I’m not a purist. I use whatever tools make sense for the context I’m in, and when it comes to organizing projects, I use whatever life cycles–in whatever combination–make sense to me. In response to a mailing list query, here are ways I’ve used life cycles for a few projects. Let’s assume you’re collaborating with
If you haven’t yet read Esther’s Promises Involve Self, Other, and Context, do so. Here’s a single quote I like: There’s another part of integrity that involves cleaning up your own messes. Cleaning up the messes you create is difficult and necessary.
I’ve been teaching a project management workshop, and one of the participants said something brilliant: “If you estimate in days, you’ll be off by days. If you estimate in weeks, you’ll be off by weeks.” If you estimate in months, you will be off by months. Here’s why. The more you can break a big
Brad Appleton posted his review of Manage It!. I’m psyched that Brad liked it. Here’s a quote: The chapter devoted to Recognizing and Avoiding Schedule Games is possibly worth the price of the book alone. Thanks, Brad.
I’ve written before about getting organized, especially when it comes to cleaning up my office. My breakthrough came the last time, when I realized I’m the kind of person who needs to see everything out that I’m working on. Same with my to-do list. (See Cleaning Up the Office, Round 3.) I use paper for
I’ve been thinking about how to manage the project portfolio, and I just realized why so many project portfolio efforts fail. There are three kinds of cycles the project portfolio managers need to manage: Project cycles: when the project could release something Planning cycles: how often the management team assesses the project portfolio Business cycles:
Anton has published a lovely set of comments about Manage It!. I especially liked this quote: i just feel so comfortable with her take on project management – there is no agilist zealotry or flashy theatrics. Also see the review from the Java User Group. The summary there was: In conclusion I suggest this book
Projects@Work published a sidebar from Manage It!, Responsibility is Authority.
PM Boulevard has my 5Qs on Agile, and Manage It! review. (They like it!) You might need to log in to see all the content.
Bob Payne interviewed me in this podcast at Agile 2007. We mostly talked about project management, some specifics from Manage It!, and also talked about hiring for an agile team.