Category: ElephantPM
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How to plan a student group project
Overview It is common for students to do a group project in the final year of their studies. Outside of Academica it is well understood that the timely success of a project is governed not by the intellect or capability of the team members but the by the diligence and skill of the project manager.…
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Should you ever rewrite a large code base?
Here is a very interesting article on whether you should rewrite a large code base. I found it when asking the question “Whatever happened to FogBugz”. The answer is that it is still available.
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How to manage work
This article was written in response to a question from a 3rd year Computer Science student and it uses terms familiar to that domain. However the principles it puts forward are generally applicable and should be useful to any reader. What is “work”? “Work” is a verb, it doing something to create a Deliverable and it…
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“The Checklist Manifesto” is a game-changing book
What is it about? The author’s key message is that the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded any single individual’s ability to manage it consistently without error despite material advances in technology, boatloads of more training and super-specialization of functions and responsibilities. Yet, despite demonstrating that checklists produce results, there is resistance…
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Microsoft Project 2016 and SharePoint Project Web App
I have always found it very difficult to understand Microsoft Project provisioning options. This video makes it very clear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC6wiMEFCEU&list=PLoJ4O8aYHqgAtiXSbleKz0oPZD6bwhrah&index=6 At my current client we have Office 365. I have purchased a single copy of Microsoft Project Professional and because of this our Office 365 tenant gets a Project Online licence which allows us to use the…
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Why is it often more difficult to manage a small project than a large one?
Ian Mitchell asks on Linkedin. I have spent the last 20 years a freelance consultant managing small hi-tech projects in large and small organisations. Examples include, satellite communications systems and integration of mail campaigns with data warehouses. Characteristics of small projects, the project manager is assigned 1 – 2 days/week people in your team will frequently also…
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A new theme for this WordPress blog
I am learning WordPress development and configuration. As part of this I have updated the theme on this blog to the very elegant Chateaux theme which has larger fonts and more white space than the TwentyTen theme I was using before. Another improvement is I have added all my posts to the correct category so…
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Books on innovation
Continuing my theme of useful books. Here a couple of very valuable books about managing innovation. The Lean Start-up Business Model Generation
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Excellent book on management theories
I am presently doing research for a book that I am going to write called “How to be a Middle Manager” and I have found this excellent book that summarises a wide range of management theories in an easily digestible and usable way. Much cheaper than an MBA! The Little Book of Big Management Theories:…
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The philosophy of project management
I think that this book is a very interesting discussion of the essential, as opposed to accidental nature of project management. It is quite heavy but if you have managed several projects you will recognise many of the truths it presents. Aramis, or the Love of Technology Bruno Latour
Dr James Bayley 