Comments for A Day in the Life of a Project Manager: Issues, Insights, & ImplementationFollow one Project Manager through the daily ups and downs of the Project Life. Larry draws on his current project management practice and wealth of project experience to shed light on the issues and challenges of project management today. His eye for detail, sense of humor, insights, and personal observations are sure to entertain and inform.Comment by Larry Cone on Problems with Less Structured Projects- April 29, 2008 But yet one still often encounters "not coded here" mentality in the development team.There is often a significant resistance to use of purchased or re-used code, rather than engineering from scratch. There are legitimate objections: code not well documented or structured; don't control purchased components; might be limited in the future.Its a shame that re-usability in code has not reached a higher plateau - this would be a significant contributor to structure and productivityhttp://networking.ittoolbox.com/r/rss.asp?url=http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/coneblog/problem... Comment by ShinersIT on Problems with Less Structured Projects- April 28, 2008 The less structured software development is not a black art but requires a bit more flexibility and understanding across the business.As highlighted in the comments above "Business people" - and I take this to mean, non-software experienced Managers (finance, Business, Sales Managers, Account Managers) - do not have a technical background and do not want one. Larry picked up a specific point where you need an softwareIT engineerdeveloper to be able to take that step towards bushttp://networking.ittoolbox.com/r/rss.asp?url=http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/coneblog/problem... Comment by freyacr on Are women better project managers than men- April 15, 2008 Hi.... Interesting topic... I think there could be as many answers as people in the world... From my point of view (as a female project manager), I think the answer is 'There's no one better than the other'. I'm confident that experience is the only thing that determines who's 'best' at any specific subject. Socially, men and women are trained to behave in a particular way, so this may be a reason why a gender could be more 'sensitive' than the other, or more 'rational'. But we all are capable ohttp://networking.ittoolbox.com/r/rss.asp?url=http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/coneblog/are-wom... Comment by Larry Cone on The Motion Picture Industry as a Project Model- April 13, 2008 Peter -I have an old, dog-eared copy of "Mythical Man Month" - I'll have to dig it out and re-read it.I hadn't focused on the "star power" aspect of project management - that a few key Actors can make or break a project. Certainly the Star pay differential for project stars is not (yet) in place.I'm not sure that I completely agree. IT projects seem to me more like team sports. Leadership is key, and a high level of skill across the board is important.When revhttp://networking.ittoolbox.com/r/rss.asp?url=http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/coneblog/the-mot... Comment by peternolan on The Motion Picture Industry as a Project Model- April 13, 2008 Hi Larry,the best place we can all look for advice on Project Management is Frederick Brooks and the Mythical Man Month. I think the first edition was released more than 30 years ago. He also released a 25th Anniversary edition.In that book was pretty much everything one needs to know to avoid project failure. When I was a junior programmer at IBM the projects I worked on were run according to the 'Brooks Bible'....and one was the most successful internal software development projecthttp://networking.ittoolbox.com/r/rss.asp?url=http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/coneblog/the-mot... Comment by Larry Cone on The Motion Picture Industry as a Project Model- April 10, 2008 How true - there is significant preparation before any film is exposed. In fact they call it "in development" - the time between the initial concept or script, and when the firm is ready to be made.The script might be worked or reworked, director found, and key talent recruited to play the roles. The sales projections, foreign rights, and dvd sales are estimated, and a production budget is created.Sounds alot like software. !!a href="http:blogs.ittoolbox.compmhttp://networking.ittoolbox.com/r/rss.asp?url=http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/coneblog/the-mot... Comment by Jason Griffith on The Motion Picture Industry as a Project Model- April 10, 2008 I think one of the best practices you can pick up from the movie industry is the research and preparation that goes into everything before hand.While I did not pursue a career in film (considered it though), I did spend a number of years involved in theatre. I think that is really one of the key factors in developing a habit of commentingdocumenting my code as well as planning and preparing. There are actually quite a few similarities between programming and theatre, and I wouldhttp://networking.ittoolbox.com/r/rss.asp?url=http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/coneblog/the-mot... Comment by Larry Cone on The Motion Picture Industry as a Project Model- April 9, 2008 So what best practices can we learn from movies Have deep pockets and lots of advertising. :) Surprisingly, that is a valid comment. I believe that projects can fail through lack of communication; Selling if you will. When was the last time you saw "selling the benefits' on a project plan.I know that software product features can fail due to lack of preperation, training and communication to the user base.And deep pockets are essential for any project with potenhttp://networking.ittoolbox.com/r/rss.asp?url=http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/coneblog/the-mot... |