By Shawn P. Quigley Introduction: In this blog, we will be discussing Situational, Transformational, and Transactional styles relating to leadership style and group dynamics. We will start with defining each leadership style and then look at that style for guiding a group to success. Upon completion of assessing each style of leadership, we will attempt […]

What is concurrent engineering? Concurrent engineering is when activities are paralleled that could be sequenced. Concurrent engineering can help us deliver the product earlier since we have compressed the schedule by overlapping the various development activities.  There are certain risks associated with this way of working. To be successful and not incur massive rework, it […]

Project Schedule I have been thinking on project scheduling since invitation to speak at a Wake Forest MBA class.  Schedule management is much more than Microsoft Project, though an appropriate tool can help the project manager and the team to visualize how the project activities map to success, however, we must have performed sufficient diligence. […]

Recently, on Twitter, I had to express my discontent with the word Pragmatic.  My spontaneous outburst so amazed me that I decided to explore this further.  The definition on dictionary.com[1] is: Of or about a practical point of view or practical considerations Philosophy of or about pragmatism Of or about pragmatics Treating historical phenomena with […]

The olden days… A long time ago (seemingly) I graduated from university with my engineering degree.  I was lucky, my first job was with a small company and I performed many roles as it applied to developing their new product line.  The product was an embedded strand process control unit. This unit would control older […]

Models are not new, and neither models in the employ of product development. Product development has always had some basis in discovery and always will. If everything had such a high degree of certainty, likely the product or endeavor has already been done. Developing new things ceaselessly brings questions. To be effective, we want to answer these questions as quickly and as certainly as possible.

Risk Management the Best ‘Fire’ Insurance for Your Project Risk management training day announced by the NC Piedmont Triad Chapter of the Project Management Institute in conjunction with Value Transformation. Greensboro, NC — The NC Piedmont Triad Chapter of the Project Management Institute together with Value Transformation are pleased to announce a risk management training […]

In conventional project management, it is called the white book. In agile, it is known as the retrospective. Both the retrospective and the white book serve the same purpose that is to learn from the past and improve the future. Though the objectives may be similar the manner and perhaps the efficacy are quite different.

What is “watermelon” green? Watermelon.  A great treat in the  summer. The dark green rind, the yummy bright red center. Recently I had lunch with an IT friend named Phil.  We were talking about checklists and determining project “status” when he mentioned the color Watermelon Green.  I chuckled.  Then I continued a bit afraid to […]