I'd like to share an analogy I use in my Project Management courses to explain the often misunderstood difference between secondary and residual risk.Secondary risks are those which are caused by the treatment or response to the risk.Residual risk is the risk which remains even after you have treated or responded to the risk.So here goes the analogy.You are jumping from a plane. Yep. That's a situation which clearly has some threat to it. It also has opportunity (in this case a thrill). B... Read Full Story

You know that I've blogged before about the danger of PMs taking a single-point estimate. I want to draw your attention to a nice talk given by Chimamanda Adichie (shown on the left) called, "The Danger of the Single Story". I'd like to acknowledge Pervez Mohammed of VISIONS non-profit group for making me aware of this video.It takes the idea of a single-point estimate to a whole new level.Listen to her. The video is about 20 minutes and is located HERE.Then think. Or maybe reflect is a be... Read Full Story

Today, I'm very happy to announce that I've become a Distributor for a tremendous product that brings fun, intrigue, and yes, even thrills to the world of learning about project management. Thus the image above.Project management learning should be a little more like that, don't you think? Well, it can be, with a board game that takes project managers on a bit of a roller-coaster ride through a project and teaches them about risk and much more.The board game, which was carefully developed ove... Read Full Story

Here's a very small program with a very specialized task: make quick work out of genrating a WBS.It's free, fairly intuitive, and does its task well.Check it out here:http://www.wbs-tool.net/ Read Full Story

Some of the "more seasoned" of us may recall the old TV series, Get Smart, and the more youthful readers will certainly know the Get Smart movie that came out a few years (based on that original TV show). The title, and most of the writing, was very clever, and 'played with words'. Smart was the name of the agent, and the bad guys were always trying to 'get' (as in capture) Smart. But it was of course also a reference to getting smarter - as in 'gaining intelligence or wisdom'.To remind yo... Read Full Story

Okay, here's a quick question for you. Without going online or doing any research, just off the top of your head, how many computers do you think are disposed of daily? To answer, fill out the POLL on the left top side of the blog. I will have the answer - as well as your guesses - on an updated version of this posting within 2 weeks.In the meantime, if you're interested in project management (and you ARE, by virtue of your being here) and the environment (which you should be, as a resident... Read Full Story

Please follow the link below to answer a 1-question poll about how your organization deals with... with... well, you have to go to the poll to find out.This is the link below that I was talking about above:OK, I will give you 5 seconds! Read Full Story

As a project manager - even if you ended up in the career, as many of us did, as an accident - you will be making lots and lots of choices. Add more resources to this task? Use the Jones company or the Smith company as your subcontractor? Have an on-site project kickoff meeting or a virtual one?I just listened to an excellent podcast on the subject of choice. It was on NPR's Radiolab, one of my favorite podcasts and one I would highly recommend you subscribe to.It's brain food. Eat well.... Read Full Story

Greenality. You probably never heard that word before. But we want to change that. We want you - project managers - to take the lead in making projects more green. If we want to measure how green a project is, we need a word. If you want to check how original an idea is, we look into its originality. So if we want to check how green a project is, we've decided to coin the term greenality.You can actually help. My colleague Dave Shirley, PMP, and I have placed the word greenality in Urba... Read Full Story

One of my favorite radio shows is "Car Talk" on NPR (National Public Radio in the US). You don't have to be in the US to receive it, by the way. You can get their podcasts free of charge at http://www.cartalk.com . Car Talk is a show which is incredibly entertaining even though it is made up mainly of people calling up the two hosts seeking help with car troubles. The hosts, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, also often have a "puzzler" or brain teaser, usually related to auto maintenance or somethin... Read Full Story