The IT Skeptic - project

My changing mind

skeptic — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 07:58:47 +0000

It's lucky for me that I don't get the kind of attention which would lead to people comparing my current posts to my old ones. There is nothing worse than having your own words quoted back to you a decade later. And this blog has been going 12 years, so my views have certainly changed over that time - not drifted slightly, but shifted majorly. Here are some examples:

Overcoming the dysfunctions of IT project management

skeptic — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 19:44:04 +0000

I've had fun on twitter since I tweeted The 20 dysfunctions of IT Project Management and said that it comes from my presentation "Project Management is the worst thing ever to happen to IT".

The oxymoron of agile project management

skeptic — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 12:36:09 +0000

Talk of "agile project management" is just lipstick on a pig. Project management is the worst thing thatever happened to IT. It's time for it to back out quietly.

CIO magazine - who ought to know better - came up with this bizarre statement:

Mincing money: the boundary between Agile and project funding

skeptic — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 22:34:51 +0000

There is a boundary problem where the "Product not Project" structure of standing teams and streams of work meets the Project/business-case structure of programme/portfolio management and financial governance.

At that boundary, management needs to create white space to stop the two models clashing, and to mince up the money, turning big project gobs into steady team streams.

Ten agile principles that screw up conventional project management

skeptic — Mon, 28 May 2018 21:54:36 +0000

I've been blogging about how we need to shed traditional project management ways of working.

Here are ten Agile principles that sit badly with conventional project management methodology:
1. no known defects, prioritise defects over new
2. product not project
3. bring the work to the teams, stop disbanding and reforming teams

Project management was the worst thing that ever happened to IT

skeptic — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 20:22:09 +0000

When we impose fixed time, money, and deliverables, which is the classic project management formula, then the only variable available to a project manager is the quality of the outputs.

A project is a wave in a product structure

skeptic — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 05:29:32 +0000

If you build your organisation out of projects you are building out of blocks that evaporate. A project is a transitory phenomenon, not a structural component. You probably know of one or more organisations whose BAU is whatever was left when the projects vanished. Building a business out of projects' droppings is a bad idea.

IT projects go away? #NoProjects

skeptic — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 04:56:26 +0000

OK so IT project management won't go away entirely but it ceases to be the basis of our work.

Service Portfolio Management is more important than programme or project portfolio

skeptic — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 04:41:59 +0000

There is a wonderful insight in ITIL that is seldom noticed and even less often understood

It is Service Portfolio Management (SPM).

The Chicken ITles are at work on IT project success rates

skeptic — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 03:12:14 +0000

Did you know Standish Chaos reports ("70% of IT projects fail") have been well discredited? No? Stop using the numbers. We're bad at IT projects but we're not that bad. And considering what we're up against, perhaps we're not that bad at all.

IT project portfolios are bursting while BAU crumbles!

skeptic — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:08:30 +0000

Perhaps it is just New Zealand, but I'm seeing a pattern amongst a majority of clients where IT operations business as usual (BAU) is crumbling under the load of project work.

Why IT projects fail: underspend

skeptic — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:00:56 +0000

Here's my theory on why so many IT projects fail to deliver the expected result: we underspend on what matters.

The IT Skeptic presents on Owning ITIL

skeptic — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:23:47 +0000

40:52 minutes (8 MB)

Here is a presentation given to the New Zealand Computer Society on 25th June 2009, on the topic of "Owning ITIL". it covers why ITIL is pretty much always a project, what to watch out for in ITIL projects (ITIL the Cult, ITIl the fad, CMDB can't be done...), what to expect from ITIL.

Owning ITIL: project horror stories

skeptic — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:01:19 +0000

[Bump to top - any more good stories out there? ] The IT Skeptic's new book Owning ITIL® is out now. The first ten people who contribute an accepted ITIL project horror story get a free copy of the book.

Checklist post ITIL implementation review

skeptic — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:35:34 +0000

14 questions for a post-ITIL-implementation review

1. How has this changed the way people think, speak and act? Describe instances/anecdotes.
2. What has been the feedback from customers? Suppliers?
3. How did we measure success? Did we measure against something other than ITIL? Did we succeed?
4. What has been re-scoped, deferred or dropped since the business case?
5. Are we measuring the ROI? When will we review again to check that we got the ROI expected in the business case?

Checklist progress of an ITIL project

skeptic — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:43:51 +0000

14 questions to check on progress of an ITIL project

1. Have you encountered resistance? (Resistance is good). How have you / will you overcome that? (Ignored resistance is bad)
2. What champions have you ‘converted’ to the cause, who weren’t on board at the beginning?
3. What cultural change activities have you conducted: workshopping, communications (newsletters etc), consultation, walkthroughs, training, coaching, monitoring, feedback, celebration? NB. Emails don’t count as communication

Checklist ITIL project proposal

skeptic — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:02:37 +0000

From the book Owning ITIL®...

14 questions to ask about an ITIL project proposal

1. What is the vision? What is the strategy to achieve that vision?
2. What is the driving need or requirement?

PRINCE2 2009 refresh spookily familiar to ITIL users

skeptic — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:40:44 +0000

PRINCE2 gets a new version this year. For those who went through ITIL V3 Refresh, it is deja vu all over again.

Dead cat syndrome

skeptic — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:14:22 +0000

[Hi! IF you came looking for insight into the rebounding world economy, you are looking for Dead Cat Bounce. This post is about IT project management. But thanks for dropping in! If you are interested in IT, please take a look around]

Operational readiness of new and improved services ensures a smooth transition from Project to Production. ITIL talks about it in a number of places, but I think Operational Readiness needs to be recognised as a practice in its own right, like any other ITIL "process". OR is not (just) about being a gatekeeper to Prod: it's about ensuring readiness throughout the lifecycle. OR provides a positive benefit for the customers, projects, development, and operations.

Project Mgmt in ITIL V3 - The IT Skeptic

skeptic — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:37:42 +0000

10:48 minutes (4.34 MB)

A podcast of the original article Why is Project Management almost invisible in ITIL V3?

PM is the engine that moves much stuff (hopefully just about everything) from Development to Production, which is pretty important now that ITIL has muscled into Application Management. PM should interlock with Change Management and Testing. PM should provide most of the Early Life Support. Release and Deployment shouldn't move without PM: if it is big enough to be a release it should be a project. And so on.