Project Management and Change Articles

Data Visualisation for Project Decisions

A chart is worth making when it lets somebody see a pattern they would otherwise have to calculate. Most project reporting shows numbers that were never going to change a decision.

Affinity Diagrams: Turning Messy Ideas Into Structure

Three hundred individual observations are data nobody can act on. Grouping them by natural similarity, before anybody names the groups, turns them into a handful of things you can fix.

Brainstorming That Produces Better Decisions

Most sessions elaborate the first idea offered and call it collaboration. A few small changes to the shape of the hour produce something a project can actually use.

SWOT Analysis in Project Management

Applied to a project in general, SWOT produces four lists of adjectives. Attached to a specific decision, with discipline about what is inside your control, it takes an hour and changes what you do.

Sunk Cost: The Money You Should Stop Defending

Money already spent cannot be recovered by spending more of it. The only question worth answering is what the remaining spend buys, compared with anything else that money could do.

Milestones vs Activities: Stop Treating Them as the Same Thing

An activity consumes time and can be half done. A milestone marks a state and cannot. Mixing them produces plans that report progress while telling you nothing.

Practical thinking for project professionals