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 — February 2021
Guest: In his paper Project Management Caught in a 1960's Time Warp - The Sequel? Dr. Paul D. Giammalvo discusses the disappointing levels of success in today's projects given the past thousands of years of "world wonders" projects to draw from. In this paper, he digs into the concepts of "Asset Life Span development" in great detail, including: "What Is an Asset?" "How Do We Manage Assets?" and "How do Operations, Assets and Project Management all fit together?"
Guest: Dr. Philip Crosby researches the Front End Conditioning of Complex High-Technology Projects, i.e., activities-beyond-the-basics that impact success of ten high-tech mega-projects. He identifies nine factors over the normal that require attention, three of which are "attitudinal" and the remaining six are "conditioning". All are discussed in detail.
Musing:
Max takes to heart, Dr. Paul Giammalvo's graphical illustration of the project management Asset Delivery Methodology Spectrum that identifies five possible Options
[See also Figure 7 in Part 2 of Dr. PDG's 1960's Time Warp paper of March 1st. 2021]. Max identifies five corresponding types of people involved by drawing an analogy of how each might view entering a dense forest. It all boils down to whether you want your project to succeed by design or by chance.
Project
management tip of the month
The better not bigger principle:
The size of a spreadsheet is
no indication of the value of the contents therein. |
Recent
Guest: Frank Hamilton offers Everything You Should Know About Managing International Projects, with a focus on managing such projects using virtual teams.
Guest: 2021 and Beyond ... Trends in Project Management by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez foresees the need for millions of project managers world-wide, but challenged by five disruptive changes putting the project management profession at stake.
Musings: Max discusses what you should do when you are given a project but expected to be Managing with No Assigned Project Budget.
The answer is, of course, it all depends . . . The reality is that someone is always paying something from somewhere.
Guests: JeremyRaynolds and R. Max Wideman recommend introducing project management in the K12 education stream as an essential life skill that would provide positive and adaptive behavior. It would also enable students to deal with modern everyday challenges as well as provide a valuable learning experience for their future world of work.
Papers: This two-sided book, Project Management for Education & Educators by Walter Ginevri and Bernie Trilling, recognizes that project management is a life skill for the modern generation. It calls on PM's and Educators to promote establishing project skills as a standard part of every kid's basic education.
(Book Review)
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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