Midwest IT Survival

Below are some links to interesting articles I came across over the last week or so.

Article: The High Cost of Product Line Complexity (plus Proof the Cranky Product Manager is Female) by The Cranky Product Manager

Quote: “But then she thought about the byzantine nature of most software companies’ product and price lists. And how nearly every good, simple product inevitably decays into a labyrinth of derivative products/options with dubious differentiation and cryptic pricing.”

Article: PMI Certification: Is it Worth It? by Pam Stanton at Heart, Brains, & Courage (Project Whisperer)

Quote: “I’m going to come right out and say it. In my 25 year career, I have not found an absolute correlation between someone having a PMP certification and their ability to manage a project successfully. There, I’ve said it, so let the firestorm begin. I credit the PMI with good intentions to establish project management as a viable discipline, and brilliant marketing which has made most hiring managers aware of the certification. Unfortunately, I find that too many recruiters and employers put misplaced faith in the meaning of a certification, and go so far as to miss out on really great project managers because they require certification as a baseline for employment.”

Article: If a document falls in Sharepoint, and nobody hears it… by Michael Idinopulos on Socialtext

Quote: “Social software adoption requires collaboration. Collaboration requires transparency. You can do all the change management and attend all the conference break-out sessions you want, but you won’t get adoption until you deliver transparency and agency.”

Article: The Noise by Rands on Rands in Repose

Quote: “The Noise wants you to believe it’s Signal and its omnipresence in your life slowly and deviously convinces you that the Noise is important. But all listening to the Noise does is deafen you to the things that are important.”

Earlier this week I was given the opportunity to share my “aha moment” when it comes to project management.  Below is a brief quote from my article submission:

“Like it or not, technical people need project managers. Yet, ask the average software developer, systems integration engineer or infrastructure engineer about what their company needs more of role-wise and they will almost without a doubt say: “We need more X’s. I’m buried in work!” Feel free to replace “X” with whatever job title applies to whom you are questioning. Software developers indicate they need more developers because the product owners keep asking for more features faster than can be developed.”

Feel free to read the article in its entirety here.