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- Setting up priorities in an "A" world
- Concern About "Projectized" ApproachesThis article touches on my concern about the PMI definition of project and the related acceptance of Project Manager as a discrete role.PMI defines a project as an temporary endeavor with a defined completion. This makes it almost impossible to prioritize because the two choices available...
- Tags: GAAP, Wayne M.
- Discussion threads 2007-08-13
- The perfect work space
- Electronic Means Are A Poor Sustitute For Face-To-FaceI think the original approach, taking a chain saw to cubicle walls was correct, but I have concerns about the electronic substitutes listed at the end of the article.As a manager, get your people moved to a common area and reconfigure the cubicle...
- Tags: Wayne M., cubicle wall, e-mail
- Discussion threads 2007-07-30
- How a theory of change affects practical project management
- Projects and ChangeYour friend is correctly expressing the PMI view of projects - the view that a project is a one-shot effort with a defined end point. I find this unfortunate, as I view most productive change as being incremental, i.e., the change requires a series of steps to...
- Tags: Strategy, Tools & Techniques, theory, Wayne M., risk, project management
- Discussion threads 2007-07-02
- JetBlue cancellations strands thousands in New York
- Efficiency or No Room For ErrorJetBlue is just another example of the current business practice of seeking efficiency without regard to risk analysis. As long as everything works perfectly, all is well. As soon as something goes wrong, catastrphic failure sets in.Unfortunately, my arena, software development, seems to...
- Tags: Text messaging/SMS/MMS, Telephony, Cellular phones, Strategy, Wayne M., JetBlue Airways Corp.
- Discussion threads 2007-06-29
- Love (gone bad) in the office
- RMMI Level 5I guess I never considered that the problem with relationships and romances is lack of formal documentation. Do we need a Romance Maturity Model?Some companies I know of....Have "no fraternization" policies with violation being cause for termination.
- Tags: Workforce management, Wayne M.
- Discussion threads 2007-06-27
- 5 e-mail habits that waste time and cause problems
- Point #6Calvin, A great set of points! One I would add is to have some call to action in the e-mail. I prefer the "Say it three times approach", repeating the call to action at the beginning and end.Ever received an e-mail and you don't know why the...
- Tags: Wayne M., e-mail, subject line, Reply-To
- Discussion threads 2007-06-20
- How to annoy people in e-mail
- BiDDL!TONI, BiDDL! PLS SEE ATTACHED WYFLI!!!!!!!!!!RE: How to annoy people in e-mailIMHO, ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-)RE: How to annoy people in e-mailAND THEN RESUBMIT THE SAME (&)#a$)%#) MESSAGE A BUNCH OF TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!! =8-0IMHOFL!AND THEN RESUBMIT THE SAME (&)#a$)%#) MESSAGE A BUNCH OF TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!! =8-0 However, you must...
- Tags: Wayne M., e-mail, spam
- Discussion threads 2007-06-15
- How would you score on a "burnout" test?
- Seems "Normal" is Being on the Verge of BurnoutTo me the test seems biased to reporting burnout. I answered the questions truthfully and almost all of my answers fell into the "Sometimes" category. Every job has its ebbs and flows, so how is it ever possible to answer...
- Tags: Recruitment & Selection, Wayne M., burnout
- Discussion threads 2007-06-13
- Political Infighting - what a great thing!
- article rootMessage was edited by: The Trivia GeekThey Spent 2 Years ...There is a difference between have differring proposals and spend two years of e-mail battles to decide a winner. The company lost two years of market time and end up with a group of alienated staff. How...
- Tags: Wayne M., two-year
- Discussion threads 2007-06-08
- Respect the processes you put into place
- Eat Your Own CookingThis article covers one of my pet peeves. Process groups who do not follow their own processes. It seems that the process groups do not need to follow all of the decision making processes, requirements processes, documentation processes, change control processes, etc. that they foist...
- Tags: Wayne M.
- Discussion threads 2007-06-05
- Should you accept a management position?
- Rearrange The ListFirst, let me assert that management can actually be enjoyable and then address some of the issues raised.1) You will never be able to pick the team you want. You will always have to work with the people you have. One of the joys of management...
- Tags: Professional development, Wayne M., career
- Discussion threads 2007-05-17
- Business analysts: Clear communication may curb application development failures
- Eliminate Middlemen, Reduce Cycle Length in Software DevelopmentUnfortunately, this article is a mixture of somewhat contradictory quotes. I would focus on two areas that affect the development of software systems: Communications and Cycle Time.The introduction to the article gets it two-thirds right, "If more progress is to be made,...
- Tags: Software development, Development tools, Wayne M., software, developer, application development, Clear
- Discussion threads 2007-05-08
- Team Building exercises -- Are they too contrived to work?
- TeamworkI've found that assigning large jobs to a group of people, then let them decide who will handle what parts does more to bring people together than any teambuilding outings or get togethers. This is also a good way to get new employees into the group and up to...
- Tags: Wayne M., team, team-building
- Discussion threads 2007-05-07
- Job dissatisfaction and the Sunday night blues
- Between Passion and DisdainForget the extremes. No, do not stay at a job if you dislike going in, but also do not expect a job to provide passion. Many of us will work for 45 years and it is impractical to expect 45 years of passion. Be...
- Tags: Wayne M., job
- Discussion threads 2007-04-17
- Can you really have a job you're passionate about?
- Don't Expect A Job To Provide "Passion"The reality is that if someone is successful at what he does, then the vast majority of his tasks will be rote tasks. In fact, it is most often those who can take their personal feelings out of the mix, those who can...
- Tags: Wayne M., job
- Discussion threads 2007-03-17
- Short Order Programmers
- Agile May Work for YouAgile may just work for you. I think it addresses your short iteration cycle issues, your changing requirements issues, and your QA/QC concerns.XP is based on short 1-2 week cycles and there is not waiting for years for fe
- Tags: Agile, Microsoft Windows XP, programming, programming and development, Wayne M.
- Discussion threads 2006-11-02
- Waterfall 2006 - The Truth About Software Development
- Please see the attached link to an impressive new Software Development conference. Note that many of the papers are already available from this link as a preview. Please note the confoerence date and location for further insight.http://www.waterfall2006.com/Please take a look at the above link. I can assure...
- Tags: Software development, Wayne, Please Note
- Discussion threads 2006-03-13
- Does more connectivity mean more vulnerability?
- Internet Requires a Security ModelSince its inception, TCP/IP has ignored the security issue resulting in the emergence of the issues described above.Most of the current focus is on total elimination of security threats; this is simply not feasible. Much of the early work on secure computer systems, though, followed...
- Tags: compatmentalization, extender, internet, IP, IP Enabled, network, security, threat, virus, Wayne M.
- Discussion threads 2006-03-10
- Understand the potential ramifications of a two-tiered Internet
- Understand the potential ramifications of a two-tiered Internetarticle rootTwo-Tier or Quality Of Service?Another way of looking at the issue is as providing multiple qualities of service. There is value to end users in segregating data into distinct channels.If a business has limited resources, multiple quality of service levels allows...
- Tags: bandwidth, cable, Internet, QoS, quality of service, security, Wayne M.
- Discussion threads 2006-03-03
- Creating an IT policy that works
- Do Not GeneralizeI must disagree with the recommendation to "have catch-all clauses within your policies...." An imprecise policy is really no policy at all.Although I appreciate the legal desire to be able to reinterpret the policy at will, this eliminates the informative nature of a policy. For example,...
- Tags: information technology, it management, policy, procedure, requirements, Wayne M.
- Discussion threads 2006-01-25
Harnessing the power of waves
Planting solar gardens
Fill your car for $1.10 a gallon?