The lasting impact of poor quality

This past weekend I read an article — sorry I can’t find the link, this Forbes article is pretty typical though — about how it is a shame that the past quality problems still haunt America’s car companies. In particular, the author made the case that car buyers need to get over it.   IMO, poor [...]

PM Quote of the Day — James Michener

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries. 

PM Quote of the Day — Various

  The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary   . FYI, this quote is attributed to Vince Lombardi, Harvey McKay, May Smith, and Donald Kendall.  I figured that it sounded like it “fit” in Lombardi’s mouth best.

Value Management and PMOs

I’ve been working on an initiative called “Value Delivery,” which will incorporate value management into our various PMO methods, tools, etc.  These activities are often listed as typical PMO functions, but this really only honored in the breach.  Value management never seems to take off given a PMO’s traditional emphasis on implementing project management methods, [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Howard Stern

I will never feel successful.  Howard expresses the emotions that fuel his drive for success and acclaim, which I touched on earlier in my post “The Muse that is Melancholy“.  As that post notes, however, that doesn’t mean one will be happy.  And Lord knows Howard ain’t a happy man.

Great post/thread on Mathematics, PM, and complexity

Glen Alleman and a number of commenters contributed to a great thread on math, PM, and complexity (here).  I try to keep the ideas of complexity “science” in mind when planning strategy and its execution.  In particular, I have a deep respect for the power of self-organization and the need to create flexible rather than [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Montaigne

The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death. 

Missing the point about Capt. Phillips and leadership

While I was in Virginia last week, I saw this interesting piece “When to Take a Bullet” in The Washington Post (here). The WP had solicited comments from leadership experts and started the conversation with this intro: As the heroic captain Richard Phillips reminded us when he offered himself instead of his crew to the [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Flannery O’Connor

Conviction without experience makes for harshness.

PMI and Agilests?

Greg Balestrero — CEO of the Project Management Institute — recently posted (here) on his experiences at the Scrum Gathering in Orlando.  In my experience, Greg and the PMI staff have been very eager to foster a better relationship among the various methodology camps.  Per Greg’s post, [t]he intent of the visit was to bridge [...]