I recently had a chance to read a paper by Allan L. Scherr of IBM on managing highly effective software projects. In brief, the premise of the paper is that creative breakthroughs can be induced by setting a highly aggressive schedule and doing whatever is necessary to meet deadline. Basically the method calls for inviting project participants to commit to delivering quality work on or ahead of schedule.

Photography by fdecomite.

After the project participants are on-board, the idea is to make a declaration pertaining to the delivery schedule. "The project will be completed within 18 months using only the staff on-hand and at 70% of the original budget estimate." Like Babe Ruth pointing to the fences before a homerun, the managers in the organization call their shot. Every member of the project commits not only to the details of the project delivery, but also to whatever else is important to each member of the team (vacation time, limiting overtime, etc.)
Read more

Six months ago I was ranting over the concept of Social Project Management, a term coined Leisa Reichelt. Although I still stand by the content of my posting, I must correct one thing. I finally found the original presentation and wow, she is absolutely right and on the money! I do apologize…

Look for yourself. Skip through the slides and enjoy.

| View | Upload your own

As a fundamental model for projects I want to use the notion of a Complex Adaptive System (CAS). In this post I will outline what this means; what are the properties of a CAS and how are they beneficial in our quest to search for answers to project problems?

Why CAS In The First Place?

I am the first to admit that my attention to the use of complex adaptive systems is largely triggered by its current popularity. It is a new and exciting concept that is getting more and more popular, and its associated attention, in almost every scientific discipline. It is this multi-disciplinary aspect in combination with new and exciting that sparked my interest.
Read more

Yesterday I came across "The Origins Of Modern Project Management" by Patrick Weaver. It is an interesting view on how Project Management emerged, and where it will be heading. It is a kind of combination between my "How Male Machismo Shaped Project Management" and "Projects As Social Interactions"… but a little less funky, and more properly researched

If you are interested in this subject (and every PM should be!), I recommend this article.

If we take the ideas behind The Sims to a more office like situation, consider the following situation where person A and B, or Bert and Ernie, influence each other. Bert's Recognitions-level is way down; he doesnt feel any recognition at all on his job, so his goal becomes "Getting Recognition". Bert in his mind has three possible strategies which all revolve around just getting attention (as he gets no feedback at all he is dying for any attention at all):

• Passive: doing nothing, see if anyone reacts;
• Aggressive: full force complaining and bitching;
• Escape: doing completely something else that delivers some kind of recognition.

Read more

I must admit, that the first time a played The SIMS I immediately try to get them to kill of love each other. I mean: "Looking for a job" Yeah, yeah. "Hitting the next door neighbor" Cool! Assuming that I am not the only weirdo here, and to make stuff entertaining, lets go to our example.

Consider the actor Tiffany in a game. She might have the following properties:

• Gender (M/F) := F
• Age (number) := 30
• Lust (number) := 50
• Anger (number) := 40

Read more