Archive for August, 2008
Stuart’s mean beef stew
One of the little wrinkles in project planning is the difference between the duration of a task, and the effort required.
Stuart’s mean beef stew is a great illustration.
To make it you take a small pile of stewing steak, chop it up and shove it in a casserole with some beer. Leave it to cook for [...]
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Disturb me and die!!
It’s all very well having an ‘open door’ policy, (even if you don’t have an actual door to hide behind) but there are times when you need some undisturbed time to think. How do you make this need known to your fellow workers without offending them?
Some folk recommend a flag system – green flag for [...]
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Why do projects fail?
Why do projects fail? And how on earth can you make sure that your project doesn’t fail? Simple answer – you can’t. But you can improve your chances of success dramatically, by considering some of the reasons that projects go wrong, and avoiding them – easy! I know this sounds like a bit of back-to-front thinking, but [...]
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DTWTFIF
This strange label is one of the most useful labels for files that I’ve ever come across.
It stands for “Don’t Know Where To File It File”
It’s a real cop-out and if you have such a file it should be small, because you will go to it frequently and deal with the contents properly – won’t [...]
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First post
I’ve thought for some time that managers, and particularly project managers, in the third sector are a neglected breed. We are expected to deliver exciting projects that are of real benefit to Society (note the capital letter) but without all the backup that project managers in industry have.
I reckon it’s time to change that. So [...]
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