Category: Project Management

Kanban provides a revolutionary — and simple — way to manage the most important job IT departments have: Maintaining existing applications. But to effectively manage software maintenance you first have to understand the fundamental difference between maintenance and development. Before I became an independent consultant, I was the head of the IT department for a […]

Experts say the ability to express yourself verbally often reaps influence. According to the Journal of Research in Personality, there is evidence that being an effective listener is also as important. Benefits of Effective Listening Prevents miscommunication Confirms understanding of the message Reduces frustration for the person ‘transmitting’ the message Gives access to others’ beliefs, […]

A participant in a critical thinking class I taught recently suggested a solution to a problem I’d posed to the group. “Let’s do a PMI analysis,” I suggested, expecting the class to be familiar with the tool. None were. The tool can be a very productive way to frame a discussion. What is a PMI […]

When we talk about ‘stakeholders’ there are many, many groups that fall into this category. For example colleagues, customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, the media, regulators, competitors and special interest groups. There are too many to manage all of them individually, so it’s helpful to have some tools, techniques, and processes to help you prioritize and […]

A confluence of business trends and development best practices is changing the way developers need to think about building applications. For want of a better term, the mindset that most software developers follow when building applications might be called ‘systems thinking’: Design a database that holds the data the company needs, design the software components […]