In December, when I was in Israel to teach for Sela, Roy Osherove and I recorded an interview mostly about Behind Closed Doors. We had fun and the recording shows it. Enjoy, and if you have comments, please leave them here or on Roy’s post
At a recent project management workshop, a participant asked was “I have responsibility but not enough authority to do what I need to do as a PM. How do I get things done?” I can’t remember feeling as if I didn’t have the authority to get things done as a PM. I decided long ago,
Just because I’ve been quiet doesn’t mean I haven’t been working. I’ve posted two project management templates, the project charter template and the project plan template at my Templates page. The AYE blog is up and running. I have more work to do on the template, but I hope you check it out. (If
After missing all of last year, I finally started writing my monthly newsletter. See The Pragmatic Manager email newsletter page to see the most recent article: Starting on Strategic Planning. If you like it, there’s a signup box on the top of the page.
A new-to-a-company manager explained this situation to me recently. She’d overheard something like this recently from one of her team members. So you’re working in a place where it seems as if all the managers are Bozos. But you like the work and you like the people, and you know nothing lasts forever. After
I’ve been working on improving my writing for about 20 years. When I was inside organizations, I asked some of my colleagues to review my memos and reports. I gained valuable insights. (“A verb, JR, a verb. Please.”) But once I started my consulting business 11 years ago, I needed more help with my writing.
I changed ISPs last Friday. At some point Friday, my ISP bounced my email with a strange (to me) message. This is the same ISP that had problems just a few months ago, so I was done. I need email up virtually 100% of the time. And if I can’t receive email, I need
I’ve been attempting to clean up my office since I moved into it. I had some luck a while ago, using emergent design techniques for cleaning up. But that wasn’t enough. I was ready for an office redesign. So that’s what I did this weekend. Here is one before picture: The rest of the
I’ve been working with some companies who do hardware/software systems. Most often, they have some embedded code too, just to make life interesting. To be honest, I don’t know how to do implementation by feature for a whole brand new system. Here’s what I’ve been suggesting: Prototype the software architecture as early as possible,
One of the scheduling tips I discuss in my project management workshops is “Plan to refactor.” I explain that if you’re using a lifecycle other than Agile, where the integration and testing is built into every iteration, you’re going to have to refactor at the end, when you do integrate and test. At one