I am just wondering, what has changed in the recent past in project management and what has been really new? To be honest, not much.
In the last 2 years I have visited a couple of project management conferences and I have presented on some, I have facilitated workshops, chaired whole conferences and gave presentations on several topics. What I have realized, especially in the break out sessions that we talk stuff over and over … and over. We dig deaply into Risk Management, Communication Management, Stakeholder Management, Quality Management and all other interesting topics around our micro cosmos. But really new stuff … I have’nt seen it.
OK, you might say … Agile … ! Yes, but isnt agile just a rapid waterfall with a different terminology?
OK, you might say … Web 2.0 … ! Yes, it has changed and will change the way how we communicate among teams, especially in a global and outsourced world. But is this anything new to Project Management?
Even PMI shows with their new credential programs, that they are going ‘more detail’. The PMI Risk Management Specialist, The PMI Scheduling Professional and more to come. The techniques and the terminology are enhanced but is there anything new to it?
Unfortunately a project is a project is a project. And project management compared to whats happening in the web 2010 and the dynamic thats happening in that field might look very boaring from the outside.
How ever, I am glad that there are projects! Which are not boaring at all, as every project is different and has it’s own challenges.
I just recently learned from Scoble (Famous Blogger in the western hemisphere) that Twitter has introduced Lists. I havent been a big fan of Twitter … yet. But now with this feature it covinced even me to join and to give it a try.
Twitter is not just about following people and yelling out the information that you just had a sandwich and waiting that people start following you. The question how smart they need to be or how much time the must have to follow you to understand when you have had your sandwich.
But there are are really smart people out there twittering about great news and fantastic stuff thay you might never had heard of or way to late, ‘wenn der Zug abgefahren ist’. To follow these guys is smart. Putting them into a list for a specific topic e.g. Project Management. And then, even smarter, to put them on your blog and pimp your blog in that way.
On the right sidebar you can see the new widget that you can customize yourself in twitter. In this list I have added some people that are ‘big’ in project management or in a peer area. They have something to say. They will point you in new directions. And sometimes they might even tell you that they have had a great tasty sandwich. I will increas the list overtime to give all of us the opportunity to learn more faster.
After years with XING and LinkedIn and after getting my iPhone working I started a new account on facebook. It took me, I guess, almost two years after i sign up with them.
After signing up and after using my email accounts to identify the first friends, the mails just kept on coming. One after the other was accepting my friend request, every secong send a personal note and after that the momentum kept on going. Unbelievable the vibe, stil and dynamic of the communication that is happening.
Its completely different to the communication dynamics that are happening on XING and LinkedIn. Not that it is more personally but direct in a sense of almost realtime. The reason is that facebook is communication centric. Its about sharing, commenting and ‘like’ing information others, like your friends are providing.
The iPhone application rocks and is in some parts even better and user friendly than the facebook website frontend. By the way its on of the best rated iphone apps in the store.
A friend of ours, Margot Tesch, and a former colleaque has applied a change to her life more than a year ago. She swapped her worklife from a well paid consultant job, working for enterprises in Brisbane, to farm lady. Working with her lovely husband Chris on their farm, about 3 hours south west from Brisbane.
Recently they have suffered from the rain that did’nt fall and from the cows that died by trying to drink. On the blog you find their stories. Great reading and keeps us connected.
Has been quiet over the last 12 month.
Two many things have happened and kept me and my family busy. We havre relocated from Australia back to Germany. I hav started a new role with Deutsche Bank beginning of this year. We are expecting a new family member in January 2010 and beside that i am currently busy in writing two new books.
How ever, the will not be a restart but ongoing posts on this blog in the future.
Looking at the Australian Project Management Community and of course the German and European one. But not missing the rest of the world.
So please expect posts in Englisch and in German in a mixture, depending on the source I am writing about.
Have fun, stay with me and looking forward to step back into a coversation.
After almost two weeks I have returned from Kuala Lumpur attending and presenting at the PMI Global Congress for Aisa Pacific. What a great experience.
Thanks to the PMI Team putting this great Congress together. Thanks to SK for taking us on a tour, thanks to Tim for the great accompany, thanks for Robert for the great feedback on my first run of the Risk Management Workshop and thanks to everybody attending my two sessions. It has been a pleasure presenting in fron of you, it has been a pleasure to see your participation and it has been a pleasure to share so much expertise during the hours we spent together. Also thanks to everybody for their keenness to receive the slides and the templates.
First of all the slides. You can click through them right here or download them from the slideshare.net website. The templates will be emailed to the ones that have dropped me their business card. Feel free to comment in this post I like to hear your comments about this Congress.
Of course, in IT projects. This is the common oppinion out there. Of course, business projects are cut as well, but if it comes to planning and delivery you, as the IT project manager, need to deliver double as much for half the money.
KPMG has just released a new article about “Cutting costs on IT projects” and is talking about the fact that the business shouldnt just look into saving money by reducing the head counts in their IT projects but also investigating the quantity of projects.
If any business seriously wants to look at trimming costs from its IT budget, its project portfolio is what it should be looking at, not considering whether a reduction in headcount would do the trick.
and further
I think that many businesses could quickly realize that there are potentially a lot of savings to be made in this area — and that’s because it’s an area which has been previously managed in a less than rigorous fashion. At any point in time, businesses can have a large number of projects ‘in play’, all at various stages of development. The question to ask is just how many of these projects really could be classed as business critical?
And these are the times where the business NEEDS to think about that as there is not enough money to everything you have on your plate. Look at the benefits that are realized by that project, have them defined SMART and measure them post the implementation. Create a culture where projects are not just ticked if they sound good but also bring be the benefits that are expected from them. If some of you have tried hard to implement Enterprise Wide Prioritization of projects, now is the time.
Yes, there is a financial crisis, also called the credit crises. How ever there are still some people out there, that say, it hasn’t had an impact on me yet and I don’t know what you are talking about, don’t worry.
You should be worried. Why? Get the coherences here, by the 2nd price winner of the SlideShare contest “Credit Crises”, Konstantyn Spasokukotskiy.
This is something for the freaks. Freaks in paragliding, the real enthusiast, the people with no fear, no harm and no respect, the risk taker under us.
I am a paragliding freak, but just close the ground. Namibia and Rainbow Beach is were my home is (in paragliding land), but what you see below is the perfection in paragliding and glider handling. Enjoy.
