Project Management 101

Reading up on project management:

• New to Project Management? Pro-Tips for Success (link)
• F. John Reh's, "How to Manage a Project"
• Scott Berkun's, "The Art of Project Management: How to Make Things Happen" (++)
• A large percentage of my time as a PM was spent making ordered lists...having clear priorities was the backbone of progress.
• What slows progress and wastes the most time on projects is confusion about what the goals are or which things should come before which other things.
• If there is an ordered list posted up on the wall clarifying for everyone which things have been agreed to be more important than which other things, these arguments end quickly or never even start.
• So, if ever things on the team were not going well and people were having trouble focusing on the important things, I knew it was my fault: 
• either I hadn't ordered things properly, 
• hadn't effectively communicated those priorities, or 
• had failed to execute and deliver on the order that we had.
• For most projects, the three most important and most formal ordered lists are used to prioritize
• Project goals (vision), 
• Features, and 
• Work items
• and so forth...the whole thing seems very good
• Marian Haus' "7 Essential Project Planning Documents" (link)
• John Troyer's "Three Keys to Getting Your Projects Under Control, Part 2" (link)
• What is the payoff of completing the project?
• Example "why" statement
• Microsoft Solutions Framework's "Is Your Project Out of Control?" (DOC; via the SLAC)
• “reality distortion field.” This phenomenon occurs when a team, engrossed in its own magnificence, convinces itself that impossible dates can be met, that enormously complex technical problems are nothing to worry about, and that naysayers just aren’t committed to shipping on time.
• The one success factor most experts agree on is the need for a project team to have a clear vision for its project.   The breakdown—if there is one—may have occurred because the project 
• does not have a crisp vision, 
• the vision has not been well communicated to the team, or 
• the team does not agree with or believe in the vision. 
• Whatever the cause, however, the lack of a shared vision is a fundamental flaw that will prove fatal to the project.
• Without a vision for the project, the team  
• will be unable to make difficult feature or bug tradeoffs, 
• will be frustrated by communication problems among members of the team, and 
• will inevitably make decisions that are misdirected because they have no foundation.
• The most important part of working with groups that you are dependent on, or who are dependent on you, is communication.
• The only three variables are time, resources, and product. You cannot restrict all three variables of the equation.

Project artifacts

• 15 Tools (via)