There is much talk in the Project Management community about the Standish report that tells us that IT projects fail miserably just about all the time. Responses from my peers appear either apologetic (Sorry, we suck), or angry (No, YOU suck). Someone appears to be sucking here, but no one seems to attack [...]

In an earlier post I talked about how “the good Internet” makes us all better off, but tried to remind you all that the end game for the companies remain the same: higher profits. Don’t be fooled. It’s not niceness. And that’s fine, just keep this in mind OK?
We can spot the same misconception [...]

When I was a kid my father liked to repeat an anecdote from his youth. Apparently, my father was quite impressed with the old cowboy westerns that appeared on cinema at the time. He was so impressed, that he decided that if he would ever become a real cowboy, he needed to learn how to [...]

And into the meeting room comes a noise maker. He asks you when you can have (insert any new feature / product that you have never heard anyone mention before) ready. So you reply, as always, with the patience of a zen monk on valium:
“It depends”, you say, as you have said so often [...]

So there are lots of people making a whole lot of noise. It’s “We need to do this”, “We need to do that”. And it sounds as if the world will surely come to an end if someone does not act upon this noise right fu**ing now, or preferably yesterday. Who this “someone” is [...]

So you’ve read through the vast collection of process, project, operations “best practice” literature out there, from the deceptively lucid “Getting Real” via the various incarnations of the Agile/Lean movement – so pregnant with promise, to the more demanding and grown up PMI, IPMA and PRINCE2 frameworks. Good for you! You’ve done your homework. I [...]

Strangely, I’ve come across quite a few intelligent people in my day who demonstrated apparent problems understanding the difference between Goals and Objectives. As a result I’ve been known to find myself in discussions where Mr. Confusion and Mrs. Frustration joined in. So here’s a breakdown for you.
Remember Star Wars? Of course you do. [...]

Stress is a problem, because with too much of it, you start making bad decisions.
The same is true of a number of situations when you find yourself in a passionate state (stress being just one of these states; tired, hungry, sexually aroused also qualify) Dan Ariely ) author of Predictably Irrational makes some interesting [...]

When I was in the army, a life time ago, we had just finished three months of officer training to become leaders of men. The new recruits, the very men (boys) we would be responsible for, were to arrive the day after. Months of planning and training and now the big day was here. Now, [...]

There are plenty of acronyms floating around and since we all love them dearly we need to add to this flora. I’d like to share with you a method that has been known to work for us. It’s our own invention: The DONFI, the Day Of No Fu**ing Interruptions.

Here’s the deal: You need input from [...]