http://projectez.com/blog Practical tips to get control of your projects, your team and your life. Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:37:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Democratic National convention kicked off with flurry of lights and celebrity speeches last night at the Pepsi Center in Denver. It reminded me of a scaled down version of the Olympic opening ceremonies with the vast crowd waving mass produced signs and chanting in unison. [spoiler alert] I've seen this ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/08/26/convention-buzz-gives-durham-man-a-headache/ A colleague at work commented, “You are the most efficient project manager I know. You're always in control.” He obviously hasn’t seen me walk my dog, Andy. My dog is a pig headed bull terrier that drags me along on his walk every day. I’ve used every PM soft skill technique ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/08/25/are-you-always-in-control/ 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) a2a_linkname="Your ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/08/21/your-opinion-matters/ 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 ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/08/08/kiss-pays-off-for-programmer/ 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. ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/08/04/are-you-a-97-pound-pm-weakling/ 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 ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/07/28/do-the-opposite-day/ Are you a project manager or ScrumMaster? During your daily scrums to assess project status, you ask your team three basic questions: What did you do for the project yesterday? What are you planning to do today? Do you have any obstacles preventing you from accomplishing your goal? Given that the goal is to ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/07/21/scrum-master-how-do-you-redirect-self-oriented-behaviors/ CYNTHIA DANAHER divides the people she has worked with over the years into three types: There are those who say, "There's a rat in this room, and I'm going to kill it," A second group says, "There's a rat in this room; let's figure out a plan to kill it." And a third ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/07/14/the-rat-in-the-room/ I wonder how Apple runs their decision checkpoint meetings? If their meetings are like our meetings in IBM, here's how the decision to charter the iPod possibly played out.  "Here ye. Here ye. Now that we've reviewed the project proposal for this music system, it's time to vote.  Let's go ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/07/07/sometimes-you-gotta-go-with-your-gut/ I am going to call out a team member in this post. To protect his identity, I won’t tell you his middle name. Anywhoo … Chuck [?] Bryan exhibits behaviors that deserve recognition: He calls people directly on the phone to discuss complex topics. Even when he disagrees with me, ... http://projectez.com/blog/2008/07/06/chuckies-not-a-monster/