Would you rather read our newsletter online? Click here to get there.

From the Editor

If you've called or written to us in the last few weeks, you have probably picked up on the fact that we've been working on something we're pretty excited about. (No, it's not scratch and sniff, as cool as that would be.) Today, after weeks of working hammer and tongs, we finally get to announce a slew of new features for Premium subscribers:

• Free monthly how-to courses – they're practical, portable, and even PDU-approved!
• Input on our development priorities – which course and content would you like to see next?
• Advice on crazy project issues – submit your burning question, and our staff of experts will give you some pointers & advice for handling it.
• A new Premium home page – a faster way to get to the newest content, courses, and features.

You'll find all the details in this issue, or you can just dive right in if you can't wait long enough to read about it. If you're not a Premium subscriber yet, now's the time to try it out. We still offer new subscribers 15 days to kick the tires, and we're always adding new Premium resources to make it worth your while.

Speaking of new stuff, we've got some great new material for you this issue, in addition to these new features. Cinda Voegtli reaffirms the value of unfocused thought (it's still work!), columnist Carl Pritchard describes how changing headgear can change your perspective, and our bloggers this week are exploring Parkinson's Law, knowing when to say no, and more. Read on!

Featured Article

Creative Advantages of Hats!
by Carl Pritchard

I confess to being a hat fan. I love them. My first real hat (beyond baseball caps and other sports caps) was a leather Stetson fedora (a la Indiana Jones) from Meyer the Hatter in New Orleans. Before I walked into Meyer's, I was just another guy. When I walked out, I was Carl Pritchard, A Man With a Hat. It's a different persona, and it comes with different insight.

I'm not the only person who thinks this way. Edward DeBono wrote a landmark book on developing creative energy in a group. His book, Six Thinking Hats, focuses on the difference in creativity that can be achieved when you get people to take on different roles.

While DeBono specifies the roles that people need to take on, I just believe that if you adopt a variety of perspectives, you achieve many of the same benefits. And I think there are side benefits beyond creativity as well.

Executive View

The high project return on piddle-mode thinking and leisurely learning
By Cinda Voegtli

I woke up one morning a couple of weeks ago and went into a bad mood immediately. My brain went right back to the gnarly work problem I had been thinking about the night before. Big decisions looming. Complex options, no clear path yet. Why did this put me in a bad mood? Problem-solving is part of our jobs! I didn't figure it out until later that morning—and what I learned is the subject of this blog, because I think it matters for our sanity and our project problem-solving.

On this particular morning I went from barely awake to tied up in stress knots in short order. I was tired of this problem, sick to death of it, but I didn't see the resolution. That morning I reached the point of outright rebellion. "I need to get to the office by around 9 this morning. But I don't WANT to! I am sick of working on this." [Visualize the equivalent of a foot-stomping child. Sad to say, that was me.]

This particular morning, I gave in. (There are great advantages to living in Silicon Valley with massively flexible start times the norm.) "FINE. I'm going to stay home longer. I'll just ignore this and do some things around the house for a while. HA. Take THAT, you stinkin' problem." And that's what I did.

Monthly Premium How-To Course

NEW – Hurry Up Just a Little Faster! – Recognizing and Dealing With a Lack of Urgency for Meeting Deadlines - 1 PDU – PREMIUM

Site Highlights

Here's the WBS, Let's Make a Schedule – Planning and Scheduling: Assigning Resources (2nd in a series) – PREMIUM
Not so fast! Before you figure out how fast you can get everything done, you need to make sure you know who's going to do it. You have to make sure you get the right resources assigned early, and you'll need to know ahead of time about any conflicts that could impact your schedule, whether you've got all the necessary skills and experience in-house, and whether there are any functional managers you'll have to lobby for support. This guideline walks you through the initial resource assignment process so you can move on with the next step confidently. Second in a series of 7 guidelines to help you develop a thorough, achievable project plan. Get the guideline »

Bueller… Bueller… Bueller… – Software Team Member Glossary – SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until April 29, 2010
It's tempting to put names on the line while you're assigning resources for your project, but savvy PMs think roles or hats instead. This glossary for a large software development project illustrates how it can work (and provides a handy example for software development projects into the bargain). Use a glossary like this one to be sure you've covered all the bases, to explore logical groupings of responsibilities, and to assess what experience levels are needed for success. This example includes suggested codes for scheduling software assignments, to help you avoid the temptation of assigning to specific people. Get the glossary »

Have Your People Call My People – Coaching Check-In Calendar and Worksheet – PREMIUM
One of the best ways to help your project managers, especially newer ones, is to have colleagues provide advice and assistance throughout their projects. This template is designed to take some of the stress out of mentoring by making it easier to coordinate all the check-in dates and discussions in a busy project environment. The calendar provides a table view of projects and their key upcoming milestones, with room for notes, so you can keep track of which PMs you should touch bases with, when, and what their current concerns might be. The worksheet helps you monitor key project status, issues, and items for coaching. Get the template »

Developers In This Box, Testers In This Box… – Creating the Right Software Project Organization – PREMIUM
Creating the right organization for a software project is more than just drawing an org chart. Great project managers go the extra mile to consider all of the necessary work, required decision-making authority, clear responsibilities, accountability, etc. Balancing all of these requirements is critical to organizing the team in a way that effectively serves the project goals—the right organization for this project. This guideline, by an experienced software development executive, provides a step-by-step approach to doing this critical project planning work. You'll end up with much better teamwork, and much better project results. Get the guideline »

Seek Help – IT Project Request for Proposal – MEMBER
Discretion, valor, etc. Sometimes, it's best to recognize that you should call in outside help so someone else can do the heavy lifting. But writing the RFP sometimes seems more intimidating than writing the code. Fear not. This detailed, boilerplate template submitted by an Australian IT project manager takes much of the pain and intimidation out of RFP generation. Color-coding separates pre-approved legalese from project-specific clauses, and file properties are used as text fields to automatically include high-level project information and contacts. Then end result is a pre-baked RFP that allows you to focus on the business requirements instead of worrying about the legalese, allowing you to concentrate on finding the help you need for your project. Get the template »

Premium Subscribers

Help us prioritize our Premium releases. Which of these items from our current queue would be most useful to you?

• PM Assessment Questionnaire
• PMO Job Family Descriptions
• Checklist: Getting the Right Value from a PM Tool
• Configuration Management Plan
• Project Data Sheet (with project-specific variations)

Log in to vote

He Said, She Said – Meeting Minutes Formats – MEMBER
All too often, people believe that recording meeting minutes means writing down everything that happens and everything that's said. Please don't. We're begging you. Most of the time, teams don't even need meeting minutes; a simple action item list and some notes will usually get you where you need to go with a lot less fuss and frustration. But if you really do need to take minutes—for formal meetings with stakeholders and customers, or to satisfy regulatory oversight requirements, for instance—make sure they're actually useful to everyone who needs them by recording the right things, in the right way, so people can reasonably refer to them in six months (or six years) and know what happened. See how it's done »

NEW – Aww, It's So Cute and Tiny… OW! – Micro-Project Plan Template and Example – MEMBER
Don't be fooled! Even itty bitty projects can take a really big bite if you don't plan for them. But writing a 20-page project plan for a project that might only take a few hours of real effort over a few days or weeks is obviously nuttier than a fruitcake. How do you balance it without losing it? This template shows you how to manage a micro-project—short, low-effort, low-cost projects that don't merit full-out project planning—in just a couple of pages. Look (and be) ultra-organized without going overboard, and reap all the benefits of project planning for projects that are usually considered too small to plan. Get the template »

Project Practitioners

You're a great PM; how about a great team player? Sinikka Waugh has 4 tips to help you be a better team player. This entry shares some of her favorite lessons learned about better collaboration and its rewards. Let's face it, letting go and letting others aren't always our strongest skills, but we can always improve.

Does work really expand to fill the time available to complete it? Kent McDonald is Testing Parkinson's Law to find out (whether he wants to or not). His latest blog includes advice for spotting Parkinson's Law in action, and fighting back if it rears its sluggish head.

Brian Irwin forwards the concept of Intelligent Disobedience in his latest blog entry. A project manager's ability to say no is often just as important as their willingness to say yes and make things happen for the customer. His post also suggests how to approach the situation if confronted with a request or direction that you don't believe you can support.

Morley Selver joins the Project Practitioners blog this week with some concrete suggestions on how to stop getting the wrong equipment time and again. His practical advice for achieving consistency when working with engineers, vendors, and contractors reminds us that "you don't get what you want, you get what you specify."

Where's ProjectConnections?

Kent McDonald is slated to speak at I-BADD in Des Moines, Iowa on May 7th (Central Iowa IIBA) on understanding the problem your project should solve and ensuring that it produces true business value. For more information, check out the I-BADD2010 blog.

Corporate Subscriptions and Licensing

Not sure if corporate terms apply to you? Check out our licensing terms at the top of our Terms of Service page, in refreshingly ordinary, everyday English.