Pictofigo Promotion

I've been working with Pictofigo for a few months now.  I give them ideas for drawings I think others would find helpful.  In turn, I get access to some pretty cool (and original) stuff.  It's quid pro quo at its best. There are currently over 900 drawings available for free on the Standard Pictofigo site.  In addition to those, there are 13 Premium items.  These items range from a few free desktop wallpapers to Scrum posters and traditional project management posters.  What's the difference and why pay for stuff?  The standard site has drawings at 72 dpi resolution, perfect for a blog, website or presentation.  The Premium site has drawings at 300 dpi resolution, suitable for print or products.  Yes, I do offer links from my site to CafePress, if you want printed posters.  But, the actual high resolution drawings are available if you want to print out a few posters at a lower overall cost.  I got a notice today that Pictofigo is going to run a half off promotion on their premium content.  Because I like to encourage and support entrepreneurs, I wanted to write this quick post.  If you're in the market for some original drawings, look them up.  They are constantly iterating on the site so check back often.  If you have an idea for a drawing or poster, give them a shout.  If you want, you can send me the request and I'll forward it along.  To be clear, I am not Pictofigo.  I merely love what they do and want to see them succeed.

HT: Pictofigo

One of My Resolutions

When PM Bistro asked if I would write a blog post for them, I was happy to oblige.  You can read the original post here.  For a little background, I was asked to write about a particular work-related goal I have for 2011.  I actually have several (goal) resolutions for 2011.  I keep them on my Personal Kanban so I can be reminded of them daily.  Because they are so big, I consider them Epics.  I then break them down into "actionable" stories.  Anyway, here is the blog post.  I hope you enjoy.

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When asked to think about a particular work-related goal I made for 2011, I knew it would be easy to list but harder to explain. It’s common to say “how” or “what” you’re going to do. It’s a whole other thing to say “why” you’re doing it.

The goal I have is: To articulate the values, principles, and methods of the agile community to the traditional project management community.

Why: I’ve been working in the Industry for some 15 years. I’ve seen and been involved in the best of projects and the worst of projects. Over time, I’ve seen more and more methods defined and practiced. I’ve seen people in our profession leverage these methods in the hopes their projects would be successful. It is my fundamental belief that all project managers and leaders should know all of the options available to increase the probability of project success.

How: About 5 years ago, I read the Agile Manifesto. Though it was written for software development, I discovered I could leverage some of the principles it defined in other areas. I then discovered the agile community. These progressive thinkers spoke less of maintaining the status quo and more of introducing new ways of doing things or refinement of the old. Though there are “agile” processes to follow and disciplines to uphold, many in the traditional project management community seem to be unaware of them.Some still think agile lacks both process or discipline. I hope to change that. I plan to tweet, blog, publish, speak, and mentor at every opportunity.

What: I had the pleasure of attending the PMI North American Congress in Washington DC this last year. Though I saw a very strong visual representation from the Agile Community of Practice, when I spoke to the random attendee, they had no idea what Agile was about. As I interact with both new and seasoned professionals of our Industry, I want them to know how agile can work in concert with their traditional methods. I want to see more projects succeed.

Like the image? Find it at Pictofigo

Domain specialty is good in project management

Shortage of specialized project managers

If you're a general project manager, and you're looking for work, you're probably not finding as much available work or noticing people are not willing to pay you as much as they used to.  With an increased amount of people choosing project management as their profession, you need to find a way to stand apart from them.  If you focus on a niche market or vertical or refine your skills in a particular knowledge area, you may find yourself in great demand and commanding a much higher rate.

Lindsay Scott asks some excellent questions.

Think about your own situation and circumstance; if you were to market your own specialism what would it be?

What areas of business and industry are looking for your particular specialism?

How can you work the current marketplace demands to your advantage?

To get more on this topic, read more from Arras People and Lindsay Scott.

Listen to your Customer on her Birthday

In celebration of my wife's birthday, I figured I would make her a homemade birthday cake.  I haven't done that since before we got married 5+ years ago.  This time, however, I actually asked her what she wanted.  That's right.  The first birthday cake that I made for her, I didn't even ask what she would like.  If you were the customer, wouldn't that kind of tick you off?  Thanks for the cake but... I don't like that kind. Getting input (and listening) to your customer goes a long way.

Sure, I could have ordered a cake from the local (and now famous) Charm City Cakes but she didn't ask for that.  She wanted a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting.  So, last night, our 4-year-old son and I made her a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting.  We even cleaned up the mess after!  But, it wasn't completely uneventful.  All I can say is I'm glad there were well documented instructions.

Me: Are we a pair of knuckleheads or what? My son:  I think we're a pair of clowns, Daddy.

Here is my Project Management Spin

1. Find out what your customer wants.
2. Deliver what your customer wants, not what you want.
3. You'll spend more money if you want a chef to bake and decorate your cake.
4. You'll save more time if you want a chef to bake and decorate your cake.
5. Even a pair of clowns can bake and decorate a cake (if instructions are good).
6. You should expect lower quality from a pair of clowns.

Product Delivery

• Both cake and frosting passed unit testing. (Mmmmmm)
• We did a little beta testing last night before the final build.
• The final build was successful.
• We delivered on time.
• We delivered below budget.
• The good news is, I'm pretty sure we'll pass user acceptance testing.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful and wonderful wife!

Green Eggs and Ham are…

Last night I read Green Eggs and Ham to my Son.  Because nothing is sacred in my world of blogging and project management, I drew a parallel between Sam and myself. If you don't know the story, Sam offers Green Eggs and Ham to an unnamed character.  This character adamantly states he does not like them.

Sam looks for different opportunities and scenarios where the character may enjoy the green eggs and ham.  Every time, he's dismissed.  I will not eat them here or there.  I will not eat them anywhere!

Still, Sam persists.

You do not like them.  So you say.  Try them!  Try them!  And you may.  Try them and you may, I say.

The character finally laments and tries the green eggs and ham.  Guess what?  He likes them.  He likes them a lot!  All of a sudden, he realized all of the scenarios Sam recommended really are perfect opportunities to enjoy green eggs and ham.

So, what are green eggs and ham?  I think they are ideas and opportunities. Yes, the same ones your colleagues had that got shot down.  The same ones you had but were also dismissed.  It's Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or some other approach the customer has never tried before, therefore, they don't even want to try it.

Next time someone has an idea or opportunity, try it!  Try it! And you may.  Deliver value in that way.

Image courtesy of themouseforless

If you liked this post, check out Compassion is the “Killer App” over at the Guerrilla Project Management website.

I also recommend reading Chug, Chug, Vroom, and Expectancy Theory, a blog post by Todd Williams, who explains its applicability in The Little Engine That Could.

Daily RSS Feed Reads Over a Cup of Coffee

As one of the items on my personal "resolutions" kanban for 2010, I shortened my list of RSS feeds I've subscribed to.  I will now only keep the RSS feeds in Google Reader that I can actually zero out by Friday close of business. Too many times, we grow these unmanageable lists of feeds, only to see them grow and grow.  As a project manager, you don't accept more and more work, until tasks are completely unmanageable.  Why should reading be any different?  In order to handle tasks, both management and reading, I allocate time for planned "work" and unplanned "work". The more people I follow on Twitter, the more recommended blog posts I read (unplanned) on a daily basis.  I now find myself reading more of these posts than my (planned) RSS reading. My colleague Sridhar of Hyderabad, India, asked if I would provide a list of RSS feeds I subscribe to.  The topics I am interested in include:  Project Management (who would have thought), Agile, Kanban, and Entrepreneurial topics.  I'll admit this is not a complete list.  I also like to see pictures of epic kludges and jury rigs and pictures of the people of Walmart.

Here is my list of RSS Feed Reads (in alphabetical order) that I enjoy over a cup of coffee:

1. Agile Development Blog
2. Alec Satin - People, Projects, and Process
3. CottagePM.com - Project Management for the rest of us
4. Deep Fried Brain - PMP Exam Prep
5. Geoff Crane - Solid Portfolio Management with a sharp wit
6. How to Manage a Camel - Project Management
7. Jason Calacanis - CEO of Mahalo.com and creator of This Week In StartUps
8. Jim Benson - Personal Kanban
9. Josh Nankivel - Founder of PM Student and creator of WBS Coach
10. Mike Cottmeyer - Agile Leadership and Project Management
11. Mixergy - Where the ambitious learn from experienced mentors

1 of 100 PM Related Questions I Ask Myself

Hmmmmm

Question 1: In the hope to help the Project Management industry mature, should project management related templates and worksheets be freely distributed to the project management community or should there be a reasonable fee charged? I am a strong believer in the wisdom of crowds.  If there was a consortium of types with diverse backgrounds in Waterfall, Spiral, RUP, Agile, Scrum, XP... don't you think they could come up with some pretty good stuff?  In this case, all templates would be freely distributed.  I have to admit, the majority of my traffic is from people looking for free templates and worksheets.  It's tempting at times to put them behind a pay wall and ask for 99 cents.

What do you think?

Image courtesy of misallphoto on Flickr

Free Critical Path and Float Calculation Worksheet

Critical Path Float Calculation Worksheet

The number one search on the Critical Path website is for a Critical Path and Float worksheet.  Though you should be using software to calculate a critical path, if it is mission critical, it is important to understand the concept for the PMP exam. Rather then go into the specifics on how to calculate the critical path and float in this post, I'll merely say a free worksheet template  and PowerPoint presentation are available and you can download them at any time. (see links below)

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Remember the Critical Path tells you the activities that can not slip a day without increasing the total duration of the project or moving the project completion date. It is the longest path of logically related activities through the network which cannot slip without impacting the total project duration, termed zero float.