Been Away a While - Back Now

Just an update. Cygnus have re-focussed on the Japanese Market and are in a holding pattern in the UK so I don't work for them at the moment. Things may change in the future so we will have to wait and see. For the moment no new work is being brought in through me, exisiting work is being handled through head office.

Holidays now over and a new job! I now work for Cygnus Europe, started yesterday and realised I hadn't touched the blog for a few weeks.

"Rome wasn't built in a day. If it was I'd like to meet the builder"

Favourite Sayings # 13

I don't know who said this one:

"It doesn't matter if you win or you lose

- Until you lose"

Favourite Sayings #12

"The light at the end of the tunnel may be the light of an oncoming train"

A winning formula?

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance

- baffle them with bullsh*t."

The Six Phases of a Project

You won't find these in RUP, DSDM, Prince 2 etc.....

1. Enthusiasm
2. Disillusionment
3. Panic
4. Search for the Guilty
5. Punishment of the innocent
6. Praise and honours for the nonparticipants.

Favourite Sayings #11

I like this one:

"Five out of four people can't do fractions"

Favourite Sayings #10

Attributed to Abraham Maslow (of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Fame):

"A man whose only tool is a hammer tends to treat everything as a nail"

The Six Ps

The six Ps are:

Proper Planning Prevents P*ss Poor Performance

Collaboration & Knowledge Management Software

Project Management can be assisted by having a knowledge management repository so that you can look back at what you learnt last time and have the ability to reuse documents or approaches. There are a number of software solutions but this one , collaborator, is extremely useful and is used at Leeds University to help them run multiple projects and to keep customers in touch with what is going on. It has extensive search capabilities allowing project teams to be rapidly built.

Favourite Sayings #9

"Things are not always as bad as they seem

-they are often worse"

Favourite Sayings #8

"There are many paths to the top of the mountain

- but only one view"

No Problems - Just Opportunities

In that case, I've been working on opportunities all my life!

Program Management - What is it?

this is a link to an article by the Program Management Group defining Program Management. It is in PDF format. for the HTML equivalent click here.

What is your definition?

Favourite Sayings #7

"Consultation is often getting approval for what has already been decided!"

Favourite Sayings #6

"Never interrupt an enemy when he is making a mistake"

APM - Association for Project Management

The Association for Project Management (APM) provides a useful resource for Project Managers together with an accreditation road map for improving your skills. Click here to go to their web site and see what they can offer you in your professional career.

Favourite Sayings #5

Another couple to keep you going:

"Thinking is not the same as knowing"

"Some people never stop to think - others never think to stop"

Favourite Sayings #4

"Don't confuse bad management with fate"

Favourite Sayings #3

A couple of sayings:

"Diplomacy is the art of getting someone else to think like you."

"Discussions are a way of making others see that they are wrong."

Networking Tool #2

Another useful networking tool is Linkedin. This allows you to connect to people, describe your job and role, connect to old colleagues etc. It doesn't have the same level of interaction as eCademy but is very useful for connecting and keeping your connections. There are a number of tools which allow you to synchronise your address book and Linkedin.