From the monthly archives:

September 2007

Restructuring failing projects

September 27, 2007

You don’t just have to read me harping on all the time about failing projects and what to do about them. Have a look at John Enstone’s article about how to restructure and turn them around.

Taking the guess out of success

September 24, 2007

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Failing projects

Organisations don’t define failure. We don’t document how we will know if a project has failed – what failure looks like – because thinking about failing is not a good way to motivate the project team when the work has only just started. The absence of a formal definition of failure makes it uncomfortably easy [...]

Carnival of project management #13

September 20, 2007

September’s carnival will be hosted by EQ4PM, so be sure to have a look over there at this month’s roundup of the best in project management posts. The Carnival of Project Management returns here on 29 October, so submit your articles through Blog Carnival. Following last month’s spammers infesting the Carnival I’ll be double checking [...]

Defining failure

September 17, 2007

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Failing projects

It’s easy to find examples of high-profile projects that fail. The ones that hit the papers are often public sector projects because their audits and budgets are more open to scrutiny. Here are some: Following an internal review, Multiplex, the Australian development company responsible for the reconstruction of the Wembley Stadium, became aware that costs [...]

Being on TV

September 10, 2007

Back in February I wrote about researching failing projects for a TV programme called ‘Failing projects: the real picture’. Well, filming was at the Channel 4 Studios in Horseferry Road, London in May, and the programme came out recently. I’ll see if I can get a few clips to post here, but the make-up and [...]

PM Network article

September 8, 2007

This blog gets a mention in the latest edition of PM Network, as I’m quoted talking about accountability. You can read the article on PMI’s website.

Career know-how from people who’ve done it

September 6, 2007

This time last week I was at a BCS young professionals group event in London, listening to Owen King, Mark Bloodworth and Marc Holmes talking about how they got to where they are in their careers. Marc’s route meandered into software architecture, Owen knew what he wanted before he even graduated and Mark moved around [...]

Book review: Collaboration Explained

September 3, 2007

Agile software development depends heavily on team and collaborative working. Collaboration Explained aims to present practical ways to encourage a collaborative culture within development teams. Section 1 defines what Tabaka means by collaboration and what the benefits of a collaborative culture look like, taking the Agile Manifesto as its base. Throughout the book, Tabaka uses [...]