A Little Bit Moore — Moore’s Law and Public Sector Economics

Back in the saddle and have to just find the time to put some thoughts down.  In dealing with high tech and data issues one of the most frequent counterfactuals that I have been running into lately is in regard to the “cost” associated with data, especially data submissions.  If one approaches this issue using standard economic theory pre-high tech then the positive correlation applies.

But we live in a different world now folks.

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Gotta Serve Somebody — The Proper Balance of Duties in Business–and Project Management

While traveling over the last couple of weeks I was struck by this article in the Wall Street Journal entitled: “Pharmaceutical Companies Buy Rivals’ Drugs, Then Jack Up the Prices.”  The reporter of the article stated in a somewhat matter-of-fact manner that the reason for this behavior was the need for maximization of stockholder value.  Aside from the fact that, with the poorly vetted excuse mongering in the article about fewer opportunities for development and limitations on payments under healthcare, U.S. drugs tend to be significantly higher than generics found overseas, the assumption regarding maximizing stockholder value is misplaced.

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Let’s Get Physical — Pondering the Physics of Big Data

As a primer a useful commentary on the ethical uses of Big Data was published today at Salon.com in an excerpt from Jacob Silverman’s book, Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection.  Silverman takes a different approach from the one that I outline in my article, but he tackles the economics of new media that were identified years ago by Brad DeLong and A. Michael Froomkin back in the late 1990s and first decade of the 21st century.  This article on First Monday from 2000 regarding speculative microeconomics emerging from new media nicely summarizes their thesis.  Silverman rejects reforming the system in economic terms, entering the same ethical terrain on personal data collection that was explored by Rebecca Skloot on the medical profession’s genetic collection and use of tissue during biopsies in the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

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The Song Remains the Same (But the Paradigm Is Shifting) — Data Driven Assessment and Better Software in Project Management

Probably the biggest DoD-centric project management news this past week was the unofficial announcement by Frank Kendall, who is the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics USD(AT&L), that thresholds would be raised for mandatory detailed surveillance of programs to $100M from the present requirement of $20M.  While earned value management implementation and reporting will still be required on programs based on dollar value, risk, and other key factors, especially the $20M threshold for R&D-type projects, the raising of the threshold for mandatory surveillance reviews was seen as good news all around for reducing some regulatory burden.  The big proviso in this announcement, however, was that it is to go into effect later this summer and that, if the data in reporting submissions show inconsistencies and other anomalies that call into question the validity of performance management data, then all bets are off and the surveillance regime is once again imposed, though by exception.

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Forget Domani — The Inevitability of Software Transitioning and How to Facilitate the Transition

The old Perry Como* chestnut refers to the Italian word “tomorrow” and is the Italian way of repeating–in a more romantic manner–Keyne’s dictum that in the “long run we’ll all be dead.”  Whenever I hear polemicists talk about the long run or invoke the interests of their grandchildren trumping immediate concerns and decisions I always brace myself for the Paleolithic nonsense that is to follow.  While giving such opinions a gloss of plausibility, at worst, they are simply fabrications to hide self-interest, a form of tribalism, or ideology, at best, they are based on fallacious reasoning, fear, or the effects of cognitive dissonance.

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Brother Can You (Para)digm? — Four of the Latest Trends in Project Management

At the beginning of the year we are greeted with the annual list of hottest “project management trends” prognostications.  We are now three months into the year and I think it worthwhile to note the latest developments that have come up in project management meetings, conferences, and in the field.  Some of these are in alignment with what you may have seen in some earlier articles, but these are four that I find to be most significant thus far, and there may be a couple of surprises for you here.

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Let the Journey Begin — Mentoring a Better Project Manager

I have been involved in discussions lately regarding mentoring in the project management and IT business management field.  The question is: what does it take to build a better project manager given the rapidly changing paradigm defining the profession?

Having mentored many younger people over the course of a 22 year plus career in the United States Navy–and then afterward in private business–I have given this line of thought a great deal of consideration.  Over the years I have been applying personnel development and growth strategies as one assigned to lead both men and women among the uniformed military, civil service, and contractor communities.  Some of these efforts were notable for their successes.  In a few cases I failed to inspire or motivate.

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I Get By With A Little Help… — Avoiding NIH in Project Management

…from my colleagues, friends, family, associates, advisors, mentors, subcontractors, consultants, employees.  And not necessarily in that order.

The term NIH in this context is not referring to the federal agency.  It is shorthand, instead, for “Not Invented Here”.  I was reminded of this particular mindset when driving through an old neighborhood where I served as a community organizer.  At one of the meetings of a local board, which was particularly dysfunctional (and where I was attempting to reform their dysfunction), a member remarked:  “I am tired of hearing about how this or that particular issue was handled somewhere else.”  Yes, I thought, why would we possibly want to know how Portland, or D.C., or Boston, or Denver, or Phoenix–or any of the number of other places faced with the same issue–effectively or ineffectively dealt with it before us?  What could they possibly teach us?

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The Big (D) — Ways of Looking at Big Data

Recently I have been involved in several efforts regarding what is often referred to as Big Data, but of a particular kind.  Oftentimes the term, which was first defined by Doug Laney now at Gartner, is seen as utilizing data in order to monetize consumer information that is being collected to allow business to focus advertising, marketing, and product development.  More generally, however, big data (as defined by Laney) distinguishes itself from normal relational database management by its volume, variety, velocity, variability, and complexity.  The Wikipedia definition is slightly different with the additional attribute of veracity.

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No Bucks, No Buck Rogers — Project Work Authorizations, Change Control, and Cash Flow

As I’ve written here most recently, the most significant proposal coming out of the Integrated Program Management Conference (IPMC) this year was the comprehensive manner of integrating all essential elements of a project, presented by Glen Alleman et al.  In their presentation, Alleman, Coonce, and Price, present a process flow (which, in my estimation, should be mirrored in data and information flow) in which program artifacts were imbued with measures of effectiveness, measures of performance, and measures of progress, to achieve an organic integration of all parts of the project that allow the project team to make a valid assessment of achievement against the plan, informed by risk and opportunity.  (Emphasis my own).  The three-legged stool of cost, schedule, and technical performance are thereby integrated properly at the appropriate level of the project structure, and done in such a way as to overcome the rigidity and fallacy of the single point estimate.

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