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{EAV_BLOG_VER:48c13a047a629558} Most of my recent blog posts have been put on our EarthPM site. We also now blog for Projects at Work . Visit those two links above and you can keep up with me more regularly. Just to see if you're all paying attention, I may still blog here on general PM topics from time to time... Read Full Story

Not a major post, just a passing thought. I was listening to an interview with the author on this story about the middle east . The article is interesting, but what caught my attention in particular was a phrase he used and its applicability to risk identification: "the way to avert tragedy is to think tragically". It's important to be a "Debbie Downer" when you're identifying risk. It's a certain skill to be able to be really negative and identify all things that can go most horribly wrong... Read Full Story

"And now for something completely different..." This was the way the chaps over at Monty Python's Flying Circus used to segue from sketch to sketch when they had no idea how to do it smoothly. And this is a blog post which I cannot segue to, or otherwise connect properly to project management other than my work over at EarthPM , and yet somehow I felt that this post belonged here at ScopeCrepe. So anyway...now for something completely different - A history of the world in 100 objects . I... Read Full Story

If you're a PMI member (and who isn't...) you should consider taking advantage of the community. What community? Well, there are a bunch, but at this point I want you to follow LEAD. LEAD is the acronym for the Learning And Education Development community, and you can find that here: http://lead.vc.pmi.org . Besides some interesting discussions and blogs, you will also find some very good webinars. The next one, "Project Manager's Guide to Dealing w/the Difficult Sponsor" comes up quickly, 30... Read Full Story

One of the things that has always fascinated me as I've studied project management is the aspect of risk. Risk is the engine of projects. Think about it. Without risk, projects would be planned, everything would go as planned (no threats...no opportunities) and we, as project managers, would be responsible only for checking boxes on a checklist. How boring . But of course (witness exploding and leaking oil wells!) threats do occur. Projects do go off course. We do need to deal with... Read Full Story

One of my favorite podcasters and all-around good guys is Wayne Turmel. Besides running a business which reduces a whole lot of unneeded carbon footprint ( http://greatwebmeetings.com ) he hosts a great podcast called "The Cranky Middle Manager". On a recent episode (number 240, I think!) he interviewed Charlie Pellerin, formerly of NASA. I won't give away too much of the podcast, and urge you to listen to it (link here ). The reason I'm posting is to also point you to the resources available... Read Full Story

The Gulf oil spill crisis is in day 58. Debate continues on the amount of oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well, but it's clear that this disaster easily beats the Exxon Valdez. And BP has now pledge to pay $20B (yes Billion) to a fund that will support the Gulf. See this link . What type of project risk identification, analysis, planning, and response did the responsible (and I use that word lightly) parties have? We'll be discussing this and much more in an inexpensive 2-day seminar... Read Full Story

I recently (today, actually) had a chance to represent the profession of Project Management at the Coolidge Middle School in Reading, Massachusetts. In three 30-minute sessions, I used an interactive presentation to brainstorm the project of developing and making available to the market, a green (ecologically, that is) car. My audience was the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (one grade at a time). Although I was in competition with a policeman in full uniform and other "cooler" jobs, I think things... Read Full Story

One of the things we study in preparation of the PMP exam is "correlation". I t's important for PMs to know how to quickly judge the relationship of two variables, say, for example, vendor performance on one deliverable versus overall project performance. As we know, pairs of variables can be highly correlated, unrelated, or negatively correlated, such as a higher budget overrun and your manager's level of happiness. Well, as you see in the chart, there is a correlation between not only the... Read Full Story

I know this looks like a posting about football And it is. A little. But it's really about the PMP(R) Exam. Let me explain. In American or Canadian football, when a Quarterback (as in Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, above) throws the ball, it's a pass. Plain and simple. No controversy. Right? Not exactly. There are all kinds of rules, it turns out. Did the arm move forward? See this entry from Wikipedia: In American and Canadian football , a forward pass —usually called simply a pass... Read Full Story