Managing Product Development

Johanna Rothman, a smart lady who has a consulting company, has a nice blog if you're into software and that sort of thing. It's called Managing Product Development and she's been posting reasonably frequently of late. It's not just about product development, so go ahead and read the blog. Here's one sample:

I've been talking to a beleaguered colleague about his project schedule. "No matter what date I give them (senior management), they want an earlier date. I told them it doesn't take nine women to make a baby in one month, I need some time for this project!"

Like that? Here's one more:

I'm most familiar with schedule chicken that happens in meetings. Usually in a project status meeting, with the project manager and the project team, especially where the meeting is a form of serial status, everyone claims they're on time. But the reality is that each person is waiting for another person to explain why he or she is not ready. In that case, each person graciously says, "Oh, that's fine with me if you take an extra week or two or three. No problem." Of course it's no problem, if everyone else needs more time.

She's also written a bunch of articles and you can read an interesting one called What's wrong with Wednesdays? here.