New project management articles published on the web during the week of May 4 – 10. We give you a venue for discovery of new ideas, so you can find what interests you. I took this picture on my recent business trip to Sydney, during a short respite from the rain. Recommended:

Must read!

Lynda Bourne explains the difference between change and transformation. And yes, they are as different as waterfall and Agile.

Don Kim preaches a little heresy: the more an organization needs effective project management, right now, the less ardently they should pursue it.

Penelope Trunk presents some shortcuts to apply when reinventing yourself. The key is to change the context and presentation, rather than your essential identity.

PM Best Practices

Michel Dion challenges the traditional “triple constraint” perspective in defining project success, with a new trinity of considerations that look outside the project.

Elizabeth Harrin shares the slide deck from her PMXPO talk, “Ten Ways to Market Your Project.” Great stuff on connecting with your stakeholders.

Rich Maltzman presents the story of coffee roaster Equal Exchange as an example of the purpose-driven approach that project managers should emulate.

Paul Ritchie advocates for imbedding benefits realization in the project plan, and links to a great old Hoyt Axton song, “Where Did the Money Go?”

Nick Pisano lays the groundwork for a generalized theory of managing software development and acquisition, with a supporting rebar web of physics and economics.

John Goodpasture introduces a presentation by Matthew Squair, “Software Partitioning Integrity.” Even if you aren’t a software development manager, the vocabulary is worth developing, from a risk management perspective.

Harry Hall reviews the key knowledge elements of risk identification. Educate your project team and stakeholders, and they will embrace risk management.

Bill Nichols argues for documenting requirements, despite Agilista claims. Just because they’re emerging doesn’t mean we shouldn’t capture them.

Ray Frohnhoefer on Extreme Planning. “As we’ve learned from projects like gov, Agile isn’t always the best method to follow for software development.”

Paul Baumgartner describes the project manager’s role of “knowledge broker,” redirecting inquiries to the right expert, as essential to the success of complex projects.

Agile Methods

Mike Cohn shares his thoughts on whether it is better for team members to commit to specific tasks, or the entire team to commit to the sprint plan.

Mike Griffiths points out the abundance of non-traditional knowledge sharing on Agile projects, with a focus on Extreme Programming practices.

Neil Killick examines some of the motivations for a decision maker to request an estimate, with an eye toward producing better answers.

Management Without the Pointy Hair

Venkat Krishnamurthy proposes a novel approach: instead of trying to replicate success, study and learn from companies who failed.

Susanne Madsen reviews Hertzberg’s theory of hygiene and motivators and a bit of self-determination theory to make an important point: you can’t buy retention.

Suzanne Lucas recommends five actions you can take to improve retention of your best employees.

Glen Alleman notes that in order to use data from past performance to project future results, you need to be able to make some quantified adjustments.

Bruce Harpham applies David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” personal productivity principles with a weekly review.

Enjoy!

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