Project Shrink

In a series called The Context Machine I will summarize three years of looking for answers to the following question: “If you are a Project Manager that operates for a short period of time in a foreign organization, with a global team you don’t know, in a domain you would not know, using virtual communication, [...]

Every moment in a project has a specific set of topics and discussions you would expect. During the start up “planning” and “scope”, just before delivery “creating the final build” and “acceptance”. If you are in a room with your team it happens very often that a talk between people in the same room morphs [...]

When intervening your team, you are changing their behavior. By asking them over and over again how they are doing against the plan, you are changing their responses. Even some well intended interventions can make things worse: “Seagull coaching (dive in, dump on people and dash off), the most common form of coaching, just makes [...]

This is the final post in my series about using systems thinking for analyzing problems in projects. 1. Systems Thinking: A Technique To Find Project Problems 2. Systems Thinking: Looking For Causal Loops 3. Shifting The Burden And Fixes That Backfire – Archetypes Part 1 4. Limits To Growth And Tragedy Of The Commons – [...]

This is the fourth post in my series about using systems thinking for analyzing problems in projects. I recommend you read the previous posts before diving head first into this post. Archetypes can be considered as stereotypes of problematic situations. When analyzing a situation they are the standard patterns you look for. In this post [...]

This is the third post in my series about using systems thinking for analyzing problems in projects. I recommend you read the previous posts before diving head first into this post. After extensive research Peter Senge, author of the book The Fifth Discipline, found patterns that were common among the situations he studied; a couple [...]

Yesterday I talked about how systems thinking can be used to find patterns and cause-effect-chains that help you find solutions to problems in projects. All these patterns, links and loops are fine and dandy, but you are probably wondering right now how this is going to help you running your project? Check Out This Example [...]

Finding the real cause of a project problem can be a difficult task. You have to look for patterns … “These patterns are dynamic systems in action, a human system seen over a time period. Patterns are trends over time and involve dependencies with other systems. To spot such trends in projects we use metrics [...]

How to use social media successfully in projects, is described in the Harvard Business Review article by Ann Majchrzak, Arvind Malhotra, Jeffrey Stamps and Jessica Lipnack: “Can Absence Make A Team Grow Stronger”. The article is from 2004, and they are not mentioning “social media”, they discuss “virtual workspaces”. But the two concepts are strikingly [...]

In this posting I am going to tell you what the main theme of my blog is… wow. Do I really have an answer? Six weeks ago I released the first draft of my ebook “Project Shrink: Linear Edition“. The reason for publishing unfinished work is to get early feedback. I am very happy to [...]