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Micromanagement Type II
There is another kind of micromanagement not covered in
my original article. It is more
damaging than type I, yet even easier for a busy and smart leader to fall
into.
How Personal a Plan?
People often ask how planning should relate to
things outside of work. Here are some ideas to help with that.
End Date Not?
What if a project does not have an end date. Is it actually
a project?
Long Cycles
Are we so dedicated to the power of the 24/7 workplace that
we forget that some deliverables require time? I think so. Here are some
ideas about a few deliverables that take more than a quick run-through.
On The Importance of Getting Ready
Most project managers believe that getting ready is
important, but what are the three most important parts?
Scaled Process
This article talks about the mismatch of process and project
and gives some ideas on how to reduce the impact of a process that is less
than optimal for the project.
Design Build
The plan is to figure it out as you go, invent
it on the fly, to be flexible and meet the needs without all that
‘formality’ stuff. But what about a plan?
Managing Your Inbox
Taking your inbox to zero every day sounds
almost impossible, but if you are going to keep your priorities straight,
its almost required and its not as hard as you think.
The Techno Leash
How available do you need to be to your project
team. Is it every
minute, hour, day, or week?
Virtual Resistance
People sometimes resist doing what is asked of them. In this article we look
at passive-aggressive behavior, how it impacts projects, how email practices
facilitate it, and how you can start changing this behavior in your team.
How Email Causes Meetings
People have complained about meetings for years. Now email has joined
meetings as worker's least favorite activities. What email has added to the
mix is that bad email practices actually cause more meetings to occur.
Additionally, meetings are now taking on the same bad practices as email.
Here is how, why, and what to do about it.
Control of High Performance
Internetworked Teams
Control in traditional project teams has its limits - and those limits are
being stretched everyday by fast moving markets, 24/7 workweeks, and
projects that span multiple time zones. Here are ideas about effective
controls in today's fast-moving Internetworked teams.
Traditional Project Controls
Control in traditional organizations has its limits - and those limits are
being stretched everyday by fast moving markets, 24/7 workweeks, and
projects that span multiple time zones. Here starts a view of the current
reality as a lead-in to how control is played out within Internetworked
organizations.
Project EQ
One of the more interesting views for building stronger leaders is buried
behind a name that stops many technical people cold. Yet it presents
valuable insights that can help with both personal and team performance.
Take a look at this new dimension in style.
Planning Season
Are you in the middle of planning for next year? Have a look at our take on
Planning Season.
Micromanagement
What is it really, and what is your limit? In this article
we propose when it is appropriate and when it can kill
an organization.
Working 'IN' Versus 'ON'
Lately I've had many conversations about clients needing to
work ‘on’ their business in addition to their daily work ‘in’ their
business. It's more of a challenge than it sounds - for larger or smaller
businesses.
Customs Lost
Working relationships are the basis of successful projects.
But when the team is distributed, we give up much of what we know works.
Is Your Plan or Team the Problem?
You can’t
deliver a project with just a plan and no team; however, you can deliver
a project with a team and no plan. While project managers everywhere
would like to believe otherwise, it actually happens all the time. Plan
and team are inseparable concepts – the challenge is that the two are
generally dealt with separately: during a project they should be dealt
with as one. It is often the mismatch between the two that frustrates
leaders and troubles projects.
Complexity
At some level, we all like to keep things simple. But at
the same time we continually drive our businesses and our lives to ever
increasing complexity. You need to simplify your communications, simplify
your product lines, and simplify your processes in order to get the best
possible results from your project investments.
Fixing the Old Stuff
One of the many problems in need of new ideas is how to
enhance old software to make it young, feature-current, and maintainable.
One of these processes is called Refactoring. It sounds like an answer to
the challenges of old software.
Three Immutable Laws of Risk
Management
Risk management is a grand notion and helps those that
practice it. Unfortunately there are three major roadblocks that prevent
most businesses and governments from implementing risk management.
Personal Planning
Paper is back, PDAs are losing ground. Here are ideas about
two great ways to restore order in your personal space.
Best Supporting Roles
Virtual
workspaces, blogs, wikis and archives can become the lifeblood of larger
self-organized project teams, for which all-inclusive, continuous
information sharing is a founding principle. Meanwhile, the author
recommends that email take a backseat on project communication.[
This
is another installment in the series on project teams
published by Projects@Work. To read this, a free registration is required
at the Projects@Work website.
[click to read]
Just in Case
or Just in Time?
Contingencies, padding, and conservatism all have their
place. But when I hear people say "I've made every schedule and commitment
for every project I've ever led" my ears perk up and I think about
conservatism run amok.
Pair Programming
Can assigning two programmers to every task actually save
money? Yes!
Organize
Thyself
This installment of our series in Projects at Work magazine
looks at how the Hub and Spoke model that has been previously discussed
evolves into Self-Organizing teams. While self organizing may sound
chaotic, it is actually the basis of most successful teams - as members of
those teams both collectively and individually take on project
responsibility. Yes there is still a strong (perhaps stronger) need for
Project Management and Project Leadership, but the roles are not the
Command-and-Control project dictators of the 20th century. Self-Organizing
Teams are the force of today.
This is the fourth article in the series on project teams
published by Projects@Work. To read this, a free registration is required
at the Projects@Work website.
Project Stories
Do your project leaders tell stories about their projects?
Do they help? Here are some ideas about the importance and telling pf
project stories.
Careers and Relationships
I hear frequent debate about the value of project training
certificates versus the power of experience and good connections. Here are
some ideas about the value of each and some ideas about how to leverage all
of your background and connections.
The Quick Look
Sometimes you need to assess a project team in a short
time. Here are the first things we look at.
Seed Corn
While job loses due to offshore projects can be
devastating, the long term affect is worse.
Bygone Heroes
'Heroic' leaders thrive on power and hierarchy. Their need
to control can throttle communication and innovation on projects,
frustrating teams and slowing progress. What drives heroic leaders, and
what can be done about them?
This is the third article in the series on project teams
published by Projects@Work. To read this, a free registration is required
at their website.
The Death of Charts
Some companies place great value the org chart. But there
is a better way--a networked model--to organize your team. This is the second article in the series
on project teams published by Projects@Work. To read this, a free registration is required at the Projects@Work website.
Enterprise Project Management
Centralization of project management and establishing a
project management office are high on the list of many enterprises as they
experienced continuing dissatisfaction with their investments in projects,
products, and technologies. As in many ongoing challenges, eventually some
leaders will want to revert to the command-and-control mentality, but it’s
not that simple. A centralist viewpoint is rarely the right answer.
Someone Else's Trap
Reading about the success of business leaders in the press
has turned into a leading pastime. Unfortunately, the glowing successes,
clearly articulated strategies, and unfailing determination are not always
as they seem.
The Certification
Trap
The growth in the number of people seeking
and getting skill or professional certifications is amazing. The reasons are
many, but the value of these investments to employers and individuals needs discussion.
The Team Trap
Just as most anything in life can break, teams can break too.
This article examines team failure and the leader's role.
Pareto and the 80-20 Rule
A lens for analysis and improvement.
Building Project
Teams in the Offshore Environment
This article in Mass High Tech magazine offers ideas on building team for offshore projects.
Integrating Project
and Excel
This short tutorial, originally published in Project
Network, the newsletter of the Microsoft Project Users Group, provides ideas
on how to use Project features to move Data to Excel and how to avoid some
of the pitfalls of the conversion process.
The Trust
Trap
As people work together on projects, they continually
evaluate trust, both personal and in the context of the project. This
article examines trust in project teams and presents ideas on how to work
with it.
Failure of
Consensus
Why does consensus fail? The most commonly cited reason is
cycle time - particularly in organizations where consensus is not
well-practiced or supported by the norms of the organization. But sometimes
the reason is buried in the transition from command-and-control.
Requirements Undone
Requirements are still the leading cause of project
problems. Here are our top three recommendations.
The Testing Trap
All projects need to be tested. Yet testing is one of
the most often-deferred parts of a project, even though it has been
demonstrated that the sooner you start testing, the sooner a project is
done.
Words Count
Yes, words count, but meaning counts too.
The Consensus Trap
Agreeing on everything, accomplishing nothing.
Training or Networking?
My recent writing on industry skill certifications got me thinking about
the value of education and how to leverage one of the most important
benefits of your learning investment.
The Reality Trap
Sometimes business reality means making commitments that are not backed up
by a plan. Here are some ideas about how to deal with that reality.
Thinking about upgrading
to MS Project 2003? Here are my experiences with installing it. It went
well, but included a few interesting twists.
As a project leader, how
much time do you spend managing up? What about managing your peers? And
your reports?
People sometimes confuse 'not agreeing'
with 'not understanding the context'. The right amount of context is
critical, too much and you lose the audience, too little and the
conversation can be pointless. Here are some ideas on the importance of
context as it relates to Internet-based collaborative tools and offshore
development.
Tom Peters has recently reminded me about the importance of
team diversity. While there are many kinds of team diversity that are
important, today my topic is cognitive and gender diversity.
Everyone will tell you to
build a prototype and then throw it away. With mechanical design, it’s
done routinely; with electronics, we plan on it. But entire methodologies
have been designed to make sure that your software prototype is saved.
Project planning reality is
that everything is an estimate. This trap is set by executives; where
leadership power collides with good intentions and project uncertainty.
This article describes how well-intending businesses enter this trap, and
how to avoid it.
The Technology Trap is set
when you have happy customers, a successful product, a profitable
business, well managed projects, excellent portfolio management, and your
competitors are starting to nip at your heals. With the best of
intentions, taking great care of your current customers can lead to your
downfall.
I want to introduce a new
word into your project management vocabulary; herding. Herding can happen
when all of you best-intentioned team building runs out of control.
Social Network Analysis (SNA)
is a methodology to rigorously gather, organize, and represent the complex
interactions of the members of your team or organization. It focuses on
the people and how they interact and can provide powerful ideas on how to
improve team performance.
Do you send redundant
messages to co-workers to be sure at least one gets through? Welcome to
the Tell-Me Trap. In this reprint from the April 2003 issue of 'People on
Projects', we take a humorous yet disturbing look at the confusion caused
by all of our electronic communications options. To help you escape this
trap, we provide ideas on steps you can take to streamline your teams'
communications.
A lessons-learned process
needs to be supported by a business's culture in order to provide accurate
and valuable feedback.
Moving from a legacy product
or IT system to its replacement is a challenging task. If the old system
is ineffective, the motivation is clear. But the major challenge is to
replace a successful product or system when your strategic planning and
competitive intelligence say that you must.
During June several product
strategies have caught my eye. Here are some ideas and viewpoints about
three strategies: Oracle, Microsoft, and Linux on the desktop.
While attending ProjectWorld
in Boston on June 4 & 5, 2003, I saw and heard about many interesting
products and concepts that are part of the ongoing evolution of project
management. Here are three.
In this reprint from the
February 2002 issue of People on Projects, we examine the decision process
from the perspective of what is required to insure that the requirements
of participation, understanding, stakeholders, executives, and the project
team are all satisfied.
One critical decision that a
product development team makes is not ‘if’ to work with customers, but
how. We look at customer involvement in three degrees: casual, involved,
and committed.
‘Mind Mapping’ is a great
visual tool made better since you can transfer project plans between
visual maps and Microsoft Project. This provides a quick way to turn
requirements into a project design or provide a new way to analyze an
existing project.
Everyone wants so much to be on the
leading edge that they over-hype anything that has the slightest chance of
being a big deal. He is why you shouldn't.
An issue that often gets in the way of
selling a decision to a team is the extent to which the decision seems
arbitrary rather than the result of reasoned judgment
Calculating ROI on projects is a great
concept. Unfortunately in practice, it is more likely to harm a business
than help it.
We all need to take every opportunity to
make a great impression with our customers. Be especially careful after a
focus group.
Five competencies for
teams that have the basics in place. These can turn successful projects
into exceptional projects.
Tools for seasoned project managers running
complex projects.
Your want to expand by
taking your products and services to global markets. Lots of customers,
new opportunities for growth, the excitement of the multi-national. Great
idea! The reality is much harder as 'The International Trap' awaits. Are
you clever enough to avoid it?
Small companies can be quickly overloaded with processes
that are well meaning, but designed for large or complex projects in large
organizations.
I don’t know if you received my last email. Unfortunately
you have the same problem with emails that you send to your project team.
If you evaluate leadership based on revenue, it may be
WebEx, eRoom, Centra or one of many fine application suppliers. But if you
measure based on numbers of users of workspaces, it may be Yahoo Groups.
Ideas about uncovering the reality of your
projects, products, and processes.
Building a visual representation of future
of products and product lines is a complex, discussion-centric, and long
term activity. This idea focuses on how to develop and document the
results of that process.
PTC claims "Products First"
(tm) as the basis for successful companies. Read about this strategy and
how to drive it.
In a down economy, training
is often one of the first expenses to be cut. Here are some ideas on how
to get the best value for your training investment.
When we
present project or product leadership to groups, we usually ask them about
the best and worst practices that they see from their leaders. This
article recaps the ones most frequently mentioned.
The debate over the advantages and disadvantages of
developing products for big companies rages on. Here are some ideas about
the effectiveness and productivity of both large and small companies.
The finesse with which a project team or company makes
decisions is an indicator of the potential success of the project and
company.
You need
product development leadership (PDL). While you may feel that you already
have some, let me explain the passion that I feel about what it takes to
lead product development.
I use the term "tools" to describe the major software
and hardware that is used by teams to describe, plan, design, implement,
and test during product development. Too often tool investments do not pay
back; here are ideas for a better return on your tool investment.
I have written about Product Champions in several past
newsletters. Here are the top-level challenges for the Product Champion.
Just in time for the New Year, three impactive ideas
that will greatly improve the predictability of your projects.
A look at that causes of politics in product development
projects and an approach to keep politics from taking over the project.
The working environment is largely set by the tone of
the people. While there are many guides to selection of personnel, here
are four advanced characteristics that I believe are important in
selecting an effective team.
The leadership personalities that best run projects
change as a project progresses. This is not a unique concept; it can be
seen in startups as an entrepreneur has different personality, skills, and
temperament than a person running an established business.
Luck notwithstanding, risks ignored will usually come
back as less controllable and higher cost events later in the project.
Good and bad reasons for applying methods to your new
product development madness.
A powerful way to move beyond user-scenarios is using
metaphors for both defining and explaining new products.
Microsoft Project 2002
Since Microsoft claims an 85% market share for its
project management software, the release of a new version is significant.
He are some ideas and recommendations.
Risk
First
One of the hardest concepts for project planning is to
place the riskiest tasks as early in the project as possible. This is
maximizes the time available to recover if there are unexpected issues. So
why is it hard? Plenty of reasons.
Global Development Basics
Costs of offshore product development are a fraction of
US costs, with software development advertised as low as $15 an hour. USA
Today reports that India alone has a $7.8 billion software-export
business. But global development is tricky; here are our basics of global
development.
"Golden Moments" sounds like such a good thing, but in
project planning, Golden Moments are the times when everything has to come
together and work, or you loose control of the project. Most people build
Golden Moments by accident.
Usability is one of the most intangible features of a
product, but poor usability will overwhelm even the best feature set. This
issue contains ideas on how to measure and improve usability.
Should you ask your team to work over the holidays?
Holiday time often becomes extra time to work on projects… but is it
better to give everyone some holiday downtime?
Sometimes projects last say beyond when they should be
stopped. This issue presents some ideas on how to step up to the decision
to stop a project, and some views on why you should not.
At the earliest stages of product development, the
product definition should be short and to the point. Marketing glitz
should be second in importance to clarity of benefits, purpose, intent,
and principal features. There are two documents that I like to see early
in a product development project.
Two thoughts this month. First, protecting yourself
against features and updates that inadvertently damage the plan file, and
my perennial favorite, backups.
Collaborative project tools are one indicator of the
size of the collaborative market. There appear to be as many as 80
companies competing in this segment.
You have the best asynchronous collaboration software,
but did your team see the critical message you posted?
This issue contains ideas on the different kinds of
collaborative applications
you can build for your product or buy for your company’s or team’s use.
This issue starts the development of ideas on how to
position your team to both use and provide collaborative tools.
Project leaders take risks. If the
risks are too conservative, the project may fail in the marketplace, if
too high the project might not finish. Developing and maintaining a
balanced project risk portfolio is as important to your projects as it is
to your personal investments.
Four barriers to communication of risks in projects.
In software development there are well-documented
statistics about catching defects early in a project and how much cheaper
"earlier" is than "later". While I have not found similar statistics on
managing risks early in projects, the same is certainly true.
This guidance calls for all companies listed on the
London Stock Exchange to have implemented a pervasive risk management plan
for their businesses.
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