The Butterfly Effect in Project Management – How to Make Disciplined Decisions in Project-based Organizations
Posted by Rudolf Melik - Project Management Software Blog in project workforce management on October 28th, 2011
This is an article I wrote for PS Village on decision management.
Project-based organizations are investing substantial resources to automate project and service delivery, budget tracking and billing. Remarkably, little investment is made to ensure that the organization is effectively managing project decisions, project demand and capacity planning. Project decision making and analysis in many organizations is such a poor and unstructured process mired in spreadsheets and informal processes that it often leads to fatal mistakes or crisis situations that could have been prevented. Rudolf explores how the outcome might be different if the management team proactively establishes and communicates formalized decision making processes and best practices based on validated current and historical project status information.
Click here to read the full article.
Leveraging Workflows for Agile Project and Service Delivery
Posted by Rudolf Melik - Project Management Software Blog in project workforce management on July 22nd, 2011
Agile project and service delivery is a widely discussed and popular topic these days. A whole new industry and crop of tools have emerged to manage agile projects. In this article written for PS Village I describe workflows as an effective and natural tool to implement agile project and service delivery.
http://www.psvillage.com/pulse/leveraging-workflows-agile-project-and-service-deliver
Why Your Project Management Sucks
Here is an article I wrote for PS Village explaining why companies have to very carefully assess how they select and manage projects in their business.
http://psvillage.com/pulse/why-your-project-management-sucks
Large software company playbook
Posted by Rudolf Melik - Project Management Software Blog in Cloud computing, Enterprise Software, project management software, software as a service on January 28th, 2011
Here is a blog I wrote about how some large software companies compete and the tactics they use against their fast moving, more agile and innovative best of breed competitors.
Certified Professional Caulker
Posted by Rudolf Melik - Project Management Software Blog in Enterprise Software, Professional Services Automation, project management, project management software on December 3rd, 2010
I got a hands-on reminder to the subtle differences between a pro and a beginner. How often we forget and the dear price we pay when we assume “it’s easy”, “anyone can do this”, “let’s go with the cheapest solution” …
http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Project-Workforce/2594/
The Cloud Hyperventilation
Posted by Rudolf Melik - Project Management Software Blog in Cloud computing, Enterprise Software on November 25th, 2010
Here is a blog parody of a few interviews I have come across with cloud computing CEOs. The hype cycle is in full effect 
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Ten Major Trends for 2011 and How They Impact Professional Services and Project Delivery
As the year end approaches we all become prognosticator of all prognosticators. I ran into Jim Carroll, a bonafide futurist, in one of my trips and he inspired me to write this article for PS Village. He got me thinking about what are the trends for 2011 and how they will affect enterprise software, project and service delivery and cloud-based technologies, all of the stuff we work and live with everyday. I started with Jim Carroll’s 2011 trends and wondered how these trends will impact our world.
A CEO’s Perspective on Professional Services Management – Part 2
Posted by Rudolf Melik - Project Management Software Blog in Professional Services Automation, project workforce management on October 23rd, 2010
This is Part 2 of an article I wrote for PSVillage about the challenges of running an embedded services team, what a CEO expects from those who manage the service organization and some suggested best practices based on all the feedback I have received on this topic.
What would the world look like if more managers made decisions like children?
Posted by Rudolf Melik - Project Management Software Blog in Enterprise Software, IT Management, Management, project workforce management on September 14th, 2010
It was my son’s tenth birthday. We finally caved in and got him an iPod, in this case the latest iPod Touch. It is an amazingly well designed device; so much you can do with it! It works and looks great. The new version is quite an improvement over its predecessor. My son got hooked on it pretty quickly and literally a few minutes later he was able to navigate and use the device on his own.
This sparked a conversation during the birthday party with a few of the parents who are also in the IT and software industry. We remarked how children follow the crowd and are loyal to a brand but only if the product truly lives up to the hype. If the iPod Touch was hard to use, too slow or ugly looking he would drop it in a minute. If something comes along from vendor XYZ that does more, is faster, looks nicer and easier to use than the iPod Touch they would embrace it pretty quickly, Apple be damned.
Generally, IT and software executives adopt new products with a completely different decision making process. What do you think? What would change if more managers and executives made decisions like children do?
Top Professional Services Management Challenges – Part 1
Posted by Rudolf Melik - Project Management Software Blog in IT Management, Management, Professional Services Automation, project management, workforce management on September 3rd, 2010
We discussed this topic in a meeting I had with a few senior people from various high tech companies. It was good to exchanges notes and see that many mid-sized high tech/software companies have experienced similar challenges with their service teams.
Please share your experiences with the management of your professional services teams. I will collect your feedback and report back to everyone with some comments and recomemndations in a part 2 of this post.
You can read the entire article at this PSVillage link.
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