Sound and fury, signifying nothing

Communications practices are a gold mine for the troubled project prospector. Another sign that a project is headed for trouble is another communication quirk: discussions aren’t reflected in any documented issue, action, risk, deliverable, etc.  The most familiar example is a colleague who can always “fill in the details” on a topic during the discussion, but [...]

Best and Worst Project Names

The name of an initiative is an oft-overlooked aspect of communications.  You’ll get a decent name if you work with an experienced OCM crew.  However, the most effective names I’ve seen weren’t focus-group tested so to speak.  Here they are: Everest: Used for a SAP project that was challenging with a tight time line; however, [...]

Week 3 Performance Report — Operation Dunk 2010

Now that I finally have published that promised post on performance reporting, I owe an update on Operation Dunk 2010. Weight — Down 3.5 lbs from week 2 (253.5 from 261) Wii Age — Forgot to measure this week… will assume I’m still at 55. I’m using the games to get some basic endurance and balance [...]

Portents of Impending Doom

How do you know if a project or program is going off the rails?  IMO, the first signs show up where you might expect, in communications.  Remember that the core of project communications consists of presenting the progress, status, and forecast for the various elements the project is supposed to deliver. Perhaps that is the [...]

Week 2 Performance Report — Operation Dunk 2010

I was about to post on how unreliable performance reporting — progress, status, and forecast — is one of the first signs of project trouble.  However, I realized that I hadn’t posted on my own “Operation Dunk 2010” performance, so here goes: I’ve made some progress on my weight (the weight reduction KPI is related to the [...]

What is “ready to use”?

I’ve found that the packaged application and custom development fields make at least some nod to standard project management practices.  No doubt there are many suboptimal practitioners, but few ignore or openly bad mouth project management. Infrastructure — servers, network, and desktop — appears to still be another matter.  I’ve been shocked by how much expediting [...]

What will I need to “build” so I can dunk?

Per my last full post, I want to re-build my capability to dunk.  And to make sure that we all “know what done looks like”, by dunk I mean to dunk a men’s regulation basketball in a 10-foot goal by EOY 2010.   As I broke down the work, there are at least three sub-capabilities I [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Winston Churchill

It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required. 

Building capabilities for the New Year

I’ve struggled to find relevant topics for a while now.  It was far easier for me to post good stuff while at SAP because it was part of my job.   It is far harder to at Mead Johnson because the most interesting material is best left unaired.  I’ll try to throw out nuggets where I [...]