Metrics
Derek Huether
Most Important Metric for an Enterprise

As an executive, you will be faced with the choice to do the pivot (if you can) or persevere (if you have no other choice). This will lead to a series of “bets”. You lead with a hypothesis that the things you change will allow you to operate at pre-event levels. But, how long will it actually take for you to validate your hypothesis and have a bet pay off with pre-event levels? If you run out of time to figure it out or run out of bets you can place, then you either lose your standing in the market or worse risk going out of business.

Derek Huether
How to identify dependencies with Tableau and ...

Regardless of the organization or institution, there will always be dependencies. The larger the organization, the greater chance of the existence of dependencies.
This template is available for download from Tableau Public

Video
Derek Huether
Value Stream Management

In the following interview (both video and audio), Dave Prior and I explore why Value Stream Management is so important, how it works, the connection to Value Stream Mapping, and how you can get started with it.

Derek Huether
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics that are used to evaluate the performance of an organization or individual. They are used to measure progress towards achieving specific goals or objectives and to determine whether an organization or individual is meeting their targets.

Enterprise Insights, Jira Align, Metrics, Tableau
Derek Huether
How Atlassian Jira Align Supports Flow Metrics

I keep getting asked, does Jira Align support Flow Metrics, as defined in the Flow Framework and SAFe? The short answer is yes. If you believe these metrics will help unlock the potential of your teams, use this community post to see working examples of Tableau reports I have created using Jira Align and Enterprise Insights.

How Atlassian Jira Align Supports Flow Metrics

Recommended Blogs

New Look for Real Time Reputation Scores for #PMOT

The only constant in the universe is change.  That couldn't be more true then on the The Plan Is website.  They created an interface that displays real time reputation scores for Project Managers on Twitter. The new interface displays not only the rank, name and score of the account trending the highest over at Twitter, but also which way they are trending.

Yes, #FollowFriday is an excellent way to discover people Tweeting about like topics.  But, this list is dedicated to Project Managers on Twitter.  Want a reputation score tracker for your own site?  They are offering that as well.  What I find so compelling is this list is impartial and dynamic.  If I'm not engaging with people, I fall off the list.  Considering this thing tracks by the hour and by the day, it provides a good feedback loop.

Just a note, the graphic above was captured an hour before this post was written.  The list below was just taken from the The Plan Is site.  By the time you read this, both will be out of date.

Rank Name Score Last hour Last day
1. crgpm 6890 -210 in the last hour 780 in the last day
2. derekhuether 5365 No change in the last hour 960 in the last day
3. pmstudent 5000 -200 in the last hour 1600 in the last day
4. purpleprojects 4835 175 in the last hour -215 in the last day
5. projectrecovery 3720 395 in the last hour 670 in the last day
6. sara_broca 3385 -210 in the last hour 790 in the last day
7. ppmcommunity 3220 420 in the last hour 3115 in the last day
8. unlikebefore 3205 50 in the last hour 225 in the last day
9. kareemshaker 3100 100 in the last hour 425 in the last day
10. thegreenpm 2995 No change in the last hour -2785 in the last day

Check out The Plan Is website and then follow them on Twitter @ThePlanIs

Let's see show them some Twitter love.

Daily RSS Feed Reads Over a Cup of Coffee

As one of the items on my personal "resolutions" kanban for 2010, I shortened my list of RSS feeds I've subscribed to.  I will now only keep the RSS feeds in Google Reader that I can actually zero out by Friday close of business. Too many times, we grow these unmanageable lists of feeds, only to see them grow and grow.  As a project manager, you don't accept more and more work, until tasks are completely unmanageable.  Why should reading be any different?  In order to handle tasks, both management and reading, I allocate time for planned "work" and unplanned "work". The more people I follow on Twitter, the more recommended blog posts I read (unplanned) on a daily basis.  I now find myself reading more of these posts than my (planned) RSS reading. My colleague Sridhar of Hyderabad, India, asked if I would provide a list of RSS feeds I subscribe to.  The topics I am interested in include:  Project Management (who would have thought), Agile, Kanban, and Entrepreneurial topics.  I'll admit this is not a complete list.  I also like to see pictures of epic kludges and jury rigs and pictures of the people of Walmart.

Here is my list of RSS Feed Reads (in alphabetical order) that I enjoy over a cup of coffee:

  1. Agile Development Blog
  2. Alec Satin - People, Projects, and Process
  3. CottagePM.com - Project Management for the rest of us
  4. Deep Fried Brain - PMP Exam Prep
  5. Geoff Crane - Solid Portfolio Management with a sharp wit
  6. How to Manage a Camel - Project Management
  7. Jason Calacanis - CEO of Mahalo.com and creator of This Week In StartUps
  8. Jim Benson - Personal Kanban
  9. Josh Nankivel - Founder of PM Student and creator of WBS Coach
  10. Mike Cottmeyer - Agile Leadership and Project Management
  11. Mixergy - Where the ambitious learn from experienced mentors

Real Time Reputation Scores On Twitter

When Twitter launched their list feature recently, I immediately wondered if #FollowFriday was going to go the way of the dinosaur. For those out there not using Twitter, you have the power to "follow" people of interest and see what they are saying.  By following people of similar personal or professional interests, you get an idea of what is happening in real time.

As you begin to follow people, you are exposed to more and more who can really offer interesting things to say.

Because I wanted to read about what's new in Tech, I followed Leo Laporte, founder of the TWiT® Netcast Network. Because I wanted to read about entrepreneurs and start-ups, I followed Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo.com.  Because I wanted to read about Project Management, I followed Dave Garrett, CEO of Gantthead.com.  Granted, I didn't just go out and follow them at random.  I followed others and patiently waited for Friday to arrive to see who they would recommend to Follow.  Though I enjoy this organic process of discovery, it is not particularly efficient.  Though the introduction of lists has allowed me to see similar people in large numbers, there is no guarantee it is nothing more then a popularity contest.

Who shall I follow and who shall I recommend to follow?  Alas, I am but one person.  Who am I to suggest who you should follow and who you should not? I will yield my recommendation to one I consider superior in the decision making process.  I yield to what James Surowiecki termed the Wisdom of the Crowd and a nice webapp created by The Plan Is.

It appears The Plan Is tracks all tweets tagged with #pmot and uses them to update a list of the most influential project managers on Twitter. Updates are calculated continuously and new results are displayed every 5 minutes. They won't tell you how the scores are calculated, as that would make it too easy to game the system.  It appears ranking is based on the number of followers, volume of tweets being retweeted, and the number of lists appeared on.  I may be wrong.  But, the list appears pretty accurate.  Go on Twitter and look at the hashtag #pmot.  If you say (tweet) something interesting, it gets retweeted.  If people like to read what you're tweeting, you'll get followed.  What I like about this dynamic reputation score is there are NOT people out there tweeting "vote for me, vote for me".  It just seems to work.

So, you're a new Project Manager, Scrum Master, Agile aficionado, or Kanban practitioner on Twitter.  Who do you follow?  Who has the best reputation, from the crowd point of view?  Follow the links below and find out.

Project Managers on Twitter

  1. DaveG253: 2175 points
  2. francisojsaez: 1800 points
  3. projectmgmt: 1685 points
  4. ProjectShrink: 1400 points
  5. Qtask: 1400 points
  6. JohnEstrella: 1135 points
  7. pmstudent: 1100 points
  8. franciscojsaez: 980 points
  9. thesambarnes: 915 points
  10. PM_StrayDogg: 835 points

If you would like to see a list from an Agile perspective, there's a list for that as well.

Note:  The 10 Project Managers in the list above were dynamically generating at the time of this post.