In This Issue:
From the Editor
Kimberly Wiefling on project management zen
Featured Blogs:
Cinda Voegtli: How do we know if we need agile?
Kent McDonald: The Best of Intentions
Featured Bundle:
Meeting Management and Running Effective Meetings
Site Highlights
- Disarming a Project Landmine
- How About Some Plain Old Chunky Monkey?
- You Mean My Signature Isn't Enough?
- Bug: Any Feature Not Yet Described to Marketing
- Let the Games Begin
Where's ProjectConnections?
Corporate Subscriptions
From the Editor
Regular ProjectConnections readers will notice something a little different in the newsletter and on our homepage this week. Cinda Voegtli and Kent McDonald are both blogging from the Agile 2008 conference in Toronto, which has a few implications. First, if you were curious about the conference but couldn't make it there, both Cinda and Kent will be looking to fold user comments and questions into their approach to the conference, which gives you a chance to extract some targeted information without actually being there. Check out their respective blog entries to keep tabs on their observations and post your own comments and inquiries. Second, if you did get to Toronto this week, you can find both of them wandering the conference hotel all week long. Cinda will be roaming as her interests (and yours) direct, but Kent will be a sitting duck stationary target most of the time; you'll find him managing the
Consumer and Business Value stage, right next to (we love this bit) a big waterfall in the middle of the hotel. That should make him much easier to corner track down.
Finally, you won't have to endure us trotting out the now-infamous waterfall chestnut anymore. Well, except for that last time.
If you're not really into agile this week, look instead to columnists Kimberly Wiefling and Brian Irwin. Kimberly offers her commentary on the karmic impact of her project experiences and her general resistance to a more "zen" approach, and Brian has advice for project managers trapped in situations that are anything but calming.
Featured Article
The Project Leader's Guide to Steering Clear of Karmic Debt, by Kimberly Wiefling
When a friend suggested that I might benefit from meditation, and generally taking a more "Zen" approach to project management, I had my doubts. How in the world was I going to get anything done while being tranquil?!! Too much serenity is bad for results. On a deadline-driven project the very words "tranquil" and "serene" have the stench of impending disaster. They are filed in my subconscious right alongside phrases like "no progress to report" and "we tried our best." Visions of status review meetings featuring updates like "everything is unfolding as the universe intended" and "it just wasn't meant to be" popped into my adrenaline-soaked brain. No way was I going to let thousands of years of introspective tradition anywhere near my projects!
From what I understand, Zen promises the cessation of suffering. No suffering? Project managers unite! This could be a serious threat to our livelihood, since many projects are intended to end one form of suffering or another—insufficient revenues from new products, excessive costs, inefficient processes. And I think a majority of experienced project leaders would agree that most projects either include or inflict a great deal of suffering. Read more »
Want to talk to Kimberly yourself? She'll be in Frankfurt, Germany, August 18-22 for the Global Leadership Program; and in Cleveland, Ohio, the following week at Case Western University for their Entrepreneur Program. Her next "Creating a Vision for Your Future" workshop is on September 20 in Redwood City.
Featured Blogs
How do we know whether our teams need Agile?, by Cinda Voegtli
This week I'm at the Agile 2008 conference in Toronto along with Kent McDonald. I'm here to learn more about what the world is referring to as "Agile development" and "Agile project management" for my own edification, as well as to guide Agile content additions to the site for our members and subscribers. I'll be posting a few more blogs this week as I get my questions answered. If you're interested in Agile—or interested in knowing what the heck it is and whether you should care—I hope you'll read on to see what I'm after at the conference. At the end of this post you can even post or email in questions you have about Agile, and I'll see what I can do to get them answered.
There are definitely VERY interesting implications for how to manage projects according to the Agile Manifesto. The Agile values expressed there—about people over process, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan—do resonate. However, they conjure up way more questions than answers! So we're here with different user viewpoints in mind—Kent's much greater experience with formalized Agile; an executive's total lack of initiation into Agile in practice at all, and my own situation somewhere in the middle—and plenty of questions to go with those viewpoints! Read more »
Agile 2008 - Starting out With The Best of Intentions, by Kent McDonald
I am writing this particular post on my way to Toronto, intending to describe what I hope to get out of the conference. If for no other reason than to make sure I actually do accomplish some of the things I am setting out to do. You know how conferences can go, you attend with some vague idea of what you want to learn, but if you don't actually clarify what those ideas are you get wrapped up in the great conversation, interesting people, and fun activities. It becomes very easy to fly home exhausted, having had a great time, but not really getting done what you wanted.
I am not necessarily looking to learn more about the methods themselves, rather I am looking to get more information about how people are applying those methods to solve real business problems, and to find out what experiences people are having applying the methods in different types of environments so that I can share those stories with others, and apply those ideas in projects I work on. Read more »
Featured Bundle
Meeting Management and Running Effective Meetings
Tired of trying to coax your team out of hiding to get some necessary meeting work done? There are dozens of things you can do to improve the meetings you run so people will want to be a part of them. This bundle of 15 templates and guidelines helps you tackle some of the most valuable meeting management strategies you can try. Simple guidelines and checklists walk you through the evaluation process so you'll know what to focus on first. Formatting examples speed up your meeting planning and make it less painful. Special guidelines address unique meeting types, and a veritable plethora of agenda examples provide a starting point for one of your most important meeting habits. 15 valuable templates, one simple purchase.
Find out more »
Site Highlights
Disarming a Project Landmine, by Brian Irwin – GUEST"Recently, I discovered a colleague of my sponsor was not a supporter of my project. It was made very evident when she spoke poorly of the project in a meeting with our steering committee to whom I was making a presentation. I'm running a business transformation project which has struggled from the beginning because of decreasing funding and short timelines. The dilemma I have is that my lead system engineer is the husband of my project's opponent. Do you have any ideas how I can neutralize the situation?" Read More »
The author of Managing Politics and Conflict in Projects shares advice for mopping up after missing deliverables and messy intra-project politics.
How About Some Plain Old Chunky Monkey? - Agile Overview and Core Methods – MEMBER
It can be confusing to sort out the different flavors of Agile. Aside from the differing approaches to project management standards like requirements, scheduling, testing, integration, there's all these labels like Scrum, XP, and FDD. It's enough to send a project manager in search of the nearest ice cream shop, where the choices are a lot less complicated. In this paper, Kent McDonald—who was loitering around when some of this started—provides a history of the Agile movement and outlines its basic principles, along with seven key actions you can take to begin stretching toward agility today. You'll still have to decide on your favorite flavor, but the calorie count is a lot lower. Read the Paper »
You Mean My Signature Isn't Enough? - Project Sponsor Roles and Responsibilities – PREMIUM
An executive champion can be incredibly helpful, as long as everyone understands what's expected. This guideline outlines the traditional responsibilities of a project sponsor for the benefit of everyone's understanding. Establish the ground rules up front so both the sponsor and the project manager know what to expect and what it really means to be—and have—a project sponsor. Download the Guideline »
Bug: Any Feature Not Yet Described to Marketing - Software Requirements Specification – MEMBER
Avoid unpleasant surprises during your review and testing by ensuring everyone understands the project requirements when you start. Of course they'll change long before you finish, but if you start with a common understanding, you'll at least be close enough that no one is shocked by what they see during development. This detailed outline will help you streamline development of the requirements deliverable, making it a little easier to sit down and work through all the angles. Download the Outline »
Let the Games Begin - Fast, Effective Ramp Up of New Team Members – MEMBER
Starting a new assignment can often feel like a giant game of catch-up, more breathtaking than a 400-meter relay. It's thrilling, but exhausting, and the traditional "throw them in the deep end of the pool" method may not be the best way to get fast productivity out of your team members. Steve Trautman, author of Teach What You Know, has a better idea: give your new team members food, air, and water right away, and fill them in on the big picture. This excerpt from his book explains his peer mentoring techniques and provides some basic tools to help you get started. Read the Excerpt »
Where's ProjectConnections?
Cinda Voegtli will be at the PMI NorCal Symposium 2008 September 3–4, held at the Stanford Faculty Club in Palo Alto. Her presentation will focus on managing priorities, projects, and people in a small company. On September 22, she'll discuss Adopting and Adapting Project and Development Methodologies at the PMI-Silicon Valley chapter meeting.
Randy Englund will also be presenting at the PMI NorCal Symposium September 3–4, speaking on "Creating Excellence In and Through Project Management." If you can't make it, you can still hear from him at PMI SeminarsWorld in Denver, Colorado, October 22-23, where Randy and co-author Alfonso Bucero will present their "Creating Excellence in Project Management" seminar.
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