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It is inspirational to hear words that rhyme where a line and a stanza impart a meaning using the song-like attributes of the articulated statements. The command of a poem makes one remember. It helped some University students recall difficult formulas in integral and differential calculus. It is real and it does work. I’ve used it a lot during my college years singing “The Integral of u” to the tune of “The Wonder of u.”

Why do so many governing bodies allow their organisations to embark on high risk projects without insisting on a robust, independent assurance function?

There is nothing wrong with embarking on a high-risk, high-reward project that has the potential to transform an organisation. In fact they are almost mandatory if an organisation is going to leap-frog its competitors and gain a strategic advantage. But going into this type of project with blinkers on is a great way to waste $millions.  The three elements needed to manage the risks and maximise the rewards are:

There is a debate in the Agile community regarding the role of the project manager and the scrum master.  These discussions remind me of a song from the musical, Oklahoma.  Rather than drawing on the commonalities and shared mission of the roles, the focus seems to be on what separates them.

The farmer and the cowman should be friends,  Territory folks should all be pals. Rogers & Hart

In a project plan beside the Start and Finish date of activity, we also need to know When we need resource, and How many resource we need.

I will show you how to do it.

Previously, we have discussed how schedule pressure and various schedule compression techniques may manifest themselves unpredictably and with adverse effect on the project. When pondering this correlation it might be comforting to recall the age old adage of, “haste makes waste”; my grandfather would always postulate. He would know. As a mechanical engineer working on high risk projects including the NASA Space Shuttle, to him it was important that it be done right the first time and every time. This precluded cutting corners to save time, especially with lives at stake.

The Impacted As-Planned method measures the impact of the delays on the as-planned schedule. The delays are formulated as activities and added to the as-planned schedule showing the effect of each delay and demonstrating how the project is being delayed. The amount of delay equals the difference in completion dates between the schedules before and after the impacts.

Fail fastentered the business lexicon from the high-tech sector.  It has become a powerful buzzword and has ignited a small movement. FailCon offers a series of global conferences for entrepreneurs to study their failures “to prepare for success.” 

Failure is not the goal.Failure abounds.  More than 90% of start-ups fail to meet their financial goals. On average, 30% of software projects are canceled and another 50% fail to meet expectations.

All of us have seen the aftermath of those who defied the traffic sign “Drive slowly! Do not exceed the speed limits" or "Slow down, dangerous curve."  

As you drive on the highway, you begin to recognize that many drivers just ignore the speed limit and drive 10, 20, or sometimes 30 kilometers per hour over the limit.

Everyone knows that speed kills, and seeing someone traveling above the limit makes us question how any intelligent person can commit such a reckless act. It is one of the number one ways to cause or get into a car accident. 

One – Point estimation reflects one value per activity.