Project Management Blog

This weekend, I picked up my issue of the IEEE Spectrum which they've devoted to software failures and started reading the fascinating article: Who Killed the Virtual Case File? It details the FBI's failed Virtual Case File System from its start to its mind-numbing $170M collapse into a steaming pile of unusable code, 800 pages of recommendations, and quite a few destroyed careers. It's absolutely stunning with respect to poor project management, so I'm going to focus on this article for a couple days to lay out where some of their biggest mistakes were and potential ways the risks could have been mitigated.

About halfway through the article, this quote floored me:
Mueller blamed himself for the delay, because he'd asked for an accelerated schedule. But Higgins blamed Mueller's staff for not being straight with him about his agency's ability to deliver what he wanted.

"Did somebody come to you and say, okay, Mr. Director, sir, you can have it sooner, but it's going to cost you this much more money or you're going to have to do without something?" Higgins remembered asking Mueller. "And he said, 'No, nobody ever told me that.' And I said, 'Well, lesson No. 1: faster, cheaper, better. Pick two, but you can't have all three.'

Wow.

The motto of this site is "Connecting Developers, Building Worlds". I came up with that while I was sitting in a hotel room far from home trying to get my main blog off the ground. I originally wrote it thinking of what my goals are with dotProject. I believe that one of the fundamental reasons why so many software development projects fail is poor communication... between developers, with customers, with projects managers, with testers, etc, etc, etc. I believe that this still holds, but there is another aspect that I had not considered.

Over the past two months, I have given presentations on dotProject to NoVaLUG (Northern Virginia Linux Users' Group) and DCLUG (Washington, DC Linux Users' Group) and will be giving a presentation to NoVaJUG (Northern Virginia Java Users' Group) this evening (details here). These have been a great opporuntity to connect with the community, discuss issues with other software people, and meet quite a few great people. And it made me realize that there is something missing.

I am looking for up to ten project managers who want to write, discuss, and generally contribute to a group blog. I am looking for people of all backgrounds, experience levels, skill sets, and nationality, but there are two things required. First, the postings must be in English. A conversational style is encouraged, but basic grammatical rules should be followed. Second, you should post something - a book review (linked to your Amazon account if you wish), project management issue, a howto, etc - at least once a week. I have found that most of my entries take 10-45 minutes.

What do you get for this effort? Well, nothing financially as CaseySoftware has no intention of paying you because we're not likely to make a dime from this. We plan to provide all technical support, but more importantly, I see this as your opportunity to polish your writing and communication skills, to demonstrate that you are a professional, and - most importantly - to establish yourself, your expertise, and get your name out there.

Obviously there is nothing preventing you from starting your own blog somewhere with minimal effort. Unfortunately, you'd then be a lone voice and be responsible for all the content. This way, you can benefit from having numerous contributors and the increased traffic that results. After all, if a person blogs and no one reads it, did they really blog?

My goal is to launch on 12 September.

If you are interested in becoming a contributor, please drop me a message at webmaster [at] CaseySoftware.com with an example or three of your writing. These can be blog entries, recent articles, book reviews, etc. I need to see that a) you are a competent writer and can contribute to the community and b) you are serious about this opportunity.

Greetings and Welcome.

If you've found the Project Management Blog prior to 12 September, you are probably a potential contributor. Welcome and have a look around. The site is based on pretty much the same concept as CodeSnipers of having a group-blog which pulls numerous ideas and concepts into a single place for sharing, comparison, and hopefully a bit of improvement. If you are considering joining us, please take a look around.

If you're not a potential contributor, also Welcome and have a look around. You probably won't find much at this point, but be sure to check back often.