Project Management

Project Management is a vocation and an avocation for me. The skills and tools for planning and executing projects and delivering required products on schedule and within cost have kept food on the table since 1982.

Early in my career I was part of a team delivering analyses and designs in the maritime industry. Over time I earned positions of greater scope and responsibility, and moved into business controls and information technology.

In 1989 I joined federal service and applied the same skills to telecommunications, data networking, and information systems projects.

Along the way I studied the theory and application of project management and business administration, ultimately returning to graduate school for Masters in Project Management and Business Administration (which I finished in April 1998 and April 1999 respectively). In June 1998 I joined the adjunct faculty of Keller Graduate School of Management to teach a course in Strategic Management of Technology.

Still catching up with some of the broken links ...

Professional Associations

Project Management Institute - certify Project Management Professionals and distribute the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge

Australian Institute of Project Management - active, thoughtful organization which supports a listserver called PMNet

Software Engineering Institute - offshoot of Carnegie Melon University that developed and maintains the capability maturity model commonly used to measure the performance potential of a software development organization

Software Program Managers Network - a U.S. Department of Defense informal network of software development professionals in government and industry focusing on practical application of tools, techniques, and metrics for managing software developments

Resources & Standards

The U.S. military services codified a lot of PM concepts, and continue to have a significant impact in evolving approaches like earned value and work breakdown structures

I recently had to develop a case for not using earned value. It was an interesting exercise that raised some doubts in my own mind about a methodology I still fundamentally believe in; I have posted a slightly edited version (to remove project and company specific references) of the product.

Companies & Tools

Scitor developed and publishes my favorite project management tool, Project Scheduler 7

Microsoft publishes a PM tool called Microsoft Project I stay proficient with since it is so popular despite its shortcomings