Learn from project-management blunders

I like this on the best.. I have seen this foo hit the ceiling :)-

" Don't underestimate people issues"

I had a project that nearly came apart because I underestimated the impact of people issues within the project team. We had quite a few new developers, a few more experienced folks, and several contractors. The existing folks were part of a strong union and had adopted the "work to job description" mantra, whereas the contractors generally did whatever it took to get their deliverables done. This created a lot of tension within the team as the staff members felt the contractors were overstepping their boundaries (and really they were, in order to get stuff done), and the contractors felt they were carrying the "slackers" (and really they were, in some areas). A complete mess. However, none of it was obvious until the tension started to come to the surface. By then, the schedule was compromised and had to be reworked a lot."
Keep a better handle on the personal issues within the team. Ask more questions, more frequently, to get at them."

Via : ZDnet

The Furture of Projects ?

" SaaS-style application solutions remain niche-focused and otherwise experimental. Nevertheless, we believe that now is the time when enterprise IT departments should begin planning for the growing influence of SaaS in their business practices; establish in-house understanding of the opportunities, challenges and best practices of SaaS; and begin to track the involvement of their technology providers in SaaS-related industry initiatives."

Via :Gartner

Intersections, Innovations and Konvergance

"For most of us, the best chance to innovate lies at the intersection. Not only do we have a greater chance of finding remarkable idea combinations there, we will find many moreoif them. To be specific, stepping into the intersection does not mean simply combinining two different concepts into a new idea. These type of combinations are part of a directional and interrsectional innovation. Instead, the Intersection represents a place that drastically increases the chances for unusual combinations to occur".





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People vs Process

"It's about the people...not the processes or tasks. You treat your people right, they'll make sure the project is right."

 

A nice list of stuff of PM think

Re: 300 interview questions

oh heres a nice list of questions that a PM will need to answer

 

My fav's so far..

 

There was a situation where more than one-way to accomplish the same task. Your onsite tech lead and offshore tech lead has different opinions about doing this and the feelings were very strong. Both are very important to you. How do you react to this ?

 

MSFT EPM in the magic quardrants

Microsoft Office Project Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant for the 2007 IT Project and Portfolio Management Applications Magic Quadrant

"Microsoft Corp. , a leading provider of project and portfolio management (PPM) software, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner Inc. in the "Leaders" quadrant in the 2007 IT Project and Portfolio Management Applications Magic Quadrant report. The report evaluates services and products that include the Microsoft(R) Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution."

Via : CNN

In the Beginning -The Risk meeting

In the Beginning...

The opening moments of an effective meeting are a very big deal. You have the opportunity to win hearts, change minds, or at least ensure that others are listening in the opening 20 to 30 seconds. This is vital time. This is where participants decide whether or not they will be players in this event. Consider four simple approaches to get things started more effectively:

1. Open with a promise -- By the time this meeting is over, we will have solved the XXXX problem, one of the great concerns facing our organization today.

2. Open with something they'll get from the gathering -- When we're done, you're going to have four new tools to work with to overcome the range of risk challenges we face.

3. Open with a short story -- If you read this morning's paper, you know that wildfires are burning just 40 miles away. We're going to take something away from the lessons those firefighters are teaching.

4. Open with a challenge -- You have an opportunity over the next 45 minutes to create an indelible mark on the project, but that means I'm going to put you to work for the next 45 minutes....

 

To ensure that sense of accomplishment, meeting facilitators need to identify the following:

• What will be done with the information
• What the next steps are for the participants
• What they've accomplished
• When those actions will be evident

Facilitating meetings is challenging for some of us, as we believe there's just information to be shared and everyone should be willing to share it. That's not as common as it might sound. In many instances, introversion, fear of rejection, or simple impatience drives participants to remain as silent partners in the overall meeting experience. There are ways to drive that out of the risk discussion. The keys are a sense of safety and a sense of value-added.

Via: Cutter