Project

I started this blog five years and a million visitors ago.

In that time a lot has changed. Blogs have come and gone. Twitter was invented. Communities have died and new ones have been born. So with the 5 year anniversary coming up in April I thought it would be good to explore and remap the landscape.

I'm approaching this in a random fashion. I'll review a site, then ask the owner which site they like best, and continue until I reach a barrier or run out of energy. I'll also inject a few of my favorites as I go along if no one else brings them up. This post will be updated with a list of all the posts.

If you would like to suggest an inclusion, please make a suggestion in the comments.

• PM Web #001 - Glen B. Alleman's Herding Cats

Here is this blog's monthly growth chart for the first 5 years. I didn't start measuring until it was about 6 months old.

Introduction:

First in a series of reviews of Project Management web resources. For the full list click here

"Herding Cats"

Herding Cats is Glen Alleman's blog about Project Management. The sub-title "Ideas, Comments, and Resources about Project Management from field experiences" fits pretty well. Glen focuses heavily on the experiential side of things and likes to write about what is proven to work in his years of experience - primarily in large and expensive projects.

There are a few common themes to Glen's articles. First is setting clear scales of measurement. You aren't talking with Glen unless you hear "What does done look like?" a few times. For this reason, you will often finding him tilting with Agilistas who are a bit more flexible (if that is the right word) about what the end state might be.

A second constant is data. He likes what works and is sceptical of things with no strong track record. Data about the efficacy of Project Management methods and processes is hard to come by, but claims about them flow like water. Glen's background in science makes him critical of mis-applied statistics and bad math in general.

The final theme to mention is discipline. I think Glen's own words speak to this best:

"Project estimating, and project management is hard work. Software development is fun work. Still hard but fun. Project Management is hard work, with almost no fun."

What I like best about his blog is that there is always something for me to both agree with and disagree with. I haven't figured out how I'm going to map all of the sites I'm planning to review, but if I place myself at the center, Glen would be orbiting somewhere off near Mars. Not a gassy bloated planet. Not hot enough to melt lead. Firm and solid with a regular orbit. Interesting enough to send a probe to.

Here is my rating based on a number of statistics:

• Constancy: Posts regularly and has for a long time
  
• Spelling: Fair
  
• Depth: Longer than twitter, shorter than War and Peace
  
• Comments: Almost all reasonable comments get followed up by Glen - a good place for discussion.
  
• Recommended for all ages.