Max Wideman's PM Wisdom
Max Wideman has over half a century of practicing a variety of Project Management (PM). This site brings together a permanent record of the accumulated learning and experience which Max has gained in Project Management throughout this time.
It is for those with an interest in PM, have questions, or just want "how to" answers from our Issacons. This site has serious Papers by Max as well as knowledgeable Guest authors. The Musings often raise issues, with a little English humor for lighter reading. Just click on the title links and start from the bottom of the page!
If you:
• have to learn PM in a hurry — go to our cartoon series PM 101;
• want help with a lot of typical daily PM tasks — go to Issacons;
• like reading serious ideas on how to conduct PM — go to Papers;
• seek to know what other PM masters think — go to Guests;
• need a good place to start — try the paper PM 1st Principles.
• are interested in a book on PM — take a look at PM Framework;
• require the meaning of different PM terms — go to the PM Glossary;
• wish to see the whole scope of this site — go to the Site Map;
• are looking for something specific — then use our search page.
New This Month — July 2020
Papers:
Max points to a serious gap at the beginning of our typical project management delivery structure. No wonder we have so many project failures. The issue is: When Does a Project Actually Start - Part 1
Guests:
Technical Analyst Melissa Calvert points to the importance of team work and offers 10 Best Project Management Strategies to choose from, for accomplishing the best possible outcomes.
Musings:
Marketing writer Molly Crocket reminds readers of the value of a well-written project charter as the foundation of a successful project. Here she presents four valuable tips from her Guide to Writing an Effective Project Management Charter.
Project
management tip of the month
The aggressive risk principle:
If you want to double your risk exposure,
stand in the middle of the road, literally and
figuratively. |
Recent
Guests: Angela Civitella adds a 4th Part to her last month's Guest paper Getting, Organizing, and Running a Project, with Managing Remote Workers. These are all practical tips and suggestions for successfully managing your project management career, especially while working remotely.
Papers: A review of Stephanie D.H. Evergreen's book: Effective Data Visualization (2nd Edn.). This book provides an opportunity to learn how to handle data and present it graphicaly according to its data type, and the need to get its impact across forcibly to your intended audience.
Musings: Some observations about culture, especially how it relates to managing project teams, in What Is Culture and How Do You Handle It? This is an important part of managing a project, though rarely taught as such.
Guests May #1: The coronavirus epidemic and the imposition of "social distancing" around the world has accelerated the use of video-conferencing by people necessarily working from home.
Here, Howard Tiersky provides valuable advice to project team leaders and participants on how to Manage Teams Working from Home by conducting video-conferencing effectively.
Guests May #2: Thinking of taking up project management career? Not satisfied with your present project management status? Angela Civitella presents three short articles providing practical tips and suggestions on successfully managing your project management career. Check out Angela's practical tips and suggestions on Getting, Organizing, and Running a Project.
Musings: A lesson from nature, another from childhood, what it means to mankind, and PMI project managers' attempts to launch an awareness campaign. Now we currently have a world-wide death-causing pandemic (2020) teaching us the same lesson. Max asks: Is nature trying to teach us a lesson here? If so, why are we so reluctant to tackle The Biggest Project of All ?
Special paper: Policies, Principles, Practices, Procedures and Core Concepts, a position paper developed for the International Standards Organization (ISO) 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. 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. However, for the latest version 6.1 see PM Glossary v6.1 choices.
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.
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.
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