What do you do when you’ve been engaged on a new consulting project, and you can see that the client’s…
Communication is _so_ important. It’s not just knowing the language. It’s the study of nuance and context. It’s the study…
“Things didn’t go as smoothly as you thought. But the team and I, we fixed it and made sure it…
“Why don’t you engineer a big catastrophe, and then you fix it all and look like a hero?” I was…
In small or medium sized Consulting Partners, there may not be luxury (and budget) for a PM to help manage…
Role models are so important because they help you set a benchmark. I think what makes me a good PM…
What’s your legacy? Ego drives a lot of ambitious people to want to leave a legacy. A street named after…
I am a great believer that all things are true. Within context. Out of context – it can be total…
Why do a process map for a CRM implementation? I am no longer surprised to hear of projects where process…
When you’re in the midst of “go-live”, the long hours, the blood, sweat and tears will be all worth it…
Detail or Big Picture? Ideally both. The ability to focus on the roots and the trees, and the biodiversity around…
“Why do you want to know what I do. Should I be worried about my job?” Resistance to change is…
“What should we have in the ‘Gender’ picklist field? It’s now more than 2, right?” “Business wants to collect number…
Nothing annoys a Project Manager more than a team member who is unreliable. It peeves me. I operate on honesty…
Preparation is imperative in any meeting or workshop that a consultant organises. This includes preparing and briefing participants, so that…
Meetings need not be an hour, or half an hour. I can have a very to-the-point meeting in 10 minutes,…
The other reason why Agile approach are not suitable for Consulting Projects is because most companies underestimate the amount of…
There is a fine balance between stretching yourself so you can grow, and taking on so much that you become…
Life is a marathon.Software Projects are like (non-Agile) sprints. In Life – there will be up and downs on the…
Worklife balance shouldn’t really be the focus of the young. When you’re young and inexperienced – in the new world…
There are so many bad projects out there, just bleeding money profusely. I hear of projects that have: – poorly…
Fixed Price or Time & Materials? As a customer, I might want Fixed Price (FP). because I perceive that the…
How do you pick the right consulting partner for your project? The first thing to do is to evaluate your…
The two things you need to get right if you are looking to implement a CRM system. Make sure that…
There is a skill in estimating how long a Discovery will take. For mid to larger sized projects, this can…
What’s an opinion worth? Not much, unless you’ve been asked for one. Not much, unless you’re a stakeholder. Not much,…
“You’ve got two grads on your new team. Remember not to work them too hard. Treat them with kid gloves.…
Drama = Excitement. I think a lot of people believe that. That’s why I see friends courting drama in their…
I’m super nosy. As a Project Manager, I encourage my team member to spam me. _Always_ cc me in your…
I think I am most excited about the start of a project, where we get to shape it and prime…
“How much do you share in your project status and budget reports with your customer?” I was showing a new…
What do you do when a remote team member is AWOL for ages, takes _days_ to respond to emails, misses…
Most small and medium sized Consulting Partners do not have Change Management as part of their offering. It’s a different…
All my interactions with offshore team in India have been outstanding. Every. Single. One. In all the companies I’ve worked…
A lot of companies going through ‘Transformation’ or implementing a solution to modernise, digitise, or transform their operations do not…
“Here’s the list of requirements, and the team’s estimation against each item. Go and create a project plan.” There’s no…
“All my project manager does is schedules meetings, takes minutes and hounds me for update on my task. Nothing else!”…
I’ve never really had a problem running waterfall projects because I think I understand how to manage expectations. Whenever I…
On the topic of managing expectations, I think that agile came about because waterfall was so rubbish at that. You…
I don’t think I can ever find happy, if I lost my child. I cannot think of anything worst, as…
I’ve been listening to the debate between Sam Harris’ strong views on religion with Dan Carlin, host of Hardcore History.…
Getting expectations right is the key to happiness. Why do you want to join a Tier 1 Salesforce partner and…
“Why aren’t your consultants testing their own work? Why do I have to pay for QA?” A person who is…
Definition of success. £££ Influence Adulation Promotion Holidays Arm candy Letters behind my name Houses Title Expense account # of…
I’ve been ruminating about ‘standards’ and ‘goals’ and I think the main difference is in the phrasing.* Standards is the…
Discussion in my comments have made me think a bit more about the definition of personal “Standards.” It is the…
The results that you see in life is dependent on: 1. Luck – the randomness of life, and the only…
When having high standards doesn’t work. One of the biggest pivot moments of my life came when I decided to…
1. I compare. What I’ve achieved, and what I _should_ have achieved. 2. I can be disciplined about what I…
Feeling that you are behind others can evoke two types of responses: 1. Give up because, why try if you’re…
Is having high standards for yourself a good or bad thing? Chinese families always have high standards for their children.…
Writing about the 5 response types: (1) Instructive, (2) Questioning, (3) Judgemental, (4) Supportive and (5) Empathic, made me reflect…
In human relationships, there are 5 types of human responses. 1. Instructive – deciding what the other person needs, e.g.…
25 years. 1/4 century. That’s how long I’ve been in software consulting. Boy, that makes me feel old. On the…
“The Happiness of your Life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” Marcus Aurelius was the last of the Five…
Circle of Influence. Manage what you _can_ control. Mitigate, accept, or avoid what you can’t. If at all possible. I…
I was listening to Tim Ferriss’ interview with Elizabeth Gilbert (who wrote Eat, Pray, Love), who both spoke about a…
You can’t plan life like you can plan a project. Software development projects like Microsoft CE or Salesforce or SAP……
Conflict still happen in business, even if you have contract that govern the engagement. Heavy weight contracts prescribe so much…
I use the project kick-off to great effect: – Team Introduction – Project brief (as we understand it) – Critical…
Conflict occurs when expectations are not aligned. “What I think I am getting is not what you think you are…
The two key elements that are candidates for ‘trimming’ on a project estimate at the sales stage that’s beyond the…
How to consistently and repeatedly reduce the possibility of a project being undersold in a fast-paced sales cycle? Estimating correctly…
When estimating requirements, you need to remember the ‘non-functional requirements’ as well, especially around testing. – End-to-end – Integration (PtP…
What do you do when your company sells a project that is woefully underestimated, promising the client would have an…
The Project Manager’s Iron Triangle. Good, cheap, fast – choose 2. As unbreakable as… The Law of Gravity. Most estimations…
Being a Project Manager is quite an unglamorous job. Especially when you work with a Consulting Partner or an SaaS…
Something that make my heart skip a beat when I get an email: Well written subject line! I get a…
Two key competencies that make a Good QA are: 1. Attention to detail, and 2. Being a Perfectionist The next…
“QA. Friend or foe?” There are many who believe the QA element of software delivery is unnecessary, costly, and time-consuming.…
Husband tells me I’ve had a “fun-ectomy”. I take things too seriously. Especially now, when life is ‘on-pause’. Enjoy. Chill.…
I’ve observed that the most well run projects require people with heavier leanings of ‘right-brain’ capabilities rather than the ‘left…
It is winter right now. Metaphorically. The smug ants who are riding it out in their cozy houses, with full…
Capacity. Bandwidth. Buffer. Healthbar. I love games, and I see the whole world as a Big Game. Everything has a…
Sometimes cheapest isn’t the best. I’ve seen proposals from reputable consulting partners who I _know_ do outstanding work. I _know_…
Hiring experienced contractors as internal project teams can be a good idea, especially if you haven’t got any internal capabilities.…
Regardless of what Agile Purists believe, many, many, MANY companies still think they know what Agile is about when they…
Being “Authentic” has its place. You might have strong feelings about ‘being forced to stay indoors’, the Nanny States, Big…
Someone asked me why I was following people on Twitter that I disagree with, in the areas of ethics, morality,…
One of the big lessons about the current #coronavirus situation that has so changes so drastically daily – in terms…
“What does it mean to be a consultant? How should we behave?” I was running inductions for new consultants the…
Systems thinking. January. “China’s way over there. Sounds like their barbaric practices involving eating exotic animals are killing them off.…
BAU – Business As Usual. It’s tough to resume BAU with such a seismic incident affecting every element of life,…
Volunteers for charities like Samaritans are considered key workers, and we will continue to provide the service at this time…
I was at this one client site up north, where the employees had mouth-watering exquisite lunches served up by a…
Part of being an effective Project Manager is being comfortable with change, with the unknown. It’s being able to look…
I saw a contract job ad for a Salesforce admin that has excellent BA skills. My experience tells me that…
I’ve known Project Managers who are just paper shufflers, finger pointers, gantt chart fillers, and milestone update naggers. They provide…
There are quite a few people I know (myself included) who would welcome self-isolation and social distancing. In addition to…
Why would businesses not want to support remote working when: 1. it’s cheaper than paying for offices and related overhead…
I think that it takes a lot more skills to work in a small consulting partner than a bigger one.…
Working remotely due to the current situation will sure hit the agile projecta, who rely so much on co-located scrum…
There’s a difference between working in a larger consultancy and a smaller one. In one, you’re probably dedicated to a…
The project RAID log is like a family puppy. It’s not something you let your dad look after, and only…
The consulting life is like normal life, just playing at x2 speed. Or more. That means a roller coaster of…
The thing about being a great ‘anything’ is that.. it generates very little noise. Be really sub-par, and you will…
I think I have had an exceptionally lucky life. I started in my IT in 1995, in Malaysia. So I…
Sunk costs and resistance to change. “We built that MS Access database to hold customer data when we started 28…
Staying on the “Be Professional” topic for consultants: Should you ‘friend’ a client on Facebook or other social media? Controversially,…
I run inductions for new hires for a Tier 1 Consulting Company, and was discussing with a Programme Director the…