When I used this analogy the week before last during the last Integrated Project Management Workshop in the D.C. area I was accused of dating myself–and perhaps it is true. For those wondering the quote was popularized by the 1983 movie The Right Stuff, which was based on the 1979 book written by Tom Wolfe of the same title. The book and movie was about the beginnings of the U.S. space program culminating in the creation of NASA and the Project Mercury program.
(more…)Latest Blog Posts
Money for Nothing — Project Performance Data and Efficiencies in Timeliness
I operate in a well regulated industry focused on project management. What this means practically is that there are data streams that flow from the R&D activities, recording planning and progress, via control and analytical systems to both management and customer. The contract type in most cases is Cost Plus, with cost and schedule risk often flowing to the customer in the form of cost overruns and schedule slippages.
(more…)Synergy — The Economics of Integrated Project Management
The hot topic lately in meetings and the odd conference on Integrated Project Management (IPM) often focuses on the mechanics of achieving that state, bound by the implied definition of current regulation, which has also become–not surprisingly–practice. I think this is a laudable goal, particularly given both the casual resistance to change (which always there by definition to some extent) and in the most extreme cases a kind of apathy.
(more…)All Along the Watch Tower — Project Monitoring vs. Project Management
My two month summer blogging hiatus has come to a close. Along the way I have gathered a good bit of practical knowledge related to introducing and implementing process and technological improvements into complex project management environments. More specifically, my experience is in introducing new adaptive technologies that support the integration of essential data across the project environment–integrated project management in short–and do so by focusing on knowledge discovery in databases (KDD).
(more…)Ground Control from Major Tom — Breaking Radio Silence: New Perspectives on Project Management
Since I began this blog I have used it as a means of testing out and sharing ideas about project management, information systems, as well to cover occasional thoughts about music, the arts, and the meaning of wisdom.
(more…)Rear View Mirror — Correcting a Project Management Fallacy
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun
Over the years I and others have briefed project managers on project performance using KPPs, earned value management, schedule analysis, business analytics, and what we now call predictive analytics. Oftentimes, some set of figures will be critiqued as being ineffective or unhelpful; that the analytics “only look in the rear view mirror” and that they “tell me what I already know.”
(more…)Like Tinker to Evers to Chance: BI to BA to KDD
It’s spring training time in sunny Florida, as well as other areas of the country with mild weather and baseball. For those of you new to the allusion, it comes from a poem by Franklin Pierce Adams and is also known as “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”. Tinker, Evers, and Chance were the double play combination of the 1910 Chicago Cubs (shortstop, second base, and first base). Because of their effectiveness on the field these Cubs players were worthy opponents of the old New York Giants, for whom Adams was a fan, and who were the kings of baseball during most of the first fifth of a century of the modern era (1901-1922). That is, until they were suddenly overtaken by their crosstown rivals, the Yankees, who came to dominate baseball for the next 40 years, beginning with the arrival of Babe Ruth.
(more…)Back in the Saddle Again — Putting the SME into the UI Which Equals UX
“Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” — Statement by Henry Ford in “My Life and Work”, by Henry Ford, in collaboration with Samuel Crowther, 1922, page 72
The Henry Ford quote, which he made half-jokingly to his sales staff in 1909, is relevant to this discussion because the information sector has developed along the lines of the auto and many other industries. The statement was only half-joking because Ford’s cars could be had in three colors. But in 1909 Henry Ford had found a massive market niche that would allow him to sell inexpensive cars to the masses. His competition wasn’t so much as other auto manufacturers, many of whom catered to the whims of the rich and more affluent members of society, but against the main means of individualized transportation at the time–the horse and buggy. The color was not so much important to this market as was the need for simplicity and utility.
(more…)Keep on Keeping On — Feedspot Ranks “Life, Project Management, and Everything” among Top 50 PM Blogs
Feedspot has published its rankings of the top 50 project management blogs and this site found itself squarely near the middle ranked at number 24. For those in the project management discipline, I strongly recommend you check out the list and bookmark all of them. They have a number of interesting lists by topic and so it is worth exploring beyond just PM. I read just about every one of the blogs noted on the PM list on a regular basis, which are both a source of inspiration and discovery.
A big thanks to those of you who read this blog and to the Feedspot editors for the acknowledgment. A great deal of research and work goes into each of the posts on this blog, whether about project management or other subjects that pique my interest. I would like to post more frequently, but my day job and living impose demands that limit my ability to write. Regardless, don’t give up on me during my short periods of writing hiatus. In all probability, I am working some problem of interest and am not yet ready to share my results for vetting.
Takin’ Care of Business — Information Economics in Project Management
Neoclassical economics abhors inefficiency, and yet inefficiencies exist. Among the core issues that create inefficiencies is the asymmetrical nature of information. Asymmetry is an accepted cornerstone of economics that leads to inefficiency. We can see in our daily lives and employment the effects of one party in a transaction having more information than the other: knowing whether the used car you are buying is a lemon, measuring risk in the purchase of an investment and, apropos to this post, identifying how our information systems allow us to manage complex projects.
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Life, Project Management, and Everything 
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