This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Linkage Cleanup -- Making way for the new by getting my "to-blog" list behind me...
"Make it work" - Gotta "come out of the closet" on this one. I'm addicted to Project Runway. "Well, if a wedding dress needs to be designed in two days, it will be designed in two days."
Friday Fun: iPod vs Zune -- Great head-to-head comparison. Favorite observation: "Now that's what I call planning."
posted by Frank - Permanent Link -
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Blasts from the Past - 9/10-9/16 -- From this week in 2003, Predicting Uncertain Futures, using familiar weather maps as a metaphor. (One of my favorite posts.)
Looking into the future, we move from points in time to ranges of time within which we can expect completion of a project. The further out we look -- the more work subject to uncertainty that remains -- the wider the range of promises needs to be. As the leading edge of the projected path of the storm starts touching land, that could relate to having the maximum of the range of project promise exceeding the desired due date.
In 2004, the series on Multi-Project mangement continued.
And last year, I was exploring David Allen's process for Getting Things Done. (Still working on making it work for me.)
Marketing Project Management -- No, that's not marketing Project Management, but rather Marketing project management. From DM News, an article by Jane Eggers of Quickbase plays up how to support the collaborative needs of managing marketing projects via (no surprise, given what Quickbase is all about) technology. In Five Steps to Simple Marketing Project Management, Eggers offers up steps to get started:
Know your processes...
Don't forget your partners...
Focus on workflow...
Expect simplicity...
Start now and iterate...
Not sure if those are steps or tips (don't really see a "workflow" there), but the supporting material does make sense.
I'm about to take her fifth point at in setting up a small internal wiki to document our processes, and as suggested, I was planning to forgo all the bells and whistles and fancy look and feel and perfection (for now), and just get it started.
A List o' Lists -- Coming back from the Labor Day holiday, it seems some recent project and process management lists have settled into my collection of blogfodder. Stephen Seay at ProjectSteps is the source of two of them, from his archives and wanderings.
1. Everything takes longer than you think (sometimes a lot longer)
2. Thinking about everything takes longer than you think
...
17. Be wary of anyone who wants 100% confidence in an estimate. 90% confidence is an exceptional human achievement for any complex task, even with extremely good data
18. Look up the word “estimate” in the dictionary. You may find it useful in a meeting
Rule #5: Know how to navigate - You need a plan and need time to plan. You must be able to envision the final result of the successful project, break that result down into manageable milestones or phases of work and define the critical path to each milestone. This means breaking down the vision of the project into understandable pieces for everyone on the team.
Principle 1: Focus on the Right Value Levers - The first step of any business process improvement is to know where in teh organization value could be captured and where levers need to be pulled. Essentially, every organization has three value-creation levers at its disposal: process, technology, and organizational changes. Companies are often tempted to take small steps toward change, focusing on technology solutions OR organizational reshuffling, rather than considering a more holistic view of their options.
hmmm...
8 principles, 10 rules, and 18 laws. 8+10=18. hmmm...Coincidence?
Friday Fun: Web Design Made Easy -- Just take the Web 2.0 colors from here, and apply to templates (based on famous/popular sites stripped of their graphics) here.
