Project Junction

Recently, I was asked if I could recommend for parental control software. I thought I’d share my response with a larger community.
From: John
To: Concerned Parent
I installed Optenet web filtering software two years ago. Click Here for more info My daughter took great pride in circumventing every other program I installed prior to this application. She [...]

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I’ve been buried by a blizzard of emails from a manager who always requests that the task/deliverable be completed “Today.” The “today” prompt shows up in variety of amusing ways. The funniest variant was the note written at 10:00 pm requesting that a trivial assignment be completed “tomorrow.” Of course, when I [...]

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I’m fielding calls from family and friends this week: “Are you still employed … I heard IBM is laying everyone off.”
The short answer:  Yes … I’m stilling working for the man.
I do appreciate everyone’s concern.  I’m a little mad at Lee Conrad, however, for whipping up the media to disrupt my life and scare my [...]

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MS Project assumes that you are loading a “closest to the pin” estimate for task duration. fn That means the duration has a 50% chance of coming in ahead of schedule and a 50% chance of finishing late. There’s a twist to this game that many project managers fail to recognize: Very few people give [...]

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In order to direct more traffic to my new blog, I need your help to “salt the tip jar.” The PM Nation visiting from inside of IBM already knows what to do. But for my novice readers, I’d like your support by sharing my posts on del.icio.us. This is a social bookmarking site that [...]

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Team’s become disillusioned when they spin endlessly trying to make a decision. Just this week I heard someone say, “Let’s wait 12 months to collect actual data to see how we are trending before we make this decision.” Really? Since the first three months of data already show that we are running far below plan, [...]

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Folks,
If you attended the worldwide conference call last night, I’d appreciate your direct feedback.
+  What went well?
++  What could be improved?
Here’s the slide deck for reference.
Are you a 97 pound PM weakling?
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: softskills leadership)

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Tim Roberts was crowned the 2008 Software Design champion at the TopCoder Open at the Mirage Resort in Las Vegas on May 8th. You didn’t see him on the nightly news. He isn’t dating a supermodel. He’s just an unassuming guy who knows how to design and code software.
Tim is the guy [...]

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I’ll be presenting to the PM Lessons Learned community later this month. You are welcome to join.
Presentation:  Are You a 97 pound PM weakling?
Date:  Thursday, August 21st
Time:  9:00 pm EST
Conference dial-in: (269) 320-8300 Access Code: 767 616#
The presentation will be available via replay through September.

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My Grandpa Joe owned a gas station back in the day when an “island boy”ran out to your car to perform a full inspection of your tire pressure, wipers, and fluids while filling your tank with gas. That’s right, long ago in a far away land, someone once filled your tank while you sat in [...]

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