New This Month — September 2019

Guests: The Mysterious S-curve, 4th Edition Part 3 by David Garland. David describes a worked example of the generation of an S-curve from a simple five-task project. This is followed by how to generate Percentage S-Scurves, but then cautions against using Task Duration as a quantity to generate S-curves. 09/19

Musings: Following up on the reality of Matrix organizations discussed last month, Dan high-lights three significant problem areas in typical Program Management setups, and what can be done about it. You will find this in his contribution: More on Program Management & Matrix Organizations.

Project management tip of the month — See below for Max's latest comment.

Recent

Musings: Dan Pedersen asks how did the reality of Matrix organizations get missed in the development of the original PMBOK? Max tries to answer.

Guests: The Mysterious S-curve, 4th Edition Part 2 by David Garland. This month David explains how various types of S-curves can be generated. 08/19

Guests 2: The Mysterious S-curve, 4th Edition Part 1 by David Garland. The S-curve is a powerful project management tracking tool that should be used more often. David explains what it is, why it is important, different types, and how to use them. 07/19

Guests: What is a Project? Part 2 — The Differences between "Projects" and "Day-to-Day Operational Activities", by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez. Antonio explains the differences, provides his simple definition of project management and offers his recommendations as to when to apply it. 07/19

Guests: What is a Project? Part 1 — Always begin by defining what exactly a project involves. Meaning is the root of achievement, by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez. Antonio says 80+% of jobs are part projects, yet people view projects as an unwelcome interference with their "regular" work.

Special paper: Policies, Principles, Practices, Procedures and Core Concepts, a position paper developed for the International Standards Organization to identify a set of universal Core Concepts for the Governance of all project work. ISO's world-wide task force is charged with updating ISO 21500 (2012) Project Management Guide.
Go to Papers index (04/19) and Download your PDF copy from there !

Classic: The original and only Project Management Body of Knowledge (dubbed "PMBOK") published by the Project Management Institute in 1987, is now available as a PDF document. Want a copy? See PMBOK-1987 Reborn under Other Areas and Interests below. Contains valuable advice even today.

At-A-Glance

Issacons (Issues and Considerations) are sets of slides providing summary information for specific questions associated with particular PM topics. Designed to save hours of searching yet more detailed than a plain bulleted list.

PM Glossary version 5.5 is free on this site. The glossary shows how many project management terms mean different things to different people. For latest version 6.1 see below.

Papers & Books are thought-provoking and valuable insights into project management and include numerous book reviews. You will also find information about books that I have written or co-authored from time to time.

Max's Musings are brief thoughts on various project management topics.

Guest Articles contain articles on particular PM topics contributed to this site by a wide range of other authors.

Click on the links above to see the most recent additions.

Other Areas and Interests

	PMBOK-1987 Reborn — The Project Management Body of Knowledge (1987) is now available as a PDF file. It is a statement and not a "Guide". It is free, but we really would appreciate a donation of $20 to our next round of Glossary updating. To contribute, please go to this page. For more background, see: 1 Early work on a PMBOK 2 PMBOK then and now 3 The Project Management (PMBOK) Framework 4 And then what happened next . . .
	Project Management 101 is a fun edutoon series on project management — things you should know but may have forgotten.
	The Wideman Education Foundation ("WEF") is a registered Canadian charity. We run project competitions providing experience in basic project management skills for high school students and undergrads in Toronto and Vancouver. For more information, and how you can help, please contact me. Donations are invited (tax-exempt in Canada).
	Management Framework for Project, Program and Portfolio Integration presents basic insights and explanations of project management. An excellent source of great value to a new project manager, stakeholders, as well as experienced project managers. Request PDF version ($7.99 USD). The Paperback version is no longer in print.
	The Wideman Comparative Glossary of PM Terms * What's New in Glossary V6.1 ? * Background to this update * A New Goal for Our Glossary * A more detailed description * To see the selection and place an order * The need for both a plan and communication * The Challenge to meet the need * The Project Management Hierarchy * Industry/Product Sectors * Our Internet Research * Taming the Long List of Industry Sectors * Different types of PM outputs * Putting Types of Work and Types of Product together * Comments on Internet and other info. sources * Summary of our deliberations

About Max is a brief biography outlining my professional career, some personal history, and even a little trivia about me.

P.Eng.
FCSCE, FEIC, FICE, FPMI, FCMI*

*What do these letters mean? See Recognition on this page.

Copyright — The contents of this site are protected by copyright and may not be used by commercial or non‑commercial organizations without written permission.

Disclaimer — The views expressed are those of the contributors and no responsibility is accepted for the accuracy or reliability of the content or the results of its application.

Site last updated — September 1st, 2019

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