Archive | November, 2007

Top 5 Project Management Blogs 2007

Yes, it is that time of the year. Well, almost. I want to start early this year with my “Best of 2007″ series… I hope I am the first… my Top 5 Project Management Blogs. The ranking is based upon the 5 blogs I shared or starred the most in my RSS reader. The blogs [...]

Read more
What Drives Project People?

What Drives Project People?

Its difficult to really put your finger on the subject of stakeholder interests. It is more a guessing game than a science, so we need to make as much sense of the topic as we can. I conducted a small study on visitors to my website who work on software projects, in an effort to [...]

Read more
Dealing With Cultural Differences In Projects

Dealing With Cultural Differences In Projects

If your project team is spread all over the globe, you will sometimes scare yourself with the amount of prejudice you have when dealing with people from different cultures. I know I do. Humans have a tendency to categorize everything, including people. Stereotyping can be dangerous, because it tries to say something about an entire [...]

Read more

Method Components Have a Reason: Scrum

Every element of a project method has a reason. If you know the reason, you know when to apply or use this method component. To explain this, I created a small sample using Scrum, and I turn to some global observations about it. I use the word global as I will not go into every [...]

Read more
Burn-Down Chart Instead of Gantt

Burn-Down Chart Instead of Gantt

Or “Yes, You Can Mix and Match” Just to reassure you: yes, you can use different techniques together. I will take as an example the usage of burn-down charts as described for Crystal Clear. However, this technique can also be found elsewhere, as in Scrum and Extreme Programming. A burn-down chart is a chart that [...]

Read more

Return Of The Project Goals Video

Earlier this year I experimented with a small video about the importance of project goals. Quality and content were not great, but heck, it was an experiment. I uploaded it again… enjoy! BTW I have some great new videos lined up for you… all I need is time Other people who liked this article liked [...]

Read more

Project Shrink Links 14-11-2007

Project Management Lessons from a Doomed Satellite Program “Sunday’s New York Times features a lengthy discussion of the factors contributing to the spectacular failure of the government’s $4 billion spy satellite program. The project was ultimately canceled in yet it is clear from the the various participants that are quoted in the article that the [...]

Read more
Using Iterations

Using Iterations

Or Not Every Single Process Component Is Effective Alone Although I propose picking different techniques and process components from every method that you can lay your hands on, this doesnt mean that you can just pick a single piece from a method and hope it will work.I stress that an issue should be tackled by [...]

Read more
923598059_e7c23225b7

Big Design Up-Front

Or Different Circumstances, Different Effectiveness in Techniques Traditional approaches (read “plan-driven”) will dictate that you first specify in detail what you want, before you start building the software. In the rigid approach, where you may not code anything before the design is approved, we call this the “Big Design Up-Front”. Photography by HouseOfText. We all [...]

Read more
Project Profiling And Dangerous Minds

Project Profiling And Dangerous Minds

For the person who wrote: “When looking daily at the remains of my planning I feel like an FBI Profiler, or more appropriate, a Project Profiler.”, the latest article by Malcolm Gladwell is a welcome wake up call. I am the person writing about the Project Profiler. And Gladwell, author of the The Tipping Point [...]

Read more