Guerrilla Project Management

Interview with Geoff Crane, author of PaperCutPM.com

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:04:24 +0000

Listen to the interview now: In this edition of the Guerrilla Project Management podcast, I interview Geoff Crane author of the popular blog PaperCut Edge. Geoff is the popular and beloved twitter known as @PapercutPM. Geoff is the owner of Papercut Project Monitoring, a consulting company with experience in global multi-million dollar projects that helps clients deliver [...]

Interview with Deanne Earle, author of UnlikeBefore.com

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:06:30 +0000

Listen now: Right click here to download the MP3 In this edition of the Guerrilla Project Management podcast, I interview Deanne Earle author of the Change Thru Action blog. Deanne is known to her followers on Twitter as @UnlikeBefore. Deanne is an expert at initiating, leading, and delivering change projects. She helps clients bridge the gap between their projects [...]

“Scope Seep” or what happens if you give a mouse a cookie

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:30:28 +0000

Most of us by now know about the consequences of “Scope Creep” But there is a much more dangerous problem that we Project Managers get ourselves into. It is called “Scope Seep” “Scope Seep” is a term coined by Alan Weiss and refers to situations when you, the project manager, not the customer, allow extra features, tasks, [...]

Interview with Mark Gibson on Recovering Troubled Projects

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:35:35 +0000

Listen now: Download the MP3 In this episode of the Guerrilla Project Management Podcast, I interview Mark Gibson, author of markdgibson.com. I read Mark’s blog post Resuscitation for a Red Project Team about recovering troubled project and I had to talk to him further about his approach to these types of projects. Mark is an Enterprise Program Manager. He [...]

The risks of road rage on your project

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:02:25 +0000

As Project Managers, we have to remember that our number one priority is to create an environment where our team members can do their great work and feel safe to speak up and express their ideas, no matter how silly or contrarian others might find them. We all know that bullying and intimidation take place every [...]

Turning “Pro” and redefining the meaning of success

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:21:23 +0000

In project management, turning “Pro” to me means reaching the point in your career when you can still feel successful, even when we end up delivering a failed project. I believe this requires 3 things: Unlearning what we have been taught, since the beginning of our careers, as the definition of a successful project manager. Separating the definition [...]

Do you make these 7 test planning mistakes?

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:10:56 +0000

There is a very good discussion on PMStudent.com about an article by Jennifer Bedell titled “Do testers goldplate too?”. Jennifer says in her post: Goldplating by a tester can occur when a tester goes beyond the stated requirements in an effort to produce a “quality” product. A tester may feel that their suggestion would improve the customer experience [...]

Being respectful does not mean being a doormat

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:57:08 +0000

Kareem Shaker wrote a very good blog post about RED Leadership, a term he coined for his 3 leadership pillars: Respect, Empathize, and Develop. I particularly liked what he said about respect: “Do not expect people to respect you because you are higher in position, even though they may try to show respect whenever they see you, [...]

What software projects and battlefields have in common

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:50:55 +0000

Stephen Cohen wrote a wonderful blog post on 10 analogies for managing software projects. One analogy that really resonated with me is # 7 “Battlefield management”. He wrote: While I don’t mean to in any way belittle the heroic efforts and significant risk to those in real battlefield situations; software, particularly large complex solutions, required a level [...]

Let’s say “No” to groupthink and stop quoting the Chaos Report

samad@guerrillaprojectmanagement.com (Samad Aidane) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:24:12 +0000

A project manager asked on LinkedIn: We know that IT projects are almost always failures in the sense that we never hit our dates nor budget. Are there metrics that prove PMPs do a better job? Here is my response to this question: We need to be able to examine the underlying data and measurements methods used as [...]