Project Management

Last week’s tweets

February 6, 2012

In case you missed it, here are some tweet & re-tweets of articles & other things that caught my eye last week: From Others: From @tedcoine: YES!! RT @shawmu: Actually give a S### about the development of individuals.ow.ly/8SkuB via @kris_dunn From @ShingoPrize: Robert Miller said Shingo Prize focuses on more than just culture, it focuses on how to change culture #lean#ShingoPrize From @DemingSos: “Stamping out fires is lot of fun, but it is only putting things back the way they were.” “Manage cause, not result. #Deming#quick-fix From @TheOnion - Area Man Uninterested In Creating A Better Community Even Though This May Benefit Him In...

How a results-only focus can prevent project overruns

December 14, 2011

By David M. Kasprzak

How a results-only focus can prevent project overruns

When getting a jump on things isn't accompanied by also finishing ahead of time, you tend to get the exact opposite of what you'd hoped for. The problem gets exacerbated when, by directing work to begin in advance of the arrival of necessary inputs, the team gets too far ahead. Managers who are pressured to keep their people busy will create tasking of suspicious value for the appearance of looking productive. Why not let the staff determine how to spend that time, whether at work or away, as long as all obligations are met?

Planning on not knowing

November 16, 2011

By David M. Kasprzak

I had a conversation with a seasoned project / program manager the other day, that revealed some fundamental flaws in how people deal with uncertainty, as well as how the failure to embrace constant learning short changes both the individual and the group. A few details have been changed to protect the guilty….. In discussing how to plan for a fairly large and complex engineering development projects, I questioned why the baseline plan in his projects’ detailed schedules were often being done over and overwritten, or only went out a few months (which, inevitably, would be changed every couple...

The management lessons of angry birds

October 11, 2011

By David M. Kasprzak

Angry Birds, that time-draining app that has spawned a cult phenomenon and a slew of stuffed toys at Walmart, might seem like an odd place to look for wisdom on accomplishing tasks. Nonetheless, the game offers several highly useful examples of how to manage yourself and others in order to get things accomplished:

6 Quick Lean Leadership Lessons

October 5, 2011

By Christian Paulsen

Today’s manufacturing plants are busy places. While the factory has always been home to long hours and hard work, it certainly seems like the pressure has been turned up a notch or two over the years. The Lean Manufacturing journey can and will improve your operation yet time is still a factor. Training and development often suffer when it’s crunch time. Terry Starbucker notes that time is a hindrance for training in many businesses when he states, “Sometimes it’s hard to get their full attention for 10 minutes, much less the time it would take to do a full-scale...

Routinize the dull stuff

September 26, 2011

By Elliot Ross

Being a great business is about getting the processes right NOT technology. If you have been following along with my blog for any length of time, you are familiar with my mantra of people, process then (maybe) technology. For small to medium enterprises, what your investment in technology does is standardize or automate to improve your business processes.

Assembling the Right Team

September 23, 2011

By Derrick Strand

"Team builder" and "team player" are popular phrases in the workplace today and we often list them as skills we look for in effective managers and leaders. I know many a leader who could talk a good game about building effective teams in the interview process yet were not very successful at making it happen in the workplace. These same leaders also tend to be highly critical of other team leads who can't get a team to deliver great results. Why is it so hard to develop great teams?

The recipe: From Estimating to Planning

September 22, 2011

By David M. Kasprzak

Estimating is just one step along the way towards designing an executable project. The next thing that is necessary is a plan - and estimating is a quite different exercise from planning. A plan takes into account not just what needs to be done when, but how things move throughout the project, who moves them, when it will happen, what that movement enables or restricts, and an identification of what might change over the course of the project.

Factors that Create Effective and Successful Project Teams

September 14, 2011

By Gina Abudi

Creating an effective and successful project team – one that works well together to meet the project objectives – is a combination of a number of factors. Certainly, as a team leader, understanding the five stages of team development and how those stages impact the team is essential to you developing a high performing team. Read my post about The 5 Stages of Team Development, Part I and Part II prior to reading this post for some background information on effective team development. Factors that are conducive to creating effective teams that have a better chance of success in...

Are You Managing the Grapevine?

September 9, 2011

By Gina Abudi

This grapevine is an important source of information for any manager, executive or business owner. It provides you information that you may not otherwise hear, such as how employee morale is doing and issues that are important to employees. The grapevine is of value to employees because they tend to trust what comes from the grapevine. This is due to the fact that usually management is not involved in grapevine communications. And grapevines are not all about rumors – there is fact in there. As a manager or business owner, don’t discount the grapevine conversation, or assume it isn’t...

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Project Management

Last week’s tweets

How a results-only focus can prevent project overruns

Planning on not knowing

The management lessons of angry birds

6 Quick Lean Leadership Lessons

Routinize the dull stuff

Assembling the Right Team

The recipe: From Estimating to Planning

Factors that Create Effective and Successful Project Teams

Are You Managing the Grapevine?

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Site Creator & Author: David M. Kasprzak

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