The Critical Path Turns 1 Year Old

Wow, where did the time go?  A little over a year ago, I found the need to start blogging.  Little did I know how energized I would become.  Other then learn as much as I can about my craft, I want to share my knowledge and experiences with other project managers or those who wish to become project managers.  Since logging onto Twitter a little over a month ago, I have discovered a whole new world of people to exchange ideas with.  What will happen in the next year? 1.  Launch at least one project management centric iPhone application

2. Author an article pertaining to project management and have it published in a refereed journal (e.g. Project Management Journal or Crosstalk)

3. Publish a Project Management centric book and offer it on Amazon.com

4. Monetize the things I enjoy doing

(Calendar image by Apple)

Creating an iPhone Application and Project Management

Before you begin designing and creating the next greatest iPhone application, it’s critical to define exactly what you plan your application to do, so says the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines.  A great way to do this is to write a product definition statement.  It is a succinct affirmation of your application’s core purpose and its intended audience.  I believe Apple understands, in order to be successful, you have to have a plan.  Developers of iPhone applications are not necessarily project managers.  Perhaps Apple is giving them better odds of success, by encouraging them to write a project definition statement.  I once worked with a very knowledgeable developer, Kent Lynch, who spoke out during a managers meeting saying, "People don't plan to fail; they just fail to plan".  He could not have been more right. A project mission statement is no different.  No project should be attempted without first capturing a mission statement.  Traditionally, mission statements contain:

• Project Name
• Description
• Purpose
• Primary stakeholders
• Responsibilities towards these stakeholders
• Products and services offered

If you can articulate a mission statement that satisfies these few bullets, you're on you way to understanding what you need to do to have a successful project.

(Image by jaapoost on flickr)

Contribute for the better good

I just posted an update to the Agile Scrum definition on Wikipedia. It has been a while since I've made updates to this definition and others on the free online encyclopedia.  It's actually quite cathartic to contribute to something like Wikipedia, for no other reason then to help others.  I've been asked a lot of questions recently about Agile Scrum and its applicability to my current project.  Though I'm happy that people value my opinion, I figured it was time I revisited Wikipedia and make sure the items I've edited in the past still pass muster.  Sure enough, without telling anyone that I am one of the contributors, I've received two  emails linking to the Wikipedia definitions with notes like "You should check this out".   I hope by continuing to make contributions and updates to publicly available PM related topics, people will be exposed to my work if they know it or not. Have a great day and feel free to leave a comment!

Regards, Derek

(Image by drewpreston on flickr)

Added Twitter To My Toolbox

After avoiding some social networking products like MySpace and Facebook, I decided to sign up for Twitter. To my surprise, within 24 hours, I had 3 followers. I'm not planning on telling people what I had for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  It is just another tool for communicating about Project Management.

Critical Path added to Technorati

In order to reach a broader audience, I have added Critical Path to Technorati, a blog search engine.  Feel free to view my Technorati Profile.

Helping people looking for jobs

For those of you who were interested in the BA position that I posted 3 days ago, we've filled the position. I was recently asked what service I thought was the most beneficial for finding jobs.  Though I don't think any one service is perfect, a combination can get you qualified job leads in pretty short order.  When I was looking for a job, Careerbuilder referred a lot of people looking to hire anyone with a pulse.  I was sent solicitations ranging from selling insurance to stuffing envelopes.  Maybe they have the lowest prices for "employer" accounts?  I'd offer a pretty good rating to Monster.com.  I discovered reposting my resume on Monster every Sunday night resulted in a wave of qualified leads.  Another service that I found useful was The Ladders.  Ladders only lists jobs paying $100k or more.  Sure, it costs you money but it really helped weed out jobs I wasn't interested in.  To the contrary, I was really disappointed by jobs posted directly on corporate websites.  It was as though the HR departments or companies were saying they would like to hire people for positions but they didn't have any plan in place to actually interview and hire in a timely manner.

Hang in there people.  The jobs are out there.  You just need to know the right place to look.

Looking to place a Budget Analyst in the DC area

Though it looks like there are no jobs to be had, they are out there. If you're a budget analyst and looking for work in College Park, Maryland, here are the job requirements: +10 years of experience with project management and acquisition management with engagements in the financial, information technology and government agencies' procurement cycles of major acquisitions. Effective management of the earned value management system, source selections, and logistics of a major system's life cycle. Strong background in Microsoft Project Professional and MS Web Sharepoint environment to build-out and to maintain a networked Master Integrated Schedule that is resource loaded and integrated with multiple project files. DoD Acquisition Certification Level III and wInsight/Risk+ knowledge is preferred and is highly recommended.

If you're interested, make a comment to this post with your email address attached. I won't make the comment public. It just gives me an opportunity to securely identify interested applicants. I'm not the person doing the hiring. I'll just make sure your resume gets to the necessary people.

Inaugural post

There comes a time when you feel you need to communicate your experiences to others.  This blog and a future book will capture my knowledge and experiences about Project Management related topics.