Book Review: Breaking the Code of Project Management

Breaking the Code of Project Management
Alexander Laufer

The genesis of this book come from Laufer’s observation that traditional project management principles need overhauling.  He argues that the growing realisation of the power of empowerment, the poor historical record of project management, the flawed foundation of a major project management tool (PERT), and ‘emerging paradigms’ in research and practice require a new investigation into what is needed to ensure project success.

Laufer is big on using stories as a means of learning and presents his reasons why.  The book brims with stories.

It gave me some discomfort when Laufer referred to the ‘Agile method’ as a ‘project management approach’, given its limited focus on product development (primarily software products).  He also makes the mistake of referring to the ‘four values’ (a pet peeve of mine).

No project management tools appear in this book.  You won’t find discussions of the WBS, PBS, Gantt Charts.  The focus is on what it takes to deliver projects successfully.

Laufer concentrates on what he calls ‘Results-Focused Leadership’, a framework of guiding principles, colour-coded for vividness: yellow for the spirit of will to win, green for planning, brown for implementation, red for people and organisations, and grey for communications.

Recommendation: A practical book on how to deliver projects, yet very different from the standard project management books which cover the tools and principles of project management.  It almost ignores traditional project management.

Book Review: The Power of Doing Less: Why Time Management Courses Don't Work And How To Spend Your Precious Life On The Things That Really Matter

Fergus O’Connell claims that the real reason why time management courses fail is because ironically, they try to teach time management.  This is the wrong approach, says the author. What they should be teaching instead is that people should aim to do less work. This is the aim of this book.

A major portion of the book is about convincing the reader that the right strategy is to reduce the work you need to do: decide which ones you need to do and which ones you don’t need to do.
 
The rest of the book provides quick and easy techniques to drop unnecessary work, and prevent new work from coming to you, or back to you.

Apart from the main point about reducing what you need to do, this is a basic work on regaining more time for yourself.

Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing

Philosopher: Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Pragmatist: Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.

Academic: Anything worth doing is worth publishing. 

Businessman: Anything worth doing must be worth doing.

Entrepreneur: Anything worth doing I already did last week.

Accountant: Anything worth doing is worth recording the worth.

Procurement: Anything worth doing must be done at the lowest cost.

Frederick Taylor: Anything worth doing can be done more efficiently.

Lean Consultant: Anything worth doing must be done with the least waste.

Venture Capitalist: Anything worth doing? Call me.

Procrastinator: Anything worth doing is worth doing tomorrow.

Agilist: Anything worth doing should be prioritised in a backlog.

Manager: Anything worth doing can be delegated

Economist: Anything worth doing, surely someone has already done it.

Project Manager: Anything worth need to be delivered on time, to budget, to scope.

Risk Manager: Anything worth doing must be worth doing on a risk-adjusted basis.

Pessimist: Nothing is worth doing

Optimist: Everything is worth doing. With a smile.

Cynic: Anything worth doing is always done for the wrong reason.

The New 5W and 1H

The popular version of 5W and 1H is a reminder to ask: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

The new, or older, if Machiavellian roots are traced, is practiced as:

WHO should we blame?

WHAT is in it for me?

WHEN will they find out the truth?

WHERE can we cut quality?

WHY me?

HOW can we hide the problem?

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Tips for Passing the Professional Scrum Master PSM 1 Exam

 Here are some tips I can share about taking and passing the exam:

1. Review the Scrum Guide thoroughly.  Read it at least 6 times. Perhaps 10 times is better.  Take one day or more between each reading, to give your brain time to digest what you read. During each reading, highlight points that you did not notice in prior readings. 
2. Take sample exams between each reading. Doing this helps you notice gaps in your knowledge of the Scrum Guide.
3. Do the Scrum Open Assessments.  Keep doing them until you always get 100%.  A few of the actual exam question are very similar, so being familiar with the Open Assessment questions could be the key to your passing if you make too many mistakes.
4. Do Mikhail Laphsin's free quizzes. His real mode exam is particularly useful for determining how fast you can read and answer questions.
5. Review how Scrum Teams can work with other Scrum Teams working on the same product.
6. It's best to memorise some things. Alternatively, you can have them printed and ready for reference during the exam. For example, know by heart the core concepts, such as the values of Scrum, the pillars of empiricism.
7. Make your own sample set of questions, based on the Scrum Guide.
8. Do all the recommended reading 

What to expect during the exam:

1. You will want to go back to review some questions. Have a pen and paper ready to note down the question numbers.
2. If read fast enough, you will have enough time to review those questions and still have enough time to finish early.  I had 10 questions I absolutely wanted to review, and 5 questions I was sure I got right but would like to re-check if I still had time.  It turns out I had enough time to check all 15 and still have 13 minutes left.
3. Some people have said the loading of each question was slow, taking up to 5 seconds.  I did not have such issues.  However, just to be safe and ensure my Wifi bandwidth was not going to cause problems, I asked everyone in the house to stop viewing YouTube videos while I was taking the exam.
4. Some of the questions will be about applications of Scrum ideas: Given <a situation> what is the best response? 
5. Some questions will ask you to choose the best answer. Usually some of the options will go against Scrum principles and values.  Often, there will be two questions that seem correct. You will need to use your judgment as to which of those two best fits with Scrum principles and values.
6. You will be anxious.  After all, $150 is a significant investment, gone with the wind if you fail. The pass cutoff rate is pretty high. And 80 questions in 60 minutes can be daunting.  There's no point saying "Don't be anxious." Maybe anxiety will help you.  One way to practice taking exams under anxiety is this: During practice tests, challenge yourself to get 100% each time, allowing only 30 seconds per question.  For example, do Mikhail Lapshin's real mode exam, striving to finish it in 24 minutes only. 

Hammers and Nails

When all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail.

When you don't have a hammer, there's nails everywhere.

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Recommended New User Story Format, Because New

There's a playful way of explaining the reason why one does something. The argument ends with the rationale "because <noun or adjective>."

We can recommended this as new format for user stories, because it's aligned with how people speak these days.

AS A phone user, I WANT TO upload photos in one click, BECAUSE one-click!

AS A bank customer, I WANT TO see my balance on my phone, BECAUSE money!

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