The Role of a Project Visionary

dim, 08/14/2011 - 09:47 — ian
The visionary is an individual who understands the business as well as the technology, and who has the ability to detect trends and to project ahead, to perceive future opportunities based on weak signals.

Experts may not be aware of their own bias

dim, 08/14/2011 - 09:33 — ian

Projects need experts.  Technological and scientific development depends upon experts.  We expect experts to bring the knowledge to support decisions.  However, experts on a subject are especially vulnerable to cognitive bias.  Experts are brilliant, but biased.

Division of Labor is not Optimization

dim, 09/05/2010 - 20:51 — ian
The most effective companies I’ve ever worked with are those in which the engineers understand marketing and marketing understands engineering.
 
Now, why should this be so extraordinary, or so unusual? We could substitute designers for engineers and finance for marketing; or developers and users, production and projects, operations and sales. 
 
Why do we focus so obsessively on division of labor, with the end result that only one person at the top of the tree can see the whole picture? 

Project Business Case - Why and How

mer, 07/14/2010 - 20:53 — ian
If there is no business case for a project, or if the business case is not up to the job, there are a number of problems that arise, concerning governance, team empowerment and the use of effective measures:
 

Learning Lessons from Project History (Single Sigma Shift Method)

mar, 05/04/2010 - 14:08 — ian
We don’t learn from historical experience. Now when it comes to a project, learning from past experience is what they call a “no brainer”. It’s free information, paid for through trial and error that s really indispensable for use on future projects. 
 
This video illustrates beautifully what the problem is:
 

Easy wins in project management

mer, 03/03/2010 - 08:23 — ian
Amongst all the processes in a business, project management offers the best possible opportunities for easy wins. However, whilst project management is recognised as being vital to innovation and change management, it is often underinvested due to its perceived difficulty.

How to present project management to school students

dim, 02/21/2010 - 14:49 — ian

This is the kind of thing I would prepare if asked to present project management to school students. And I would probably adopt a flipchart style. (This would save having to present a monotonous deck of slides.) I would do something really simple. First the students would want to hear something about the kind of projects that are done and why they are important all over the world. Students like to hear about the exciting real world and there's nothing more 'real' than a good project!

Another look at quality

lun, 02/15/2010 - 21:46 — ian

Quality is usually defined as meeting requirements and satisfying the customer; no more, no less. 

http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=5150

Managing projects upwards

lun, 02/15/2010 - 19:55 — ian

There is one major skill that does not get mentioned enough on projects and that is about the ability to manage upwards.  Managing upwards on projects is not just about the quality of reporting, and it is certainly not a “kiss up, kick-down” mentality, but rather the opposite.  

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