MPD

MPD, project management

Spike It! Article Posted

One of my clients was having trouble with estimating work they had never done before, so I wrote an article explaining spikes. That article is up on agileconnection: Need to Learn More about the Work You’re Doing? Spike It! It was a little serendipity; I taught an estimation workshop right after I explained how to […]

agile, MPD

Design Your Agile Project, Part 5

This post is what you do when you are a program manager and not everyone knows what “agile” is, when you create a new product, when you are introducing that much cultural change? (In the program management book, I will talk more specifically about change and what to do. This post is the highlights.) Project

management, MPD

Are You Running from Problems or Solving Them?

Back when I was a manager inside organizations, I had many days that looked like this: Meetings at 9am, 10am, 11am. Working meeting through lunch (noon-1pm) Meetings at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm. I finally got a chance to check my email at 4pm. That’s when I discovered the world had blown up earlier in the day!

MPD, portfolio management

Estimation and the Sunk Cost Fallacy

I’m not a fan of using schedule or cost estimate as a way to value the projects in your project portfolio. If you do, you are likely to miss the potentially transformative projects or programs. In Manage Your Project Portfolio, I have an entire chapter devoted to ways to evaluate your project portfolio: business value

MPD

Trust First, Email Second

I’m shopping for furniture for our new house. I need a chair or a sofa for our family room, lights, all kinds of things. I was on Facebook, and there was an ad that looked interesting. I thought, “Should I click?” I clicked anyway. The site wants my email address. I can’t see anything without

agile, MPD

An Agile Approach to a House Remodel

You might have noticed I’ve slowed my blogging in the past few weeks. I’m fine. I’ve been a product owner/customer for our new-to-us house remodel. In the last several weeks, almost every single day, Mark and I have taken some time to go over to the new house to see the progress and provide feedback

agile, MPD

Design Your Agile Project, Part 4

If you are thinking of agile as part of a program, each team has to have its own approach to agile. Why? Because each team has its own risks and problems. You don’t need to standardize agile for anyone. If you treat people as if they are adults and explain the principles that you want

management, MPD

Who Solves Which Problems?

Many years ago, I was part of a task force to “standardize” project management at an organization. I suggested we gather some data to see what kinds of projects the client had. They had short projects, where it was clear what they had to do: 1-3 week projects where 2-4 people could run with the

management, MPD

I'm a Management Expert on Twitter

I’ve just been named to one of the 100 top management experts on Twitter. See Keeping Up with #Management:100 Experts on Twitter. You have to page down under “Executive Coaching” to see me. I’ll return to editing my “Design Your Agile Project” series now. It needs serious editing. That’s why you haven’t seen the next

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