Beyond Execution

I recently signed up for a new PM service, and as part of that service, they are sending me (translation:blitzing me) with emails about blog posts and webinars and free (!) PDUs.  Can't say I blame them, they are starting a new business, and you need to build an audience to gain a predicable revenue stream for the future.  The only trouble is, for me, I'm not overly interested in the content, at least at this point in time.

However, they did send off on a topic abo...

I had an interesting question posed to me a few weeks ago in one of my classes. One of the younger participants asked me for my opinion on the younger generation - how productive they would be in projects and what kind of methods a PM could use for motivation (we were in the HR section of the course We are talking about what's called Generation Y - those born roughly from 1980s-2000 (the last group born wholly in the 20th century). Those born around 1985-1991 should be entering into the...

The title comes from a line in Adam Sandler's movie "The Waterboy". The main character's mother, in attempts to keep him on (her view) of the straight and narrow, tells him "<Fill in the blank> is the DEVIL!" The ones used in the movie were: school, football and girls.

I finished up a stint with the government (lessons learned to come in an upcoming blog post). During my time, there was a Director who wanted to avoid any shape or form...

Many of us have been in the situation where we will need to remove a team member from your project. Many times, the problems persist until they can't be tolerated any further (or at least until someone's patience has run out). So it begs the question "When do you remove a team member?"

Well, the simplistic answer is: before it's too late.

So let's take a look at what we mean by "too late". Here are a number of reasons why you wou...

I just got back from Washington, where I gave a presentation on the VIRT method that I've mentioned several times on this site.  I must admit, I was surprised at the number of people who were interested in the topic.  When I have presented the topic before, I have become accustomed to a half empty room.  The topic of risk perhaps does not resonate with Canadians it seems (yes, I am generalizing a lot here).  Here are the places where I have presented before, with my rough ...

One thing I have found when I have been teaching is that adults learn in certain ways.  I'm not just talking about experiential methods.  As most people know this method talks about actually doing and practicing to work in conjunction with learning about new material or skills.  This method will of course reinforce the learning so that people can practice the new skills and knowledge immediately.

What I'm about to write here is more on three different tactics which are...

The other day I was helping my son with a computer puzzle he was working on. He was getting frustrated because he couldn't solve the puzzle. I came over to look at what the problem was - it was a math problem he had done. All of the pieces in that the math problem properly added up to each other, but it still would not let him solve the puzzle. I took a look at it myself and verified that indeed, all the math components were correct. So I asked him what he was supposed to do in this puzz...

ok, I am trying this again, since I accidentally clicked on the wrong button and didn't save my entire blog entry....  (aaarrggghhhh!!!!)

This idea isn't new, but it hasn't really been adopted on a widespread basis.  The idea works like this - an organization or department hires a project manager with the specific responsibility of managing project risk across multiple projects.  Perhaps the ratio is something like 7-10 projects per risk PM, so the additional ...

Well, it looks like my website and email have finally been fixed.  Here's what happened:

I currently have my domain name and email addresses with one provider, but no website or hosting.  I found another provider that offered a very good website package for a better price than my domain provider.  I had investigated that this is a workable solution, so I went with it.  Then, my emails stopped working...  AAAAGGHH!!  As anyone knows, being without emails is ...

Well, it looks like it's taken two years, but Beyond Execution finally has a website!  The title of this post is appropriately called "procrastination".  This is something I've always been good at 

The thing is, that it's human nature to procrastinate, and project managers are no different.  We leave the small little things to last, because they're: