Infolific » Project Management

Project Management Jokes (They're Actually Funny)

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:04:19 +0000

Monkeys A tourist walked into a pet shop and was looking at the animals on display. While he was there,another customer walked in and said to the shopkeeper, "I'll have a C monkey please." The shopkeeper nodded, went over to a cage at the side of the shop and took [...]

First To Go in a Recession? Project Management Jobs

Marios Alexandrou — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 02:24:30 +0000

Back in September 2002, Janet Ruhl of the now inactive Computer Consultants BBS wrote the following about project managers bearing the brunt of a downturn in information technology projects. "Years ago, back before IT people got used to being in demand all the time, it was well known that it [...]

Feedback from Fellow Project Managers

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 02:16:36 +0000

I sometimes get e-mails from those in or trying to get in to the field of project management. Here are a couple of the recent ones with the names changed in respect of their privacy. Aside from the kind words, I think it could re-assuring to others that all is [...]

Foreign Outsourcing Companies Face Challenges

Marios Alexandrou — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:31:53 +0000

I've written about outsourcing to foreign countries before, but I've never really thought about what might be going on in those foreign countries. All the whining and complaining has been done by others and I'm more interested in looking at what is actually going on in these countries that receive [...]

16 Project Manager Traits

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:17:55 +0000

I'm often asked what skills one needs to be a project manager. My answers often emphasize hard skills which are easy to describe. The truth is that there are also many soft skills or traits which are critical. Alfonso Bucero recently wrote about the results of an informal survey he [...]

7 Steps to Failure with Your Next Software Project

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 09:50:02 +0000

For a little while now I've been trying to decide how Rational (now part of IBM) could be so successful at pushing their monolithic, process-laden software development methodology, especially in the face of increasing evidence that such methodologies aren't particularly useful. The answer to this came from Jeff Sutherland of [...]

Software Projects are Mostly the Same

Marios Alexandrou — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:38:44 +0000

There's an article over at CNet about outsourcers and their attempts at distinguishing themselves from the rest of the pack. Most of the article is of little interest, but there was one part that got me thinking. An analyst from IDC and a VP at IBM both agree that 80% [...]

Agile Software

Marios Alexandrou — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:41:36 +0000

A couple of years ago the Agile Software movement was starting to take shape. I heard about it back then, but didn't pay it much attention. I even attended a presentation put on by one of my clients where they tried to convince their NY office to adopt the processes [...]

.NET Naming Conventions

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:58:26 +0000

Part of learning a new programming language is adopting the various industry best practices. The naming conventions used during software development can have a huge impact on future maintenance efforts. If no rules are followed then it becomes that much harder to read the code and figure out what is [...]

Five Ways that Decisions are Made

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 07:48:35 +0000

There are 5 ways in which a particular action is decided upon. This is pretty obvious stuff, but as with many obvious things, it sometimes bears repeating. And I also think it helps to recognize how things get done around you and perhaps to examine how you make your own [...]

The Seeds of Project Failure

Marios Alexandrou — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:26:36 +0000

In Volume 47, Number 11 of the Communications of the ACM, Amrit Tiwana and Mark Keil reported on some results from a study of the relative importance of 6 project risk drivers. They were surprised that the most critical risk driver was actually the choice of methodology rather than a [...]

Consensus vs. Compromise

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:27:46 +0000

I purchased Larry L. Constantine's book, The Peopleware Papers: Notes on the Human Side of Software recently. This book is a collection of 60 or so essays that were previously published several years ago. The essays focus on the people aspects of software development and so are as applicable today [...]

From Developer to Project Manager

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 05:41:16 +0000

I recently received a question from a visitor to my site. This person was looking for tips on how to make the transition from a developer to a project manager. Here is the note in its entirety. The E-Mail Good morning, Marios. I did a search this morning and was [...]

Tactical, yes. Strategic, not so much.

Marios Alexandrou — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:09:43 +0000

A recent Forrester Research survey found that IT decision-makers at both small and medium companies think that their IT shops are best at supporting tactical efforts (e.g. improving efficiency). However, when it comes to innovation and other strategic contributions, the IT teams fall short. Unfortunately, even though the IT groups [...]

Dr. Mehmet Oz, A Great Presenter

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 15:49:55 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Dr. Mehmet Oz. For those not familiar with him, Dr. Oz is a heart surgeon, book author, proponent of preventative medicine, and a repeat guest of the Oprah show. Aside from the medical information that I was hoping to get from [...]

Jack Hidary, A Professional Presenter

Marios Alexandrou — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:28:42 +0000

In the last two weeks I've given a presentation and I've seen a professional presenter, Jack Hidary ply his trade. In a previous post, I went over a few things I did to try and make a recent presentation of mine a success. In this post, I'm going to go [...]

First Days on the Job

Marios Alexandrou — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 02:58:57 +0000

Bob Weinstein over at Gantthead.com recently published one of those common sense articles about how to behave as a new hire that resonated with me. In it, he identified 4 things to not do and 8 things to do so that first impressions of you, the project manager, are positive. [...]

Free Project Management Software

Marios Alexandrou — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:46:35 +0000

There are two free project management software packages that are worth looking in to. The first, Open Workbench is open source and is intended to replace Microsoft Project. At first blush, this software looks like it covers the project management ground fairly well although it's not as pretty as Microsoft [...]

PMP Certification

Marios Alexandrou — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:38:44 +0000

Not everyone sees the value in certifications. And I can't argue that both sides of the argument don't have valid points. So, I'm not going to. However, if your employer is going to pay for the training and materials needed for a certification and there's even a small chance that [...]

Five Decision Making Traps

Marios Alexandrou — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:51:24 +0000

Meetings are the mainstay of corporate of America. After all, if we actually spent our time doing productive things instead of meeting, we'd run out of things to do which isn't particular good for our job security. All kidding aside, I'm bringing up the topic of meetings because it makes [...]