New project management articles published on the web during the week of March 13 – 19. And this week’s video: Julia Galef uses the metaphor of soldiers and scouts to help explain why we think we’re right—even what we’re wrong. Just 12 minutes, safe for work.

Must read!

Elizabeth Harrin lists five common failure modes for planning and executing our project schedules, and what we should be doing instead. Bookmark this page!

Harry Hall proposes having the team write their own Constitution, or list of shared values, to drive unity and make expected behaviors explicit. Includes another short video.

Tamás Török presents a software development practitioner’s guide to code quality, as processes and tools. Brief, comprehensive, actionable, and an apropos panel from XKCD.

Established Methods

Mike Clayton posts another video in his Project Management in Under 5 series: this one explains the RACI chart and compares it to the linear responsibility chart. Under 5 minutes, safe for work.

William Davis introduces his free Excel template, Statistical PERT. I’ll post a detailed review here in a few days.

Glen Alleman reminds us that the customer values process and governance, and thus their notion of value at risk includes those things, even if you think they’re overhead.

Nick Pisano makes the case that cost, schedule, and technical achievement are insufficient metrics—we should incorporate sociological and psychological factors.

Barry Hodge explains how his company takes a project from proposal to Go document, to execution.

Andrew Conrad lists the top five paying industries for those project managers holding the PMP.

Agile Methods

Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly round-up of Agile topics, from the nature of coaching to user stories to the limits of product manager authority.

Johanna Rothman posts an extensive series on becoming an Agile Leader. Here are parts 2, 3, and 4.

Chris Matts continues his series reflecting on the difference between executive and practitioner visions of Agile methods, in terms of dragon slayers and farmers.

Ben Linders summarizes “The Great Scrum Master,” by Zuzana Šochová, in 15 tweets.

Romy Misra interviews former Microsoft product manager Erik Kennedy on techniques for effectively working with visual designers.

Alok Kumar and Suganthi Subramanian recount their experience in applying Scum to data warehousing environments.

Applied Leadership

Tim Clark, the author of “Leading with Character and Competence,” tells the story of the dog who only bites occasionally. Like the boss who is only a tyrant when he’s upset.

Leigh Espy reviews “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” by Robert Cialdini. The review was certainly influential—I added it to my Kindle.

Gina Abudi begins a series that presents a case study in getting buy-in for a large project.

Claire Karjalainen convenes a panel of women in technology to address the question: how can the leadership team empower the women in your company?

Technology, Techniques, and Human Behavior

Grace Windsor summarizes some of the common cognitive biases that impact our decision making.

Justin Talbot-Zorn and Leigh Marz report that the busier you are, the more you need quiet time.

Coert Visser considers the question: if the Dunning-Kruger effect makes the incompetent feel confident, is confidence indicative of incompetence?

Working and the Workplace

Lisette Sutherland extracts dialogs from prior interviews that address how to effectively provide feedback on virtual teams. Just 25 minutes, safe for work.

Naomi Caietti reviews the key strategies for leading virtual teams, based on the work of Penn Pullan and Evi Prokopi.

Suzanne Lucas reports on the growing trend of “forced praise” in the workplace, from apps like HeyTaco and Growbot to simple excess niceness. It’s not all good.

Enjoy!

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