“A bad system will beat a good person every time.”— W. Edwards Deming “The project manager should own the system that connects all of it.”— Scott Kinder Haven’t we all seen this? A manager asks for ownership and initiative. Someone makes a routine decision and the manager asks who authorized it. The team adjusts. Decisions wait for approval. Management then schedules a meeting to discuss the team’s lack of initiative. Scott Kinder explores a related problem in The Project Man

Why project fundamentals must come before automation “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” W. Edwards Deming “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter Drucker AI is a remarkable accelerator. That is precisely why organizations should be careful where they point it. In a sound project system, AI can shorten cycle times, improve analysis, and relieve teams of low-value administrative work. In a confused system, i

Testing later is usually another way of scheduling rework. “The performance of a system doesn’t depend on how the parts perform taken separately, it depends on how they perform together, how they interact.” Russell L. Ackoff “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” W. Edwards Deming In my last post, I argued that Release on Demand depends on several conditions being true inside the delivery system, and you can find that post here: https://www.projectmanagementforum.

Separate progress is not the same as integrated progress. Release decisions depend on the second one. “The performance of a system doesn’t depend on how the parts perform taken separately, it depends on how they perform together, how they interact.” Russell L. Ackoff “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” W. Edwards Deming In the last post, I argued that Release on Demand depends on several conditions being true inside the delivery system, and you can find that po