MPD

lifecycle, MPD

Do What's Effective For You

I’ve been working and speaking with whole bunch of people who want to “go agile.” They are not set up for agile. They have gates for approval. They don’t have teams that projects flow through; they assign people to whatever project whenever. (growl. People are not fungible. growl) They have geographically distributed team bits (I […]

MPD, portfolio management

When Managers Can’t Hear No

I recently wrote an article on how to say,  No: Such a Difficult Word, and a twitter follower wanted to know what to do when your manager can’t hear no. First, understand why your manager can’t hear no. Is it because the business pressures are so great that the cost of saying no seems insurmountable?

MPD, project management

Yak Shaving This Week

I’m yak shaving this week. When I returned from the Agile conference, my right ear didn’t clear. It’s all clogged now, and the left one isn’t totally clear either. I have vertigo. I’m moving slowly and look drunk when I walk. In the meantime, I have articles to write, proposals to finish, work to do.

MPD

A Personal Retrospective on the Agile 2009 Conference

Last week was the Agile 2009 Conference. It was great. The stage producers and their teams had selected a phenomenal program, Elastic Communications outdid themselves as the event planners, and the volunteers helped everything proceed smoothly. Alistair Cockburn and Jared Spo0l delivered fabulous keynotes. Here’s my personal retrospective: What stood out for me: the sheer

Books, MPD

Manage Your Project Portfolio is Shipping

It’s a big week for me: Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects is shipping. In the approximately 24 hours I was home, I got to touch the first books. When I proposed this book, I wanted it to be 175 pages: long enough to be useful, but not so long

MPD

Agile 2009 is Here!

Agile 2009 starts today. I am so excited. (I know, I’ve been saying that a lot. Well, I am 🙂 The event planners, Elastic Communications have been on top of everything and are making the whole conference come together. Open Jam looks great, with small tables and some comfy couches all over. The rooms get

MPD, writing

Meeting Daniel In-Person

I am very fortunate. Daniel Steinberg was my technical editor for Manage It! and Manage Your Project Portfolio. We’ve learned how to work together well, and we enjoy working with each other. (Well, I love working with him 🙂  I suspect know sometimes I’m a huge pain.) We’d never met, and this past weeekend, we

MPD

Update on Agile 2009, August 4, 2009

I haven’t blogged about Agile 2009 in a while because I’ve been busy managing it. In the meantime, you need to know that the absolute last day to get the conference rate for the hotel is Aug 14, 2009. Do not delay. Once the hotel rooms at the conference rate are gone, they are gone.

MPD

Book "Tour" for Manage Your Project Portfolio

Manage Your Project Portfolio is at the printer. If the planets align, and the printer doesn’t run out of paper, and if Murphy stays away from this project, the books will start shipping the week of Aug 10. YIPPEEE!!!!! I’m just a little excited, can you tell?? Back in March, when the shipment seemed far

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