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June 30, 2005
Simplicity is a virtue
Glen will probably be disappointed. But here is what I am using as an ultra-cheap rugged color pocket pc as I described in my last post:
.
Compared to an electronic version of the same, this has much lower cost (~$1.00) and is far more rugged. It can calculate (at least given the proper user) but it slower than an electronic one. The screen can fold out into as many windows as you would like. Other than displaying multimedia, playing games or storing large quantities of information (ebooks or databases for example) I can't think of any significant differences. Since I don't typically need to do any of those things with something I carry with me I'm happy with what I have.
The advantage over a notebook or more formal organizer are:
At present I am satisfied with it. Of the virtues listed above, simplicity is the one I value most.
Posted by Jack at 07:36 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 29, 2005
I'm impressed
I've been getting more and more buried with things to do, things to read and general email lately. So yesterday I took action. First thing was to get a pocket pc. I found one which is about 3x5" and about a half inch thick. Unlike my previous one this has a nearly unbreakable screen (don't get it wet though) It does color and graphics and has the basics (calendar, address book, notes, task list). It is solar powered as well so I don't need to worry about batteries. Best of all it is really cheap. I'll post a picture of it when I have a chance.
The second thing I did was more impressive. I dumped the entire 1000 or so messages in my inbox. It is incredibly strange and in a way very liberating to see an empty inbox after years of seeing a long list of stuff there. Now I just need to keep it that way. Even with only a few minutes of experience under my new method I've come to a couple of realizations.
First, the google gmail idea of keeping all your mail and using "search" to find what is important has a fundamental flaw for work. I think it is fine for personal correspondence, but at work things are ephemeral. Something is either done or not done. Some things are important to file away and keep, but from the look of my inbox this amounts to less than 5%. Keeping all that stuff around may be nearly free from a computing point of view, but it takes a mental toll. Looking at a screen with a thousand emails saps your vital energy. Nothing is important. Sure you can tag and categorize all you want, but wouldn't it be preferable to take a lesson from nature and excrete the unwanted, preferably in a secluded spot deep in the woods? No need to carry it around with you.
The second realization is that I can only do a dozen or so things at a time. Any deeper than that and I forget I was supposed to do something about it. I don't really forget, but they aren't exactly at the front of my mind. It takes some time and rumination to bring them to the fore so considering the dearth of rumination time available they are as good as forgotten. Now a dozen tasks is a small enough number of things that I can easily carry them around with me and act on them opportunistically. This is what my pocket pc meant to help me with.
So, this is the start. I'll see how it goes from here. Gotta go... I already see the first message appearing in my inbox.
Posted by Jack at 07:35 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 28, 2005
MS Project Tip - Renaming Fields
One thing that confuses people about Microsoft Project is that there is often more than one way to do things. Naming fields is one of those things. As far as I am concerned there is a right way and a wrong way.
This is the wrong way:
Why is it wrong? Well, the change is only made in that place. There is a new title for the field, but the title is not as widely used as the name. To really rename a field so you can use the new name in grouping, filtering, reports etc. you need to use a different method.
Here is the correct way to rename a field:
Now any dialog boxes that present a list of fields will show the new name in the list - the old one will too so don't worry.
Changing the field name applies to any table and any view that uses that field. Changing the field title (the first method)is limited to the single table that you have changed.
My guess is that when project first came out you used the first method of changing the field title, but after a while they improved the functionality. However, they never cleaned house and removed the old method. In a way this is understandable - Why fix what is not broken? But on the other hand, eventually you end up with so much old stuff that the user interface becomes cramped and confusing. Project has definitely reached that point.
One more thing to discuss and that is Master Projects and Inserted Projects. If you have changed the field name in a sub project and then inserted it into a master project the new field name will not show up. You MUST change it in the master project for the change to show. This is also true for views and other sorts of formatting. The parent does not inherit from the child.
Note to those who prefer the old way: Yes I can think of some situations where changing the field title instead of the field name would be useful, but I'd be willing to live without the function.
Posted by Jack at 05:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 27, 2005
Granite in any color as long as it is black
The idea that Brian Leach puts forward here is a great one. Disruption and delay are the bane of residential remodeling and kitting the entire kitchen or bath or whatever sounds like a solution to at least some of the problems. It is one of those "why didn't I think of that" solutions. Larger construction projects have benefitted from this sort of pre-planning for a long time so why not bring it to a smaller scale. Of course, in construction reputation and local presence are very important so the idea is only part of the solution of building a business, but it is a good start.
Posted by Jack at 05:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wasn't this an Elvis Costello album?
"Trust". David Anderson calls it the heart of Agile Management and that which distinguishes it from other methodologies. I think he is stretching here on how innovative Agile is being in this regard. After all, trust and mistrust have been around for as long as I can recall. They figure into every human endeavor so it sounds implausible to me that we are just now incorporating trust into software project management. If so, then I expect that software project management is worse off than even I thought it was.
But he is right. It is essential. The real question is how do you build trust. I'm afraid this takes time. It takes working together. It takes the process of setting some commitments and delivering on them. David does a good job of listing several ways that trust is built. Try and do them to whatever extent you can.
The next question is what about measurement? Do individual measurement processes build trust? I'd say no. In most cultures they signal mistrust. This can make them difficult and perhaps counterproductive to implement. But I think there is a way around it.
Going a bit further I'd say that trust can be banked in a fund. That is once trust is built, you are in a position to stretch a little and implement things which signal mistrust but may actually be useful and good because you have ample trust to spend. There are some times when someone says "trust me" and you do and others when someone says the same thing and you run the other way. (Am I alone in finding it ironic that David works for a company about which many people mistrust completely?). If you have earned the trust of your team then you are in a better position to implement more detailed measurement methods. To be successful in implementing them I'd suggest putting them off until you have built that trust.
Posted by Jack at 12:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 24, 2005
This is the shape of my blog
Sorry to be tiresome and point to someone else for material, but I'm a sucker for charts. Seth puts up 4 of them as the typical sales curve for products. Of course he is missing a few, notably the one which crashes to the ground. But none the less it is interesting.
I know I have a handful of regular readers out there (and nearly enough fingers to count them all). What do you think, is this a B or a C blog? Have I saturated the world market for MS Project Programming tips and African Cockroaches? Please don't answer D. It would not be polite.
Posted by Jack at 11:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
MS Project Tip - More than one resource in graph
The resource chart in Microsoft Project is a useful way of seeing how the resources on your project are loaded, but by default it only shows one resource at a time. This is not adequate when you want to see how the project as a whole is resourced. Unfortunately, the method to set it to show all resources is not easy to discover. In fact I'd been using Project for a couple of years before someone showed me how to do it (Thanks Adrian!). So to make things a little easier, here is how to show more than one resource in the resource graph view.
This tip works for Project 98, 2000, 2002, 2003 and likely future versions.
Posted by Jack at 07:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 23, 2005
MIT Blog Survey
If you write a blog, click on the button to participate in the survey. It didn't take too long, but I think some of the questions are a bit skewed. Give it a try. You can always make something up.
Posted by Jack at 04:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
How much is luck?
When I read tales like this one about the founding and consequent millions of dollars made from Excite it always seems that the element of serendipity gets glossed over in a sort of "if I wasn't at the table rolling the dice I wouldn't have won" sort of way, the implication being that being willing to roll dice is the key factor in the success. To a limited extent that is true. Football players don't hit home runs. But what about the role the dice themselves play? And what about the thousands of losers who also rolled the dice and didn't win? I've heard that Venture Capitalists expect one out of many of the ventures they fund to succeed. We get to see the story of the 1 and the story of the 99 are swept out with the trash.
The stories also point out that some sort of network is essential. You can increase your chance of winning by buying more lottery tickets. And the post-success stories show that once you have won, the network comes to you. People are willing to bet on you again, or at least they are willing to suck up to a billionaire.
I guess the question I'm asking is that are those few who hit the $billion mark really that much smarter or working that much harder? To be honest, I don't always think so. I'm not convinced. Sometimes being in the right place at the right time is the key factor. The stories of the losers would be an interesting place to look. The stories of the winners tell us less than what we need to know.
Posted by Jack at 08:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 21, 2005
Knowledge Management
The other Jack is talking about Brian's article about knowledge management and project management failing because people resist them because they don't feel comfortable. This is making me think I should jump in just to confuse things. Why can't people feel comfortable with the new changes? Why do KM and PM applications have to feel draconian and power-sucking? Is it not possible to devise a system that people are comfortable with? Something that helps them without exposing them? The search engine is a good example of this. Generally search is nearly anonymous. If you run across a problem or someone asks you a question you can google it and find an answer very quickly and not have to ask a stupid or embarassing question of another person.
In the case of a project management system isn't it possible to craft an application that allows you to manage your work (simply and easily) and not have it feel like someone is watching you with a stop watch? I think it should be. But detail freaks like to know what you are doing every waking hour so this will probably never happen.
As for KM. THIS is my solution to KM. I post stuff here. People can find it (by searching among other things). It has very low effort for me to post anything and it offers basic categorization and date based archiving. I can reach it anywhere there is a network connection. A KM application shouldn't feel like an application at all. It should just be.
OK, I'm leaving out some critical details like only a percent or two are actually motivated to share their thoughts - or perhaps even HAVE thoughts so that is perhaps the reason KM is a moribund endeavor, but making it easy, making it obvious, making it private/anonymous when it is useful to be private and making it familiar are all good things for both scheduling and km applications and processes.
Posted by Jack at 10:47 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
More things I don't criticize
Wisteria Macrobotrys (though I do criticize Wisteria Sinensis for twining in the wrong direction and having a certain lack of grace).
Peet's coffee, particularly any of the Indonesian varieties - Sumatra, Sulawesi Kalosi...
My dog.
Posted by Jack at 10:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 20, 2005
Not to be all negative
Seems like lately I never have a good word for anyone else on this blog. There are some things I do like and which I never criticize. Things like the moon:
and being underwater come to mind. Not to mention mid-summer.
Posted by Jack at 09:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Not again...
Seth is wrong again. He claims there is no trickery or insincerity in marketing. Of course there is. We all know this. We also know that Seth is doing this to attract attention. Attracting attention is the is the third pillar of marketing. So Seth here is doing a fine job of proving that marketing is about trickery, insincerity in the service of attracting attention even as he claims it is not. Wonderful.
OK, he might not be insincere. He might just not know any better.
Now I have no dispute about the utility of marketing. It IS essential. Someone has to bellow out "Hot Dogs" if you want to sell any. But don't go claiming that marketing doesn't encompass everything from figuring out what people want to rolling back the odometers with a cordless drill. It does. You can't just limit it to the more savory parts of town.
And I have to add that the marketing of "ideas" that you want to spread is not always "right" or sufficient. When you leave the realm of self-help books and iPods and enter the world of political and social ideas serious examination of what you believe passionately in should be a requirement. Unfortunately there are many who don't attempt to dig deeper than what others have told them to believe.
In this world passion is in abundance, truth is in short supply.
Posted by Jack at 07:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 18, 2005
House Rich?
The Economist has an article about the global housing boom which has some interesting historical data and seeks to dispel the housing myth which states that "what goes up keeps going up".
They rely on historical data from around the world and point out that the ratio between housing prices and rent has risen and is substantially above historical levels and also that housing prices as compared to incomes have risen as well. The Economist does a good job of supplying data to back their assertions.
This has certainly become a more carefully watched trend over the past couple of months, but to me the most worrying trend is that towards riskier loans. The Economist states:
Interest-only mortgages are all the rage, along with so-called “negative amortisation loans” (the buyer pays less than the interest due and the unpaid principal and interest is added on to the loan). After an initial period, payments surge as principal repayment kicks in. In California, over 60% of all new mortgages this year are interest-only or negative-amortisation, up from 8% in 2002. The national figure is one-third. The new loans are essentially a gamble that prices will continue to rise rapidly, allowing the borrower to sell the home at a profit or refinance before any principal has to be repaid. Such loans are usually adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), which leave the borrower additionally exposed to higher interest rates. This year, ARMs have risen to 50% of all mortgages in those states with the biggest price rises.
This adds an extra level of volatility to the market - especially where I live as I've heard that locally interest-only loans account for 75% of new loans. A negative change in market value or interest rate can quickly put those people underwater and force sales, leading to a downward spiral.
Posted by Jack at 09:34 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
It Starts Young
Koreans are upset with Japan about an issue with ownership about some rocks which are many kilometers from either country. As the ownership of the rocks gives territorial rights over the surrounding waters and perhaps some hydrocarbon resources this is actually a pretty big deal. But when I see the products of the way children are being taught about this issue in Korea it disturbs me.
Check out the imagery in a display at a Korean Subway station here and here.
Couple this with Japan/China tensions and it is shaping up to be a very interesting century.
Posted by Jack at 08:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 17, 2005
He was busy reading "My Pet Goat"
Isn't it a bit late to be investigating this?
Gov. Jeb Bush asked a prosecutor Friday to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, calling into question how long it took her husband to call 911 after he found her.
Or are elections coming up again?
Posted by Jack at 11:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I Come to You Beyond Belief
Looking at some of the more thoughtful articles here I'm finding a common theme, a sense of disbelief in some of the stories that are being told and ideas which are being sold. A recent commentor said it is easier to bring things down than build them up, so perhaps I'm just being lazy, but the way I see it many of the things which are being built up these days are being built on a foundation of clay - if not something less stable and substantial.
Indeed, they are built on a foundation of belief.
Now I don't have any problem with personal belief. There are many things I believe. And really I don't have too much of a problem with people using belief to sell trivial things like iPods and underwear. Belief is great for these things and is the driving force behind branding and other marketing concepts. It is not easy to sell soap without it.
My problem is when the use of belief as sufficient justification extends beyond the personal and starts to affect societies, whether that society is a political or corporate one makes no difference. The point is that other people are affected.
If the belief is in concordance with the truth, then belief is a positive force. When it overshadows the truth or prevents the truth from being recognized or when it is cynically promoted as BEING the truth (the usual term for this is propaganda) then it is not a positive force. When belief dictates policies or procedures without examination of the real facts or when it buries the facts there is no ethical choice but to try try and stomp all over it. Unfortunately, there are many who would rather ride on its powerful back or cling to its belly like a remora.
Posted by Jack at 07:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 16, 2005
Oh the humanity!
Need a minute or so of humor? Try this. Well, at least I thought it was funny.
Posted by Jack at 10:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
It's a long way to go...
but I just bumped into Mike Walsh's Sharepoint Blog from Finland. If you are interested in Sharepoint it is definitely worth a look. Personally I like the folboat story better than the Sharepoint stuff, but that is just me.
Posted by Jack at 10:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sailing Sailing...
I'm trying to figure out whether this map from the USGS means I'll end up somewhere deep under San Leandro, swimming with the fishes in the Pacific or will just slide up next to Portland. I'm just a bit West of that line of yellow, blue and red boxes.
I'd tell the story about my grandfather and the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake but for dramatic effect I'm going to wait until something really breaks loose.
Posted by Jack at 01:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Working with Modules and Macros
This morning someone asked how to access code stored in another file. In this case it was the global.mpt file. There are a number of answers to this, but first I want to explain a bit about how code is stored within Project files.
This is a bit complicated because there are a number of different places where the actual code can be stored. Don't fall asleep while I walk through this. The actual code is a procedure which is a named sequence of statements executed as a unit. procedures are commonly refered to as macros. They can come in a few varieties such as Function, Property, and Sub. They can be recognized because they typically start like Sub nameOfMyMacro() and end with End Sub or the same but using the Function or Property keyword.
Procedures need to be stored somewhere. To make things manageable they are usually stored within something called a module. I tend to think of a module as an envelope which holds procedures. A module can contain one or more procedures. When you use the organizer you can only move code at the module level.
The other place where procedures can be stored is in the project object. In the VBA object browser you can find it by opening the Project VBE (ALT+F11) then looking in the project explorer and expanding the project objects folder and then double-clicking on "ThisProject". I have an article with more details about "ThisProject" on my website if you want to learn more. It also describes a bit about class modules which I'm not going to go into here.
OK, now back to the real topic:
There are 3 ways to refer to code in other project files. To make things clear lets assume that we want to run "macro1" which is in "module1" in "Project1" and that we are trying to do this from "Project2". If you want to use code from the global.MPT file simply substitute it for Project1.
Using References
Save both projects and ensure that both projects are open. In VBE editor open Project explorer which lists all the projects. By default all vba projects are named as "vbaproject". The global.MPT file is named "ProjectGlobal". If you want to reference ProjectGlobal you don't need to do anything else. If you want to reference another project you will need to change the name to make it unique. To do this select the vbaproject corresponding to project1.mpp, click on properties icon, change the vba project name to vbaproject1. Do the same to project2 but call it vbaproject2.Next select vbaproject2 and go to the Tools menu, select References, you can see vbaproject1 and ProjectGlobal listed in the references dialog box. Set the reference to vbaproject1. Now you can call any macro in vbaproject1 from project2.mpp as follows :
This is Macro1 stored in Project1/Module1
Public Sub Macro1()
MsgBox "Hey!"
End Sub
This is Macro2 which is in some module in Project2
Sub Macro2()
VBAProject1.Module1.Macro1
End Sub
The advantages of this method are:
The disadvantages of this method are:
This is my method of choice when the module is in the global.MPT file.
Using Macro method of Application object
Make sure that Project1 is open and simply call the macro using the macro method:
Application.Macro "Project1.mpp!Module1.Macro1"
The advantages of this method are:
The disadvantages of this method are:
Using the Project object
In this case Macro1 must be in ThisProject module or any class module (to be clear ThisProject IS a special case of a class module. It is not a standard module).
Projects("Project1.mpp").macro1
An alternative is to create a project object for Project1.mpp and use:
Set prj = projects("project1.mpp")
prj.macro1 "hello", "hi"
The advantages of this method are:
The disadvantages of this method are:
To summarize. I prefer the first method, but the other two are valid alternatives, though the third is a bit fussy.
Thanks to Venkata Krishna for pointing these three methods out to me many years ago.
Posted by Jack at 07:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 15, 2005
Making stuff up
Seth Godin has a post which rehashes the old saying "the good is the enemy of the great" but in the process he appears to miss the key point. He appears to get caught up in telling a story about how things are either wallyrigged in a fool's quest to achieve lowest cost by providing less than functional quality or they are being designed by visionaries in a "relentless pursuit of better".
Perhaps it is just rhetoric to jolt into action those brain cells which have been desensititized by overexposure to marketing campaigns or maybe it is just his way of making a point, but it completely misses the real point that except at the margin, value is what drives design and production. This is so obvious that it hardly bears mentioning. One can look around and find that various levels of quality are available at different price levels. This is true for everything from shovels to jumbo jets. Perfection is what you pay for.
The reason I even bother to post this is that Seth seems to place such conviction behind his ideas that they almost seem convincing until you take a second look at them. He prides himself on his ability to lie. In this case there are a few examples where the lie exposes itself badly. The first is when he proclaims:
But is anything as good as it could be?
Maybe a cup of Starbucks coffee or a Scharffenberger chocolate bar. But almost everything else needs a lot of work....
And what's with the layout of this keyboard? They came up with a keyboard a century ago, decided it was good enough and then stopped!
Um... he said Starbucks? He said that keyboards haven't changed? Then he holds up the example of Jet Blue seeming to imply that perhaps the presence of ladies only toilets is the secret to their business success. I think if you really ask David Neeleman what is more important to his customers, toilets or cost structure he would probably defer to the latter. Perhaps if we asked him what his airline does he would agree that it offers the best possible value to his customers. Certainly it can always be better, but it is the best at that particular price.
Looking at quality alone without considering the cost of that quality is idiotic. Likewise not providing quality when it is cheap or even free to do so is idiotic. It is left as an exercise for the reader to determine where developing false dichotomies and proclaiming them breathlessly falls in the spectrum of things.
Posted by Jack at 07:25 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 14, 2005
The Accidental Entomologist - Cockroaches, Stinkbugs, Oh My!
Yahoo likes this site more than Google does. How do I know this? Looking at my webserver log I can see what search queries led them to this page. Ever since I wrote a post about Johanna Rothman's disparaging the use of the term "bug" for defects it seems that about half of the searches are about African Millipedes and the like. For example today someone was searching for the difference between cockroaches and stinkbugs. To use this to find out how the different search engines like me I plugged the search into Yahoo and my site is number 3. I can't even find where I end up on Google.
But I feel bad when someone comes here with a question that isn't answered so here is my best effort at answering it. May it be useful in the future:
Cockroaches are members of the order Blattodea. Within this order there are 6 families Blattidae, Cryptocercidae, Polyphagidae, Nocticolidae, Blattellidae, and Blaberidae. Within the Blattidae family is the familiar and despised Periplaneta americana or "American Cockroach".All cockroaches have the following characteristics:
Stink bugs are in the Family Pentatomidae. This is part of the sub-order Heteroptera, also known as "true bugs". True bugs all have
Most of them are from small to medium size. Most species of true bugs have stink glands. These glands usually give off a foul odor when the insect is disturbed. All of them suck juice from plants or other insects.
Stink bugs are distinguished from other true bugs by their 3rd thorax, or the triangular scutellum, which is well extended to cover half of their back, but not covering the whole abdomen. Their legs are thin and with no spines. The antennae are four or five segmented. Their body are usually in shield-shaped. Nymphs look similar to their adults except they are wingless.
Hmmm... I didn't know that about true bugs. Personally I think true bugs are cuter and more cuddly than cockroaches. Cockroaches seem to be quite interesting and perhaps more complex, but also more prone to riding Harley Davidsons. I'll have to check into where the ladybug falls into the scheme of things. They are cuter than either and do a good job of munching aphids. Kind of a best-of-both-worlds bug.
If you have any other questions you want answered leave a comment and I'll do my best to find an answer. That is unless your question is stupid and boring.
(Note: There is tons of bug data on the web. Plug the order or family names in the article above into any search engine and you will find more details than you ever wanted. Or you might end up here.)
Posted by Jack at 07:56 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Comments on Current Discussions
Brian K. talks about how warm and fuzzy a postcard makes him feel and I blast back at him :-)
Glen A. asks why there are no differential equations for project management and I um... well I don't know him like I know Brian so I'm more polite.
Posted by Jack at 05:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 13, 2005
How Google Works
According to a patent just published at the end of March, there are a variety of methods. If you scroll down past the claims and get to the examples there is a lot to be learned . Here is an example of how it works:
[0039] Consider the example of a document with an inception date of yesterday that is referenced by 10 back links. This document may be scored higher by search engine than a document with an inception date of 10 years ago that is referenced by 100 back links because the rate of link growth for the former is relatively higher than the latter. While a spiky rate of growth in the number of back links may be a factor used by search engine to score documents, it may also signal an attempt to spam search engine. Accordingly, in this situation, search engine may actually lower the score of a document(s) to reduce the effect of spamming..
[0040] Thus, according to an implementation consistent with the principles of the invention, search engine may use the inception date of a document to determine a rate at which links to the document are created (e.g., as an average per unit time based on the number of links created since the inception date or some window in that period). This rate can then be used to score the document, for example, giving more weight to documents to which links are generated more often.I've found that I've made many mistakes as far as getting this blog to rank well in google searches. Oh well. Too late to go back now.
Of course it goes without saying that the spammers are reading it too and taking notes.
Posted by Jack at 12:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
URL Update
Note to anyone who has bookmarked any specific articles here: The format I am using for URL's has changed. Underscores have been changed to dashes. The old pages are there, but if you have bookmarked an archive or a category you won't find any new posts showing up in those categories in the future.
Posted by Jack at 12:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 11, 2005
Is it sales or marketing?
Sorry to continue disparaging TOC consultants, but boil all this down and all you have left is a pitch for the Goldratt Institute's "Viable Vision" multi-level marketing. Perhaps I'm letting the sales tactics blind me to the true utility of the processes they are selling. Is there anything wrong with buying project management processes from the fuller brush man?
Posted by Jack at 10:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Eventually we are all famous
For example, my brother gets a brilliant write-up here. I think...
...
...
Why does this stuff even exist?
Posted by Jack at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
It's not for everyone
Truly it is not. For example Lance started out well enough with a post about me. Then he fell off the face of the earth. Was it something I said?
Posted by Jack at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 10, 2005
Friday Humor
I like comics the way I like chocolate. They should be dark, rich and a little bitter. Shannon Wheeler's Too Much Coffee Man fits the description (alternative is to access through Slate here - without commentary though). I have completely lost touch with him, but I know Shannon from when he was just starting out. I can recall sitting with Shannon and Alex one morning at Cafe Roma in Berkeley and sketching out a comic, the punchline of which only made sense to architecture students who had not slept in days. It is good to see that he has made it work for him. I notice that his new book has just appeared on Amazon too! Buy it through this link and he gets $0.40.
(Note to Shannon: Your website is excruciatingly slow! But your May 6 George Lucas Rant made it all worthwhile.)
Posted by Jack at 07:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hiring PMP's
Mike Mullaly has an article on Gantthead.com about hiring PMP's. (you will have to log in). He cites the statistic that over 200,000 people have held the PMP (but only 100,000 are currently certified). At $500 each for the exam alone that is a $10 million business for PMI alone, to say nothing of the opportunities for consultants and trainers.
The business aspects stretch further. As Mike points out:
the number of organizations that use the PMP as a screening criterion in their process of hiring project managers has gone through the roof. Today, it is the rare job posting for a project manager that doesn't ask for PMP certification as a qualification. More importantly, hiring managers candidly admit that they only look at resumes of those who have their certification; other resumes simply don't get a second glance.Now this would be a fine thing if there were some merit to the PMP certification, but in actual practice I see little or perhaps an inverse correlation between project management skill and possession of a PMP certificate. In my experience PMP certificate holders appear to mostly be newcomers to the profession and as such have little real world experience. Companies screening on this basis are just being stupid.
Posted by Jack at 07:03 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
June 08, 2005
A Call to the Couch
Brian K. digs out some posts from a year ago to see how far we have come. My answer is well, I think we are moving, but while you are up could you bring me another beer? Nothing changes overnight.
But get off your couch and check it out for yourself, and comment and if you have a blog post your own opinions. It is definitely more fun that way.
Posted by Jack at 11:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Project Examples Intermission
Previously I noted that examples are useless because projects and project teams are unique. This is only half true. There are things which can be learned/plagarized from existing projects. To this end Microsoft kindly provides a number of built-in templates for a number of different types of projects. Project 2002 offers the following list and I believe 2003 expands on this list.
Commercial Construction template
Engineering template
Home Move template
Infrastructure Deployment template
Microsoft Active Directory Deployment template
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Deployment template
Microsoft Office XP Corporate Deployment
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server Deployment
Microsoft Windows XP Deployment template
MSF Application Development template
New Business template
New Product template
Office Move template
Project Office template
Residential Construction template
Software Development template
Software Localization template
A brief look at the templates for the work I'm familiar with shows them to be rather basic and they are certainly missing some things I consider important, however for general format, for how resources should be assigned, and for how tasks can be linked they are decent examples to copy or start from.
You can find the templates by going to the "file" menu, choosing "new" and then selecting the new from template option which you prefer. You can also find the templates on the web at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT011359421033.aspx.
I'd say they are definitely worth checking out if you are just learning project and want to see what your project schedule should end up looking like. I'd also check out the deployment templates as those are something that Microsoft does have some expertise in.
Posted by Jack at 06:14 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 02, 2005
Reading the rules (PMP Certification)
Rules often say a lot more than they intend to. On one hand they describe what to do and what not to do, but they also reflect the motive or intent of their creators and also reflect what the problems that creator is facing. Because of their importance rule creators spend a fair amount of time on them and because of this one can interpret or in effect read the rule backward and understand the motivation of the creator.
For a simple example of this let's look at one of the changes that PMI is making to the PMP certification criteria. From a document that lays out the changes that are going to be effective as of September 30, 2005 we find that
"Candidates will have three opportunities to take and pass the PMP examination within their one-year eligibility period. If candidates do not succeed on the third attempt, candidates will have to wait one year from their third unsuccessful attempt before being permitted to test again."
To restate it simply. If you don't pass in three tries you face the penalty of waiting 1 year to try again for this "important" certification. Clear? This is a new penalty for those who have trouble passing. OK, Let's start deconstructing.
First, this was in a memo sent out to all of the PMI® Registered Education Providers (REPs). One can presume that they are the ones most interested in this. My previous posts have shown that some of these providers make a business out of PMP Exam cram courses. These courses pay some lip service to broad project management education but are actually guaranteeing that you will pass the test on the first try. Different prep providers actually compete with each other based on how little time you need to actually spend studying project management. What do we learn from this? We learn that PMI endorses and supports this sort of activity.
Second, we can look at the time penalty. Why would you put this in place? What behavior does it drive? The most obvious result is that it creates a situation where it is important to get it right the first time because the penalties for failing are high.
Who does this benefit? Well, it does not particularly benefit the candidate. 3 times seems fairly arbitrary. The candidate is trying to get the certification for their own benefit so why try and limit them? It does not seem to benefit PMI much unless their testing sessions are so congested that "good" candidates are being prevented from taking the test by those who are taking it for the 4th and 5th times. I'm not aware that this is the case. It does benefit them in the short term by getting those who were on the fence about scheduling their exam to now jump to make sure they take it before the rules change in September. This may have a short term financial benefit to PMI, and cynically speaking, a long term one if they can keep changing rules from year to year.
It is obvious that the main group which it benefits is the exam prep providers who now find a larger pool of applicants - people who feel the pressure to pass the exam in a minimal amount of time. With the penalty of waiting a year, the "guaranteed" pass offered by a prep service becomes much more attractive.
So, from one rule (and the way it was communicated) shows that PMI has no qualms about people cramming for the test and instead drives them towards consultants who provide such services. I'm at a loss to understand how this benefits the discipline of Project Management. Knowledge of Project Management can be advanced by deep study and understanding of project management issues, ideas and techniques. Promoting a "cram and take the test before you forget" approach to learning project management is just wrong. The only motivation I can see is that PMI and the associated ecosystem of consultants and trainers are just in it for the money. This is sad to say the least. I believe this approach to certification is doing a disservice to the profession.
I welcome the comments of any PMI representative or registered education provider about this issue. Let's discuss it.
Posted by Jack at 11:59 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Lovely Rita PMP meter maid
I've ranted about the Project Management Institute's PMP (Project Management Professional) certification a couple of times so far. One of my main points is that it has become a cash cow for PMI and for a consulting ecosystem which provides PMP training, books, test prep etc. often at what I'd consider a fairly high price.
One of the most well known of these consultants is Rita Mulcahy. She has built a small empire of trainers and provides training classes, books and software specifically geared at helping you to pass the exam. Her company, RMC Project Management, has 5 principal trainers and seems to be offering exam prep classes about 15 times a month all around the country.
The sad thing about this all is the way that they go about it. In one place her website claims:
The PMP® designation following your name demonstrates to current and potential employers that you possess a solid foundation of experience and education in project management that can have a positive impact on bottom-line results. The certification exam is so important that many of RMC's students are required by their companies to become certified in order to retain their positions. Some have received 15% raises and $15,000 bonuses.
This is fine, if not a little scary (a tactic which RMC seem to be using to promote current sales before the "new" PMP examination comes out in September. I'll discuss the new exam requirements later if I get a chance). But how does it tie in with what RMC is actually offering? Let's take a look at the course contents and find out. The Classroom PMP Prep exam promises to cover:
My problem is that tricks are fine and dandy for some things. If Rita can turn tricks into a lucrative business then fine, but knowing "tricks" to pass the test does not seem to be the equivalent of having "a solid foundation of education and experience in Project Management". Indeed it is quite the opposite and Rita's site advocates AGAINST too much further study stating:
RMC recommends that you study for no more than 40 additional hours after taking our 2-day class prior to taking the exam. RMC also recommends that you wait no longer than two (2) months after class to take the exam, as your memory of the techniques you learned in class will begin to fade.
I wonder. Are those who passed this cram course really the sort of experienced and qualified Project Management Professionals that the PMP certification makes them out to be? Do not take this as a slam against Rita. She is just trying to build and run a successful business and by all indications has done so. It is not wrong to collect the tolls at the roadblocks that others have set up. She is certainly following the rules (and if you read the "Website Terms of Use" at her site she expects everyone else to follow them as well - the legal warnings are amazing) No, the guilty party here is the PMI.
Posted by Jack at 06:25 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
