July 2011
43 posts
3 tags
Jul 30th
4 tags
“The emergence of “Christian” terrorism in Europe does absolutely nothing to...”
– The Blog : Christian Terrorism and Islamophobia : Sam Harris Commenting on the recent events in Norway.
Jul 29th
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PM Link: The Client's Responsibility for Project... →
I’ve been known to suggest that the toughest resources to manage in a project are your boss and the project’s client. This link offers some thoughts about what it takes to maximize the latter’s contribution. Bottom line…if you’re a project client, try to help the project team help you accomplish what you’re looking for from the project.
Jul 28th
2 notes
3 tags
PM Link: On Priorities →
Reblogged from idealgentleman: A gentleman always knows what matters. He always knows what’s most important. People talk about “priorities” and “priority lists”; they talk about “top ten priorities” and something being “a high priority”. The truth is, you can only ever have one priority. Something is either your priority, or…[go read the rest]
Jul 27th
8 notes
1 tag
“Why do so many professionals say they are project managing, when what they are...”
– Colin Bentley, 1997
Jul 26th
3 notes
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Reading and Recommended
Reading and Recommended: With my new train commute, I’m re-discovering reading, thanks to the Kindle app on my iPad. Easing into it with two collections of short pieces: Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives (by David Eagleman) and Stories: All-New Tales (edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio). Sum is a collection of very (very) short pieces describing possibilities for something no one...
Jul 25th
1 note
4 tags
The Big Ideas podcast: The medium is the message →
A new podcast from The Guardian plans to offer up short analyses of “Big Ideas”. While I would have preferred more than 10 minutes on the prescient philosopher of media, Marshall McLuhan, what they do with those 10 minutes is excellent. One bit I didn’t know was that the title of “The Medium is the Massage” was a typo that McLuhan liked and kept, conflating the...
Jul 23rd
11 notes
4 tags
Management Link: "Why measure it if you are not... →
A good question (and answer) from Joe Ely.
Jul 22nd
22 notes
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Jul 21st
5 notes
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PM Link: Value of Project Managers →
A study reported in The Economist suggests that a case could be made for value in game software revenues that’s more attributable to project managers (producers in the game world) than designers. …some 30% of differences in revenue between games could be attributed to the producer and the designer alone; and that the lion’s share of this variation was due to the producer. The boring...
Jul 20th
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WatchWatch
Evocative remix of movies and music…
Jul 19th
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“Being really busy is seductive – it has nothing to do with getting things done,...”
– Brad Feld (reblogged from strangelypoignant)
Jul 18th
3 notes
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“Agencies, departments, and organizations don’t do things — people do things....”
– Edward Tufte
Jul 17th
3 notes
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Creativity Video: Why Man Creates
…from Saul Bass. Part 1: Part 2: [via ze frank]
Jul 16th
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Marketing Link: Feedback Loops →
What are They and Why are They Important for Marketing? Whether or not we could articulate what feedback loops are and why they work, this trend of reflecting useful data back to customers was going to grow no matter what. From the head of Zeus Jones.
Jul 15th
3 notes
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PM Links: Multi-project Management and...
Links to last month’s 4-part series… Part 1 - Organizations are multi-project systems Part 2 - Organizational effectiveness is resource effectiveness Part 3 - Managing the present and the future Part 4 - It’s what you finish; not how much you start
Jul 14th
4 notes
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“And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those...”
– (reblogged from emadness)
Jul 13th
2 notes
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Mobile Post: Writing for the Mobile Web - Less is...
The primary keys to successful mobile content are brevity and focus. As one wag has said, “it’s like writing for the web, only more so.” The mobile reader/user is not sitting in the comfort of their home or office with the screen in front of them as their main focus. Their attention is often divided, and if you expect to get through the clutter of their surroundings, you must be prepared to edit...
Jul 13th
6 notes
3 tags
PM Post: Relay Race, Interrupted
Quite a while ago, back in my independent consulting days, a discussion list I participated in carried a thread about how to engrain and assure appropriate behaviors in management of a project organization. Around the same time, the following had come into my inbox from a different source, and for some reason I thought of that discussion… There’s a story about an MIT student who...
Jul 12th
3 notes
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Management Link: 10 CEOs Who Became 'Job Killers' →
Linking to Neutron Jack in the slide show… I can’t figure out for the life of my why CNBC has darn near beatified Jack Welch, while GE is just now coming out from under the impact of his “leadership”.
Jul 11th
4 notes
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Jul 10th
19 notes
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Jul 10th
9 notes
4 tags
Social Link: LinkedIn basics for small business →
Seven ways to actually get something out of LinkedIn for business… Not all groups are equal… Brand it properly… Take you profile seriously… Save your searches… Create a company page… Actually update your status… Use questions and answers… Go read Seven ways to actually get something out of LinkedIn for business for the details. [via...
Jul 9th
10 notes
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Jul 9th
6 notes
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Social Link: Social Media: Understand the... →
A good intro to some social media basics. …One of the first things a company needs to realize about social media is that Facebook and LinkedIn, for instance, are different animals. While all social media outlets have scalability, accessibility and immediacy in common, they serve distinct functions. For example, YouTube is a great way to demonstrate a product or method, while a Wiki (and...
Jul 8th
1 note
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Productivity Link: Save Our Inboxes! Adopt the... →
We’re drowning in email. And the many hours we spend on it are generating ever more work for our friends and colleagues. We can reverse this spiral only by mutual agreement. Hence this Charter…
Jul 8th
3 notes
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Link: Defining the problem →
Jack Vinson points out in his piece, Defining the problem, that… …the first blush “solution” to problems is often a treatment of the symptoms, rather than a solution that will remove the symptoms altogether. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves…
Jul 7th
11 notes
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Productivity...Not
It’s amazing how much stuff Tumblrers tag with “productivity” that have nothing to do with the topic.
Jul 7th
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PM Post: A Relay Race, not a Train Schedule
Most projects are managed by carefully watching the calendar, comparing where we are today against some baseline schedule. That schedule typically consists of a series of start and due dates for consecutive tasks, with due dates of predecessors matching start dates of successors. Like a train schedule, if a task arrives at its completion on or before its due date, that portion of the project is...
Jul 6th
3 tags
“One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up...”
– Chinese Proverb (reblogged from simplyhasanah)
Jul 6th
8 notes
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PM Link: Requirements and Specifications →
A good summary and set of descriptions of key project documents… User Requirements System Requirements Functional Requirements Functional Specs Design Specs Flow or Logic Diagrams System Architecture Diagram Prototypes and Mock-ups Technical Specs Read the whole thing at Requirement and Specifications.
Jul 5th
17 notes
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Mobile Post: Easy Mobile Landing Pages from Google
Last weekend, I was intrigued to see this year’s tourism map for Ocean City, NJ and the full page of QR codes it contained that linked to local business sites. The only problem was that everyone I tried ended up at what was just the shop’s standard desktop site. Some even featured flash, which was useless on my iPhone. If you’re going to the trouble to create QR codes for mobile...
Jul 5th
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Jul 5th
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Jul 4th
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Link: Why U.S. is not a Christian nation →
For the Fourth - Various founding father references that make clear that the original intent… …was this simple — government could not dictate how to pray, or that you cannot pray, or that you must pray. Amen. I agree with Santorum that our history education has been influenced by ideology. I disagree with which ideology has prevailed (so far). Link: Why U.S. is not a...
Jul 4th
7 notes
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Jul 4th
73 notes
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Yankee Doodle Dandy - The Short Version
Spike Jones - I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy by perruche
Jul 4th
2 notes
1 tag
Holiday Link: Happy Birthday America! →
The birth announcement
Jul 4th
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ListenJean Shepherd’s Classic 4th of July Story...
Jul 3rd
3 notes
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Political Link: Take the Bachmann-Palin Challenge →
Can You Tell Them Apart? Take the “quiz” at Rolling Stone’s national affairs section
Jul 2nd
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Jul 2nd
3 notes
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Image Link: Animated stereoviews of old Japan →
Fascinating application of animated gifs… More here… …and if you’re a fan of the American Civil War, here’s more.
Jul 1st
1 note
5 tags
Mobile UI Link: 10 Ways the Mobile Web is... →
More considerations for designing for the mobile web compared to the desktop web… Less power (smaller screens, slower processors, less bandwidth, less multitasking). Alternative approaches to entering data (touch input, fiddly keyboards). Different browser features and capabilities (pages viewed inside apps, portrait screens, little or no Flash support). People using mobile devices in...
Jul 1st
2 notes