Project Dogma?

I saw on a blog somewhere a couple of interesting definitions that have been cropping up in my thoughts recently.

Methodology + Mindlessness = Dogma

Methodology + Mindfulness = Excellence

How many project methodology graduates have been taught to use a hammer, and then see nails everywhere? In fact they lose the ability to see anything else!

Do you see your project through the filters of the methodology you are most familiar with? Can you see your project outside of these filters? What fresh insight might this give you?

- Jason Bates (I'm back)

Tags:
methodology, Project+Management, Perception, Dogma

On-line Project Management Tools

I recently started a question on LinkedIn:

On-line project management tools - what is the state of the industry?

There's been a recent serge in the on-line project management tools available, and web 2.0 seems to be making them more user friendly. I'd like to evaluate industry awareness, so without doing research, which on-line platforms do you know of?

Also, if you've experienced using them in earnest, which ones, and what was your experience?

I’d appreciate your responses posted on the LinkedIn site (though posting here will do fine too).

If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, why not join? It’s free – and I will accept your link to get you going.

— Philip Greenwood

P.S. Beaufortes (www.beaufortes.com) is NOT affiliated or sponsored by any supplier organisation. Please note your affiliations (if any) in your response.

Tags: Project+Management, Software, On-line, Tools

On-line Project Management Tools

I recently started a question on LinkedIn:

On-line project management tools - what is the state of the industry?

There's been a recent serge in the on-line project management tools available, and web 2.0 seems to be making them more user friendly. I'd like to evaluate industry awareness, so without doing research, which on-line platforms do you know of?

Also, if you've experienced using them in earnest, which ones, and what was your experience?

I’d appreciate your responses posted on the LinkedIn site (though posting here will do fine too).

If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, why not join? It’s free – and I will accept your link to get you going.

— Philip Greenwood

P.S. Beaufortes (www.beaufortes.com) is NOT affiliated or sponsored by any supplier organisation. Please note your affiliations (if any) in your response.

Tags: Project+Management, Software, On-line, Tools

Reductio Ad Absurdum?

This question has been playing on my mind:  If stories are the most effective tool of influence, but are an inefficient way to communicate facts, what kind of communication style is most effective in today’s “attention deficit” business world?  So for an experiment, let me try out a communication style:  The “reduced” story line.

Team Decision Making: There's No Good System!

Looking at Jason’s posting on Cognitive Bias, I find myself inspired to write about team decision making processes.  Why?  It seems to me that the people who are cerebral enough to internalize the implications of this list are also unlikely to be the talkative or assertive ones in meetings.

Here’s a summary of the categories of team decision processes:

Team Decision Making: There's No Good System!

Looking at Jason’s posting on Cognitive Bias, I find myself inspired to write about team decision making processes.  Why?  It seems to me that the people who are cerebral enough to internalize the implications of this list are also unlikely to be the talkative or assertive ones in meetings.

Here’s a summary of the categories of team decision processes:

MindJet Project Management JetPack for MindManager 7

The good people at MindJet have allowed me early access to their MindManager Project Management JetPack.  As I read that sentence I realize that many readers won’t have a clue what I’m talking about, so let me explain:

MindJet is the company that produces the MindManager application.

MindManager is, at its heart, a brainstorming and mind mapping software tool.

Mind mapping is a knowledge management technique for generating, organizing and communicating ideas or concepts. (Go here for more info)

Powerpoint woes...

I admit it, I am a communications geek. I love seeing artful communicators bring stories to life, grab an audience, and change the world.

Compare business communications with ‘consumer’ communications, and you’ll see a gap like the grand canyon…  but every once in a while you see a presenter that bridges that gap, and gives a business orientated presentation that you would probably enjoy even if you didn’t have to see it.

My two favourite examples? Funny you should ask!… read on dear reader..

Change Management Isn't a Methodology!

A few years ago I worked on a project with a client (global, ~140,000 people) that had an in-house change management methodology.  I expected that this would make the job easier – after all, they must recognise the value of change management and know how to use it, surely. 

I was astounded to discover that very few people in the company knew how to apply the methodology – I found nobody who even knew where to start!  After hours of studying the methodology I figured out why:  There was no starting point. I was just a cluster of loosely connected tools.

Wikis finally go WYSIWYG

Sourceforge.net, the open source development platform, has announced that all of their projects are going to have wikis available to them – this is a major advance because so few of these projects have sufficient documentation – actually many have none at all!

Sourceforge’s user community numbers in excess of 1.5 million people, so their choice of wiki is quite a big deal.  The obvious choice seemed to be Mediawiki – the tool that powers Wikipedia – because Mediawiki is well proven and is open sourced itself.

But Sourceforge has gone with Wikispaces.  I took a little time today to review the Wikispaces offering and I’m quite impressed.  The key benefit of Wikispaces is usability: It has a WYSIWYG editor (more like writing in a word processor), so unlike Mediawiki, you don’t have to learn any codes.

Will this mean the end to the empty wiki syndrome?  Does this make the wiki a usable project tool?  Well try it out; there’s a free, hosted, advert supported trial option!

— Philip Greenwood

Tags: Mediawiki, Wikispaces, Wiki, Sourceforge, WYSIWYG

Wikis finally go WYSIWYG

Sourceforge.net, the open source development platform, has announced that all of their projects are going to have wikis available to them – this is a major advance because so few of these projects have sufficient documentation – actually many have none at all!

Sourceforge’s user community numbers in excess of 1.5 million people, so their choice of wiki is quite a big deal.  The obvious choice seemed to be Mediawiki – the tool that powers Wikipedia – because Mediawiki is well proven and is open sourced itself.

But Sourceforge has gone with Wikispaces.  I took a little time today to review the Wikispaces offering and I’m quite impressed.  The key benefit of Wikispaces is usability: It has a WYSIWYG editor (more like writing in a word processor), so unlike Mediawiki, you don’t have to learn any codes.

Will this mean the end to the empty wiki syndrome?  Does this make the wiki a usable project tool?  Well try it out; there’s a free, hosted, advert supported trial option!

— Philip Greenwood

Tags: Mediawiki, Wikispaces, Wiki, Sourceforge, WYSIWYG

How Visible Is Your Project?

I believe that the vast majority of projects are not nearly visible enough, particularly among the extended stakeholder and customer groups, though I’m constantly under fire for holding this opinion.

The reason teams don’t like visibility, as far as I can tell, is that we humans – in general – like to hide what we perceive as risky behaviour.  We do it as children, and the instinct doesn’t disappear.  (Though once we’ve got the trick mastered,  we’re quite happy to show it to the world to impress them with our daring – just watch the skaters on the South Bank in London).

6 ways to stop project management from killing creativity

Have you ever made the head of a programme manager spin around? I recently told a client that his team didn’t need anymore ‘creativity training’, and that what was holding them back was too much project management...Woah!

Aghast, (well I had just killed a sacred cow in his office)… he wanted to know more. Could the way he was brandishing PMBOK and PRINCE2 across his programme really be preventing his team from performing at their creative best?

Calming him down, I told him that his beloved methodologies were of course important in making sure this large and complex programme was well co-ordinated, managed, and monitored... but there were 6 changes he would have to make if he wanted the team to be creative as well!

Alpine Methodology

The method for teaching ski-ing has to be one of the most elegant methodologies there is.

Joe Bloggs, random punter, sedentary worker with a beer gut, travels to the mountains to learn a complex and potentially dangerous skill; i.e. throwing himself down a mountain at 30mph on two five foot long skis… and he thinks that he’s on holiday!

Oh yes, there is more to ski tuition than meets the eye… there are lessons hidden in this methodology that could help you lead and manage your projects much more effectively!

Global Warming and the Cynefin Framework

Ever since meeting Louisa-Jayne O’Neill of the UK Cabinet Office at one of David Gurteen’s knowledge cafes, I’ve been interested in the Cynefin Framework.  Ms O’Neill wrote an insightful article about the interaction of faith and decision making with respect to the Bush presidency, and that was to be my introduction to the framework.

The Cynefin Framework, proposed by Dave Snowden, helps us understand the nature of knowledge as it relates to different types of situations, and different approaches to decision making in those situations. The space in the middle of the diagram reflects an area of decision making that is affected by faith, or to use a more subtle term a “predisposition to belief”.

On a plane ride to South Africa recently, I watched Al Gore’s documentary film about Global Warming – An Inconvenient Truth.  For two weeks I was a convert; image going on your first safari, thinking “all this will be gone in 30 years”.  I watched the film again on the return flight and, guilt ridden, discussed it with everybody I saw on my return.  Gore’s arguments seemed so compelling; his simple, at times personal, approach to conveying his messages was convincing.