In a project most of the stake-holders are only interested in the amount of work completed and if things are on track. In a Agile/SCRUM environment the best tool for showing this is the burn down chart. These are extremely simple to create with any Spreadsheet software, I commonly use both Excel and Google Docs for this. I will try and outline a simple way of doing this below: Continue reading
Some time ago I was asked to try and review RationalPlan by Tiberiu Ghioca. There are two versions of the application Single Project and Multi Project. The version I used was the Multi Project Version which retails for around $98 per user (compare this to MS Project more about that later).
The one obvious advantage along with the price is the fact the application works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS-X. This is appealing as I am among the few Windows users (by the way I am happy with this) in most of the projects I work on. So finally a Project Management application that is not online (I travel a lot and do not always have easy access to the Internet) that can be shared among all the users on a project. Continue reading
Over the last few months I have been dealing with issues on how to motivate staff and found this really interesting talk from TED by Dan Pink (who happens to be Al Gore’s speech writer). He touches on practices such as Result only Work Environments definitely food for thought.
Starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think
Tim Brown is the current CEO of IDEO and the author of the book Change By Design which has helped deepen my understanding of the process of innovation. My Introduction to his thinking came from this presentation from MIT-World.
As a heavy user of google docs I came across this quick guide on using Google docs to create a Gantt Chart.
I have been giving this presentation as a introduction to project managment with a focus on introducing companies to the basic concepts of Agile. The presentation is aimed at PM Newbies and explaining agile to the managment teams more than the developers.
The three basic principles of Theory of Constraints (as outlined by Goldratt in The Goal), like may axioms they are really self evident although they are not backed up by reference-able evidence, this being said they are widely accepted.
Why would I use Critical Chain Project Management?
If you are currently experiencing projects having problems with schedule, budget and scope along with the common event of people over committing through their own acceptance or by the plans of the project manager. If so then it is definitely worth looking at adopting Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) as a way to speed up the projects and the assure their success.
Critical Chain Project Management has been with us for some time, championed by companies such as Prochain and to a much lesser extent individuals like myself. This videos gives a good overview of Critical Chain Project Management.
Having read “The Goal” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt some time ago after an introduction to the book by Andrew Byers. I have used the theory to look at process, projects and companies with results that have shown the validity of the theory.
The system also has parallels with the concept of flow expressed by the likes of Roger Hamilton and many other current business thinkers. TOC has a simple five step process for application.
RT @ianburgess Facebook as a Collaborative Knowledge Management System http://bit.ly/c748hE #UOKM
@DiscoverTheKey love the new brand, good to see its all working for you coffee soon? Working on "Makeup of Consultancy Industry" for Edinburgh Uni MBA consultancy panel tomorrow.
