management « A PM's workshop

Pragmatism, virtue and risk

By Eugenio, on September 30th, 2009

If a project manager is not able to deliver the information about the current situation without limiting the communication to the bare facts described with technical lingo, it is difficult to explain the reason of being there for [...]

Risk and Triage

By Eugenio, on September 29th, 2009

Three labels indicate the risk’s probability:

1. proven
2. probable
3. [...]

Rules and apples

By Eugenio, on September 25th, 2009

Firing people

Apples fell before Newton’s formulation of gravitation theory.
This affirmation could sound obvious. However, this wants to introduce a serious problem in quality of management. The case has been clearly described by Tom L. Barnett in “Second Chances” post.
Rules cannot change our surrounding reality. Laws can only help our communities (project’s team is just [...]

Vision and mistakes

By Eugenio, on September 24th, 2009

Vision helps us in two complementary ways. What we are doing and why.
Everything that does not match with the vision (duly translated into the daily reality) can be labeled as error. Without a clear and shared concept of what is needed for reaching the target, there is no way for defining, measuring and repair the [...]

Risks and People

By Eugenio, on September 23rd, 2009

Peopleare the most valuable asset for the project; nevertheless, they are the most dangerous source of risks. Human beings are condemned to be sometimes fallacious; some of us tend to live it as a life sentence.

Picking up the brightest is a Mantra. However, the process of staffing the team(s) is influenced by many factors, starting [...]

Maturity and risks

By Eugenio, on September 22nd, 2009

Cultural risk attitude is the value for gauging the proclivity toward a possible event that, if it happens, can modify the single output or the whole outcome.

At the project’s definition, this value is associated to well define the threshold. It is the boundary that fixes the boundary on the Risk Matrix.

On the daily basis, this [...]

Red herrings

By Eugenio, on September 21st, 2009

Drawing symmetry

Managing projects includes the crunching of a lot of data. A well working system could provide a steady flow of information that, given the reliability grade, offers a picture of the actual situation and then possible scenarios.

This model remains valid for most of our activities. Sources and kind of data can vary a [...]

Stories and GUIs

By Eugenio, on September 14th, 2009

It is ever about masks

(User) stories are the best way gaining stakeholders attention and then interest. The risk of offering dazzling pages cannot be undervalued. There are many forms of gilding the proposal. Notwithstanding the correct adoption of Ajax will offer a lot of opportunities; in the same time, this introduces new challenges in [...]

Time and Creativity

By Eugenio, on September 11th, 2009

Creativity’s laws need a lot of testing (mistakes that were solved) before being accepted with no fear of [...]

The value of hope

By Eugenio, on September 10th, 2009

Managers as kings have to show the capacity to deal with problems. The energy produced by the sentiment of hope is an essential part of this job. We have to learn how to nurture this source of vitality without becoming prisoners of [...]