Month: April 2009

Agile Project Management, Events, Leadership, Metrics, Planning, Risk Management, Teams, Travel

Project Success?

What defines project success? On “time and budget”, or “to specification and quality requirements”, maybe all of these? No, we are missing some less tangible, but critical components; how do people feel about the project once it is done. On May 12 the PMI-SAC Awards for the best projects and the best project managers will be held in Calgary and Captain James Lovell, Commander of Apollo 13 will be giving the keynote “Apollo 13 – A Successful Failure”. This year I am a judge for the awards ceremony and in reviewing the applicants I have been thinking about what constitutes a successful project which prompted the recollection of some famous projects… Apollo 13Let’s consider Apollo 13. The third manned mission […]

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Uncategorized

The Simple Guide to Earned Value

I have written a couple of posts now on agile alternatives to earned value, but lots of people still do not understand traditional earned value. So here is a simple worked example and a one page .PDF summary… Let’s imagine our project is to build a wall around a garden.     For simplicity, let’s assume 4 equal sides and a budget of $200 per side. Our schedule is one side per day so we should finish in 4 days with a cost of $800.

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Agile Project Management, Events, Leadership, Teams, Travel

Upcoming Events

After returning from teaching a PMI class in New Orleans, the PMI have added some additional venues for the course later in the year. This is a good sign for agile methods within the PMI community; the course sold out quickly which hopefully indicates that many companies are still able to invest in training. My 2 day Agile Project Management courses will be offered: September 14-15 Las Vegas, Nevada November 9-10 Savannah, Georgia December 14-15, San Diego, California Of course PMI events go on throughout the year (full schedule), but this year I have deliberately kept the summer free from work events to enjoy some outdoor things closer to home. I am currently signed up for the Police Half Marathon, […]

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