Archive for the ‘PM Blogs’ Category

Peachy Keen (Why eating in season makes delicious sense!)

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

A few years ago, my husband planted several apple, pear and peach trees on a sloped, sunny spot alongside our garden in the backyard.  We’d dream of the day when we could pick our own fresh fruit right from the tree – for free!  The first year, we got nothing, nada, zilch – Did we do something wrong? Were these dud trees or something?  Perhaps they were too young to bear fruit?

The next year, the trees grew larger and we started to get tiny little red pears on one of them.  They were so cute! A few days later, due to the dry weather, the tree snapped in half and all the little pears fell and never made it to ripeness.  The following year, a herd of deer (or something!) had a field day and devoured pretty much all of our fruit and most of our garden for that matter while we were on vacation – tomatoes and everything  – GONE!

So this year, we were not even going to get our hopes up – we pretty much gave up and were content with looking at our pretty, bare trees, feeding the wildlife, without tasting the fruit ourselves. Until one summer day in early August, there they were!  Beautiful, yellow, red and orange colored  (albeit smaller than store bought) PEACHES!!!  Finally!!!

We picked a dozen or so and they were DEE-VINE!  I’ve only picked and eaten apples and pears from PYO picking orchards before – the taste and juiciness of our peaches were amazing!  The natural fruit enzymes of the peaches popped in my mouth they were so fresh and alive.  We decided to make a peach cobbler, found a recipe online and tweaked some ingredients to make it a little healthier.   Our first, fresh Peach Cobbler was, to quote Rachael Ray, DEE-LISH!

Our fruit tree experience reminded me of the benefits of eating seasonally, locally and from your back yard (if possible).  The taste, cost, nutritional value and personal satisfaction of that peach cobbler couldn’t be bought anywhere!  It took some patience, yes (a few years!), but it was so worth it!

Oh, and before I share the Peach Cobbler recipe, let me share a little bit more of our peach story.  We decided to let the other 30 or so peaches that remained on the trees ripen and grow a little larger, so we left them alone for a few days.  Can you take a guess at what happened?

We came home from a weekend away and found that we were robbed again!! The herd of deer (or whatever “it” was/”they” were), sauntered in the backyard and ate them all – not one peach was left for us to enjoy!  (On the bright side, at least they left the tomatoes this time.)  The lesson learned was that you have to strike while the iron’s hot and harvest as soon as nature’s bounty is ready — or someone (or something) else will!

Here’s an easy Peach Cobbler recipe from Whole Foods.  I use most recipes as a template – feel free to substitute ingredients to suit your taste and dietary preferences:

Ingredients

6 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches (we had about 8 cups of peaches)
1 3/4 cups flour (we used Gluten Free)
6 tablespoons sugar (we used about 4 T of Xylitol/Birch bark natural sweetener)
2 teaspoons almond extract (we used 1 t vanilla)
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
10 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces and chilled, divided (we used 5T)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup half-and-half (we used almond milk)

Method

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine peaches, 1/4 cup of the flour, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, almond extract and lemon zest and juice. Pile mixture into a 10-inch baking dish or pie plate, then dot with 2 tablespoons of the butter; set aside.

In another bowl, combine remaining 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 tablespoons of the remaining sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry cutter, two knives or your fingers, work butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Add half-and-half and lightly toss together until a soft dough forms. Drop dough by the tablespoon onto peaches until surface is almost covered. Lightly pat down dough to evenly distribute over the top, but leave spaces for the peaches to show through. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until top is golden and peaches are bubbling.

Nutrition

Per serving (221g-wt.): 330 calories (120 from fat), 13g total fat, 8g saturated fat, 4g protein, 50g total carbohydrate (2g dietary fiber, 31g sugar), 40mg cholesterol, 290mg sodium

Enjoy!

About the Author:  Evelyn DeDominicis is a certified Holistic Health Coach and Workplace Wellness Consultant whose intention is to guide individuals and organizations on their journey to living in optimal, sustainable health and life balance.  She offers 1:1 coaching, group coaching, cooking classes and wellness consulting to individuals and organizations.  Evelyn recently joined the Cheetah family to launch Cheetah Wellness – a unique wellness education and behavior change approach using Cheetah’s Accelerated Learning and Project Management techniques.  You can learn more about Evelyn at www.evelynwellness.com and more about Cheetah at www.cheetahlearning.com.

The best PMP Certification Prep – Utube Video

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Thank You Clarence Williams, PMP for posting the Best PMP Certification Prep Utube Video on your blog.

http://www.clarencewilliamspmp.com/905/pmp-exam-prep/

Life After Cooking School

Friday, November 6th, 2009
Being Serenaded by An Admirer at the Trattoria

Being Serenaded by An Admirer at the Trattoria

Cooking school boot camp ended yesterday.   And I’m still in Italy.   I head home on Sunday.   I figured it might be nice to have some unscheduled time after the culinary immersion to just hang out in Italy.   I didn’t leave the room until 1.   Went to a little Tratorria a block from the hotel.   And had a lovely 84 year old gent sing us an Italian love song.   Boy do I like a country where I am treated like one of the treasures from God instead of in the US where I’m treated as if I have some type of self-discipline disorder for not being a perfect size 8. In Ominvore’s Dilemma, Michael Polen says the US has a nationwide eating disorder.  After being here – where these folks eat and eat and eat – all natural, locally raised foods, prepared with no additives,  I completely agree with Mr. Polen.   We aren’t getting fatter and fatter in the US because we don’t have any self-discipline.   We are getting fatter and fatter because we are purchasing crap products with too many preservatives and additives that help the food manufacturers increase the shelf life and shelf stability of their products, but that are literally killing us.   Spending five hours a day in the company of great people, enjoying great food and great conversation is the way to live – not running from one meeting to another gulping down whatever food you can quickly get.   The US doesn’t just have a national eating disorder, they have a national living disorder.

Cantina in La Buca - a very authentic Italian Ristorante in Zibello.

Cantina in La Buca - a very authentic Italian Ristorante in Zibello.

What is odd is in the US I am pretty much invisible – a standard middle age, rotund short woman of average looks.  It’s very strange – I am very well known in my field.   Pictures of me appear in all our publications.  Many people claim they know me.  Yet when they see me in person at meetings, they ignore me – like I don’t exist – until I go up and introduce myself.   Then it’s as if – oh my god, this PM “big wig” is standing here in front of me.   When five minutes earlier, they just blew me off.   Yes we have a problem in the US of what we think “successful” people should look like.

But because of way I look, people actually treat me nicer here.   I am reading the book Heat by Bill Buford.   In his book, he mentions a restaurant in a town just south of here called Zibello and a restaurant there called La Buca.  We had our tour guide Melanie make us a reservation there for tonight.  We were warned the woman who runs the place Mariane was a force of nature sometimes prone to storms, but the food was GREAT.  

Diesel or Gas - Google on the Iphone Saves the Day.  New found friends Fabio and Stefano.

Diesel or Gas - Google on the Iphone Saves the Day. New found friends Fabio and Stefano.

Carey practiced her Italian all afternoon making sure she had the basics down so we would do nothing to cause bad weather with Mariane.   However, when we got there, we
were welcomed with open arms.   Mariane, just loved us.   She showed us her “cantina” – with all her salami’s, cheeses, proscuitto’s, and wine barrels.   She had her son-in-law wait on us since he spoke very good English.   We were treated like royalty.   Maybe she doesn’t like the skinny US reporters who visit her?   She was very nice to us.

The big adventure with going to La Buca was just getting there.   We had not ventured out in the car since we got here.  And getting here was a very disorienting experience.   We left for La Buca right as it was getting dark, and it was raining.   We made it there without getting lost – and had an hour to drive around.   So for another adventure we decided to gas up the car.   At the station, we couldn’t figure out if the car took diesel or regular.   After much discussion with the gas station attendant Fabio and his friend Stefano, I decided to google the make and model of the car on my Iphone – both guys looked at each other and said Google – SI, Google and were nodding their heads up and down.   Very funny – yes the answer was on google – it took diesel.

One last day in Italy before we head back to the States.   I think I might find some type of cooking school in residence back here where I can come live for a couple of months.   Who would not want to be where you are just totally loved for who you are – instead of being dismissed by the general population since you don’t live up to some ideal of what others think you should be?    I love the Italians.

First Day of Cooking School

Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Carey and I learn how to boil Italian water at cooking school.

Carey and I learn how to boil Italian water at cooking school.

Well, it is now the fourth day of cooking school, and I am just getting around to writing in the blog about the first day of school.  They keep us busy here from early morning to late at night.   Mostly in EATING.   Yes I am learning quite a bit about Italian cooking – which I am coming to find out is as much about selecting the correct ingredients and enjoying a fine meal as it is about cooking.   The Italians are very passionate about their food.  More than five hours every day is devoted to meals.   This explains why I am having to play late night catch up on the blog.

Oddly enough with all this attention on eating, my pants are getting looser, while many of my classmates are having the opposite problem.   WOW what does that say about my eating habits at home?   A big part of the Italian cooking class is also learning how to consume wine with every meal and not get too inebriated.   I unfortunately am allergic to alcohol.  So while most of my classmates are getting a good number of calories from the wine, I am just doing the tasting meals.  Which is lots of little portions.   And lots of time in between.  Slow eating, over a couple of hours, small quantities of food and LOTS of walking in between time.  That explains it all.

Overall the experience with Academia Barilla in Parma has been fantastic.  My classmates are primarily woman – most over 40.  Two brought their husbands.  The rest came with friends or solo.   It’s a group of woman who love to cook and have a great time.   The laughter has been non-stop.   What I love even more about it – I am NOT IN CHARGE.   If there is a problem, it is someone else’s to solve.  (I did have to get one of my classmate’s computers to work on the internet – but as a volunteer it didn’t matter if I succeeded at that or not).

We spent the first day in a lecture where we learned about the quality certifications on the foods produced in Parma and how to distinguish the real thing from the fakes produced all over the world.  Very insightful education.   Sounds like the food industry has the same problems the Project Management industry has with people presenting knock offs as just as good as the real thing (non-certified PMs vs. PMPs).   Then we went to their incredible kitchen classroom.   We were in groups of four working on the recipes for a five course meal.  For every two groups, we had a dedicated chef to help us.   One of the woman in our group was trained at Cordon Bleu (what she was doing in this class for untrained folks was beyond me).   I learned “knife” skills the first day. by our in group “expert.”   The Academia Barilla chef, Nicola, seemed fine with my knife skills but taught me some  techniques if I wanted to try something new.   I preferred his approach.   After almost 40 years of cooking,  I wasn’t doing everything wrong with the knife.  I learned more about group interaction styles and what approaches work well in a team and what don’t more than I learned about knife skills from our group’s self proclaimed expert.

One of the other woman taught me how she chops up rosemary – never really had given much thought to how I chopped up rosemary or that it even needed to be chopped.  But then she explained all the different ways she used chopped rosemary with cooking her own beef as well.  We became good friends fast – a fellow cattle woman.   Now we’re exchanging stories on installing windmills.  Maybe we woman who love to cook and are willing to travel to Italy to learn more, have more in common than we realize.   And since I am not the teacher in this group – I am allowed to have favorites.  Mary Jimmy is one of my favorites – she is an emergency room nurse.  If I ever find myself in need of an emergency room nurse near the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee, I will be in good hands at her hospital.  I think we need to write the definitive guide to cooking an entire cow.

I’ve made lots of other friends in class as well.   An elegant woman who on a wing and a prayer made a dramatic life change to follow her heart and start her life over in San Diego – she was as beautiful as she was gutsy.   Another was  a recently widowed full of life woman from LA.  And then there was the truffle loving  veterinarian who took copius notes.  I became fast friends with “Mom and Dad” – a recently liberated couple who sold their chain of hotels.  And by the end of the week was discussing entreprenurial opportunities with this spit fire mom-preneur from Georgia who was on the trip with her Mom.   I also got to know  two wonderful employees from Sur La Table (good move sending those two to this class).  When we reconnect with each other back in the states – at least we know we can all cook.

I’ll write more tomorrow – it’s almost 1 AM and we’re taking a boat to some island to try out various olive oils tomorrow.

Value of Project Management- Now a Quantifiable Study

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

By Kristen LaBrosse, CAPM

The real value of project management is not just a general consensus among professionals within the project management industry, but has been proven in a quantifiable study.

Everyone who is experienced in the Project Management industry knows the value of a PMP certification. You can sense it in the increased communication and efficiency of the project team, feel it in improved productivity in the day-in-day-out tasks, and see it in the cost savings strategies implemented and in the improved bottom line figures. But what is the real value to organizations of using a Project Management Professional and implementing PM industry standards to their projects?

In pursuit of answering this very question, PMI commissioned a three-year study on the “Value of Project Management” that looked at over 60 case studies from projects in various industries and around the globe in order to ascertain benchmarks for companies to calculate the ROI when they implement industry standard project management programs. 

A quote by Edwin J. Anders, PHD, director of Academic and Education Programs & Services at PMI, encapsulates the importance of this study very well:

“The Value of Project Management research findings have attracted special interest at our fifth biennial research conference.  This is the most definitive research ever commissioned to study the value of the implementation of project management.  The findings are expected to quantify that project, program, and portfolio managers are making significant contributions to organizations by implementing standardized project management programs to deliver projects and programs on time and within budget.  Full report findings will be published and released in October.”

This video provides an overview of the Value of Project Management study. The report not only describes the value add that Project Management Professionals provide, but also the negative effects of the lack of investment in PM development. The takeaway of his study has been deemed worthy for review by both Project Managers and Executive leaders alike in order to improve Project Management investment decision-making.

Part of this reports talks about the need for focus on continuously adding value within organizations. Companies who stop focusing on value, or think that they may be “done” with investing in PM development, have the history of actually destroying value within their organization. A continuous focus on actively providing value is crucial in order to maintain a viable company, let along a thriving one.

So what can you take away from reviewing this Value of Project Management Report? Perhaps a different view of how your own organization conducts projects, and a better idea of why an increased focus on investing in the professional development of Project Managers can add quantifiable value and results. 

Thanks for reading,

Kristen 

The Chicken Noodle Soup Project

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Project Execution on the Chicken Noodle Soup Project

Project Execution on the Chicken Noodle Soup Project

I am considering using cooking to help people develop project management as a habit. I’ve often wondered if you become a good cook because you’re good at project management or if you become a good project manager because you’re good at cooking?

There are five phases to every project – initiation, planning, execution, control and closeout. Every meal or dish you create is itself a project – you get an idea for what you want to make (you initiate it), you have to figure out the ingredients and equipment, go procure anything you need to prepare the meal, and figure out when and where you’re going to make it (this is planning), then you have to prepare the meal (this is project execution), then you have to make sure it tastes like you wanted it to (project control), then you assess how you can make it better the next time (project close out).

I have found time and time again, that the more successful people are with the smaller projects of their life, the more likely they will be successful with the larger projects of life. So it just makes sense to teach people how to be more successful with the smaller projects of their life – like cooking.

For the first attempt to teach project management with cooking, I am going to revisit a concept I posted several days ago on flu remedies, my recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup.

Project Initiation is the first phase of the Chicken Noodle Soup Project.

In initiating the Chicken Soup Project, I wanted to do a bit of research as to just why Chicken Noodle Soup has been a cold and flu cureall for centuries. I had my trusty intern – Erica research this. Here is what she found:

We have all heard that when we are ill, a bowl of chicken noodle soup is a comforting remedy. Chicken noodle soup has a long history of relieving symptoms associated with various illnesses. During the 12th century, healers began recommending ‘the broth of fowl’ to their patients. Also around this time, Rabbi Mosche ben Maimonides, an Egyptian Jewish physician and philosopher, wrote about the many benefits of chicken noodle soup. He used chicken soup to treat a variety of illnesses including respiratory problems like the common cold.

Present day researchers have set out to determine whether or not chicken noodle soup actually does have medicinal uses. One pulmonary specialist, Irwin Ziment, M.D., who is also a professor at the UCLA School for Medicine, found that chicken soup contains contains an amino acid that is similar to a drug called acetylcysteine that is prescribed for respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis. This amino acid is released from the chicken when it is cooked and heated. Another pulmonary specialist who has spent time studying the benefits of chicken noodle soup is Stephen Rennard, M.D. He is the chief of pulmonary medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Rennard found that chicken soup has anti-inflammatory properties. Colds and respiratory illnesses are many times caused by inflammation from neutrophils (inflammatory white blood cells) that travel to the bronchial tubes. Rennard used a chicken noodle soup recipe from his wife’s grandmother to show that neutrophils were less likely to accumulate when chicken soup was added.

Chicken noodle soup is also a useful cold remedy because it contains bacteria and virus fighting ingredients including garlic and onions. Garlic is a natural antibiotic for which the body does not develop resistance. Onions contain an anti-oxidant called quercetin that also acts as an anti-inflammatory.

Even though chicken noodle soup is not a cure for a common cold, it has been proven to alleviate many symptoms that come along with a cold. It keeps you hydrated, can clear your nasal passageways, and acts as an anti-inflammatory.

To read more about the research conducted by Rennard, you can read the entire study at http://www.chestjournal.org/content/118/4/1150.full

To learn more about the health benefits of chicken noodle soup, you can go to the following websites:

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/12/14/does_chicken_soup_have_healing_powers_004.htm

http://chetday.com/coldfluremedy.htm

After I had my curiousity sufficiently satisfied that Chicken Noodle Soup was a good thing to make and a good recipe to share with others, I got about planning how I would make it.

Project Planning – to make the chicken noodle soup I had to do a number of preparations – like I would for any other project.

Make sure I had all the ingredients:

Whole Chicken
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 quarts of water
2 tsp iodized salt
2 tbs whole peppercorns
2 tbs butter
1 bunch of celery
1 large onion
5 cloves of garlic
1 cup dry whole wheat egg noodles

Use the correct tools to reduce risk and improve the quality of the final product

1 roasting pan
2 pot holders
Oven pre-heated to 450 degrees
Apron
Cooking safety glasses
4 quart stock pot
Clean cutting board and sharp carving knife

Set my schedule and budget. Usually I make chicken noodle soup from the leftovers from a roast chicken meal so the cost of the extra ingredients are minimal. The most important thing though is the schedule as to develop the most savory broth. I usually let the chicken carcass simmer on very low heat overnight. So making chicken noodle soup definitely is a “project.”

Project Execution – here are the steps I take to make Chicken Noodle soup:

1. Roast the chicken – clean and dry one whole chicken, sprinkle it with pepper and place it in the roasting dish. Put roasting dish in the pre-heated 450 degree F oven. Cook at that temperature for 15 minutes then turn temp down to 350 degrees F. This sears the skin keeping the interior meat moist. The chicken is done when you can easily pull the drumstick off the chicken.

2. Remove most of the meat off the chicken carcass. Either serve the meat for dinner, or cover and put into the refrigerator – you will use it later for the soup. Toss the chicken carcass and the roasted skin into the 4 quart stock pot. Fill enough water to cover the chicken carcass.

3. Put the whole peppercorns, the salt and three whole stalks of celery into the stock pot with the chicken carcass. Cover and put on low heat overnight or for at least 5 hours.

4. In the morning or after 5 hours or so, strain the chicken broth, Keep the liquid and discard the bones, peppercorns and celery stalks.

5. Put in the refrigerator until you return home from work or after 5 or 6 hours. The chilling allows the fat to rise to the surface where it’s easier to skim off to make a lighter soup.

6. Chop the celery and onion into small 1/4 inch pieces. Saute in 2 tbs butter until the onions are translucent.

7. Put in the chicken broth. Crush the cloves of garlic and add them in the chicken broth.

8. Bring the chicken broth to a boil and add the noodles. Cook until the noodles are done.

9. Dice up the remaining chicken to 1/2 inch bite size pieces. (this is the chicken you pulled off the chicken before making the broth that you refrigerated). Put at least 1 cup of it into the soup.

Project Control

Salt to Taste – everyone’s taste for salt varies so it’s better to let people spice up their soup on their own. Tabasco sauce in the soup is also good.

A big part of cooking (and project management) is quality control. It starts with getting high quality ingredients, having the caliber of tools that help you create better results and using techniques that provide a higher quality outcome. The more you do both project management and cooking, the higher quality output you create. And when you combine the two, in the spirit of creating a high quality product, you get better at both.

Project Closeout

At the end of a meal, I review how I did and if I should do anything different the next time. One time, I put yams in my chicken noodle soup – they were an over powering presence. I have found the same with carrots. This is why I just stick with onions, celery, garlic and noodles.

For this go round with my chicken noodle soup – I was just showing my intern how to make it and we were testing out the idea of creating a video around this as well. I learned, that usually I make chicken noodle soup more as just part of making a roasted chicken dinner and doing it as a demonstration project – I ended up with a LOT of left over chicken. I am going to use it to make chicken salad for lunch tomorrow.

The soup came out GREAT – we served it with whole wheat saltines.

Eating Turkey On the US East Coast – Travel Time 60 x faster than in 1621

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

I made it back to the lower 48 (Connecticut specifically) for Thanksgiving, actually arriving 15 minutes ahead of schedule by the most optimistic estimate. When things go that well, it is easy to say, “what is meant to be happens easily.” By that measurement, Connecticut for Thanksgiving is meant to be for me.

We were able to do travel plan A – that was leaving our little town in Alaska by air taxi instead of ferry. It was raining, foggy, and windy, yet the little plane still flew. It took us 21 hours – we left Haines, Alaska at 9:30 AM AST and arrived in Connecticut at 9:30 AM EST. According to mapquest, the drive would have been 3874 miles and taken 66 hours 29 minutes. The distance from England to the US East Coast is around 3700 miles. It took the 102 Pilgrims about 60 days to travel here from England in 1620.

The Jaunt Across the Continent to Eat Turkey in Connecticut.  Almost as Far as the Pilgirms Had to Travel, but a Heck of a LOT Faster.

The jaunt across the continent to eat turkey in Connecticut. A little bit further than the Pilgrams had to travel to eat turkey here, but over 60 times faster to get here.

After we got to CT, my oldest daughter called to tell me that more people are killed by moose and small airplane crashes in Alaska every year than by bears. Weird how I never heard that one before, but no matter, we survived that (and many other) small plane rides in Alaska, as have many other people.

While traveling here for the Pilgrims, they were going from a civilization where they understood the cultural traditions, to one that was more bound by the rhythms of nature. I just did the opposite. And found myself having to re-aquaint myself with my east coast “attire” to look like I belong in Connecticut. (I find it far easier if I at least make some attempts to fit in). And I have to wait until I get here to really get into the schwing of things with the clothes. I had put on my east coast travel attire, but sitting in a Starbucks in Connecticut yesterday, I felt like a person out of place in two worlds. I was certainly not dressed for Alaska, and just looked weird for Connecticut. It totally makes sense why the RNC thought that Sarah Palin coming out of Alaska needed a new “look” to the tune of $150k. The rest of the country just does not get the fashion trends of Alaska (or is it that we in Alaska have a lot more other things that are more important to focus on – like not breaking your neck on the ice skating rink outside the Mountain Market).

The Pilgrims faced much more daunting issues about “fitting” in – it was a very matter of their survival to befriend the natives. While Alaska sports a very casual demeanor, an everyone is welcome attitude, and it appears easy to fit in, it does take a little effort. Dan Fine’s book – Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man shares just how challenging it can be to survive in modern day Alaska. In retrospect, it is probably more important for my overall survival that I “fit in” better there than here. Both places take some adjustment – I call it getting the cultural bends. Only happens when you change cultures really fast.

Software PM Blogger Pawel Brodzinski Shares Lessons Learned

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Pawel Brodzinski, creator of the blog – http://blog.brodzinski.com, has worked in quality assurance, software development, design, support, and implementation teams throughout is PM career. He lives in Krakow, Poland. We recently interviewed Pawel about his view on blogs and PM. Here is that interview. Thank you Pawel. 

Hello Kristen,

 it’s nice to hear you consider me as an influential blogger. 



What have you learned doing your blog?

 

  • 

Consistency is the king. If you are consistent with whatever you do you at least keep momentum and gain fluency. I see a similar pattern in managing project and blogging (and with many others too). There’s time when you struggle just to get another thing done, no matter of that’s publishing another post or completing the next task from a schedule. It doesn’t always look like that – sometimes you aren’t overloaded and you’re able to work on general improvements, let it be implementing some new project management technique or tweaking blog layout. However, that works only when you are consistent all the time thus you got to the point where you’re able to push what you do to the next level.

 

How has your blog helped the field of pm?

 

  • 

I hope so. My idea is to bring more of real life examples than to write about different methodologies or theories on project management. Sometimes it means going against the stream but still I believe this approach is valuable. Even when you don’t agree with something you can confront your opinions with a situation which actually happened. I neither pretend to have the best answers nor to have all of them and I’m always open for a discussion.



What do you like most about blogging?



 

  • Two things. First, I’m able to talk with different people all over the world who share at least professional interests. Second, writing about any subject forces you to learn it constantly. Being part of a community and being able to learn from others experiences is a great thing.   



Besides yourself, who do you like in pm?

 

  • 

I think the best answer would be redirecting you to a links section on my blog (http://blog.brodzinski.com). I try to keep their quality links only if you’re a software project manager all of them are must-reads. If you work in different area a couple of them will be probably less interesting.

 Regards, 
Pawel

PM4Girls Blogger Elizabeth Harrin Shares Lessons Learned

Monday, October 27th, 2008

Elizabeth Harrin was at the recent PMI Global Congress – she is the creator of the blog – www.pm4girls.co.uk, the author of Project Management in the Real World from BCS, a senior project manager in the financial services sector. She is a member of the British Computer Society, Elizabeth lives and works in London, England.

A member of my new media team recently interviewed Elizabeth on what she has learned running her Project Management Blog.   Here is that interview.  Thank you Elizabeth.

Hello Kristen

I’m not surprised you couldn’t get away from the Cheetah stand – every
time I walked past it was packed.  I was hoping to get some time to
talk to Michelle as I saw her collect her award on Saturday.  I often
review project management books so I was hoping to win one from your
stand, but I didn’t get a chance to spin the wheel!

I’m flattered and pleased that you’d like to include me in your top 100
PM bloggers.  I’m surprised that there are that many out there, so I’m
looking forward to reading the list!  I have answered your questions
below.

What have you learned doing your blog?
That I actually do know something about my subject.  When I started out
blogging it was to promote my book, which is written around case
studies.  I adopted that model because I wasn’t sure that people would
care what I had to say – why would I be considered an expert?  So I
crafted it around other people’s experiences.  What I realised through
the comments and emails I received from blogging, and also meeting
people at events, was that actually my experiences are valuable and
over the years I have developed an expertise at work.

How has your blog helped the field of pm?
Seriously?  It would be arrogance to say that my blog has helped the
field of PM – I have a relatively small, niche audience and I’m hardly
revolutionary.  What I do hope to do is demystify PM.  Project managers
have pretended that PM is complicated and shrouded in a language and
techniques only they understand.  That’s all rubbish.  If you can
organise a party, you’re a project manager.

What do you like most about blogging?
I love that I get to meet and talk to so many interesting people.  I
can make pretty much anything relevant to project management, so I get
to write about shoes and handbags!

Besides yourself, who do you like in pm?
Online?  The PMI New Media Council sites are all brilliant.  I like
PM Majik too, although it’s relatively new so the content is limited.  PM
PM Hut has been a labour of love for Fadi and the site has a great deal of
depth now.  In ‘real life’, Patrick Mayfield.  He’s a great speaker, he
contributes to standards and he blogs too, he’s one of the unsung
heroes of the British PM scene.