Tag Archives: project management

Good Project Management Practices

Posted on May 2, 2018 by John Hunter

I find myself working as a project manager, or a program management consultant more frequently in the last few years. As would be expected by those reading the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog, my project management views are based on … Continue reading →

Magnetic White-Board Kanban Card Options

Posted on September 2, 2014 by John Hunter

Just some quick ideas for Kanban whiteboard magnetic card options from a question I answered on Reddit. Here is the best lean solution: Trying Out My Agile Kanban Board from Jon Miller. Why, well mainly I am kidding about it … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Quality tools | Tagged agile management, kanban, lean manufacturing, productivity, project management, Quality tools, tips, usability, visual management | Comments Off

Agile Story Point Estimation

Posted on February 8, 2012 by John Hunter

In agile software development tasks are documented as user stories. Then the level of effort for those stores can be estimated by assigning each story points. The velocity that can be produced in a period (called a sprint, for us … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, IT, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Software Development | Tagged agile management, project management, Quality tools, quote, Software Development, variation | Comments Off

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #156

Posted on February 1, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival highlights recent management blog posts 3 times each month. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Guide since 1996 (Deming, evidence based management, lean manufacturing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged agile management, management, project management, Software Development | Comments Off

Management Improvement Carnival #142

Posted on September 10, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management improvement blog carnival is published 3 times a month with hand picked recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles through Curious Cat Management Articles, you can subscribe via RSS for new article additions. … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged management, project management | 1 Comment

Avoiding Tragedy of the Commons for Software Development

Posted on June 15, 2011 by John Hunter

Kanban and Tragedy of the Commons The “Tragedy of the Commons” archetype often manifests itself through “Shared Services”, when a small number of people with specific skills, work across different teams. Each team in isolation gets benefit from the Shared … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged agile management, kanban, programming, project management, Software Development, Systems thinking | 2 Comments

Assigning Story Points to Bug Fixes

Posted on January 27, 2011 by John Hunter

Agile software development has teams estimate the effort to deliver requests from the product owner. The estimates are done in points (in order to abstract away from hours – as estimates have plenty of variation in how long they will … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Quality tools, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged agile management, kanban, programming, project management, Quality tools, Software Development, variation | 2 Comments

Is Google Failing Too Often?

Posted on January 11, 2011 by John Hunter

I think Google is extremely successful, but they do seem to consistently have problems adding to their portfolio. They did a great job with gmail. Android has been very successful. Google Maps is great. They did well building YouTube. Chrome … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged disruptive innovation, Google, Innovation, IT, management, managing people, project management, Software Development | 5 Comments

Jason Fried: Why work doesn’t happen at work

Posted on November 26, 2010 by John Hunter

In this TED talk, Jason Fried, founder of 37 signals, discusses how people get work done. When asked where do you go when you really need to get something done, almost no-one says: the office (unless it is early in … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged Creativity, management webcast, managing people, meetings, project management, Psychology, respect for people, Software Development, work, workplace improvement | 3 Comments

Management Improvement Internal Experts

Posted on November 3, 2010 by John Hunter

Having a group of internal experts in Deming, lean thinking, six sigma, etc. can be an good way to help the organization transform but they must 1) practice respect for people and 2) focus on building organizational capacity. Having, for … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Six sigma | Tagged change, Deming, lean six sigma, Lean thinking, management, Process improvement, project management, Six sigma | Comments Off