There are a number of articles and some soon-to-publish in the works for EPMGuidance but I thought I’d share some writing that has appeared elsewhere. Last month Canada’s largest national newspaper the Globe and Mail asked me to contribute a piece to their Leadership Lab. The article discusses how a niche business like my own HMS Software has been able to be so successful at having clients many times our size. Since we started in…
As followers of the blog know, I do some volunteer work with the ProjectWorld*Business Analyst World Orlando Advisory Board. I’ve been involved with Project World since its creation 21 years ago and have been privileged to speak at many of the conferences. I will be speaking again at the Orlando Summit which will be from April 16-18, 2018. If you are interested in attending the conference, early registration discounts are available until February 10 at: https://www.pmbaconferences.com/orlando/registration.html?utm_source=PMBA_ORL&utm_medium=Pop_up&utm_campaign=PSBAORL18-10. I look forward to meeting some…
You’ll find here the index of the webinar series OnLine or OnPremise which discusses the key elements of choosing between purchasing software for an on-premise installation vs. subscribing to software in the cloud. Each webinar is only 5-6 minutes long. You can watch the webinars in sequence if you prefer but they do not need to be seen in any particular order: Webinar OnLine or OnPremise #1 – Overview Webinar OnLine or OnPremise #2 –…
In today’s Agile-oriented software world, it’s all too tempting to skip the important steps of defining the work completely. There is no doubt that there is a meeting of minds between the client and the developers to end up with a product that fulfills the client’s desires and is of high quality and rapid arrival but once we get into the actual management of the project, there are differences in perspectives that are not obvious.…
In my brief flirtation with Psychology in my first year of university, I learned more than I’d ever want to know about rats in a maze. My distaste for the exercise would come back to haunt me last year when my stepson needed a dwarf hamster for his science project. Wendy is now a part of the family. You can see Wendy and our home-made maze on the right. You’ve no doubt seen the images…
I get this request on a semi-regular basis and given the work I’ve done with Microsoft, Oracle and other technical partners over the years, I’ve been involved in a number of early-release software programs. So, let’s talk about what people mean when they talk about Beta Test Programs. The first thing to know is that the perspectives of what the vendor is hoping for and wants are often different than what the users want. First…
I have an expression that my staff and clients have heard me use often. It’s a favorite of mine. “If you are a hammer, then everything looks like a nail.” It’s a paraphrase I know and as I was writing this article, I thought it behooved me to look up the source. It wasn’t much of a surprise that the author was someone who I read a lot of a long time ago, Abraham Maslow. …
I admit it. I’m a black-hat thinker. I think I always have been but many years ago, my first partner gave me a copy of Edward de Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats”. The book is tiny but the impact was profound. De Bono was interested in how people think and in how people could train themselves to think more creatively; more laterally. There’s no one hat that’s perfect of the six, each has its own attraction…
In Canada, operating a private motorboat requires having a Pleasure Craft Operator’s Card. Now, after you get over chuckling about which bureaucrat made up the term, the basic principle is quite sound. If you are running a boat with a motor, you need to get this competency card. I’m proud to say I’m the holder of such a card to use my Chaparral motorboat during the summer. Getting my operator’s card required passing an exam…
It’s a brand new year! The Christmas tree is down and the ornaments packed away. The relatives have left and the New Year’s champagne is gone to the last drop. Now, you can return to work rested and ready to jump into the new year and get those projects back underway! Not so fast. For most project managers, there is a big checklist of start-of-year activities which are impossible to avoid. These challenges can be…