Management by comitee?

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No.
No.
NOOOOOO.

How many times do you think I can say that? I remember reading something along the lines of "Choose sides, always choose sides! You may be wrong, but if you don't choose you'll always be wrong." (C) Robert A. Heinlein.

So why does John Chambers think that management by committee is a good thing? Either accept responsibility for your decisions, or tell people you aren't the right person to do it. But don't devolve the decision making power to... Groups. It's always the managers fault and the teams victory :)

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-has-ciscos-john-chambers-lost-his-mind-2009-8

Of course... It might be me being crazy, and I'll grovel in a couple of months when this will prove to be the greatest management decision ever. Hey, I can be humble! :)

Why I never!

Avaya Announces Agreements to Purchase Nortel's Enterprise Solutions Business

Really? No one expected that.

This is going to be fun. Especially since I know... well, nothing... about Nortel kit. :)

I'm shocked I tell you, SHOCKED!

Image via Wikipedia

So, what has Google done this week? Well, they've removed the beta tags from Gmail, Google Docs and a few other on-line applications, and - and dear reader, you're in for a shock - announced their new Google Chrome Operating system.

... However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be. ...


http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Please, sit in shock and awe of the awesomeness of Google :) After Android (plug: I'm a user and a fan of it), we now get another operating system for the PC. Now, if only my invite for Google Voice and Google Wave would come.

Hey, right, this is supposed to be a Project Management blog. We shall return to our regular programming as soon as we bury the next popstar.

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Psst! Don't tell anyone we're buying the Nortel Enterprise business!

Image via Wikipedia

No, really. Don't. Say. Anything.

The Intertubes will never find out ;)

Nortel Networks Corp. was close to a deal last night to sell one of its key businesses to rival Avaya Inc.
Nortel and Avaya cleared one of the last major hurdles on Thursday and the two were near to signing the paperwork on a deal, worth as much as $500-million (U.S.), a source familiar with the situation said.

(C) and more at:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/nortel-set-to-sell-key-unit/article1199611/

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Google Voice

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Google, Google, Google... Do you REALLY want to put us all out of a job? (No, not really going to happen, but read on. They're on to something - again.)

Haaaaave you met Google Voice? :)
http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html


One of these days, it is going to raise it's ugly head.
With a single number to rule them all - with multiple phones that will ring, voicemail you can monitor and get transcribed into an e-mail, SMSes that, if they arrive to your Google Voice number can be forwarded to multiple mobiles, personalised greetings, phone-switching mid-call... All things that have up to now been the domain of the (enterprise grade) VoIP PBX - Asterisk in the free/SMB enviroment, ours and Ciscos and everybody elses offerings in the SMB/Enterprise. We've had Skype, and we've had multitudes of VoIP service providers - and now, we add Google. Did anyone notice the proverbial elephant on the proverbial 19-inch rack?

It's going to be - LEGEN-wait-for-it-DARY. Not just the service (and, I must confess, I'm a GoogleFan, to the point of using a T-Mobile G1, which means that I'm signing up the moment it's made available), but also in helping everyone to "bringig VoIP and advanced telecoms services to the masses". And yes, there will be challenges all of us vendors are going to have - hopefully only from a bigger awareness of the VoIP technology and our collective offerings that will spring more sales in the enterprise market, but, very likely, we're also going to start hearing things like "if Google does all of this for free, why should I pay multiple tens of thousands to you" from customers - I can just see a small company going "all Google"... Google Mail on their domain for E-mail, Google Apps for data sharing, the new Google Sites for a cut-down version of Sharepoint, and, yep, you've guessed it - Google Voice for their phone needs.


It's not all bleak though - thank R&D and marketing we now have Avaya Aura - more at www.avaya.com, but I'll post some comments on it in the next few days as well - to respond to the new challenger in the field. And I think they're going to put up a fight.

As an end note, I'm waiting to see the pricing structure. Dave, Sergey, please don't make it too cheap? :)

PM Jokes :)

Image by mayakamina via Flickr

What does the project manager miss the most at a kick-off meeting?
~The invitation

5 quick anecdotes from a veteran project manager to a novice at their company -

• While you are here, on your keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key
• Don’t get too excited with a pat on the back. It is only a few centimeters from a kick in the butt
• Remember, you don’t have an attitude problem; someone else has a perception problem
• Grow to love deadlines, especially the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by
• Accept that on some days you are the pigeon, but on most days…you are the statue

And the best one:

A fitting plaque for the PMO director’s desk in these crazy economic times?

• The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts

Now, my personal comment for that one would be:
"The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train." ;)


Source and more: http://www.poddarco.com/2009/05/29/project-manager-jokes/

www.avayageek.com

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I have to post this (although it isn't project management per se). Some times, even in "these troubled times", things manage to surprise and delight me - and one of them is the AvayaGeek webpage - a nicely presented site with info about our products, tutorials on a few of them, news about the company, etc... And... it's got our cool commercials! YAY! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hko08cCcvyw

The only thing I'm not sure about is the link to the Amazon store (and this is also why I'm not sure if it's ours - meaning Avaya Corporate - or not). I mean, really why'd we tout this as a IPT/Software buy? :) We're not even on the damn stockmarket anymore :)

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More of the same old "best project management software" thing!

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Hello reader(s)!

Gina Trapani, of Lifehacker fame, asked her Twitter Swarm (hey, if you want to follow me for some reason, find "dglumac") the same question I discussed a few months back.
As she actually has a following, where I have a - well, the "dirty dozen" - the answers she got were much more off the beaten track - some surprising even me, and I've seen project management done with notepad.exe and the windows calendar that pops up when you double-slick on the clock in the bottom right corner.

"Out of the 97 replies I did get, 17 said they use 37 Signals’ Basecamp (and gave it an 8 out of 10 average rating), 12 said they used Microsoft Project (it averaged a 6.6 out of 10 rating), and, interestingly, 9 people said they like Things (which averaged a 7.7 rating) and OmniFocus (which got a rating of 9), both for Mac OS X."

Original article (by Zemanta)

• What's the Best Project Management Software? (smarterware.org)

Project Management made easy

D. Keith Robinson has this to say:

"The first thing you should know about project management is that it doesn’t need to be complicated. Don’t be fooled by thick books or year long certification courses. The basics of project management — the important stuff — is pretty easy and mostly common sense."

And I like it :)

More at:
http://www.dkeithrobinson.com/entry/project_management_made_easy/

ClockingIT

More Lifehacker link goodness:

"The ClockingIT webapp is a hosted, open-source solution to managing team-oriented projects. The robust features in ClockingIT might be overkill for a single worker, but when applied to a team yield a gold mine of management tools and report generation. Projects contain subsets of tasks, which you can filter by various criteria, like "Open Tasks" and "My In Progress Tasks." GANTT charts visualize the project schedule and update with date changes. ClockingIT includes unlimited file storage per project. "

Long time no post!

I know, I' m lazy. But I rather concentrate on my job than this - I'd like to keep it through the recession, thank you very much!

Anyway, Lifehacker (you know them, right?) has a nice new review of Gantter - project management in your browser.

More here: http://lifehacker.com/5222403/gantter-does-project-management-in-your-browser