Project Management Crossroads: Humans Versus Machines - Update at June 30, 2013 [Must Read]

June 30, 2013

Further on in this quick article and update are some of my latest collectibles from Scoop It, which is a nifty news aggregator with a name that's supposed to reflect the notion of a news reporter getting a "scoop" on a hot story (almost an anachronism), but which sadly suggests something more today along the lines of picking up after your Schnauzer -- but at least it's a better product name than "Monitis". The copy and pasting part caused some loss of content and quality, but the spirit of most of the subjects, plus some ideas to think about (forget about Agile and Scrum for a moment, you IT-obsessives who don't like really dealing with people -- you know who you are!), going forward have come through. I will be posting quite a bit more frequently in the near future, and I wanted to thank you for your patience with me. I'd also add that the content will simply reek of original thought.

It's interesting to note that the Project Management field is growing in terms of its frequency of appearance in the news, in terms of its employment/ contracting opportunities, and in terms of its sea change and paradigm shift from a mechanized, "set it and forget it" discipline to something that has become merged with fields of management and leadership. It's no longer about machines, or merely about 'managing processes' -- its about dealing with people through better communications and management skills.

In the War of the Machines (at least within Project Management), the Humans are reclaiming a great deal of lost territory. It's not because Humans are better than machines, programs, processes or systems, per se. It's because Human Beings are an inexorable part of commerce. And you dashboard addicts -- phone and web conferences are in your future. You can't hide in the Transporter Room -- you've got to get up to the Bridge.

Thank you as always for reading me, and for forwarding my articles to your friends, colleagues and contacts across your social media networks using your ever-expanding arsenal of social media-sharing tools. Techno toys can be fun, I'll confess.

Douglas E. Castle

Rescooped by Eduardo Lucas from Project Management onto Project Management around the globe

From www.projectmanager.com - June 29, 7:12 PM

Eduardo Lucas's insight:

Knowledge is never enough!

Scooped by TonyaPriceConsulting onto Web Project Management

APM Conference 2013: Adapt! [Video] | Web Project Management | Scoop.it

From www.projectaccelerator.co.uk - June 26, 10:42 AM

Tonya Price Consulting's insight:

Great recap on talks regarding need for collaboration. Whether you are using Agile or sequential methodologies, collaboration is proving to be essential to a team's success. My favorite lines from this recap are:

"Translating strategy into execution is the role of the project manager," (Professor Darren Dalcher)

-and-

"“Project managers need to have productive failure. Make mistakes in a good direction.”
(Tim Harford, the 'Undercover Economist') In a hurry? Skip the video - most of the info is covered in the article.

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I sincerely think that it's time for those of us involved in an aspect of Project Management to take a fresh look at the terms "project" and "management" to discover what it is we are truly expected to do. In the past, there's been too much focus on project and process automation, and not enough about the Human Element. Management involves dealing productively with other individuals and it also involves monitoring of people and processes at frequent intervals during the implementation of a project just to make sure that no course correction is required in order to maintain the goal attainment trajectory.

DEC

See you very soon. Thanks again for your patience with me and my hectic schedule. There are some additional article links which are set forth right here:

PMI Offers Advice To Government Workers

Download Project Management Risk Containment Guidelines

Sponsored By:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
ICS - International Connection Services
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC
CFI Business Growth
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