Fail fast entered the business lexicon from the high-tech sector. It has become a powerful buzzword and has ignited a small movement. FailCon offers a series of global conferences for entrepreneurs to study their failures “to prepare for success.” Failure is not the goal. Failure […]
The Standish Group has published its annual CHAOS Report on the state of software development since 1994. The Report is often cited as a key metric for the industry’s performance and progress. The yearly update draws much attention. Analyzing the long-term trends provides an interesting […]
Time is the dominant constraint on all projects. There is a constant race against the clock. Many projects have fixed completion dates determined by external forces. Projects that fall behind schedule, struggle to catch up. I have never met a project manager who said there […]
The project schedule is the most recognized project management artifact. Stakeholders embrace the schedule as a sacred covenant with the team. In reality, project plans are just the best approximation of the future based on today’s limited knowledge and information. “In planning for battle, I […]
Projects are about people! People, process, and technology are the essential components of any organizational analysis. When it comes to software development, people are more important than either process or technology. According to Frederick Brooks, author of The “Mythical Man Month”, “the quality of the […]
Most people don’t understand what project managers do! When people ask my wife what I do, she shows them my LinkedIn® profile. After “Bring Your Children to Work Day”, my kids asked what I do besides “talk on the phone and do email.” Recently, my […]
Traditionally, project managers are told to optimize scope subject to constraints on time, cost, and quality. This is embodied in the expression, “better, faster, cheaper—choose two.” The phrase has become a rhetorical distraction to effective project management. It presumes a magic bullet; if you can […]
The “triple constraint” is to project management as Newton’s Laws are to physics. “Better, faster, cheaper—choose two” is so ingrained in the canon that we don’t question its applicability. The phrase has become a rhetorical distraction to effective project management. For many software projects, actively […]
Mega-projects (aka, massive strategic initiatives) are not just big projects. The scale and complexity of these undertakings can overwhelm the typical enterprise. To successfully execute mega-projects, enterprises should adjust and adopt their ‘regular’ approach to project management. Cooking is the best analogy to describe the […]