The Short Bio
Bas de Baar discusses Project Leadership in a global and virtual world through his popular blog and video podcast “The Project Shrink”. With over a decade spent in the trenches as Software Project Manager within the publishing, financial and public sector, running multi-national teams, he has a lot to talk about.
Bas holds a masters degree in Business Informatics and lives with his wife in The Netherlands. He is author of the book “Surprise! Now You’re a Software Project Manager” and is a member of The PMI New Media Council. This council brings together industry bloggers, webcasters and podcasters to help PMI advance the profession, to promote the exchange of ideas and knowledge and to make the best use of new social media channels.
What Is The Project Shrink About?
The Project Shrink covers two main themes: Leadership and Social Media.
In today’s virtual and global world Project Leadership skills are more required than ever. Communication is essential, transparency in and around the project is vital. As a Project Leader you might wish to see your team and stakeholders change, become more transparent and creating better social skills.
The central argument of The Project Shrink is: “Be The Change You Wish To See”. If you want to see change in communication and transparency, you have to lead by example.
And this is were social media comes in. Social media will allow you, personally, to develop your social skills, get over fears of online expression and dealing with transparency. By developing your own personal skills, by creating your digital reputation you can effectively enable the use of social media in your projects.
In short:
Be The Change You Wish To See
Change = Communication + Transparency
Social Media = Train You + Enable Team Communication
Best Place To Start Reading The Project Shrink
Download my free ebook (collection of blog postings): Project Shrink Linear Edition
Why Project Shrink?
Because I want to emphasize “human behavior” in projects and have difficulty pronouncing “Project Sociologist”.
Because I make huge complex topics small and accessible.
And as I explained in an earlier post:
With a project shrink I was thinking more along the lines of relationship therapy. Without having all details, you can improve a situation by means of having guided counseling. “How did you experience this situation?” “What is your relationship with your mother like?” It can provide a needed “snap-out-of-it” moment for a PM (or BA). Reflection is not something that comes natural to all of us. We discussed earlier that cause-and-effect chains are getting complex, so someone to help you order your thoughts on any situation can be beneficial.
The shrink wouldn’t be closely involved with the project. He can stay within generalizations and is merely there to facilitate the mental juggling of the project people. Because of the generalization and relative distance between the project shrink and the project stakeholders, I think this could work perfectly in combination with Web 2.0 tools. Heck, this blog is my own personal reflection tool, so yeah, it can definitely work.
Why did you start blogging, and what’s your goal now?
question by Jurgen Appelo
I started writing around 2001 as means of self-expression. It is almost therapeutic to put your opinions and doubts in words. It really improves your mind in a lot of ways.
When I first started writing on my site SoftwareProjects.org, the old fashioned “static” site forced me to write in a more article style of writing. When I finally “got it”, when I finally understood how blogs really are different from static sites, I was ecstatic. A blog supports the style I prefer, more emerging, more incremental, refining ideas.
As years have passed by, I am getting more and more ambitious for the site. For the first time ever, I even wrote a mission statement for the site:
“The mission of The Project Shrink is to make global, virtual and multi cultural projects work … in such a way that they provide a genuine contribution towards a sustainable global society.”
What are the strengths of your blog?
question by Jurgen Appelo
The strength of Project Shrink is expressed in its tag line: “Projects Are About Humans. We Help You Deal With That.” “Luckily” (and I mean this in a sarcastic way) Project Management is mostly a topic about procedures and metrics. So, talking about “humans working together” in the context of projects is a fresh spin to an old and boring subject.
Past Speaking Engagements
“Everything A Project Manager Needs To Know About Social Media”, Alcatel-Lucent International PM Day Symposium, online, Fall 2009
“Social Networking Presentation – Why Should You Care about Social Media?”, PMI Global Congress, Orlando, Fall 2009
“The End Of The Human Cannonball: Project Leadership In Today’s World”, Project Management 2010: Portfolios, Programs And Complex Projects, online, Fall 2009
“Everything A Project Manager Needs To Know About Social Media”, PMI EMEA Congress, Amsterdam, Spring 2009
“Clothing Optional, and other benefits of the virtual workplace”, Real Time Collaboration Summit, Utrecht, Fall 2007
Other Media
IPMA Project Management Practice Spring 2007:
“Using Stakeholder Analysis in Software Project Management”
How Male Machismo Shaped Project Management, PM World Today, October 2007
Why Agile Popped Up on the Radar When it Did, PM World Today, November 2007
Why do Developers contribute to Open Source? PM World Today, December 2007
Contributions to University of California Extension, Santa Cruz blog
Monthly column at TechTarget.com: Project Management In Perspective
Interviews
Putting the Project Shrink on the Couch @ Arras People, March 2010
Interview with Bas De Baar @ PMStudent, October 2009
About Social Media @ Project Management Podcast, June 2009
The Intersection of Project Management and Change Management: An Interview With Bas de Baar of Project Shrink, August 2008
Controling Chaos Podcast, Januari 2007
Project Management Podcast, September 2006
During the PMI EMEA Congress 2009 I was interviewed by the friendly and inspiring Luis Garcia of the PMI – IT & Telecom SIG’s Podcast. About my favorite topic: Project Shrink. 