project management

The 80/20 Rule in Action

I have a Clever-Dick Nephew Nick who lives in Roanoke USA, and 'CDN' paid me a surprise visit for my recent birthday. Apart from the fun and affection of having his giant personality bubbling around me, we had a man-to-man chat about my business and lifestyle. Now I consider myself as a reasonable manager, but thanks to his insights, I found out I had become, well, a little defocused.

See, I had loads of new projects brimming inside my fertile brain and by golly, was I working hard on several of them when he turned up. But I wasn't getting the results I was expecting.

The More Things Change - The More They Stay The Same

 I haven't been sleeping too well recently, in that I keep waking at 04:30 or thereabouts, and I'm darned if I can get back to sleep...

I usually toss and turn for about 45 minutes, give up and get up. A cup of tea or coffee later, and I'm beavering away at my PC.

The Art Of Configuration Management and Change Management

Change And Configuration Management

I remember, many years ago, attending my first training course on Quality. Management couldn’t get enough people to attend, so they bribed them with a free scientific calculator (back then worth about $200) – so I attended. To be honest, I found it a whole lot more compelling than I expected. After lunch on the second day, they had an expert talk about Configuration Management.

Well, she certainly knew her stuff – but I came away thinking that CM was a bit ‘academic’.
How Wrong Can I Be?

How about ... it’s BUSINESS CRITICAL!

Projects and Project Management

What is a project -- and what is project management?

Here are some definitions:

Project Management - Lessons Learnt

Once a project has completed, there are many project management lessons that can be learnt from it.

This is not an opportunity to pass blame to anybody, but an opportunity to help enhance the performance and management of future projects.

During the life of the project, lessons may be learned on a continuous basis - so it makes sense to capture any learnings - as they occur! Setting up a central log - a Lessons Learned Log, is a good way to do this.