SAP Solution Manager Enterprise Edition — Broadcast Series

If you’re in the SAP ecosystem, you’ve probably heard about the new capabilities that SAP Solution Manager Enterprise Edition delivers.   The product management team for SAP Solution Manager will offer a series of virtual presentations ranging from an overview down to the Expert Guided Implementation service for SAP Solution Manager.  These sessions are available on [...]

Bridging the PM/Management Gap

I like the title of Sanjay Saini’s post on the lack of communication between project managers and senior management — “Make the Effort.” One can quibble with his specific suggestions, but his exhortation to communication more regularly, frequently,and transparently is right on: Reviewing progress and profitability should not be something that waits until year’s end. [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Andrew Jackson

One man with courage makes a majority. 

PMI CEO’s perspective on the stimulus package

I forgot to link to this Greg Balestrero post (here) on the US stimulus package (then still in debate).  He asks a lot of great questions about whether Congress and the Obama administration have thought through how to make this portfolio most effective. I’ll focus my comments on Greg’s first two PM-oriented suggestions for the [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Margaret Thatcher

Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.

Glen Alleman’s Mission to the Agilests

I don’t know why I think of Glen’s efforts to reconcile agilests and PMs in religious terms. Maybe it’s because many in both camps see topics as either/or — either you’re with us or against us. Or maybe I worry that it’s a hopeless cause (which is why St. Jude graces this post). There’s not [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Abraham Lincoln

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. This quote is useful to counter colleagues who disparage planning in general. It is, however, important to remember that initiating and planning activities aren’t for simply “easing into the project” (in the unfortunate phrase of a [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Anonymous

The curse of first love is that you can’t feel first love a second time. 

What to do with MBOs?

After a round of performance reviews with my team, I’m so with Jonathan Becher about the pitfalls of management by objectives (here).  It is easy to fall into the vicious cycle he describes, where MBOs that measure outputs, rather than impact, [which then] cause outputs to decrease. Which encourages more bad management by bad objectives. [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Chinese Fortune Cookie

Be bold, brave, and forthright and the bold, the brave, and the forthright will gather round you.