked about on UF this time last year:PMing on the cheap: TaskBin free online project managementPMS Relief: Guerilla Tactics for Project ManagementIs Consulting for You?Four Things You Can Do to Hire Better and Head Off Resource Issues EarlyLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
Credit Where Its Due
(Indexed 2008-10-08):
We all start somewhere. I remember when I began on my current career. It was nearly thirty years ago now, sitting at the dinner table with my parents. My father has been involved in manufacturing management of one sort or another for almost all of his career. Talk around the dinner table turned to his [...]
Judging by Measuring Curiosity
(Indexed 2008-10-08):
How often has this happened to you:You give a long report about what’s going on with the project, what the current status looks like, when you expect to deliver. After you finish, you open the room up to questions. No one has any. At all. After the meeting, you check with the sponsor- it’s an [...]
What Does Done Look Like?
(Indexed 2008-10-06):
There is nothing better than a job well done. Wrapping up a project, relaxing, enjoying the laurels of your success… the only question is, how do you recognize the end? Do you know what it looks like?One of the most important aspects of a project is completely understanding what the end of the project will [...]
UF Postings Past: This week in 2007
(Indexed 2008-10-05):
Here’s what we were talking about on Undocumented Features this time last year:Workingwith Aliens: Advice on working with the current generationAreYoua Leader or a Manager? How to tell the difference, why it mattersWhy Are We Doing This Project Again? Evaluating why you are doing your current projectsA short week, but a good one. Enjoy!Like this [...]
Three simple points for not wasting a meeting
(Indexed 2008-10-01):
Yet again I venture into the land of meetings improvement. Meetings are the ultimate double-edged sword of the business world. When you need them, they’re vital; when you don’t run them right, they’re a useless drain of time and resources. The worst is the wasted meeting- the one you go to, havegoals for,but nothing useful [...]
PMS Relief: Office Wars!
(Indexed 2008-08-08):
Ever feel like getting things done in the office is like going to war sometimes? Imagine if you had to do it this way! (actually, I think it’d be pretty cool)Here’s the Project Management Syndrome relief of the week: Office Wars!Like this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
UF Postings Past: First of September 2007
(Indexed 2008-06-22):
Here’s your weekly wrap-up from the first week of September, 2007:Four Values of Social NetworkingOr, why LinkedIn matters. And maybe Facebook. But not MySpace.The Self-Project: Jerry Seinfelds Productivity SecretLearning to bedo lotsfrom the guy who wrote the show about nothing.The Self-Project: MBA in a Page- a Simple Guide to All Major Management TheoriesWhere to find [...]
PMS Relief: Understanding the Software Development Lifecycle
(Indexed 2008-06-20):
Here’s your Project Management Syndrome relief of the week: a great guide explaining how the software development cycle really works. Enjoy!Like this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
The 90 Day Treadmill
(Indexed 2008-06-16):
If you’ve worked in business for almost any time at all, especially in management, you’ve probably heard those fateful words: the end of the quarter. How many of you have been pushed to close a sale, complete a project, or make a far-reaching technology decision by a given date because of ‘the end of quarter’?The [...]
UF Postings Past: Last week of August, 2007
(Indexed 2008-06-15):
Here’s what was happening on Undocumented Features back in the last week of August, 2007:PM-Fu: Keep Your Eye On The BallAdvice on keeping your project on track by sticking to your scope.Writing Right: The Art of the Status ReportHow to write the stately Status Report.The Self-Project: Get to Know the Folks That Can HelpWhy it’s [...]
PMS Relief: Interstellar Project Management!
(Indexed 2008-06-13):
Be the first to join the Martian PM initiative! More news from Rich over at ScopeCrepe after the jump:Project Management found on Mars!Like this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
Managing the C Word
(Indexed 2008-06-09):
Consultants. We’ve all either used them, been them, or both at one time or another. Companies love them and hate them. The pattern is usually something like this:The company needs more manpower or expertise in some areaThey have a brilliant idea: Hire consultants!Consultants come in to help. Since the company either hasn’t the manpower or [...]
Meeting Needs
(Indexed 2008-06-02):
How many meetings do you hold or attend with more than a half-dozen people in them? How useful are those meetings? How many meetings do you attend where you never actually have any contribution to what’s going on?As a project manager, you fundamentally have onlyfour resources to manage: Time, Money, People, and Quality. Meetings take [...]
PMS Relief: Looking to Nature
(Indexed 2008-05-31):
When one isn’t sure how to accomplish a project, one has only to look to nature for guidance of project elegance. Ants building a colony. Bees and their hive. Beavers and their dam..?Here’s an example of what goes wrong when animals act like us: Beaver Overthinks Dam (via theonion)Enjoy!Like this post? Buy me a [...]
PMing Out of Control
(Indexed 2008-05-28):
There are many, many volumes of facts, opinions, and worst of all, opinions presented as facts and facts presented as opinions out there regarding project management and how it should best be done. The PMI’s PMBOK (project management book of knowledge), for example, can be considered a godsend or a travesty, depending on how literal [...]
Are You Really Done?
(Indexed 2008-05-26):
Johanna Rothman over at Managing Product Development wrote a short series of great posts on what it means to be done in a project.The first article, Why You Don’t Need a Schedule, not only brings up a great alternative to effectively managing a project (and I daresay more effective than a lot of methodologies), it [...]
UF Postings Past: Why Is the Business So Impatient?
(Indexed 2008-05-25):
If you work in IT or on IT projects, you probably have faced impatient users. They never seem to understand why IT moves so slowly. Heres some hints as to why theyre so unhappy:Lets say the business writes up a project proposal. They research their business process, identify key problems with it, define good goals [...]
PMS Relief: Project-Manage Your Pizza
(Indexed 2008-05-23):
Working another late night? Hungry? Wondering where that pizza you ordered is? Now you can track it!Track your pizza’s progress online from a terminal window. Compliments of Domino’s Pizza and Lifehacker!Monitor Your Pizza from the ShellLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
PM Tools You Can Use: Klok
(Indexed 2008-05-21):
Lifehacker recently featured a new time/project tracking software named Klok. I gave it a brief test drive and found that it’s light weight and easy to use. The user interface is friendly, easy to use, drag-and-drop goodness, but you won’t find the wide variety of features in a true project management software. Depending on what [...]
Where Others Have Gone Before
(Indexed 2008-05-19):
Do you have a vision for your future? Where do you see your career taking you?This may sound like the old “Where do you see yourself in five years” interview question, but it’s something everyone should reflect on from time to time. The old adage “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up [...]
UF Postings Past: Sweat the Small Stuff
(Indexed 2008-05-18):
In project management, it is often the commonplace that trips us up. Why is this?People overlook easy things when faced with challenges. Some do it because they fear the difficult task, and thus their focus is on it and not the simple tasks before them. Some relish the challenge of the difficult. Those folks will [...]
PMS Relief: Privacy Policies to Avoid
(Indexed 2008-05-16):
Most any of you out there involved in an IT project has, at this poind, had to deal with any number of the dreaded “Private information” discussions- what are you doing to protect user data? How do you protect privately identifiable information? If you assign users a user id so you can tell them apart [...]
PM Basics: Project Management is Measurable
(Indexed 2008-05-14):
One of the greatest, most important parts of successful project management is implied. Project Management, is, by definition, measurable. It must be this way, from the charter to the requirements to the work breakdown structure.How is this, you say?There’s no such thing as a project that “sort of” succeeds.Project costs are measured in time, cost [...]
What OCD Can Teach Us About Project Management
(Indexed 2008-05-07):
There was a great post quite a while back on Zen Habits called “Obsessive-Compulsive’s Guide: Top 12 Organizing Tips, Plus Resources“. While a great little guide toorganizing one’s life and personal space, it can also teach us how to organize and run a greatproject. Here’s how it all applies:1. Everything In Its Place”Things” in a [...]
Learn to Manage From the Family
(Indexed 2008-05-05):
I ran across a great article a while back from the Guardian newspaper called “How to do business like the Mafia“. The article outlinesbusiness lessons that can be learned from the reign ofSicilian Mafia boss BernadoProvenzano. The pointsbreak down thusly, along with my thoughts on what a project manager or leader can take away from [...]
PMS Relief: Think Your Project Has Marketing Problems?
(Indexed 2008-05-02):
Ever work on a project that you just wondered “what are we thinking?” You know, those products that just don’t seem sensible, safe, or sane- but the business says build it, but you do. Well, if you think you’ve seen crazy projects, check these out:The Deadlies - Technology that’s a really bad ideaLike this post? [...]
Jargon, Jargon Everywhere
(Indexed 2008-04-30):
Raven over at Raven’s Brain posted a great piece on business jargon a while back. Business Jargon gives me the screaming heebeegeebees (spell that on a bar bet sometime). I think it’s one of the greatest enemies of any project manager, leaderor consultant. It’s our jobs to communicate better. Adding jargon which people may or [...]
PM Tools You Can Use: Excel Gantt Charts
(Indexed 2008-04-28):
The folks over at Lifehacker posted a new Excel Gantt Chart templatea while back. For those without formal project management software or that don’t want to bother with it, or that want to construct a simplified Gantt chart for distribution, or any number of other things, this could be handy. Take a look!Like this post? [...]
UF Postings Past: United Fronts
(Indexed 2008-04-13):
Heres a trick to maintaining a strong strategy and direction for your project. Before holding major meetings, meet informally with the key decision makers involved in decisions to be made at the coming meeting. Discuss all key issues to come up at the meeting, make the preliminary decisions for each issue, and agree not to [...]
Customer Happiness Starts with Your Employees
(Indexed 2008-04-07):
You may not think about this often, but reality is that your employees are the face of your company. They provide customer service, they perform sales functions, maintenance, build products for customers, do implementations, provide documentation and assistance. The quality of that interaction, their morale, and their work provides a key impression of your company [...]
PM Tools You Can Use: Roundup of Cool Things
(Indexed 2008-03-31):
Over the past weeks I’ve run across several handy tools that you may be able to put to good use:Zoho has added a free suite of People Management and Recruiting ToolsAnyclient provides a free, no-install FTP client through your web browserFirebug, a terrific browser add-on for debugging software, has ported its tools to IE8Enjoy!Like this [...]
PMS Relief: How to Have a Good Meeting
(Indexed 2008-03-28):
Tired of meetings? Feel like they’re unproductive? Maybe you’re not doing it right! Here’s this week’s PMS (Project Management Syndrome) relief: How to have a goodmeeting. Enjoy!Like this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
UF Postings Past: Involving Stakeholders in Projects
(Indexed 2008-03-23):
One of the toughest part of projects is managing stakeholder relationships. In any project, you have a number of stakeholders: the customers who will use the end product, the team that will support the product, the team that will market and/or sell the product, the team that will build the product, the team that will [...]
PMS Relief: Fun with Cubicles
(Indexed 2008-03-22):
Here’s the PMS (project management syndrome) relief of the week (late though it is in the day). Most of us live, or have lived, in cubicle land. Many of us resist the monotony and the lack of personality of the space with little personalizations, like a poster, a calendar, maybe some geeky toys.These folks, though, [...]
If You Want Happy Customers, Give Them Less Information
(Indexed 2008-03-17):
Guy Kawasaki wrote a great post a while back about customer happiness. I’ve seen this at work before. My parents, for example, have been thinking about buying a big screen television for years. The problem is, nowadays, there’s HDTV, LCDs, DLP, plasma, projection, etc. The choices are too many, the television makers are not clear [...]
UF Postings Past: Why Is Everyone Working So Hard?
(Indexed 2008-03-16):
Does it seem like everyone in your organization is always overworked? Is it a struggle to get resources from other groups, or worse, within your own group? There are many possibilities for why this occurs. One of them may be how your organization validates the hiring of employees.Most organizations hire full-time employees based on full-time [...]
PMS Relief: Warning Signs That Your Job May Be Killing You
(Indexed 2008-03-14):
This week’s Project Management Syndrome Relief comes to us from the Pimp Your Work blog. We’ve all had jobs we didn’t like- but were they killing us? Warning signs to watch to protect your own health! Enjoy!http://www.pimpyourwork.com/warning-office-life-may-be...(truncated)... this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
Eight Tips for Scope Creep
(Indexed 2008-03-03):
There’s an interesting article over on Six Revisions on Feature Creep. It’s worth a read if you’re a project manager, because almost everything there translates directly to scope creep for projects.It talks about some basic things:1. Scope creep will happen.It’s natural and not the end of the world.You must manage it. If you don’t have [...]
UF Postings Past: Pitfalls in Analyzing Resources
(Indexed 2008-03-02):
One of the biggest jeopardies to any projects timeline is for resources to not be available when you need them. Ironically enough, this seems to be one of the least talked-about risks to project failure. While I have never seen a project totally fail as a result of resource scarcity, I have seen project after [...]
UF Postings Past: Preparing for the End
(Indexed 2008-01-27):
Sometimes you have to part ways with a client. It may be that the client wants to move on, it could be that you have had enough of the client and need to move on yourself, it could be for financial reasons, or any number of other things. When the time comes, though, it comes. [...]
PMS Relief: Doubtsourcing to the rescue!
(Indexed 2008-01-18):
If you’ve ever been involved in an outsourcing project, you will appreciate the humor in this new comic strip: Doubtsourcing. The name says it all.Enjoy!No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
Twelve Laws of Time Management
(Indexed 2008-01-14):
Just what the internet needs, another list of time management tips- still, it never hurts to review and think about how we use our time. I was thinking about it today and came up with these tips to improve myself and my team:1. Do what matters most first.2. Eliminate “shoulds” and “coulds”. If it can’t [...]
PMS Relief: Outsourcing Help When You Need It, Chimp- er, Cheap!
(Indexed 2008-01-12):
The PMS (project management syndrome) site of the week is the consulting firm Primate Programming, Inc. With a name like that, I don’t think further introductions are needed…No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
PM Tools: Transport Large Files with Pipebytes
(Indexed 2008-01-12):
One of the biggest pains of intercompany projects is often file transport. You have a file- a presentation, software manual, whatever- that is big enough that you can’t send it via email due to file attachment size limits on your email server. You can’t IM it due to security policies. You can’t this, you can’t [...]
PMing on the cheap: 25 Online Alternatives to Desktop Apps
(Indexed 2008-01-10):
Here’s a useful list of tools to help you complete your projects:25 Popular Desktop Apps and their Online EquivalentsThe most useful looking tools among these are wufoo (for building forms and surveys), app2you (for quick online apps), gliffy (for visio-style drawings), and splashup (for image editing). All of these in particular are tools that are [...]
Step Awaaay From the Software
(Indexed 2008-01-08):
As a project manager, ask yourself how much you spend on each of these items:Communicating about the project to stakeholdersCommunicating about the project to team membersUpdating your project plan in your project tracking softwareWhich one of those three do you really think matters to the success of your project? There’s no question that project tracking [...]
PMS Relief: Dont Let Kangaroos Overrun Your Project
(Indexed 2008-01-05):
This week’s PMS (Project Management Syndrome) relief is an example story of what can happen if you get careless with the reuse of code in your projects:Careless Coding Causes Killer KangaroosNo TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
A Reminder of the Most Important of All Project Management Advice
(Indexed 2007-12-31):
Just another reminder of the most important of all project management advice:Take your vacation. Enjoy the Holidays. Rest. Its only a job And now, I shall take my own advice. Happy New Year!No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
UF Postings Past: Too Much Spin Can Make You Dizzy
(Indexed 2007-12-30):
For better or worse, the business place nowadays is often rife with politics. Really, it always has been. With the many ways of communication nowadays though, the press, bloggers, unhappy customers building websites, activist groups, class action lawsuits, and all the trappings that go with making mistakes in modern business though, its no wonder we [...]
Who Comes First?
(Indexed 2007-12-29):
A Project Manager’s job is to get their project done. On time andwithin budget. Period.Right?This is a trend I’ve seen in many places. The project manager fights for their project to a fault. They get the money and resources they need. They win the battle of conflicting priorities for shared resources. They take no prisoners [...]
PMS Relief: Practical Joke to Lighten Your Day, Brought to You by HP
(Indexed 2007-12-28):
This week’s Project Management Syndrome relief is a practical joke you can use to bring joy to your office: Do It Yourself Instructions to Change the Printer Message on HP Printers. Apply a little imagination and have a little fun during the holidays. Enjoy!PS. Don’t forget to undo it. Eventually.No TagsLike this post? Buy [...]
The Most Important of All Project Management Advice
(Indexed 2007-12-24):
For today’s advice, I give you the most important advice:Take your vacation. Enjoy the Holidays. Rest. It’s only a job… And now, I shall take my own advice. Happy Holidays, everyone!No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
UF Postings Past: A Goal is no Good Unless You Are Capable of Achieving It
(Indexed 2007-12-23):
I have posted in the past on how establishing good service levels for your website might be a good idea, but if you have no idea how to achieve the goals you are setting for yourself, you are wasting your time and paper. In fact, this goes for any business (or personal!) goal. Lets look [...]
PMS Relief: The Ideator
(Indexed 2007-12-21):
The Project Management Syndrome Relief of the week comes to our attention thanks to Raven over at Raven’s Brain, who in turn found this over at PMThink. Now, to help you with thinking up new ways to innovate, it’s the The Special Projects Idea Generator, or as Raven calls it, the Ideator!For the record, I [...]
Living the Acountable Life
(Indexed 2007-12-19):
With the end of year coming up, the time is approaching for reflection on your accomplishments for the year. What did you do right? What did you accomplish? How well did you meet your goals?Here’s something else you should do to help yourself grow. Reflect on your mistakes and how you will be accountable for [...]
Meeting Notes Matter
(Indexed 2007-12-17):
Meeting notes are one of the great chores of Project Management and Corporate life in general. No one wants to take them, few peoplebother to read them, and everyone wonders why people bother.The reason to bother is obvious: to note things worth remembering. Most projects span a considerable amount of time. Building a new piece [...]
Change Management: The Key to Corporate Success?
(Indexed 2007-12-15):
There is nothing that can damage a project more than changing lanes midstream. Business owners change requirements, changes in the business force project changes, discovered requirements add to things… the list goes on and on.This is where Change Management enters the picture. We’re all familiar with the premise of Change Management: identify the change, identify [...]
PMing on the cheap: Free online Project Management Software
(Indexed 2007-12-12):
New web application Project2Manageis a free online project management tool. It has quite a few useful features, such as:To-Do listsTask assignmentProject Milestones (with dates assigned)MessagingRSS FeedsProject Sharing among multiple usersUnlimited projectsMultiple permission levels for usersCollaborative writing toolsWhat it does not have is the ‘heavy’ PM tools, such as detailed project plan building with the gantt [...]
Twelve Simple Questions to Analyze a Project Assignment
(Indexed 2007-12-08):
Interviewing for a Project Management job is alwaysa very complicated thing. Project Manager has vastly different meaning from company to company- or in some cases, from department to department, or even from person to person.It’s not that long ago that I was one of several project managers within a single department, all of whom hadextremely [...]
PMS Relief: The Procrastination Process
(Indexed 2007-12-07):
All Project Managers understand the importance of concise, repeatable process. Project Managers also understand the problems that procrastination can cause to a project.The PMS relief of the week is here to help! Below is the Procrastination Flowchart, for streamlined, standardized procrastination. This should not only help your team members procrastinate better and more efficiently, but [...]
Predicting How Much Your Schedule Will Slip
(Indexed 2007-12-05):
I have written here before on how much detail you should put in your project plan. In summary, my proposal was to go with sufficiently small detail to be able to keep up with things on a daily basis. A few days ago, Johanna Rothman over on the Managing Product Development blog put forth an [...]
PMS Relief: Thou Shalt Project Plan
(Indexed 2007-12-01):
This week’s project management syndrome relief comes to us from www.humournet.com. It’s the Book of Genesis of Project Management. Enjoy!No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
Five Simple Habits of Management Success
(Indexed 2007-11-27):
The Internet is littered with lists of ways to be successful at business. It’s littered with lists of ways to be successful at everything else in the universe, too. I get over 2 million hits when I search for “How to win eating contests.”Still, I’ve foundfive simple habits that have helped me massively in assuming [...]
UF Postings Past: You Are What You Eat - Measuring Productivity Effectively
(Indexed 2007-11-26):
You are what you eat. In a similar fashion, you manage what you measure. The performance figures you collect on a daily basis are, essentially, what you eat at work. You spend time on it, it is easy to reference, and therefore it is the easiest information you receive each day that you can act [...]
PMS Relief: Building Websites the Google Way
(Indexed 2007-11-24):
If you’ve ever been involved in a project involving an internet application or website, you have probably dealt with SEO, or “search engine optimization”. One would think that this was the art of making the site work well with all search engines, but in truth it typically boils down to making it work better with [...]
Bringing Common Sense to Requirements
(Indexed 2007-11-21):
Common sense and requirements, for better or worse, do not always go together. People get literal-minded, especially on larger projects and in huge organizations. I have seen a project get held up for weeks before because the business requirements said “Response times must be under 5 seconds”, and in testing 1 in every 500 responses [...]
Pming on the cheap: Free online Mindmapping Software
(Indexed 2007-11-19):
Mind42 is a free online and collaborative mindmapping software. Very handy for quickly outlining ideas in a heirarchical fashion. We use mindmapping tools early in the design and planning phase of projects because it’s so easy to construct a picture of what you’re thinking and communicate a lot of thinking in an easy way. Give [...]
Pming on the cheap: Free online charting software
(Indexed 2007-11-18):
Best4C is a free online charting tool. You can build network diagrams, org charts, process flow charting, diagram workspaces, and more. You can also either make your diagrams private, share them with your team, or share them publicly. Charts are unfortunately only exportable inpdf or png- you can’t port it out in a format that [...]
Everything I Know About Leadership I Learned From My Dad
(Indexed 2007-11-15):
There’s an interesting article over on the Ririan Project called The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Fathers. I think it’s a good article for the dads of the world out there, but it’s also a good article for leaders.How so? Let’s reimagine the seven points of their article from a leadership perspective:1. Keeping Stress to [...]
PMS Relief: Why Projects Get Cancelled
(Indexed 2007-11-10):
Our Project Management Syndrome relief of the week comes from the articles section of the FreeBSD project website. Finally, we can answer the question:Why Projects Get CancelledNo TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
The Six Keys to Business
(Indexed 2007-11-10):
No matter what you do in business, there are a key set of things you must focus on to do your job well. If you are a CEO, a project manager, a sales executive, software developer, working as a cashier at the kwik-e mart… no matter the job, these things matter.1. People Skills MatterThe number [...]
PM Tools: FasterPlan will help you plan faster
(Indexed 2007-11-08):
FasterPlanis a simple, free web application that lets you hammer out meeting details of an event or meeting. You can compare availability, set up polls, share pre-meeting notes, and other useful things we all normally end up sending a half-dozen emails to accomplish. Well worth adding to your management arsenal.No TagsLike this post? Buy [...]
UF Postings Past: Whats in Processes for Me?
(Indexed 2007-11-05):
If youre in a small business or startup, you probably have only two real information problems today. One, you dont have enough of it. Two, you dont have time to organize what you have. You need to make money today. You need to get more customers. You need to sell more product. You need more [...]
Four Biggest Fears of Customers
(Indexed 2007-11-05):
I find myself focusing more and more on customers lately. A project’s success is so much more than successful execution of a project plan. It is about the customer’s satisfaction with the end results of your project. If you execute your project plan successfully, on time and on budget, but the client hates the end [...]
PM Tools You Can Use: Whiteboarding over Instant Messaging
(Indexed 2007-11-04):
One of the challenges around virtual project management is the difficulties of visualization. You can’t easily get everyone in a room together and hold a whiteboard session to get through a complicated idea. You can, however, share a virtual whiteboard.Coccinella is an IM client that includes a virtual whiteboard- and it just might be what [...]
PMS Relief: Project Management Under Pressure
(Indexed 2007-11-03):
PMS (Project Management Syndrome) Relief of the week: How should a project manager react under pressure? Which one are you? Answers below!If you get in my way, I’ll kill you! - ideal project managerIf you get in my way, you’ll kill me! - somewhat less than ideal project manager If I get in my way, [...]
Planning Why You Failed
(Indexed 2007-11-02):
Raven over on Raven’s Brain has posted yet another great article (she seems to make a habit of that), this time about doing a Pre-Mortem of your project.I want to try this with some projects, but I also see value in it operationally. For example, I want to try this with my development teams:Imagine this [...]
Spreading the Knowledge: Blogs I Recommend
(Indexed 2007-11-01):
There’s a lot more people out there in the world who have important things to say about project management and leadership than just little ol’ me (obviously). Below is a list of someof the blogs I love and recommend:Raven’s Brain- ravenyoung.spaces.live.comRaven Young’s project management blog is what it’s billed as- Random thoughts from a PM [...]
Picking the Right Tools and Process: Recognizing What Not To Pick
(Indexed 2007-10-27):
Tools and processes are great things that can gain you much in terms of productivity. There’s a funny thing about them though, and that’s this: every tool and process you adopt actually *costs* you time. You have to spend time implementing it, learning to use it, maintaining it. The magical balancing act isidentifying what tools [...]
PMS Relief: Estimate Projects Better!
(Indexed 2007-10-26):
Now, thanks to careful scientific research and studies, you can accurately predicthow much time yourself or others spend in the bathroom at work. Don’t let bathroom breaks lead to inaccurateestimates!Check out this tool today!No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
The Self-Project: Body Language No-nos
(Indexed 2007-10-24):
Communication is a project manager’s, or any other leader’s, most important tool. Body language is a key part of in-person communication. The Ririan Project has a great post on Eight Body Language No-no’s.This one is a personal topic for me because, frankly, at one time I did everything on this list and more besides. It’s [...]
The Limits to Multitasking: How Divided Are Your Resources?
(Indexed 2007-10-22):
It’s a fairly common practice to share resources in a company for projects. A single systems engineer, for example, may be assigned to work with three or four different projects. As long as the total number of hours that the various projects are asking for matches up to the total number of hours that the [...]
Attitude is Everything: Six Points to Investigate When Hiring
(Indexed 2007-10-20):
There was a time when tech skills were scarce. Hiring new IT staff was all about finding someone qualified from a technical perspective. Skills were everything; certifications, even better. That day has past us by.The reality is that if you look at your IT department today carefully, you’ll find that most folks there are not [...]
PMing on the cheap: Free online database tools
(Indexed 2007-10-18):
Here’s a way to build a quick and dirty online database application, suitable for any number of handy uses: http://creator.zoho.com/I wouldn’t consider this for anything mission-critical or high-security, certainly, but for small business, personal projects, and quick and dirty short-term projects, this is a very handy tool.No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup [...]
Ten Simple Things That Can Trip Up Your Project Plan
(Indexed 2007-10-18):
Projects are fraught with disasters. Things go wrong at every turn. Estimates are off. New requirements seem to fall from the sky. Cost overruns trample over you.With all the unforeseen disasters that seem to strike, you need to dodge every bullet you can. Here’s ten simple things to remember when you build your project plan [...]
Estimating 101
(Indexed 2007-10-15):
I’ve posted before on the value of breaking down tasks to small pieces for obtaining quality estimates. Here’s another good article supportingthe same theory-Web Worker Daily posts on Estimating 101, and recommends that toprovide good estimate you need to break the work down into its most basic components. They also make recommendations on how to [...]
Adoption Matters: Fourteen Things That Hinder Adoption
(Indexed 2007-10-14):
I ran across an article over on Guy Kawasaki’s blog that bears sharing:The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market AdoptionGuy actually lists fourteen ways- buy ten, get four free! Guy is writing about adoption of startup web businesses, but there are pieces of this that apply to most any project, and nearly all of [...]
PMS Relief: Deciphering Job Descriptions
(Indexed 2007-10-13):
Raven over at Raven’s Brain posted a great PM funny recently:(project) Management Humor: deciphering the job descriptionRelax and enjoy!No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
PMing on the cheap: Side Job Track
(Indexed 2007-10-12):
Need to manage a small job? SideJobTrackis a free online tool kit for small projects that does it all. Invoicing, job tracking, project management, all the basics. You can find a more complete review on Rev2.org after the link. Check it out!Rev2.org: Side Job TrackNo TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
Four Basic Checks to Ensure a Project Is Worthwhile
(Indexed 2007-10-11):
I’ve written before on choosing what not do to in your project portfolio. Judging what projects are most important to your business is one of the most vital processes to your company- after all, you have limited resources. Choose wrong, and if your competitors choose right, then you’ve fallen behind.Fear not, however; here are four [...]
Keeping the Pressure On to Motivate: Another Reason for More Detailed Tasks
(Indexed 2007-10-09):
I’ve written before on the advantages to building your project plans based on shorter, more detailed tasks to get better estimates. Johanna Rothman over at the Managing Project Management blog has posted another great reason to go with smaller, more detailed tasks: keeping the pressure on.By keeping the deadlines shorter, you avoid a lot of [...]
Four Things You Can Do to Hire Better and Head Off Resource Issues Early
(Indexed 2007-10-07):
Here’s something that gets me every time. A department within the company gets really busy. Projects start to mount up. The product they’re selling gets hot. Customers are demanding more. It quickly becomes obvious that they need more staff. Everyone talks about it. Everyone quickly agrees.So obviously, since everyone agrees, and they can see the [...]
PMS Relief: Guerilla Tactics for Project Management
(Indexed 2007-10-06):
Here’s a great guide for Project Managers at war with their projects:Guerilla Tactics for Project ManagementEnjoy!No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
Why are we doing this project again? Simple reminders for evaluating your project portfolio
(Indexed 2007-10-04):
Companies are often loaded with projects. In the larger companies, executive leadership often finds itself constantly looking for reasons not to do projects.There’s a great article over on Anticlue hererelated to this. Elyse muses on comparing the six prime reasons for performing a project, according to PMI’s book of knowledge:* Market Demand* Business Need* Customer [...]
PMing on the cheap: TaskBin free online project management
(Indexed 2007-10-04):
Mangospring has just released the beta of their TaskBin online project management software. It has a ton of really useful features typical to modern online PM tools, including RSS feeds, mobile access, and assorted other goodies. It’s fairly intuitive to use as well. Definitely worth a look if you need a cheap/inexpensive tool to pull [...]
Working with Aliens
(Indexed 2007-10-01):
In my off time, I am dabbling at being an author (dabbling, because I haven’t finished my novel yet, even though I have story bibles started for four of them- not very project managerish of me). This leadsme to read blogs on odd topics,including a lot of science and military.That interest led me to this [...]
DIY projects
(Indexed 2007-09-30):
There’s been a lot of buzz in the last year about Do-it-yourself IT folks. Business people bringing their own bits and pieces of IT functions into the workplace, circumventing the traditional IT department. CIO magazine even did a big article on it (a copy of the article made the rounds around our business departments, in [...]
UF Postings Past: Supplying Your Own Exit Strategy
(Indexed 2007-09-30):
Partnering with a vendor to supply a product that your company depends on is a high risk venture nowadays. You have probably felt the sting yourself. You find some piece of software that solves a big business problem, then the vendor is bought. They announce that theyre killing your product, but will port you to [...]
PMS Relief: The REAL Laws of Project Management
(Indexed 2007-09-29):
From the annals of Funny-Haha, here’s the *real* laws of project management:1. It takes one woman nine months to have a baby. It cannot be done in one month by impregnating nine women.2. Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn’t have to do it.3. You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible [...]
You can get things done better if you understand the people doing them
(Indexed 2007-09-27):
Everyone knows that motivated employees do better jobs. Motivation works universally. A motivated business owner will be more helpful to your project. Motivated team workers work faster. So on and so forth. The fifty-dollar question is, of course, how the heck do I motivate people?Step one to motivating people is understanding them. It’s also step [...]
PM Tools: @Task is Web-based Enterprise Project Management
(Indexed 2007-09-24):
@Task is a relatively new web-based enterprise project management tool. The features appear to be as in-depth as MS-Project, but it has specific advantages. For one,it’s web-based, so there’s no ‘thick client’ and it’s inherently easier to share than MS-project. Second, it supports integration with Salesforce and Outlook- a very nice bonus. Thirdly, it supports [...]
Six Excellent Requirements Management Articles You Should Read
(Indexed 2007-09-24):
Raven over at Raven’s Brain again brings us some wonderful content worth repeating. Here’s a link to a collection of six excellent requirements management articles.No TagsLike this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.
PMS Relief: Why Powerpoint isnt always the best presentation tool
(Indexed 2007-09-22):
This is an oldie but a goodie from the Annals of Internet Humor:The Gettysburg Address, as itmight have gone if Powerpoint had existed back then.This is great fun, but let it be a lesson too… just think back to this the next time you consider what to do for your next project presentation.No TagsLike this [...]
Free Requirements Management Webinar on Sept. 25th
(Indexed 2007-09-22):
Raven over at Raven’s Brain just posted about an upcoming Free Requirements Management Web Seminaron September 25th. More details on Raven’s site, and more details after that on Sticky Minds. The seminar is being led by HP and Blueprint and might turn up some value. If you have the spare hour, do check it out!No [...]
Leaders Do Not Complain
(Indexed 2007-09-20):
Project Management is often a thankless task.Youoften arethe leader of a project, expected to get it done, but you may not have the authorityto get it done yourself. You may not even have any staff of your own. You’re strapped for resources. You often feel like you’re begging for everything. You work long hours. Youget [...]
PM-Fu: Why Gantt Charts Are Useless in Agile Development- and How to Make Them Useful
(Indexed 2007-09-18):
The Tyner Blain blog posted a while back on Why Gantt Charts are useless in Agile Development. They’re right on many levels- I personally struggled with this early on in working with Agile Development. I know many PMs do. Every PM should read this, whether or not they’re working with Agile Development. It applies just [...]
We Do That Already.
(Indexed 2007-09-16):
I bet we’ve all seen this one: there’s a process or projectin the company that is obviously failing. The people involved seek outside help with resolving their problems. When advice is given to do X, Y, or Z to solve the problem, the answer comes back: “We already do that”.This is one of the most [...]
PMS Relief: Project Management Using Random Events
(Indexed 2007-09-14):
PMS (or Project Management Syndrome) stinks. It sets in when the stress of your project and the need to embrace processes overwhelm your rational thoughts. It is usually accompanied by excessive powerpointing, meetingitis, and a sudden urge to add TPS Report Cover Sheets to all your status reports.Here’s a little bit of PM humor to [...]
Dont Forget Adoption
(Indexed 2007-09-13):
There is a trend in software project management to assume that project success is simple: If you come in on time, within budget, and meet the business owner’s list of requirements, then your project is a success. But what if the business doesn’t use your shiny new software application? What if they use it all [...]
Five Steps of Getting New Team Members Acclimated Quickly
(Indexed 2007-09-12):
It has always amazed me at what a poor job companiesdo bringing people on board. I have to admit myself to throwing people to the wolves before. Typically, no matter how good your intentions, you hire people when you’re overrun and can’t dedicate the proper time to them. It never fails- you have to be [...]
PM-Fu: How Much Detail Is Enough?
(Indexed 2007-09-10):
Project Managers all over the world struggle with this problem. How much detail is enough in my project plan?Most Project Managers error to the side of high-level tasks. It’s easier to do at the beginning, everyone can agree on it, and it’s easy to get estimates on.It’s also, unfortunately, what leads to problems. Let’s say, [...]
The Self-Project: 25 Tips to Being Happier at Work
(Indexed 2007-09-08):
Attitude matters. Nobody likes dealing with unhappy people. They also don’t like dealing with genuinely fake people, so don’t screw on fake smiles or attitudes. It can color your every interaction. An unhappy PM will have an unhappy project team. It’s just a given. And unhappy project teams miss deadlines, screw things up, and in [...]
The Self-Project: Six Building Blocks of a Quality Reputation
(Indexed 2007-09-07):
Reputation. It takes years to build, and seconds to destroy. It’s also one of the primary building blocks of your career. Perception is reality; you are to your coworkers and superiors what you appear to be.How does one go about building a quality reputation? Whole stacks of books could be and have been written on [...]
PM-Fu: Seven Steps to Gaining Buy-in to Change
(Indexed 2007-09-05):
Change is exciting. Change is the spice of life.Change is scary as hell when it affects your livelihood.Change Management in the workplace is difficult. Project Managers must deal with Change Management on a daily basis, as projects by their nature bring change to the company. Keeping this simple list of rules in mind can help [...]
The Self-Project: MBA in a Page- a Simple Guide to All Major Management Theories
(Indexed 2007-09-03):
Guy Kawasaki posted about this over in his blog last month- and I think it may be one of the most valuable references I’ve ever seen in the business world.http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/is a single web page referencing every major management theory out there- pretty much everything that you’d cover in an MBA program, and more. Since discovering [...]
The Self-Project: Jerry Seinfelds Productivity Secret
(Indexed 2007-09-03):
Lifehacker ran an article recently on an interview with comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry is considered to be a highly productive comedian- he cranks out good quality jokes with amazing regularity. Jerry’s key? Act every day. Make a chain. Use a calendar. Mark every single day that you met your goal.The implications to project management are [...]
Five Articles You Should Read Before You Powerpoint Again
(Indexed 2007-09-03):
Do you poison people with Powerpoint? Do you dread presenting to others? Are you allergic to slides?So was I, for many years. It was at one time a point of pride for me that I had made it so long in my career without using Powerpoint. Nowadays, though, I can’t really do my job without [...]
UF Postings Past: Three Ways to Destroy Morale
(Indexed 2007-09-01):
Motivation is a big deal in modern management principles. Anyone can hire workers, assign them tasks and wait for results. It takes a leader to motivate and get people to want to be assigned tasks and produce results.Sometimes in our quest to get those who are not motivated to do their jobs, we can destroy [...]
T-minus 36 hours
(Indexed 2007-08-30):
At 12:00 Central standard time tomorrow, I’ll be officially moving the blog over to the new site, which will be at the URL www.undocumentdfeatures.com. I will also be cutting over the feeds, etc to read from there. You should find a batch of new content waiting for you there. I will slowly [...]
PM-Fu: Keep Your Eye On The Ball
(Indexed 2007-08-29):
Keep your eye on the ball. Take your eye off it, and you’ll always fail- you’re just swinging blindly.This is a simple concept we learn as kids. It applies all through life. It also is an old cliche, and it gets written on time and again. Nevertheless, I’m going to touch on it here, because [...]
Know All Your Players
(Indexed 2006-12-08):
People like to feel important. They like to feel like a part of something bigger. This is a key part of getting what you need to accomplish your business goals.When leading any project, a manager should visit everyone who is performing any action for his project at least once, preferably twice- once when [...]
Life gets busy
(Indexed 2006-06-27):
Well, I have fallen off the blogging wagon again. In truth, I find that the things I have been doing lately have been very fulfilling, and that I simply do not have time nor motivation to do a number of things lately that were at one time very important to me. Among them [...]
Sweat the Small Stuff
(Indexed 2006-05-22):
In project management, it is often the commonplace that trips us up. Why is this?People overlook easy things when faced with challenges. Some do it because they fear the difficult task, and thus their focus is on it and not the simple tasks before them. Some relish the challenge of the difficult. [...]
Why is the Business so Impatient?
(Indexed 2006-02-28):
If you work in IT or on IT projects, you probably have faced impatient users. They never seem to understand why IT moves so slowly. Here’s some hints as to why they’re so unhappy:Let’s say the business writes up a project proposal. They research their business process, identify key problems with it, [...]
Too Many Hours Can Spoil the Soup
(Indexed 2006-02-23):
In your projects, if you are lucky, you will very likely have a super worker- one of those workaholics that take on tons of work and just get things done. These people are blessing to your project. Be careful, though, that they do not become a curse.If a workaholic gets going in the [...]
United Fronts
(Indexed 2006-02-17):
Here’s a trick to maintaining a strong strategy and direction for your project. Before holding major meetings, meet informally with the key decision makers involved in decisions to be made at the coming meeting. Discuss all key issues to come up at the meeting, make the preliminary decisions for each issue, and agree [...]
Seeing Eye Project Managers
(Indexed 2006-02-04):
No one likes to be blindsided. Stakeholders in projects are no exceptions. If you are a project manager, you are expected to be in control of your project and to know where it is going. In fact, your stakeholders assume that you do. What does this mean to you? Quite [...]
Welcome to the Folks over at PM Reporter!
(Indexed 2006-02-04):
Tony Zink has started a new blog feed page over at PM Reporter and has included our feed (along with over forty other good, quality blogs on business and project management). If you are a reader of PM Reporter and new to our blog, welcome! If you’re a reader of my blog, why [...]
Report Yourself
(Indexed 2006-01-24):
Any successful manager is only successful if someone knows it. Whether you are a project manager, department manager, systems manager, executive, or whatever, if you are responsible for a group of company resources, then you must report your success or failures to someone. Even the board of directors must report their company’s successes [...]
Compete with your Competitors
(Indexed 2006-01-20):
Managers are often an aggressive lot. Successful ones are especially so. The business world is often about winning. You compete with other companies for customers. You compete with other executives for promotions. Your projects compete with other projects for funds and resources. Here’s some advice regarding that: remember [...]