Common Lessons Learned Mistakes, Misconceptions and Things Left Unsaid By Rick Edwards and Shawn P. Quigley Why organizations fail to exploit their own lessons learned. “There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience”.   – Archibald MacLeish Lessons Learned – Really? Too many organizations understand Archibald’s […]

Why Lessons Learned are vital to the long-term vitality of organizations To best discuss any topic, we must first establish a common foundation from which to build. Let’s start by defining some key terms: 1. Lesson: an activity that is done in order to learn something; also: something is taught, a single class or part […]

by Rick Edwards and Shawn P. Quigley How projects and processes are related If one were to describe their project to someone, they would most likely describe the end deliverable or objective of the project (a.k.a scope), the expected completion date (time) and the expected resource requirements needed to faithfully execute the plan (cost).   Nowhere […]

By Shawn P. Quigley More on Maslow In our previous discussions we have referred to Maslow’s Theory of Human Motivation (Hierarchy of Needs) and how this relates to work place motivation. To best continue our discussion we must first review some of the tenets of Maslow’s theory in more detail and dispel the misconception that […]

Below is an excerpt of our book Testing of Complex and Embedded Systems Pries, K., & Quigley, J. (2011). Chapter 4. In Testing Complex and Embedded Systems (pp. 33-35). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.   Basic Principle of Testing The verification and test group is there to provide some critical and unbiased review of the […]

LinkedIn Education Post Reading a Linkedin post from Michael Milutis on continuous education made me stop briefly and consider how I got where I am today. Career My professional “career” has been as varied as it has been bumpy.  I have been employed in fast food restaurant and with a moving company the first few […]

Project Manager and Talent A project’s success ultimately is with the talent of the team and the project manager.  There are more team members, only one project manager, and the team carries the bulk of the work even if the project manager is responsible.  The composition of the team is the very important.  Talent constraints […]

Tools and Improvement I have seen companies go through great gyrations to improve the efficiency and effectively of their projects and as a result their organization. For large distributed companies or company subsidiaries, the ability to easily share information and details can save considerable time and trauma. One example is recounted in a story about […]