Max Wideman has a Special Affiliation Agreement with Tom Mochal, President of TenStep, Inc. Max is particularly impressed with Tom's work on developing a practical project management methodology. The methodology is simple, scalable and straightforward - something that is sorely needed in the PM domain.

Click HERE, or on the logo above, to find out more.


Copyright

The contents of this site are copyright. The material is offered to individual readers who may use it freely in connection with their project work. It may not be used by commercial or non-commercial organizations without permission.

© indicates specific copyright material.

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
February 1st, 2012

Welcome to my project management site

New information added monthly

February 2012 - Our Guest Hessel Friedlander describes his interesting interview with SAP project manager Zvika Bash to discover Zvika's background and his advice on managing large software teams. Our Paper reviews Peter Taylor's book - The Lazy Project Manager, a new approach for doing more in less time to free up time for leisure. In Musings we set our sights on Lessons Learned as reported by other people and wonder how helpful they really are.

This month we have introduced a new Issacon: 1363a Hiring the Right People. We have also updated the following: 1017a Program/Project Success - Pt B (in Programs and Large Projects); 1350 Project People Management - Part A; 1365 Power & Influence; 1378 IS/IT Project Sponsor; and 1434 Filters and Barriers

January 2012 - We trust that all our readers had a very happy Christmas season and let's all hope for a prosperous New Year!

Do your projects suffer from too much information? Then read Michael Feuer's Guest paper Cut the Noise and Cut to the Chase – Seven tips for streamlining communication in your project organization. Are all those "unsuccessfully" projects really failures? How about adopting Tom Mochal's suggestion for Defining Project Success within a Range, as reported in our Musings, with our comments added.

December 2011 - Ever wondered what "Agile project management" is really all about? So did we, so we attended Peter McBride's presentation to our local chapter. After the meeting, Peter was good enough to provide his slides and answer our questions. In his Guest paper, Answers to Questions on the Basics, Peter explains Agile's "Roles and Responsibilities", the meaning of "quality" and the tactical use of "Timeboxing".

In our Paper this month, Managing the Cost of Meetings, we describe two devices that might just help to reduce time wasted on unnecessarily prolonged meetings, or discourage completely unneccesary meetings and thereby reduce the cost to the project budget.

November 2011 - This month, our Guest John Baker, tells us: "I worked with dozens if not hundreds of Project Management professionals. Some were completely incompetent, most of them were quite talented, but what separated the good from the great was the skill of clear, direct and action-oriented communications. Read his Times Up! What Do You Really Want?

In Musings we think it is time to get Back to PM Basics in Education and institutionalize the fact that PM is both an art and a science and what that means in practical terms of successful product outcomes.

Helpful information for people in a hurry

It is not for me to tell you how to run your project — that's your decision. Nor am I trying to teach you project management — there are plenty of excellent books and courses to do that. You see, any fool can make things complicated, my goal is to keep it simple! Nevertheless, there are over 12,000 pages of project management information on this site and, to find what you are looking for, either:

  1. Go to the broad subject areas shown by the links at the top of the left sidebar
  2. Go to the site map for links to all of this site's content listed by PM topic, or
  3. Use the Search My Site link on the left of each page to reach the Google search panel

Our ultimate goal: More successful projects because more products are successful.


Checklists aka "Issacons©"

Issacons stands for Issues and Considerations and are sets of slides providing summary information responding to a specific question associated with a particular project management topic.

Designed to save hours of searching when all you want is a simple checklist, they provide the reader with succinct information. Issacons are more detailed than a plain bulleted list.

Tip: To view a slide as text, click the "A" button on the right side of the slide.

Max's Musings

My thoughts on various incidental project management topics.

 

Project Management Glossary

A free-on-web comparative glossary (version 3.1) designed to show how many common terms mean different things to different people, thereby leaving you free to create your own distinct version for your particular project.

Guest Articles

Points of view from other contributors.

Max's Papers and Books

Papers and Book Reviews: Thought provoking and valuable insights into project management. Books I have written.

Project management tip of the month

The critical control principle: Specify all critical attributes that must be controlled throughout the project life span.

Announcements

The Wideman Education Foundation ("WEF" 2007) is a registered charity tax-exempt status under the Canadian Federal Government Income Tax Act. WEF offers a win-win opportunity for donors and sponsors with a simple value proposition:
• Project competitions that introduce high school students to basic project management skills and experience
• Identification of enthusiastic students capable of teamwork and team leadership that benefit both family and community
• Planting the seeds of a future project-ready workforce for companies in need of project talent

"Great oaks from little acorns grow"
Find out more HERE

The Wideman Comparative Glossary of Project Management Terms
Access to version 3.1 is free and available on this site. Version 5.0 is available for sale. Click these links to find out MORE and order YOUR COPY.

Management Framework for Project, Program and Portfolio Integration
expands on my original well-known book A Frameword for Project and Program Management Integration published by the Project Management Institute in 1991. Find out more HERE and order your copy HERE.
ISBN-10: 1412027861
ISBN-13: 978-1412027861


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