Rothman on Difficult Project Scheduling [PM Hut]

Johanna Rothman recently blogged on PMHut.com about
setting difficult -- but not impossible -- project schedules:

". . . if you want your project staff to think, make a difficult
schedule, and then set a personal challenge: 'How can we
make this schedule more reasonable?' In my experience, this
is the kind of challenge many of us thrive on. But don't set a
stretch goal. That discourages thinking and will encourage
people to throw out any good ideas that have not yet become
good habits."

Read the full article on PM Hut:
http://www.pmhut.com/impossible-schedules-reinforce-no-thinking

Read Johanna's Rothman's Dorset House Book
HIRING THE BEST KNOWLEDGE WORKERS, TECHIES & NERDS:
http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/hire.html

Lister on Project Behaviors [Business of Software]

Bob Cramblitt recently interviewed Tim Lister for the BUSINESS
OF SOFTWARE blog. Describing his forthcoming Dorset House
book, to be coauthored with Tom DeMarco, Suzanne and James
Robertson, Steve McMenamin, and Peter Hruschka, Tim mentions
some "project behaviors":

"LISTER: One is what we call Brownian Motion, based on the physics
term defining a constant state of random motion.  In our definition,
it means loading a project with people when you still haven't decided
what you are actually going to do. . . . We also see a pattern called
dead fish.  This is a project that is doomed from the start because
the schedule is outrageously unrealistic."

Read the full interview on BUSINESS OF SOFTWARE Blog:
http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2007/07/from-project-sl.html

Read WALTZING WITH BEARS: MANAGING RISK ON SOFTWARE PROJECTS
http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/waltz.html

Weinberg Interviewed [PM Boulevard]

Legendary author Gerald M. Weinberg was recently interviewed
by PM Boulevard:

"Experience is the best teacher, but even in a long career,
one person can only experience a few large projects. In my
novels, I embed real stories, real lessons, in a fictional matrix
that is engaging enough to make them feel like real experiences.
Hopefully, these stories will get through to readers, as have
the stories in my non-fiction books. For many people, fiction
is simply more real than non-fiction. So far, the experiment
seems to be working, according to readers of my first published
novel, The Aremac Project."

Read the full interview at PM Boulevard
http://www.pmboulevard.com/Default.aspx?page=View%20Content&cid=2369&parent=
5970

Read Gerald M. Weinberg's novel
THE AREMAC PROJECT:
http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/aremac.html

Becoming a Technical Leader [Coding Horror]

Jeff Atwood, in his blog CODING HORROR, recently discussed the
difference between leading by intimidation and leading by
example:

"Weinberg's BECOMING A TECHNICAL LEADER is truly a classic. . . .
So much of leadership is learning to give a damn about other
people, something that us programmers are notoriously bad at.
We may love our machines and our code, but our teammates
prove much more complicated."

Read the full blog post at CODING HORROR:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000933.html

Read Gerald M. Weinberg's Dorset House book
BECOMING A TECHNICAL LEADER:
http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/btl.html