Project Shrink

In episode 16 of Project Potion Dave Prior and Bas de Baar talk about coworking and using video for status reports. As defined by Wikipedia: “Coworking is a style of work which involves a shared working environment, sometimes an office yet independent activity. Unlike in a typical office environment, those coworking are usually not employed [...]

Ah. Adventure Maps. I was happily surprised that Mondays post about Project Adventure Maps took so much interest. As it should. Away with spreadsheets, checklists and grid prisons. Bring on your crayons! So. Adventure Mapping. A highly playful, interactive and intuitive way of communicating complex elements in your project. Or just an excuse to go [...]

You can meet some awesome people on the Internet. Last year I got into contact with Margaret Meloni. Talking about awesome. Lately we have been discussing the value of leveraging the internet and social media. Margaret consults with individuals and organizations on the topic of conflict resolution and she coaches professionals in advancing their careers. [...]

So. We should have fun and creativity in projects. So. The team should have a shared understanding of the goal and approach. So. If people are involved you get acceptance and engagement, multiple point of views, and alignment. Co-creation is a powerful concept. So. Metaphors and storytelling are useful techniques. So. How do I get [...]

We all learn important things from the people we work with. One of the first things I learned was to celebrate early. If you have the funds in your project budget for one team party, do it at the beginning of the project, not at the end. Celebrate you are going to work together. Fun, [...]

The Project Shrink is three years old this week. July 15th 2007 I created this blog and called it “Project Shrink”, because I wanted to emphasize “human behavior” in projects and I have difficulty pronouncing “Project Sociologist”. In 3 years I wrote 468 blog posts. Although perhaps not always obvious, all posts are based upon [...]

In episode 15 of Project Potion, Dave and Bas talk about CloudWorkers, digital nomads that can work from anywhere, and travel and work in general. This episode is based upon the post: “New Trends In The Project Ecosystem“. Subscribe to the Podcast Other people who liked this article liked these tooProject Managers. On Video? Awesome!This [...]

Some people still wonder how Twitter can be useful. Short 140 character messages about what you had for lunch. Hmph! Although I got some great lunch suggestions from the Twitterverse, this is not why I find it useful. Hal Macomber explained microblogging as being able to stick your head out of your cubicle and ask: [...]

“We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals. We know now that it is bad economics.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt Don’t you just love Kiva. Without having an idea about the internals of the organization, in my opinion, their contribution to society is awesome. And it’s not just this micro-lending organization that is [...]

There are several places on the internet where companies can publish a project and put together a team on a project per project base. Examples I am aware of are oDesk, vWorker, eLance and Guru. These marketplaces range from pure “finding resources” like a traditional job site, to a complete integrated project life cycle, including [...]