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Volume IX - Issue I - January 2007

 

Tips and Techniques

 

 

Overcoming Cultural Obstacles to Managing Risk

by Daniel Galorath

 

Many organizations create cultures that emphasize achievement of goals in the face of overwhelming challenges. This is an essential attitude for any successful organization, but if taken to extremes, this attitude makes it very difficult for management to accept risk and believe in and support risk management as an important discipline. There is an underlying belief that all will be well. Management is confident that the software gods will shine on this deserving project.

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About the Author:


Daniel Galorath

Daniel D. Galorath has over 35 years of experience in the software industry where he has solved a variety of management, costing, systems, and software problems, and performed all aspects of software development and management. Mr. Galorath is founder and president of Galorath Incorporated, maker of the SEER® suite of estimation tools.  Mr. Galorath is one of the principal developers of the SEER-SEM™ Software Estimation Model. Mr. Galorath completed his undergraduate work and MBA from California State Universities. He is a member of the International Society of Parametric Analysis (ISPA), Society of Cost Estimation and Analysis (SCEA), IEEE, the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG), and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). He was honored with the Freiman Award, recognizing his long-term contributions to the field of parametric analysis. Mr. Galorath teaches courses in software cost, schedule, and risk analysis; software project management; software engineering; systems architecture, and other related topics. He has lectured internationally and is the author of many papers about software project management. Mr. Galorath can be reached at info@galorath.com. His website is www.galorath.com.

 

 

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Management by MOM -
The Importance of Meetings in a Digital World,
and of Minutes of Meetings!

by J. Ajith Kumar

 

Management by Objectives, Management by Results and Management by Means are well established management theories successfully being practised in many industries. All management theories are offspring of needs and options available at different times. Specific situations in particular industries trigger the need for new approaches to handle them and some of the underdeveloped management practices at that point of time rise up to the occasion. The case of Management by Objectives (MBO) is a typical example of this. It was becoming increasingly difficult to justify management decisions on the basis of analysis of reasons when objectives provided the same. In industrial setups that run on MBO, it is much less cumbersome to take decisions and implement them if they are in line with the objectives fixed by the top management.

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About the Author:


J. Ajith Kumar

J. Ajith Kumar is a graduate in Chemical engineering from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India and has over 25 years experience in various Project Management roles with many reputed engineering consultants like FEDO, Belleli, ILF, Parsons and WorleyParsons. Presently he heads the Project Services Department in WorleyParsons in the Sultanate of Oman. He can be reached at jajithkumar@hotmail.com

 

 

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Sunk Costs Don’t Matter

 

by Harvey A. Levine

 

It’s a message that you’ve heard since infancy. “Don’t cry over spilled milk.”

Now that you’re full-grown and an executive, or in another leadership role, don’t you think that it’s time to pay more attention to this simple adage?

Common sense tells us that costs that we have already incurred should not figure into future calculations of value or benefits. But psychologically, we find it difficult to dismiss what we have already put into a project, in the way of costs.

Poker players know all about this. Joe sits down at the table with a hundred dollars. An hour later, he has doubled this to a cool two hundred. When the game breaks up, Joe comes away with $125 dollars. If you ask Joe how he made out, he will sadly report that he lost seventy-five smackers. You can argue that this is preposterous. That he came out ahead by twenty-five bucks. Joe argues that, at one point in time, he had two hundred dollars. It was his money and he could have walked away with it. From that point, he lost seventy-five bucks.

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About the Author:


Harvey A. Levine

Harvey A. Levine, with 44 years of service to the project management industry, is founder of The Project Knowledge Group, a consulting firm specializing in the dissemination of PM knowledge through writing, training, mentoring and direct consulting. He has implemented or enhanced the project management capabilities of numerous firms, often combined with the selection or implementation of computerized project management tools. For more information on Harvey Levine or the Project Knowledge Group, please visit http://home.earthlink.net/~halevine/. Mr. Levine is the author of three books, and over 240 articles, whitepapers and videos on Project Management. His 2002 book, "Practical Project Management: Tips, Tactics, and Tools", is still available from John Wiley & Sons. Mr. Levine's latest book, "Project Portfolio Management, A Practical Guide to Selecting Projects, Managing Portfolios, and Maximizing Benefits", Jossey-Bass, was released in July, 2005. Mr. Levine is past president and chair of the Project Management Institute (PMI®), a recipient of PMI's 1989 Distinguished Contribution to Project Management award, and has been elected a Fellow of PMI. He was Contributing Editor to PMI’s PM Network for thirteen years and has contributed to dozens of periodicals and websites dedicated to project management. He is a popular keynote speaker and panel chair, as well as presenter of workshops and problem solving sessions in the private and public sectors. Mr. Levine has been an early supporter of Project Portfolio Management practices and has promoted PPM though books, articles, presentations, and individual mentoring and consulting. Mr. Levine has offices in Saratoga Springs, New York and San Diego, California. Harvey can be contacted at halevine@earthlink.net.  Additional information about Harvey Levine can be found at http://www.pmforum.org/pm%20forum%20team/index.htm#3.

 

 

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Scheduling Tips Managing Delays and Accelerations

by Robert Posenr

 

Planned delays are where you knowingly build a delay into your project schedule.  This type of delay may or may not be on the schedule's critical path. Unplanned delays are where either you, the Client or the subcontractor, vendor or supplier introduced an unexpected delay into the schedule.  These are generally associated with the project team waiting on a decision, approval, authorisation, answer or information about something (eg, a work product).

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About the Author:


Robert Posener

Robert Posener is founder and Managing Director of PMComplete Pty Ltd, a project management professional services company in Australia. A Project Manager for over 30 years, Robert has managed information technology and business projects and programmes for computer hardware, software and consulting companies in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Hong Kong and USA. He is an active member of PMI’s Sydney Chapter and College of Scheduling, and is a Fellow of the International Council for Project Management Advancement (ICPMA).  He can be contacted at robert.posener@pmcomplete.com.au More information about Robert Posener can be found at www.pmforum.org/pm20%forum20%team.

 

 

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