Failure Points to Navigate on Your Project

Avoid these failure points by planning, aligning with business objectives, leadership and sponsorship engagement, adapting to business conditions, and discipline scope management. ...

... "most failures come about, not as a result of the technology, but as a result of the management of technology, says Michael Krigsman of Asuret ... " ...

Via Baseline: 5 Points of Failure

An IT Project Success Story

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has created a successful project portfolio. ...

... "With support from the Information Technology Project, created through an initiative by the Princess, Toyeeba got a new perspective on life. " ...

Via Bangkok's Independent Newspaper: Princess of Information Technology

M+A Integration Requires Technology Marriage

Here's some perspective on the Microsoft / Yahoo marriage. The integration of their cultures will be daunting. However, blending their technologies is likely to generate the most contention. This could be interesting to watch, if acquisition is consummated. Can the best of both companies survive? ...

... "A smooth integration also will not be a matter of simply swapping one set of software or hardware for another - though that is a daunting part of the task. It may hinge on changing deep-seated mindsets. " ...

Via New York Times: Merger View:

CIO Skill List Deemphasize Technology

Aspiring CIOs need to develop many skills and competencies beyond the realm of technology. ...

... "Kost sees the CIO role as encompassing jobs such as venture capitalist, economist and political visionary. Leadership, relationships and business are the pillars of the role ... " ...

Via ZDNet UK: CIO 2.0

Commoditization of IT

In case, you hadn't noticed, salesforce.com is offering the platform for business applications as a service. ...

... "Force.com provides the building blocks necessary to create any kind of business app—simple or sophisticated—and automatically deploy them as a service to small teams or huge enterprises. " ...

Via Salesforce.com: Business Application Platform

Globalization and Technology: Are You Ready?

Astounding...

Web 2.0 3.0 Discussed

Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, compares and contrasts Web 2.0 and 3.0 ...

Internet Evolution

An opportunity to learn about the internet and technology evolution from the source ...

Technology Demographics Survey Results

51% of American adults are elite or middle-of-road users of technology. The balance uses few technology assets. ...

... "The questions below allow you to place yourself in one of the categories in the Pew Internet Project's Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users. " ...

Via Pew Internet & American Life Project: Where Do You Fit?

2012 Olympics IT Project

Olympics technology discussion gets started. ...

... "She said there was potential for another IT project failure in the way the technology was being allocated. " ...

Via BBC NEWS: 2012 Olympics Technology

Agile Project Management: Mainstream at Last?

There's an excellent writeup on the LeadingAnswers blog site about the rise, fall, and rediscovery of Agile Project Management. I like the "Universal Lifecycle of New Technology" which outlines how ideas take flight, and then, after people inevitably misapply or overuse it, it fails, only to be resurrected successfully later with a slight twist.

I've seen this happen with a variety of non-technology processes and ideas as well, including TQM, Six Sigma, Critical Chain, PMOs, and---dare I say it---Project Management in general, all of which are currently in various stages of this lifecycle.

The article is well worth reading. For fans of Agile Project Management or those curious in the concepts, LeadingAnswers is a valuable site.

By the way, as a proponent of Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm book on marketing disruptive technology, I was also interested to see that the article has a link to a white paper titled, "Crossing the Agile Chasm."

LeadingAnswers: Leadership and Agile Project Management Blog: The Rise, Fall and Rediscovery of Agile Methods

MS/Project is Dead: Long Live MS/Project

As reported in Computerworld and discussed here, Microsoft has announced MS/Project 2007, a new version that offers some usability and performance enhancements.

Perhaps the bigger news is that Project Portfolio Server 2007 has been announced, leveraging UMT's technology (which Microsoft acquired last year). It has the requisite bubble charts, strategy alignment tools, and what-if simulations. It even includes governance workflow, something long missing from the Microsoft suite. This should give the other big EPM tools a run for their money.

One thing worth noting about the Computerworld article (below) is the 20 million user base for MS/Project. Considering that the most frequently used project management tool is still MS/Excel, and that there are plenty of other project managers using non-Microsoft products, it gives a sense of how many project managers there are in the world. The last estimate I had heard several years ago was 16 million. That number is most likely quite a bit higher now, perhaps double.

Microsoft Looks to Boost Project Software’s Appeal

Technology Evangelist: Leadership Role Understood

Are technology evangelists engaging and empathetic? This survey thinks so. Understand what makes these folks tick. ...

... "Technology evangelism requires a commitment to the product or service being sold, as well as to the company and its management. A technology evangelist is attached to a cause that embodies a vision, makes people feel better, generates impressive effects, initiates selfless actions, and polarizes people to act positively. Evangelism also requires specific attitudes, strategies, and techniques that are quite distinct from those found within sales or marketing environments. " ...

Via Growth Resources, Guy Kawasaki: Technology Evangelists: A Leadership Survey (PDF) ...