The school of hard knocks

Posted by on Dec 16, 2021 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

The school of hard knocks

It’s said that you learn more from failures than you do from successes.  Here’s a project I learned a lot from The brief was to project manage the procurement and implementation of a large IT system.  Seemed straight forward enough, I’d done it before… The challenge: Resources were tight Project team included some VERY ‘strong’ characters Project team were under-performing Project sponsor was disengaged Project had to enable substantial service cost reductions (1/3 of a multi-million pound budget) We conducted soft market testing, produced a very detailed requirements specification and went to market.  We were unable to appoint a supplier because all suppliers failed to meet all ‘essential’ requirements. We revised the specification, but the relationship between myself and the sponsor had deteriorated to the point of no return and I was ‘ freed up to work on something else ‘.  As you can imagine, this was not pleasant.

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Just say NO!

Posted by on Dec 15, 2021 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

Just say NO!

One outcome from austerity and the economic downturn is that staff are having to do more with less .  But how is this possible, you’re already amazing, right? Work longer hours.  But this makes you grumpy, and can lead to mistakes as you get tired. Work more quickly – do the same stuff, just faster.  But this is not sustainable and results in the same symptoms as above.

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The saintly project manager

Posted by on Dec 12, 2021 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

The saintly project manager

In ‘ Playing the project manager ‘, Charles said that he’d adopted a position of moral relativism i.e. ‘…that people should make their own choices about what is important to them, and put on performances that enact those choices.’ (p 130). This made me reflect on my own unwritten moral code of conduct as a programme manager.  Here are some things that I aspire to: Respect others – meaning everyone – irrespective of level of seniority and other obvious attributes (race, gender, sexuality, age, political outlook). Believe that people are motivated by wanting to do the right thing. Don’t embarrass others. Be kind, gentle, but firm when necessary

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Red, Blue or Green

Posted by on Dec 8, 2021 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

The UK general election is just around the corner (7th May 2015), so it’s high time I figured out which party to support.  For the purpose of this discussion, I’m going to discount tactical voting (i.e. voting for a party that I don’t really like because it’s ‘ the only party that can win here ‘).  Instead I’m going on ideology combined with pragmatism. Before I get stuck in, I’m going to immediately dismiss the Lib Dems, UKIP,  and all other niche parties.  The Lib Dems are out because of the tuition fee u-turn.

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Turning to Christ

Posted by on Dec 5, 2021 in PMChat Bloggers, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Turning to Christ

I started life in an essentially atheist household.  Apart from attending the odd Christingle, the Church, God and I had nothing in common.  I was a pretty committed atheist too.  I’d used my scientific, rational brain to work out that God and the supernatural clearly couldn’t exist.  I went so far as to ridicule my poor God loving school friends, picking apart their creationist arguments with ease. A subtle shift began when I proposed to my wife (Lian) on New Years’ Eve 2007,  (aged 29 and a few days).  Around the same time, I’d read the God Delusion , and despite feeling reasonably smug during Dawkins’ relentless attack on feeble minded religious types, I also felt the first pangs of discomfort

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