WOW!

http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2007/08/21/microsoft-launches-tafiti-search-and-silverlight-experiment.aspx

This is something you need to look at.....impressive...Ask.com took a step in the right direction - this is an entire leap. http://www.tafiti.com/

Complexity of systems

The more systems built and integrated the more complex they are - the more they cost to maintain - the more difficult it is to modify - the more likely they will break - the more time spent explaining why not. Here's a good article about Enterprise Software:
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2007/fall/01/
what to do - what to do.........if living 'things' are more complex then any system - how do they stop from 'breaking'? change to the surrounding environment? Perhaps they don't...

The War's for Sale, and There're Plenty of Buyers

No matter what you think is true or what side you fall on - the one apparent truth is that this type of discussion is not happening on TV, Radio or the newspapers..........stop the BS Paris/Brittany/Lindsy stuff and let's start talking about what's happening to our troops and our country........http://www.motherjones.com/arts/film/2007/08/iraq_for_sale.html

Wrike - task management tool

I was asked to review the Wrike Project Management tool - http://wrike.com/
Overall, I would say it's a GREAT INTERFACE - smooth, easy to use, etc. - but in regards to functionality, there seems to be some room to grow. The terminology also seems to be a bit off. Project are groups and within each group there are tasks. Some of the lacking functionality includes:

• sub tasks
• seeing/drilling down on the left hand pane to see tasks
• predecessor, successor connection between tasks

and most importantly customization. There is no way (from what I can see) to add additional fields, different statuses, new layouts, etc. By far the best feature is the time line view...how useful it is (or any time line view) is questionable, but it does look good. I think the one major short coming of the tool (and most tools) is that it's a tool and not an approach based on solid theory. Wouldn't it be nice to have a PM theory (Agile hopefully) implemented in a PM tool? I know there are some out there (http://blog.technoetic.com/agile-pm-tools/ for a list), but none seem to be dominate (why? WHY or WHY do so many still use MS Project). The most popular PM tool still seems to be MS Excel.....what does that really say about PM maturity?

Enterprise Software - good article

Here's a link to a good article about Enterprise Software:
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2007/fall/01/

What can we control

Chaos - it's life - it's all around us. Are we fooling ourselves in thinking that we can truly manage or control a project that consists of multiple people, economic, social and 100's of other influences? I'm beginning to think that a PM's job is to try to direct the direction of chaos rather then control it and then try to report on the current state of chaos.

I'm rubber, you're glue........

To state the obvious - IT's job is moving from development to integration. No longer is the 'build from scratch.....' mentality directing most projects and IT is REALLY moving to a reuse phase (...and I'm not talking about copy and past....) - either internal or (most likely) external components, services, open source, etc. Based on this - do we need to rethink - IN DEPTH - the standard Project Management Life Cycle (PMLC) and Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)???? Most likely - phases to deal with researching components/services will need to be added as part of the requirements as well as part-of/or-prior to design. This will impact approach, cost, testing AND POST-LIVE SUPPORT! The glue that holds the components/services is the key focus for internal development - but the components/services are the key focus for the PM's and designers....a bit different then having all focus on the development....