All in Management
Understanding the Challenges of Big Data Project Management: The Business Case
As hard as it sometimes for those of us who are technically inclined to admit, management doesn’t necessarily care what tools we’re using. Nor does management care how we manage our projects.
Managing Data-Intensive Programs and Projects: Selected Articles
I’ve created this special compendium of posts that are relevant to planning and managing data related programs and projects. There are four groups:
Risk, Uncertainty, and Managing Big Data Projects
Anyone who practices project management for a living will recognize this list. It’s certainly not unique to big data analytics project. It is however reasonable to ask whether “big data” projects are unique in some way that exacerbates the probability of failure.
Still, knowing that data exist – which is what the inventories will tell us — is not the same as accessing and interpreting the data. Even assuming the public eventually gains access to the inventoried data, we’ll still need contextual information about the programs described by the data and measurement of the impacts these programs have.
It’s probably too easy to blame HR for latching on to what programmer resumes say about tool experience and certifications.
Who Needs Reports to Congress? We Do. Here’s Why.
What we don’t know from the Post article is why anyone would defend useless reports. Are they really useless? Does someone still find them useful? Have they turned into consultants’ and staff employment programs? Or would the programs being reported on feel “slighted” if a congressionally mandated report were no longer required?
In “IT governance is killing innovation” Andrew Horne and Brian Foster argue that IT project selection needs to move beyond traditional capital investment based ROI measures. The authors think it is more appropriate to take into account project support for critical business capabilities and that such a focus will be much more supportive of innovation.
What I Learned About "Budgeting At The Brink"
I expect that adjustments to IT projects at some agencies and programs are going to be pretty messy, painful, and ugly as indiscriminate budget cuts continue to ripple down to individual programs.
Developing a Collaborative Approach to Improving Project Management Practices, Part 1: Culture
In Agile grows up and new challenges emerge author Rick Freedman points out what project managers, sooner or later, learn from the School of Hard Knocks: changing and improving project management practices to improve the likelihood of project success involves not just improved management methods but also cultural changes within the sponsoring organization.
Collaboration Can Be Messy
Collaboration can be messy. Convincing a group of people to work together to accomplish a common objective, especially when the group contains many people that don’t know each other, requires artful leadership.