My Networking CV (or, What’s In It For Me?)

26 January, 2008
Social Networks
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As social networking sites proliferate and mature, we're all learning how to use these interesting new resources. True, it is just a modern take on "professional networking" - purposeful connections with different special interest groups, to share ideas and lay the foundation for current or future "opportunities". I'm involved with a couple of organizations like this - I like to connect with peers, and I like to know what's going on in my city and in the industry. Recently I…

Stop Thinking, Start Doing – Else Your Career/Skills/Network Will Fade Away …

Hugh Pickens posted an interesting comment on Slashdot last week ... pulling ideas out of an excellent NY Times article ... "I have a DVD remote control with 52 buttons on it, and every one of them is there because some engineer along the line knew how to use that button and believed I would want to use it, too," says David Heath, co-author of "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die." The "curse of knowledge," is…

SQL Hack for Reporting Project Phase and Status

20 December, 2007
Hands-On, PMO
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It's been a while since I've posted some code, but I did a nice little SQL hack today that I've been puzzling over for a while. I freely admit that I may have made this more difficult with the original data model, but the die has been cast. Consider a single SQL table that captures project updates as comments note that this table also allows me to change the "phase" (ex. Design, Development, Test, Production) and/or Status (ex. Proposed, Red,…

PM Anti-Patterns That Increase IT Project Cycle Time

Lots of conversation at work these days about PMO, resource prioritization, and reducing cycle time for IT projects. I feel a series of posts coming on ... IAPL, we launched a project to bring test discipline to our technology efforts. The team was writing standards and guidelines for test scripts, implementing integrated testing tools supplied by the ERP vendor, and adding steps to our project methodology requiring test scripts for all system changes. As the project dragged into a fourth…

College Professor uses Tried-and-True method for Encouraging Knowledge Sharing

via Slashdot a few weeks ago, and Ars Technica; at the University of Washington-Bothell, Martha Groom recently assigned her students to work on Wikipedia entries, and add to the knowledge base. An interesting approach; I found the reaction of the Wikipedia community most interesting, in that the entries were aggressively edited and commented upon - sometimes "rudely". It's a common theme in many KM discussions, as early adopters enter their first Trough of Disillusionment, and see these wonderful tools languish…

Integrated Supply Chain Benefits Go Beyond the Internal Stuff

12 November, 2007
M&A, Supply Chain
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I met Lora Cecere this evening, well-known AMR analyst for Supply Chain - a good conversation about the deeper potential for supply chain integration technology. The topic: are there bigger benefits here? Is it really only limited to optimization of your own supply chain? Don't get trapped into thinking that the business benefit of supply chain integration is limited to increased visibility - look at the different scenarios. A simplistic view of an integrated supply chain shows all the elements,…

Project Management Soft Skills Defined: Emotional Intelligence

17 October, 2007
People Management
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Illud iterum dicere potes! I've had a number of discussions, with some of the best project managers I know, as we discuss ways to simplify methodologies and streamline our delivery process. Many organizations are trying to train their next generation of project managers, and all seem to run into the same basic problem. You can hand someone the PMBOK, teach them how to use MS Project, and send them off to PMI certification classes - but that doesn't guarantee an…

Alternative KM Tools (3 of 3)

In my first two posts about alternative KM tools I wrote about audio - digital voice recorders and voice-recognition software. One could consider this "old-school" technology, because the stuff has been around for a long time. Another technology that's been around for a long time is PC-based video - around, but possibly not as accessible as it is now. YouTube and the various Internet video sites are a relatively new phenomenon, mostly because breakthroughs and video technology that reduces file size…

Alternative KM Tools (2 of 3)

In my first post about alternative KM tools, I wrote about audio files, and my new productivity enhancer - the digital voice recorder. One thing I noticed when replaying these sessions and capturing the notes; since I could cue and review all parts of the conversations, I was taking more notes than I used to (when working from handwritten notes and memory). The added accuracy and completeness of my notes was a mixed blessing; it was taking longer and longer to…

Alternative KM Tools (1 of 3)

This will be the first in a series of posts about Knowledge Management (KM) tools that are a bit different than traditional documents, presentations, and diagrams. I'm not talking about mind mapping, wikis, and other web 2.0 tools currently in vogue; these "alternative tools" have been around for a while, but I've only just started using them, with great success. Actually, it's not as much about new tools at it as it is about new media; I am specifically thinking…