Consulting

Extremes in Risk Tolerance

Posted on 28. Jan, 2010
Categories: Consulting, Culture, IT Project Failures, Project Management

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I have been giving quite a bit of thought lately to the topic of enterprise risk management. In large part, this stems from the fact that I recently completed a project in which my client’s risk tolerance was off the charts. I mean crazy. In this post, I discuss three types of organizations with respect to risk tolerance.

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Mark McGwire, Project Management, and Coming Clean

Posted on 13. Jan, 2010
Categories: Consulting, Culture, IT Projects, Project Management

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Why don’t people just fess up when caught? I like to think that we live in a forgiving society. While coming clean is laudable, it’s hard for me to get over apologies laden with disclaimers and excuses. I understand the need to save face, but providing excuses only rubs salt in the wound and minimizes any benefit of the doubt that others will grant you.

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Disposable Workers, Newton’s Third Law, and The Lock Down

Posted on 11. Jan, 2010
Categories: Consulting, IT Project Failures, IT Projects, Recession

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What are the often overlooked risks facing organizations that rely on non-employees? If an organization’s goal is to minimize short-term cost savings, then it’s hard for me to argue against using consultants. Cost aside, contractors and temps have no employment contracts and we’re generally not covered by US labor laws.

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Can Consultants Lead? Three Viewpoints

Posted on 04. Dec, 2009
Categories: Consulting, Culture, Project Management

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I’ve been thinking (perhaps struggling) quite a bit about leadership as I finish a, er, challenging project. Can consultants actually lead on IT projects or is this reserved for management?

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The Practice Mentality

Posted on 30. Nov, 2009
Categories: Consulting, IT Projects

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I’ll never understand how people can be remotely comfortable not knowing how essential features, reports, and the like work when they will be responsible for them in one month’s time. Perhaps Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree says it best: “Denial is a better way of getting through another day.”

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When Consultants Attack….Other Consultants

Posted on 27. Nov, 2009
Categories: Consulting, Project Management

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It’s unfortunate when consultants bicker. More important, nobody wins. Certain situations are untenable and it’s only a matter of time before someone is offended. Even consultants who routinely defer to others sometimes find themselves in very precarious situations on dice.

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In Defense of Consultants: A Punch-Out Based Rant

Posted on 16. Nov, 2009
Categories: Consulting, Project Management

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One of the first things that I learned as a newbie consultant in 2000 is that (insert name of problem) is always my fault. I can document my concerns, write status reports until my fingers bleed, and copy the world on an email. However, after I leave a client site, I won’t be there to defend myself against the invariable quips that “he never told us that.”