May 30

May 30 Developing a Collaborative Approach to Improving Project Management Practices, Part 1: Culture

Best Practices, Collaboration, Community, Google+, Governance, Management, Management Tools, Metrics, PMO, Project Management, Risk Management, SharePoint

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.

Feb 6

Feb 6 Collaboration Can Be Messy

Dennis D. McDonald

Change, Collaboration, Content Management, Innovation, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Transfer, Management, Mobile Tech, Project Management, , Technology

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.

Nov 3
Nov 3 Who Cares if Business and Brands are "Social"?

Dennis D. McDonald

Branding, Business Models, Collaboration, Customer Communication, Enterprise 2.0, Governance, Management, , , Standards

Back in August I posted “Let’s Stop Talking about ‘Social Business’” where I made the following statement:

Aug 25

Aug 25 Let's Stop Talking about "Social Business"

Dennis D. McDonald

Automation, Business Models, Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Innovation, Knowledge Management, Management, Project Management,

Let’s stop talking about “social business” as if it were some sort of change in how organizations behave.

Feb 5
Feb 5 Why "Best Practices" Won't Fix Federal IT

Dennis D. McDonald

Acquisitions, Best Practices, Collaboration, Expertise Management, Innovation, Knowledge Transfer, List_AR, Management, Procurement, , , eGovernment

Federal Computer Week recently published my op-ed piece Why best practices won’t fix Federal IT. I’d be very interested in hearing from GovLoop members what they think of it.

Jan 7

Jan 7 Defining and Measuring Enterprise Collaboration

Dennis D. McDonald

Collaboration, Management, Management Tools, Metrics, Technology, World Bank, Project Management

Recently while consulting on a collaboration metrics project for the World Bank Group in Washington D.C. I updated my definition of collaboration:

Aug 31

Aug 31 Getting Real about Project Management, Collaboration, and Communication

Dennis D. McDonald

Collaboration, Innovation, List_AR, Management, Management Tools, PMO, Project Management, Communications

I’ve recently learned — and re-learned — some useful lessons while working with clients and teams on projects and large proposals. These include:

Jun 22

Jun 22 McKinney Interviews Cochran about First HP Pocket Scientific Calculator

Dennis D. McDonald

Creativity, Engineering, Innovation, Management, Podcast, Project Management, R&D Management, Sales Management

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the podcast of Phil McKinney’s interview with David Cochran about Cochran’s involvement on the team at Hewlett-Packard (HP) that designed the first pocket scientific calculator. The situation was interesting from the standpoint of innovation management and luck.

Apr 20
Apr 20 How Do Social Media Change the Economics of Process Automation?

Dennis D. McDonald

Best Practices, Cost Analysis, Governance, Management, Management Tools, Outsourcing, Process, , , Web 2.0

In September 2006 I published The Justification of Enterprise Web 2.0 Project Expenditures. It examined differences between the cost justification of current information systems compared with cost justification of older systems. It discussed how some of the rules for calculating and thinking about technology related costs have changed.

Sep 5
Sep 5 Control, Responsibility, and the Evolving Role of Community Management

Dennis D. McDonald

Best Practices, Change, Collaboration, Corruption, Enterprise 2.0, Management, Policy, Process, , , Strategy

Questions of control and responsibility inevitably arise when strategizing about the role of social media and social networking in the enterprise.

Jul 27

Jul 27 When Do "Best Practices" Make Sense?

Dennis D. McDonald

Best Practices, Creativity, Innovation, Management

Matt Elliot’s Always looking for ‘best practices’ stifles innovation makes the case that slavishly adopting another organization’s “best practices” actually stifles innovation.

Jul 9

Jul 9 Am I Asking the Right Question About Technological Literacy?

Dennis D. McDonald

Definitions, Education, Literacy, Management, Technological Literacy, Technology

Maybe the question should be how technologically literate people should manage the jobs they find themselves doing — jobs that may not be ready to take advantage of all the skills and experience technologically literate people bring to them.