“School solution” is a military-phrase for the standard way in which one would approach a problem or scenario. While the phrase often is applied pejoratively, it doesn’t have to be so. In fact, sometimes I wish I heard more folks at least make a gesture towards such standards. This concept came to mind when I [...]
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: Risk Management, risk mitigation, Risk Response, School Solution | 1 Comment »
I hope I didn’t scare you off the latest PM Network (September 2009) with my recent lament about a column (my lament is here). The piece assumed that we still needed to convince PMs that they had to be business savvy. In fact, this issue is chock full of articles that assume PMs get that and want to get [...]
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: Eric Morfin, executive buy-in, Leadership, mentoring, PM Network, PMI, Project Management Skills, two-way communication | Leave a Comment »
What worries you, masters you.
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: John Locke, PM Quote of the Day, worry | Leave a Comment »
I saw a somewhat depressing article in this month’s PM Network about the need for project managers to get business-savvy. Not that there’s anything wrong with what Gary Heerkens writes (the article itself is here). What saddens me is what this article implies about the mindset of project managers: Too many project managers don’t see “business understanding” [...]
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: Business, Gary Heerkens, PM Network, PMBOK Guide, PMI, Project Management, Project Management Skills, Project Manager | 9 Comments »
In order to have a plot, you have to have a conflict, something bad has to happen.
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: Mike Judge, PM Quote of the Day | Leave a Comment »
When evaluating change requests, I’ve seen many of the same questions asked: Do we have the needed budget? Do we have the right resources? Have all the business partners signed off on this change? More sophisticated approaches will also bring focus on the benefits, risks, and added complexities that the change will introduce. However, I’ve [...]
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: asking questions, Beavis, Beavis and Butthead, Butthead, change control, change control board, Leadership, Portfolio Management, Program Management, Project Management, Project Management Skills | 4 Comments »
Car designers are just going to have to come up with an automobile that outlasts the payments. Erma Bombeck captures the essence of the planned obsolescence…
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: Dodge Caliber, Erma Bombeck, planned obsolescence, PM Quote of the Day | Leave a Comment »
The hottest Crossderry search term over the last few weeks has been “Dodge Caliber”, which brings folks to my “Benefits vs. Disbenefits” post. Probably not quite the take that most link followers expected, but the image does point them to Eric Beckinger’s cri de coeur. I guess I should opine briefly on why I empathized w/ [...]
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: benefits, benefits realization, disbenefits, Dodge Caliber, Eric Beckinger, Trabant, Trabi | Leave a Comment »
There are no second acts in American lives.
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: F. Scott Fitzgerald, PM Quote of the Day, second act | 1 Comment »
My last full post — on effective presentations — highlighted the “Post-It” method for composing and arranging one’s story. There are other techniques that help to structure one’s story line and its foundation. I’ve found affinity diagramming an essential tool for brainstorming. The process is can be really just as simple as outlined in the affinity [...]
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: affinity diagram, brainstorming, Glen Alleman, presentation skills | Leave a Comment »
