Archive for April, 2010
As Long as It’s Gray
It’s a bit late for an April Fools’ Day post, but it’s always nice to end a workweek with a little fun, don’t you think?
I’ve talked a lot about the drab look of enterprise applications. Most corporate-ware simply looks unfinished to me. I’m surprised by companies that will pay millions for fancy office space, but won’t spend a little extra to make their internal applications a little more pleasant to use.
But then I saw an article on Read Write Web reviewing an application that touted its battleship gray color scheme as a feature. No kidding: Waste company time without getting caught using FaceoffIM. It’s corporate camouflage in action!
FaceoffIM: Ugly is the new social?
Battleship gray, indeed. Why fight grim a corporate culture when you can employ a little subterfuge?
Review: Making Things Happen
I really enjoyed reading the Myths of Innovation. So when I read that Scott Berkun had also written a book about project management (via this Joel on Software post), I decided to check it out.
Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun
Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management is the title of Scott Berkun’s revised second-edition book on project management. It contains the lessons distilled from a career in getting a team of people to work together to achieve common goals.
The book doesn’t spend time on any particular methodology. Instead, the focus is on the practical skills you’ll need to determine priorities, manage tasks, and lead teams. There’s no grand theories here; just things that have been proven to work.
If you’re an accomplished project manager, you’ll probably find the book a bit basic. But for someone like me, who accidentally finds himself in charge of teams from time to time, it contains down-to-earth descriptions of the essential tools and skills you’ll need to get things done.
The book is organized well, with clear section headers, lists and diagrams. It makes it easy to find the sections you need. The revised edition also contains discussion questions and what-if scenarios, which I found useful for putting the advice in context.
I really appreciated Scott’s focus on pragmatism and real-world issues. If it’s more complicated than making prioritized lists or checking in with the members of your team regularly, you won’t find it here. But those simple reminders are just the sort of advice many of us occasional project managers need to keep things on track.
