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More WBS Work

I’ve been looking at Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) again lately. I was coaching a new brand project manager on some basics, and found myself once again focusing on the WBS and its value to the PM’s planning and control. The key point I drove home on WBS was that it’s the full scope of the project: [...] [...]

Project File Backups – Avoid Disaster

I just put up a page here on CottagePM.com to talk about the need for file backups. “Duh,” you say? But are you backing up your project files? I didn’t think so. You’ll be sorry if you don’t back up those project files. Click here to check out the cross-platform solution I’ve adopted for my own backups. [...] [...]

Mind Mapping Project Planning

I just started helping out on a sister department’s project. My formal function on the team is to ensure that the end product/system/tools/etc are all fully reportable. I’m the metrics guy. But I quickly spotted room for some traditional PM tools and approaches, so I offered to help out. The offer was gleefully accepted. The key [...] [...]

Guest podcast on pmStudent e-Learning

I recently joined Josh Nankivel at pmStudent e-Learning for a chat about Project Charters. We took a free-form approach and just chatted about charters and compared how they’re used in my small project environment, how Josh used them in former jobs that were in smaller project environments, and how they’re typically used in larger project [...] [...]

Quoted - PowerPoint Makes Us Stupid - Does this happen in your projects?

Enemy Lurks in Briefings on Afghan War – PowerPoint – NYTimes.com. (Click the link above to read the article.) The image above is of a powerpoint slide shown in a military briefing in the summer of 2009. It was meant to portray the complexity of the situation. “‘When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war,’ [...] [...]

A New Fan of Project Charters

Remember recently when I wrote a little about project charters? And I said I was going to say they’re not necessarily relevant in our smaller Cottage PM practices? And then I changed my mind just before I wrote that? Well, I just reconfirmed that experience. And I’m finding that I’m a new fan of Project Charters [...] [...]

Good PM Planning Mitigates Illness Risks

OK, that title sounds more noble than I’ll be writing. See, I just caught a flu bug. Not very severe, and hopefully it won’t become severe. But it’s been flirting with me for 4 days now, and the fever finally began today, just when I thought I was getting better. But this post isn’t about [...] [...]

Example WBS from my new small project

I thought the little project was simple enough not to bother with a WBS. It was straightforward work that my team was accustomed to doing. This week I reconsidered that stance and built a WBS, and boy am I glad I did. The Project The project is to configure the CRM for a unique extended support offering. [...] [...]

Project Charters - We Need Them in Cottage PM, Too

Earlier this month, PMHut.com posted an article, “So What’s Your Project Charter.” It caught my eye. As I hope you’ve noticed, I’ve been considering the various tools and processes that PMs can use on projects and trying to determine which are most relevant to our environment, Cottage PM (see About Cottage PM on the left [...] [...]

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