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Tables of Contents for Roundtable on Project Management
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Contributors
xiii
Preface
xxiii
Introduction
1
3
The Thread
2
1
The Story of the Failed Success
2
2
Getting Started Right
4
11
The Thread
5
1
What Choices Are You Making?
5
1
Does Your Project Fit Its World?
6
2
Did the Project Planning Make Sense?
8
1
Can You Make Better Chunks?
9
2
Are You Planning for Perfection?
11
1
Can People Tolerate Boring Development?
12
1
Balancing Questions
12
2
Lessons
14
1
How Big Is It?
15
10
The Thread
16
1
Just Like Small Ones
16
1
Size Projects in Slices
17
2
What Does ``Large'' Mean?
19
2
Nonlinear Effects
21
3
Lessons
24
1
Estimating
25
14
The Thread
26
1
Estimating in Context
26
2
Large Project Estimation Processes
28
2
Using the Delphi Method
30
2
Are We Oracles?
32
1
Sanity Checks
33
2
Calibrate Estimates with Experience
35
1
How We Do It
36
2
Lessons
38
1
What Will It Cost?
39
9
The Thread
40
1
Accounting Measures and Definitions
41
3
What About Other Measures?
44
3
Lessons
47
1
Planning for Success
48
10
The Thread
49
1
Plan on Supporting the People
49
2
Stay in Touch with Reality
51
1
Who Is Doing It, and How?
52
1
Check the Exceptions
52
3
Count On Steering the Project
55
2
Lessons
57
1
Management Focus
58
14
The Thread
59
1
What Are You Managing?
59
1
Can You Talk About It?
60
1
What Are You Talking About, or Not Talking About?
61
1
Managing to Conformity
61
1
Is Commitment Being Managed?
62
2
What About Interference?
64
1
Bring Me a Rock
64
2
Change It to Requirements Exploration
66
3
It's a Scope Negotiation
69
1
It's Really About Scope
70
1
Planning and Execution
70
1
Lessons
71
1
Knowing a Project Is in Trouble: Project Indicators
72
9
The Thread
73
1
Ignoring the Plan
73
1
Emphasizing Means, Not Ends
74
1
Routing versus Doing
74
1
Reviews Find Zero Defects
75
1
Changes Don't Relate to Problems
76
1
Spec Inflation
76
1
You Got a Repository?
76
1
Testing Is Confused
77
1
We're Too Busy to Review!
77
1
There Is Nothing We Can Do
78
1
When Have Indicators Failed You?
78
2
Lessons
80
1
Knowing a Project Is in Trouble: People Indicators
81
12
The Thread
82
1
I'm Doing the Best I Can!
82
1
Ratios and Mismatches
83
2
What Management Says
85
1
Nonsense Directives
86
1
Won't Admit Mistakes
86
1
The ``Force Fitting''
87
1
People Disengage
87
1
Leaving Is the Ultimate Disengagement
88
1
How Can I Help?
89
2
Stop Helping
91
1
Lessons
92
1
People and Project Change
93
11
The Thread
94
1
Being Ignored
94
1
The Context for Change
95
2
People Handle Change Differently
97
2
Planning an Intervention
99
2
Bellowing Bovine Pickles
101
2
Lessons
103
1
Being a Cassandra
104
13
The Thread
105
1
Sometimes They Will Hear, Sometimes They Won't
105
1
Sometimes, It's Timing
106
2
Don't Depend on One Person
108
1
Use Real Information
109
1
Some People Don't Want an Answer
109
1
Avoid Saying ``I Told You So''
110
1
Be Careful with Unsolicited Advice
111
2
It's About Track Record
113
1
The Context Helps People Hear (or Not)
114
2
Lessons
116
1
Dealing with Impending Disaster
117
12
The Thread
118
1
What Do You Need to Decide What to Do?
118
3
To Whom Do You Listen?
121
1
There Are Different Kinds of Damage
121
2
Organizations Break Down Under Stress
123
3
Meet Obstacles Head On
126
2
Lessons
128
1
Doing Something Different
129
13
The Thread
130
1
Veering Worked in the Past
130
1
Technology Changed How Things Work
131
1
Ship Size Was Another Change
132
1
Exaggerated Assumptions
133
1
Doing the Right Thing
134
1
Introducing Unusual Ideas
134
2
Can You Really Be Punished for Doing Something Different?
136
1
Core Myths Limit What You Can Change
137
2
Hard Work and Genius Are All That Matter
139
1
Rigid Process Is All That Matters
140
1
Lessons
141
1
Dignified Project Death
142
11
The Thread
143
1
Ending a Software Project
144
1
Change Means Admitting You're Wrong
145
1
Sometimes, We Just Can't Quit
146
1
It's Uncomfortable to Just Give Up
147
1
Take the Brakes Yourself
148
1
Making Tough Decisions Keeps Me There
149
1
But I Care About How People Feel About Me
150
2
Lessons
152
1
Project Lessons
153
8
The Thread
154
1
Do Not Try to Handle So Many Changes at Once (That Is, Do Not Violate the Edsel Edict)
154
1
Make a Big Deal About Being Sure Everyone Understood His/Her Part of the Plan
155
1
Don't Let the Project Degenerate into Crunch Mode
156
1
Don't Accept Work That Is Short All Deliverables Except the Code Itself
156
1
Do Not Leave Test Suite Design Until After the Code Is Written
157
1
Keep People from Meddling with the Wrong Things
157
1
Assert Yourself as Necessary to Manage Project Panic
158
1
In the End, Ask, Did They Get What They Wanted?
159
1
Lessons
160
1
Personal Lessons
161
6
The Thread
162
1
Don't Own More Than You Own
162
1
Don't Expect to Be Omniscient
163
1
Learn That Blame and Ownership Are Not the Same Thing
163
1
Manage Your Personal Panic
164
1
In the End, If You Learned, You Didn't Lose
164
1
Lessons
165
2
Bibliography
167
2
Index
169