Project Milestones

Create good project milestones with bite-sized tasks and celebrate them routinely to create high-performance teams. ... Via Tom Peters: http://bit.ly/alY5fC

Project 10 to the 100 Polls Open for Voting

What projects, if implemented, will have the greatest impact on helping the most people? Google's project idea generation process has been organized into themes and voting its being used to prioritize the projects. Vote now through October 8. ...

... "Project 10^100, a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Your response was overwhelming. Thousands of people from more than 170 countries submitted more than 150,000 (or around 10^5.2) ideas, from general investment suggestions to specific implementation proposals. " ...

Via Google, Project 10 to the 100: Vote Here

Project Portfolio Decisions

British Airways make portfolio move as it places an ERP project on hold, ahead of vendor selection, to conserve cash. ...

... "Walsh said BA would consider such a system, along with other big cash hungry projects in around two years time, when hopefully the economic turmoil had died down. " ...

Via UK IT PRO: BA ERP Decision

The Project Design Task

Most of our projects have some type of design task in them. But what is an exceptional design? Here are some principles to anchor your thoughts. Think - usable, resilient, conscientious (or sustainable). Read on. ...

... "The best designs influence and enhance many aspects of our lives through interaction with those products/services - from our buying experience, to the delivery and packaging, to installation and use, to other products/services that complement it, to customer support and maintenance, all the way through end-of-life and disposal. " ...

Via KiteTail: Principles of Good Design

Project Connections

Connections are key to project success. Team members connect to build project performance. Tasks and activities are connected to create a realistic project schedule. The project's deliverables are connected with the goals and objectives of the organization. And, those goals will have a connection to the strategies of the enterprise. ...

... "When people know how a project affects their corner of the company, they develop a personal stake. But they also have to see how an IT project affects the bottom line, so that they fully grasp how the IT strategy plays into the health of the business. " ...

Via CIO Asia: Make the connection between IT and business strategy

UK IT Contract Projects Market Forecast for Resource Planning

A downturn in IT investment is forecast in the UK for 2008. Any decline should be gradual as the first quarter is expected to be flat. ...

... "Should the IT contract market decline, organisations will be focusing on manning IT projects using permanent staff. The real focus will be on maintaining a lower cost model. " ...

Via UK Contractor: 2008

Networking for Project Innovation

Neat concept for creating portfolios of work and collaborating for innovation. ...

... "Join or create groups of creative professionals, gathered around interests, to share content and ideas. " ...

Via Behance: Network

Kalamazoo Dog House Story (Part 1)

This is a research question so the more responses, the better. Please vote in a comment.

Your company manufactures and sells dog houses. Your assembly line in Kansas City builds just seven unique (patent pending) dog house sub-assemblies that can be quickly assembled in a great variety of custom configurations. When you receive an order from a client, a unique set of standard sub-assemblies are shipped to a pre-selected subcontractor in the client's location, who for a firm fixed price (FFP), assembles and installs the dog house according to the order, and then customizes the dog house with a fixed allowance for materials and supplies. As the primary vendor (prime contractor), your business operations include a web-based ordering system, manufacturing, shipping, tracking completion and client satisfaction, multi-year subcontract management, and post-installation subcontractor evaluations. Your FFP subcontractors (one per city) do all of the assembly, installation and customization work. In just three years of business operations, you have over 2400 happy clients in 80 cities (80 subcontractors).
A new client in Kalamazoo, Michigan orders a dog house with electric heat and the web-enabled DogCam options. Your subcontractor's customization allowance includes $1225 for a white brick facade and wood shingles to match the client's house, plus $350 in landscape treatments. The only risk is that a city inspection is required for this order (due to electricity).

Your question: Is your Kalamazoo order a project? For purposes of this (informal) research question, please decide on your own without reading the comments, and please apply the PMI standard definition: A project is "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result."

Please provide your vote (and feel free to elaborate). You may answer anonymously.

Financial Services IT Software Projects: Seeking an Edge

Financial firms are looking for methods to accelerate the delivery of their software projects. ...

... "Why so much interest? IT project management is an area many companies are weak in, says Forrester's Cullen. It's the No. 1 gap for all firms. " ...

Via Wall Street & Technology: Accelerate Software Delivery

ROI of SOA

SOA hype is high. Is there an ROI? Certainly, reusability, possibly speed - if robust set of architecture services exist. ...

... "And that is to define and prove ROI for SOA on a project basis, not on the holistic and longterm IT-strategy basis. " ...

Via ZDNet: SOA ROI For Real?

Project Execution

Tom Peters and crew on strategy implementation through execution ... here's a chance for the project manager to shine ... Get the leadership support. Break the plan into chunks. Schedule the first chunk and resource the team. Start driving. ... Sounds simple. ...

... "Great execution happens in small manageable chunks by taking large plans and breaking them into manageable parts. Otherwise, the path to execution can seem so overwhelming, people can't conjure up the energy. " ...

Via tompeters!: Execution through Projects