High performing teams helps company move quicker, faster, and more efficiently. However, team dynamics can be complex and can be…
“Yes he worked with me on these dates. He performed some of the duties of a Junior Project Manager, and…
What do you call a consulting partner who misrepresents their internal capability and competency to the client and signs them…
“But what if I don’t get another contract? I still have a mortgage to pay.” I was just speaking to…
Everybody is walking around with invisible moat and defence wall around them. “How are you doing?” “Oh fine, you know.…
Sometimes I wish I could do the Vulcan mind-meld. 🖖🏻 The ability to directly connect my mind to yours, and…
Agency. The control you have over your life, your work, your circumstance. There is a difference between what control you…
Sooner or later, short term thinking leads to pain. If you are only keen on closing that deal without spending…
2020 has been utterly crap for so many people. Job losses, financial insecurity, illness, death. There are so many LinkedIn…
“Vagueness is a salesman’s friend.” D, who heads up Delivery at a Salesforce platinum partner said to me today. This…
In Dec, I am giving away 12 courses on The Art of being an Excellent Salesforce Consultant (all sessions from…
You know when you get into such a deep flow that time disappears? When the only thing that is in…
It’s ok for relationships and friendships to be temporary and transient. If we’re lucky, we meet that person who just…
Sun Tzu Art of War. I’ve read it before, but it didn’t resonate. My world is one of teamwork and…
Pet peeve – bad subject lines! I swear I spend half my time ‘tidying’ up subject lines because the email…
To close projects successfully, you need to have delivered to spec. To deliver quality specs , you must test robustly.…
My secret superpower: The ability to unlocking resourcefulness and creativity in my team with humour. As a Project Manager, managing…
Many of us walk around unconscious, without seeing, and without hearing. I asked my current batch of trainee Samaritan volunteers…
Systems thinking and critical thinking rank right up there with emotional intelligence in terms of skills that makes a consultant…
A process diagram should be so good that you can hand it to someone who has never seen one before,…
What does leadership and project management have in common with the values of Stoicism? A lot, in fact. Wisdom The…
The consulting life is demanding. Back-to-back projects, and if you’re good at what you do – you’ll be in demand.…
How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb? One. But the lightbulb must want to change first. Self…
The one Super Power that is key in navigating relationships and communicating effectively? Social awareness. It’s the ability to tune…
“You don’t have a billable project code against the pre-sales activity? Sorry, not interested.” Be careful what you wish for.…
Agile Manifesto’s second principle: “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.” Putting aside impact to budget and timeline with the…
In situations where consultants go into project as the solo team member, they typically have to handled the end-to-end engagement,…
I am very protective of my team. Each member of a high performing team needs to be able focus their…
Quality <> Perfection. Many delay shipment of releases or products/software because they aren’t ready… the software isn’t “perfect” yet. “QA…
My previous post panicked my parents. I didn’t mean to, I was just relating an incident about a panic attack…
Data Migration can be quite a complex and deserves to be treated as its own project. However, it’s generally an…
I had to leave the meeting room very quickly and walked into a vacant office. I shut the door and…
Nobody owes you anything. The world is not fair, and never will be. You will die, and everyone you care…
Hurt people, hurt people. Abusers were once abused. Sometimes. I don’t normally get angry, but incidents of domestic violence and…
So a mistake was made. Through a series of miscommunications and misundertandings – the instance was installed in the wrong…
You need to truly understand the importance of testing, or you will never be able to deliver robust software. This…
When mistakes happen, it is usually due to poor communication, and sometimes lack of the right resources. Sometimes it’s due…
Who should pay for bug fixes when a client engages a Consulting Partner to configure and develop a system? The…
There’s a lot of discussion about whether a contractor would be suited to a permanent role in software development, especially…
Technical debt. It’s when you build software in such a way that will require re-work in the future to “put…
My “happy wall”. It was the wall of my home office where my lovely husband had put up a large…
If you are a medium/large consulting partner, your job descriptions should be very well honed towards how you run your…
I was talking to a senior architect who was incredibly frustrated. Due to cost cutting, the main project manager was…
Many people don’t understand that signed off requirements in a software delivery constitute a contractual agreement. It’s what you say…
There’s a common misconception about the term ‘requirements’ especially when applied to Agile projects. Many believe that User Stories are…
“Why are you doing this? You’re not making any money out of giving away free courses.” I’ve also been coaching…
There are many ways to get to an end point, a successful project go-live. There are some amazing project managers,…
You don’t become a great project manager by learning how to plan and schedule projects. You don’t become a great…
“What are the qualities of a good consultant?” I was asked this last week. I can only answer from the…
I love working with data. I was… no, I am, a data nerd. SQL queries, databases, manipulating data and records.…
When you start a Role-Playing game like Dungeon & Dragons, you roll a dice to determine your attributes – strength,…
Fight, Flight, or… Flow. What do you do when you’re imprisoned in an Auschwitz Concentration Camp with a future that…
My next round of Consulting Masterclasses will be running in a couple of weeks. If – you’re an #awesomeadmin –…
Those of us in the consulting industry will know that preparing proposals and working in Bid Teams is generally far…
Bidding for new projects are tough, especially if it’s for Project implementation and not Discoveries. Sometimes, clients prefer us to…
In software consulting, for medium and larger projects of work, there’s generally two parts to the delivery that require Statement…
Was listening to Tim Ferriss’ podcast with Esther Perel this morning, and was struck by her learnings from Holocaust survivors…
A statement of work is a binding contract. A marriage is a binding contract. So why do so many people…
Estimating a consulting project is easy. “You pick an imaginary number, double it, double it, and then double it 4…
Why should consulting partners estimate requirements using time, and not story points? Because unless they are doing a pure agile…
Hang on. You’re changing my numbers so that they look better when you present them to the committee? My poor…
“Hey – you worked at xyz? I accepted a job there, but then pulled out and join this one when…
Critical, Contingency, Consequential thinking skills. There is such a lack of this happening in the world today, and it’s quite…
I believe that the secret of happiness is failure, pain, betrayal, disappointment, and loss. Of course, it never feels like…
When a document raises more questions than it answers, it is either: 1) Deliberately provocative, or 2) Very poorly written.…
“I disagree with your post – You can’t say failure of a project is down to the PM. There are…
When I perceive that someone is attacking me or my work, the first thing I do is reach inside me…
“I’ve got such an awful Project Manager! She’s always asking me to do the impossible! Build that functionality in two…
I’ve just come across a poorly written Statement of Work from a vendor, and there are so many red flags…
“Follow your passion.” That’s quite idealistic. “If you don’t like it, then it isn’t meant to be. Just leave it.”…
“My job as a Project Manager is to schedule meetings and workshops (maybe do the minutes), and get info from…
Keeping promises is so important. Do what you say you will do. Extend this to aligning the internal with the…
What’s your super power, may not be mine, and vice versa. Everyone has strengths in different areas. Growing up, I…
I am running my 3rd free Consulting Masterclasses on 28th September where I provide training in Consulting skills, project methodology…
Being totally comfortable and secure in knowing who you are, is such an under-rated super power. No one can hurt…
One of the key qualities of a highly competent consultant is self-awareness. It’s the ability to – listen and accept…
There’s no real substitute for practical real life experience. On my last consulting course – we were doing a session…
Meaningful work and meaningful relationships. That’s what brings me joy. Regardless of what I’ve been doing, or how I’ve been…
“Your new best friend.” That’s what I tell all the new consulting hires. You must appreciate your Resource Manager. It’s…
Being a Resource Manager must be one of the hardest job I can think of, in the Consulting industry. No…
Managing expectations is a key part of my job as a Project Manager. From Project Delivery, to Life in general……
Critical thinking is a key skill for anyone. More so if you are a software consultant. The ability to: –…
Resilience and toughness. You can be tough, but brittle. A lot of people think being tough is not admitting weakness.…
Survivor’s guilt. “Be grateful you still have a job.” “Are you seriously moaning about your work stress?!” “I can’t believe…
Building a rocket to escape Zombie Apocalypse within 12 months (before they get to your isolated sanctuary and eat your…
Covid has taken many casualties – people’s lives, health, jobs. The consulting world has not been spared, and employee consultations,…
Utilisation targets. The necessary KPI for a consultant. Yes? Or No? The dark side of having targets. Sales targets, for…
Having a great team to work with is amazing. Which is why flying solo can be a bit tough sometimes…
Walking into a lion’s den. That’s what it feels like sometimes, if you’re a solo consultant, managing and implementing a…
“Does he really hate me, or is he just having a bad day? Or was he born a jerk??” Everyone…
As a consultant, you’ll be expected to communicate well. Such as in your verbal face-to-face/zoom interactions, presentation, documentation, emails, writing…
The last ‘unemployed’ Salesforce consultant in my free consulting training just told me she’s got a job today!! It’s more…
“Are you saying I am going to get 3 weeks of FREE training, and you’re going to get me a…
Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean that you should. Just because you can integrate two systems and sync…
No catch. I’m offering 3 weeks worth of absolutely FREE Consulting Masterclass training, covering: – Consulting Engagement & Delivery –…
I’ve been accused of being a nitpicky Project Manager. A fussy, bossy, demanding Project Manager. All this in front of…
Writing solid requirements is an artform. Whether it’s a biblical tome of a Business Requirements Document (a la Waterfall), or…
Today marks the tragic anniversary of the death of Robin Williams, who committed suicide in 2014. There are still many…
Executing the process design and requirement gathering workshops remotely is much more challenging than doing it face to face. A…
Data migration on a CRM Project is a much much bigger workstream than anyone thinks. Corrupt, inaccurate, inconsistent, irrelevant or…