I sometimes get bogged down by loads of activities – meetings, projects, clients, team and all that fills our work day. It is very easy to get trapped into the busyness of mundane activities and loose the focus on what matters the most. Sometimes, it seems we are moving too fast. How do I tackle this? I […]
Getting the sign-offs for the right things at right instances during the project cycle is extremely crucial for project success. Signoff is just another form of agreement between the project teams and the client – and in my opinion, managing a project after all is nothing but managing the agreements – with team members and also […]
A very simple message about processes in organizations (specially software organizations and teams) over at Clarrus Compedium: “Never build a set of procedures that can be used as an excuse for not getting the job done.” The post also emphasizes on the fact that processes should not eliminate flexibility and creativity. As I wrote in […]
People or Processes? Having done software development, people management and process improvement all these years, I have participated in number of debates related to people vs. processes. I have even faced conflicting situation in past working with two seniors who had totally different views on processes and people. One was extremely process oriented whilst other […]
A writing resolution each project manager should take this new year. Here’s the crux: Review the content of the email atleast thrice before sending. Review the original text of email you are replying to. Review the TO and CC lists to ensure that mail is addressed right. “A shot arrow”, “A spoken word” and “A […]
Humanness is somehow evading the high tech and highly formal workplaces where we see people being treated simply as “resources”. Tom Peters quotes “Philo of Alexandria” in his blog post “A [More or Less] Christmas [and Management] Thought”: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” Through this quote, Tom delivers a very strong message that compassion towards your […]
A lot of software projects are confronted with quality issues sometime in the project lifecycle. Worst is the case when escalation comes from the customer. My experience so far reveals that when a customer raises a quality escalation, typical approach of a project manager is to initiate rigorous checks and not release the application until […]
Via “Slacker Manager” blog post “The Honor of Humility“ The humbleness of a warrior is not the humbleness of the beggar. The warrior lowers his head to no one, but at the same time, he doesn’t permit anyone to lower his head to him. The beggar, on the other hand, falls to his knees at […]