RobertSteele

The Flow of Project Management: Consistent Optimization and Progression

One of my projects this summer has been a grueling process of stopping a swamp from flooding the cabin. I wrote an article of how I gained control of the flood. What was once a boggy marsh is now a moist meadow with a stream running through. Three moose h... Read >

Trusting the Expertise of Project Managers

Trusting others to know how to do their job is an important part of project management. This applies to both project manager and team member. I find it strange how even the slightest mistrust can lead to miscommunication, anger, and even unethical decisio... Read >

Managing the Dead Forest: The Benefit of Project Plans, Tools, and Methodologies

A few years ago a species of beetle infested the forest around my cabin, killing many of the old pines. In winter, a lot of these trees break from the weight of the snow. Next to my cabin there are several trees so large that if they fall the cabin will b... Read >

The Internet, Project Management Software, and Our Brains

In my articles, I have often talked about the implications of web-based communication and how the internet has affect how we manage projects today. I have traced parts of history, showing how certain technological advancements have affected us for good an... Read >

Project Geography Part Two: Rural and Ultra-Rural

In my last article, I talked about how civilization and geography can be a metaphor for how projects function within the business world. I used the example of urban and suburban city life, showing how some projects can reflect urbanity’s conveniences whil... Read >

Project Geography Part One: Urban and Suburban

In my articles, I have talked a lot about the "geography" of projects. To me, the way civilization works within geography is a large-scale metaphor for the way projects work in the business world. A large civilization executes projects with long-term effi... Read >

The Project Management Inukshuk: Precision, Patience, Balance

A few months ago, I built an Inukshuk, a cultural object that the native people of northern Canada once used (perhaps some still do) as a marker for navigating through the flat, featureless tundra. According to one researcher, an "Inukshuk can be small or... Read >

Project Management Systems and Scope Creep

I received a book once with a cover so ugly that I didn't read it until I was more or less forced. I had been too preoccupied with my other books, covers that had grand mountain scenery or close-up images of time-weathered faces. When I finally read it, t... Read >

Project Management Fuel: Avoid Burning Out

When I was a child, my grandfather taught me how to build just about any type of fire in any environment - fires in the rain, desert, seacoast - fires for cooking food, for signaling rescue teams, or for the pure spectacle of having flames twenty feet hig... Read >

Modern IT Project Management: the Convergence of Content and Communication

Prior to the inception of the social media, there was a gap between what was experienced online and how one communicated online. For example, one experienced content on the web by watching a video, and one communicated with someone through email. Now, soc... Read >

Alone, Flooded, and Sinking: The “Teamless” Project

Last week, it was my project, and mine alone, to divert a river that was flooding directly into the space beneath the family cabin. As I worked for one whole day, morning to night, with only a shovel, I was unable to divert even part of it. In fact, on th... Read >

Project Decisions: Saving a Fawn or Diverting a River

On the fourth of July this year, I spent the weekend at my cabin hoping to accomplish a large list of projects. As I was hiking into the forest to gather firewood, I found a fawn lying only twenty feet from my front door. Based on the blood still on the d... Read >

The Wall that Was “Too Steep”

When my father was teaching classes on cabinetry and construction, he had seen so many projects fail that he didn’t dare let anyone but himself handle the projects around his house. Yet, he would create so many projects for himself that there was never en... Read >

The Paved Road of Project Management

Project management tools seem to be available everywhere. Some are free devices to keep a record of daily tasks. Others are expensive solutions for major corporations to manage high-budget programs. Some are specific to certain industries while others are... Read >

The Snowy Project Management Terrain

Some like to think of project management as a nicely groomed trail with a few ups and downs and a few twists and turns. They say something like, “you won’t get lost if you just stay on the trail.’” But most project managers know that a project hardly e... Read >