The kind folks at the British Computer Society are throwing a bash for me to launch my new book, Project Management in the Real World. I give an entertaining yet informative speech for around 45 minutes, then take questions from the floor, pose for photos and sign any copies people feel inclined to buy. Then…
I was given a fab new wheelie suitcase as a gift at the weekend, which is great as I seem to be doing a lot of travelling at the moment. On the way to the UK at the weekend I found myself sitting next to a guy in a leather jacket. He obviously wasn’t taking…
“I came in last week and and you wouldn’t let me collect my debit card,” says the man in front of me in the queue. “You said I had to put money in the account and then I could have the card.” “We sent it to your home in the UK on Friday,” says the…
Last week was all go, so I was glad to have last weekend in Villefranche-sur-Mer, looking at the houses set into the cliffs, making the most of a little bit of free time before the project kicked off. Launch week for any project is always busy, but it’s my favourite time. It’s the moment when…
The main problem, in my opinion, with post-implementation reviews is the difficulty with sharing the results with other people: making sure others don’t make the same mistakes you did and benefit from reusing things that went really well. What’s a post-implementation review? A meeting to evaluate the project’s successes and challenges and record any learnings…
This week, in between watching the complete DVD box set of Series 1 of Un Paso Adelante, the Spanish version of Fame (what is Diana’s problem?), and trying too many perfumes in Sephora, I read an interesting report about the management of US government projects. The US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is required…
A while ago I received a cheap-looking letter from the gym. You know, one of those where they have photocopied a photocopy and it ends up looking tatty and not-quite-black. “Your subscription is nearly up!” it helpfully informed me. “You should think about renewing.” I certainly did think about renewing. For about a minute, and…
My phone rings at work. “Hello? I’m calling about the leak.” “What leak? What’s happened?” “The leak from upstairs.” Oh. My pulse goes back to normal. Small leak, small insurance claim, opportunity to meet my upstairs neighbour in a situation where he wasn’t telling me I couldn’t install a smoke alarm because it was against…
This weekend I did something I’ve never done before. I dyed my hair. Call it a nearing-30 crisis, a moment of folly in Auchan, the inspiration of my sister’s perfect highlights… Anyway, armed with a box of little tubes, powders and liquids we set to work Saturday afternoon. I am generally quite risk-averse. I think…
With the canicule that France is suffering from at the moment, the weather is the talk of the town. The heatwave has surpassed the general French favourite of food as the topic of the moment and it is one good reason to work long hours – at least we have air conditioning in the office…
Over my career, the majority of my projects have involved people who already work together. I remember working with one team that I had to form from scratch, who had never worked together before and who had never worked on a project before. In that situation, having little rituals worked wonders in explaining what a…
The sales are on in Paris at the moment. The sales are government-controlled, so all shops have a sale at the same time and sales at any other moment are forbidden. On my way to the bus stop each morning I walk past 5 lingerie shops, full of plastic models with drawn-on stomach muscles and…