Project ≠ Project.

Project Management ≠ Project Management.

In his PM-Blog, Stefan Hagen published an article  with this headline. For me, it is something like a “revolutionary milestone” when considering (project) management.

Using enlightened statements, Stefan dismisses quite a few dogmata of project management from the last century (millennium).

I was fascinated by his article. Consequently, I lost no time and immediately wrote a comment in pm-blog.de. However, I would like to use this opportunity to give you a summary of my comments, although with (significant) changes.

Let me start by citing from Stefan’s article:

“We pretend that there is such a thing as a clear definition of “project” or “project management”. This is an absurdity”.

That is not the only sentence where Stefan hits the nail on the head. In his article, Stefan asks a lot of good questions – and gives some answers, too. It is all so clear and self-explanatory that you start wondering why so many managers still stick with the old dogmata.

To me, the answer seems obvious: dogmata, even if they are antiquated, have a huge “advantage”:

They make life easier for us humans, especially if we are talking complex or paradox situations.Based on dogmata, you can basically do without thinking yourself. Instead, you can decide according to a given “pattern”. The human being who in a situation of decision is often extremely lonely will find something to hold onto and thus reduce his natural (and healthy) uncertainty.

Dogmata also take pressure off our conscience. Even if everything goes wrong, we can say we “did everything right”. After all, we acted exactly like we had been taught, didn’t we? Everything we did was according to the respective standards we have been, after all, successfully certified for. Which means that we are not to blame for the failure and/or detrimental effects of the project…

The way we have been frequently trained to act according to dogmata protects us and makes life easier. Responsibility is delegated to an authority that is perhaps a plausible book or rules and accepted as superior. Basically, it comes “from above” and we trust it will be correct. More often than not, you are even forced to act as you do by an anonymous system, which does not leave you any leeway.

In view of this, you cannot be surprised if doctrines and dogmata are highly cherished by humans. Except they should not go so far as to start questioning dogmata. Because that would mean they often will no longer believe in the world and that means the party is over. So maybe it is a good idea not to start thinking…

Because:

Dogmata are almost always inflexible and antiquated. They do not do justice to the dynamic and, after all, very complex real life, along with the needs of people in social communities. And mostly the same is true for decisions and behaviour based on these dogmata.

For “correct” decisions, and “good” behaviour of humans, the requirement is that they have enjoyed a good education, are equipped with the right amount of experience in life, a high degree of autonomy along with civil courage, the willingness to take responsibility and common sense.

That is exactly what Stefan demands in his definition of project management!

However, autonomous, self-responsible and “good” behaviour will not just fall out of the clouds. Neither in (project) management, nor in real life.

For me, this means that the biggest challenge of all for us humans is to be (become) willing and capable of living our lives in self-responsibility. And this should happen in an ethically responsible way following values shared by all humans like, for instance the Golden Rule or the UN Charta.

And just like this is true for life in general, it is also true for our “sub-lives” in roles such as project manager, leader, entrepreneur, partner, pater familias, official functionary, politician – well, basically wherever we live together socially in communities.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

P.S.

In this article, I took pains to not give in to the temptation of using dogmata of the Catholic Church as examples.…

 Great events will cast their shadows before:

This year, there will be at least four more PM camps.

After the magnificent meeting at Stuttgart #pmcamp13str of   May, 3^rd/4^th, 2013 , we will meet again in Vienna for the #pmcamp13vie on  June, 21^st/22^nd, 2013, in Bad Homburg for the #pmcampRM on  27^th through 29^th, 2013, in Berlin for the #pmcamp13ber on September, 13^th through 15^th, 2013 and, as the year comes to an end for the “mother of all PM camps” #pmcamp13 in Dornbirn on  November, 14^th through 16^th, 2013.

Here is the definition:
A PM-Camp is nothing other than a Barcamp, where project managers, entrepreneurs, leaders, students and similarly minded people meet.

This is the reason why I am going to start a small IF blog series on barcamps in general and PM camp in particular.

Today you will read part 1:

Why I Go There!

I was born in 1950. My generation had a nice time to live in. In our Central European home, we experienced luxury as the human race did never before in its history. We were allowed to grow up in a free society. Suppression and force were at least reduced to a tolerable degree. For most of us, education was affordable. And, above all: there was no active war fought on our soil!

To be sure – not all was well. The consumption terror born during the time of the economic miracle was negative. We, too, fell victim to it. The only unnatural threat for our lives was on the streets, where motorized traffic caused many victims, injuries and deaths (in our circles, as well). Perversely, however, we accepted those as logical consequence of our so-called new freedom.

When all is said and done, I and my central European generation probably lived in a time when we were better off than humans had been at any other time. At least that is how I perceive it. I wish to express my gratitude for this and hand as much of my experience and knowledge as possible on to many people.

At the same time, my generation did more damage to this planet than any other generation before us. As I see it, we may not have done it intentionally, but we have certainly been most careless. Because the knowledge we have today (see Club of Rome and others) was already available.  Well, there is a lot we would have to make up for, but we will not succeed. For me, this means a duty to also write about the mistakes we made. After all, you can also learn from mistakes.

Consequently, I particularly enjoy doing presentations for young people. Currently, however, the best way to hand on experience and at the same time work on your constructs are barcamps.

This is why I like going to barcamps whenever my time permits it. And I particularly enjoy the PM Camp.

RMD
(Translated  by EG)

P.S.
I intend to continue in my series with topics such as
What are my experiences on a PM Camp!
What is my contribution at a PM Camp!

I already introduced Elmar Jürgens and Bernhard Findeiss as speakers at our CRAFTSMANSHIP workshop on June, 13th, 2013, starting at 1 p.m. in our Unterhaching office building.

Today, I would like to introduce Kristin Block. In her presentation, she will, along with her business partner Judit Lell, point out the

Corner Stones of a Knowledge (Sharing) Culture

necessary to not only talk CRAFTSMANSHIP but also live it successfully.

Here is a short abstract of the presentation:

Today, it is vital for an enterprise to make sure the internal supply of knowledge is functioning. After all, it is THE ONE fuel that keeps the daily routine of the enterprise running and thus the enterprise competitive.

However, everyday life at the enterprise is often far from what the employees would consider the ideal, open knowledge exchange all of them would (very much) like to practice.

Phenomena such as the “Knowledge-is-Power” concept, blockage of free knowledge flow and isolated knowledge islands not only use up a lot of energy, they also considerably reduce the active and innovative capacity of organizations. Not to mention social consequences, such as demoralization of the people and the growing frustration, which then will cause inner resignation of white-collar workers who are not at the necessary extent or/and in the necessary form supplied with the material they urgently need.

By now, many leaders actually discovered this danger, along with the need to act – but they do not know how and where to start in order to trigger sustainable change. The presentation “Corner Stones of a Knowledge (Sharing) Culture” supplies you with answers and new ideas in an entertaining and colourful way. Naturally, you also get ample room for discussing the theses. We will introduce five activity fields. Being dynamically linked they cover a diverse scenario of possible approaches. This knowledge, along with a huge portion of will to change, goal-oriented behaviour and patience, are the tools for leaders if they wish to create an active knowledge culture in their organizational units.

About the speaker Kristin Block

Kristin Block is a major shareholder of the consulting company wissenswerk. This company supports enterprises with all the challenges around the topics knowledge distribution, knowledge sharing, knowledge control and knowledge increase. Together with her partner, the communications expert gave meaning to the term «Neuro Knowledge Management»: it is an extremely promising linking of the newest insights in brain research and human centred knowledge management methods. In the role of a coach and speaker, she now hands down her considerable technological knowledge and experience outside here usual consulting projects.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

P.S.
I recommend you read the wissenswerk blog.  In it, you will find many interesting ideas and proposals on our topic by Judith Lell and Kristin Block!

Besides Wolfgang Menauer, who is going to do the warming-up at our Unterhaching workshop on June, 13^th, 2013 with some associative ideas on craftsmanship, a second InterFace colleague will be actively involved.

Bernhard Findeiss has prepared a presentation for our Craftsmanship workshop on June, 13^th. He will talk about:

“A Day in the Life of a Software Craftsman”

Bernhard sent me a short abstract of his presentation:

During the last few years, many attempts at industrialising software development have been made. However, it turns out that this method will not be a success in all areas.

One example for this is the development of individualized software. Dividing complex processes into many smaller steps that are easy to execute will soon show itself to be impossible.

Perhaps we can find some parallels with traditional craftsmanship here? Consequently, this is another area where we also need well-trained software craftsmen.

So what exactly is a “soft worker”? I would like to use my presentation in order to introduce this and some other questions, thus hoping to make you thoughtful:

• What technologies should you be competent in?
• What are the characteristics of well-made software in the craftsmanship sense?
• What is the work structure of a “soft worker”?
• “Soft worker”?What can an enterprise do in order to make the work surroundings as good as possible for the “soft worker”?
  • Saying“Yes”!
  • Saying “No”!
  • Life-long learning!
  •  Writing source code!
  • Test strategies!
  • Working under pressure
  • Cooperating in a team
• What can an enterprise do in order to make the work surroundings as good as possible for the “soft worker”?

About Bernhard:

Bernhard Findeiss is a young InterFace colleague. He has already been working for us for quite some time now. His craft is computer science, which, incidentally, he learned at Munich TUM – and other places. He “lives” quality and innovation. The topics sustainability and value appreciation of craftsmanship are particularly dear to him. For instance, in his private life, he buys his rolls at a real bakery, instead of a bake-shop. In his job, he constantly strives to improve his competence.

Bernhard’s technological interests are quite diverse:

• He founded the “Agile Monday Nürnberg”.
• He is one of the organizers of the SoCraTes conference and at the German Softwork Chamber and was among the first members of this community. –
• You might have quite a few chances to see him on various conferences  (i.e. XP Days, interPM).
• And you will often meet him on various “agile” community events (like Agile Tuesday München, Agile World)

Here is where we come full circle on craftsmanship. But Bernhard also has quite a “social” life:

• He is on the board of the Fischbachau Shooting Club, where he is recording clerk.
• He is an active member of the Mountain Shooting Club
• And – being truly Bavarian – he believes in the tradition of “Laptop and Lederhosen” and supports the historical local costume group.
•  And, of course, his small daughter is particularly important to him!

RMD

(Translated by EG)

P.S.

And here in our IF blog, he is also a well-liked author with man readers!

Dear IF blog readers,

Today, you are getting an invitation for two presentations and one workshop:

On May, 16th, (next Thursday), Alexander Jachmann of the IF-TECH AG will be the speaker in our series of lectures: “Craftsmanship – Technology from Computer Scientists for Computer Scientists!” (also known as Beer&Informatics).

His presentation is about:

UBUNTU&ANDROID – Test in Practice

What exactly can the windows alternatives do? 
Features, problems and solutions. An overview.

For more information and registration, click here:

http://if-blog.de/rd/16-mai-2013-craftsmanship-bierinformatik-alexander-jachmann-ubuntuandroid/

As always, the event will start at 18.00 hours in the seminar zone/top floor of the Unterhaching InterFace AG building. The presentation is scheduled for 6.15 p.m. – you are welcome to arrive from 5.30  p.m.

There are still some vacancies!

And for all those who cannot come, we broadcast the presentation live on the internet. From around 18:15 hours, you can see the video stream of the presentation on  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/IF-Forum.

In addition, we will do a video recording and publish it on youtube  (Kanal InterFace AG) if necessary.

Here are the other dates of the IF Forum:

Technological IF Forum 2013:
Workshop Craftsmanship
accompanied by Wolf Nkole Helzle (Social Media Art artist)
on June, 13th,  2013 starting at 13:00 hours!

http://if-blog.de/rd/workshop-bei-der-interface-ag-craftsmanship/

and then the second IF Forum 2013 this summer:

IF Forum
Jean Paul and Hypertext
Annina Klappert
July, 11th, 2013 | 18.00 Hours

I would be happy to welcome you on one or more of these events and wish you a very nice month of May!

Roland Dürre

RMD
(Translated by EG)

Dr. Elmar Jürgens is one of the speakers at our Craftsmanship workshop on June, 13th, 2013. His presentation will be about:

Knowledge Transfer through Lightweight Reviews
Experiences from six years of working in a heterogeneous team

Here is the abstract of the presentation he will give for us:

Experience, competence, culture, quality and knowledge are the focal issues of the IF Forum on craftsmanship. How can we generate a software development culture that promotes mutual exchange of experience, competence and knowledge in such a way that the software quality will benefit?

For me, the answer is a culture of lightweight peer reviews. There is hardly any quality control mechanism the usefulness of which has been more thoroughly investigated than peer reviews. Moreover, they give us an effective tool for knowledge transfer. We have been using it for many years now. Regardless of this, many teams still do not conduct any peer reviews during their development phases.

In my presentation, I will introduce a lightweight approach for continuous code reviews where the programming and review phases are separate. This gives the programmer and reviewer respectively the chance to decide by themselves when, where and how fast they wish to work. In the development of the Open-Source programming tool ConQAT, we have been using these reviews for seven years in quality control of all code modifications. On a voluntary basis. We are convinced that this is the main reason why ConQAT is so easy on maintenance and so flexible. I will tell you about our experiences and will also report social challenges and best practices.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Elmar Jürgens is founder and associate of the CQSE GmbH. Elmar wrote his dissertational thesis at Munich Technical University about the discovery, consequences and handling of clones, for which he was awarded the software engineering prize of the Ernst Dehnert Foundation in 2011. As one of the founders of CQSE GmbH, he supports enterprises when they analyse and improve the quality of their software systems. He was among the five best speakers of the Software Quality Days 2013.

Moreover, Elmar is the co-chair of the Nineteenth International Workshop on Software Clones held in San Francisco this year. It is part of the “International Conference on Software Engineering”.

Elmar also initiated a very special community: together with other doctoral candidates of TUM and colleagues of CQSE GmbH, he organizes a regular “Tasting Group”. Whenever they meet, the “Tasting Group” tries out a new idea (in the form of an established scientific paper in the field of software quality) and a new taste (for instance in the form of testing wine or a special cuisine). To me, this sounds like a truly innovative concept!

RMD
(Translated by EG)

Nonsense!

HEADHUNTING is a NOGO
for the IF AGORA!

If you promote an enterprise or work a small firm, you have a certain concept of the business model. Sometimes it works better, sometimes worse. And then, all of a sudden, you discover a new added value in your enterprise, which is both a surprise and a delight.

That is what I experienced with IF AGORA. Here is how it happened: a friend of mine was looking for a second managing director for a medium-sized technology enterprise on the incline. And immediately, I was able to recommend three persons who are very suited for the task he described.

The reason for this is that all these great “white collar workers” are linked to IF AGORA. Because they are all just nice and have many friends and friends of friends, all of whom are also nice persons. And there you are: finding the right persons for the important job in no time through IF AGORA.

Consequently, I am now offering a totally new IF AGORA service: we help you when you are looking for the ideal candidate to occupy a vacant position.

No, the IF AGORA definitely will not do any head hunting. Instead, we look for the person who would fit and be interested in doing something and offering opportunities in our big network of trust.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

Yesterday, at 22:03 hours, I received the following  message by Heiko Bartlog at Google+:

Events: Save the date: September, 13th to 15th, 2013! Not to forget! Tell your friends (official invitation and information for registration to follow soon) #pmcamp13ber

Now isn’t that fantastic news? PM Camp goes Berlin! The Capitol City of barcamps and the city of re:publica! :-) You could almost say “#pmcamp returns home”!

Now this year will first have Stuttgart (#pmcamp13str -  May, 3rd to 4th, 2013 – 3./4. Mai 2013), then Vienna (#pmcamp13vie -  June, 21st to 22nd,  2013 – 21. / 22. Juni 2013) and then Bad Homburg

(#pmcampRM -  June, 27th to 29th,  2013 – 27. – 29. Juni 2013). Besides Berlin. And perhaps even more.

Here are a few pictures from the Stuttgart meeting – maybe they can motivate you:

Again, the InterFace people took part and you can see them at the front!

I was also permitted to do a session.

And, of course, there was plenty of networking!

RMD
(Translated by EG)

Invitation & Agenda

With the guidance of Wolf Nkole Helzle (Social Media Art Artist), our fourth technological IF Forum will be about

EXPERIENCE, COMPETENCE, CULTURE, QUALITY and KNOWLEDGE.

To the left on the picture, you can see Wolf Nkole Helzle. He is a famous social media artist living in Baden Württemberg. Wolf will accompany us through this year of IF Forums!

To trigger your memory:

We started our technological IF Forum in 2010 with finding out how “agile development” can be useful for us. During the next two years, we discussed “new leadership” (2011) and “project coaching” (2012).

So far, our IF Forums have been very special events, both for our guests and ourselves. We want it to be the same this time over. This year, it is all about the craftsmanship of a “white collar worker”.

We will start on June, 13th, at 13:00 hours with our workshop “Craftsmanship”.  The location is our office building at Unterhaching and, for a change, we will start in the afternoon. The presentations will begin at 14:00 hours.

We will gladly welcome our guests from 13.00 hours on, because that is when we will visit art with Wolf Nkole Helzle in a very craftsman-like and interactive way.

AGENDA

from 13:00  hours: our guests arrive …
Welcome
Wolf Helzle will take pictures!

14:00 hours: Roland Dürre / Wolfgang Menauer (both of InterFace AG)

Introduction/Warming

Up 
What is craftsmanship?

14:30  hours: Judith Lell & Kristin Block (wissenswerk):

The Cornerstones of a Knowledge (Sharing)

Culture 
Leadership as a craft

Coffee Break

15:15 hours: Bernhard Findeiss (InterFace AG):

No Competence without Learning and Practice!

Developing software is a craft

15:45 hours: Dr. Elmar Juergens (CQSE GmbH)

The “Feedback Method”

Delivering quality is also craftsmanship

Coffee Break

16:30 hours: Bernd Fiedler (Datac):

Master and Apprentice

No craft without experience

17:00 hours: Reinhard Büttner (SWM)

Knowledge – Giving and Receiving – Why so Much is Lost!

Sharing knowledge is a craft

Coffee Break

17:45 hours: all of us

“Fishbowl”


Sharing, giving and receiving – and winning?

18:30 Happy Hour

“Craftsmanship” by Wolf Helzle


Art & Pleasure

SPEAKERS

I personally know all the speakers quite well. Appreciating their competence, I also know that they all have the very special ability to convey their knowledge in a charming and exciting manner. Here is a list of speakers:

Judith Lell and Kristin Block founded wissenswerk together.

Bernhard Findeiss is an employee of the InterFace AG. Among other things, he is very active in the field of Open Source and at Socrates.

Dr. Elmar Juergens is the founder and shareholder of CQSE GmbH.

Bernd Fiedler is on the board of directors at Datac. Moreover, he lectures regularly and is the pragmatic mastermind of knowledge management.

Reinhard Büttner is workforce director at the Stadtwerken München, where he built up a functioning model of “knowledge management”.

As early as now, I would like to thank our speakers very much for agreeing to speak. And I know that, thanks to them, our fourth IF Forum will again be a very special afternoon!

And we look forward to welcoming our guests! As always, you can register for the technological IF Forum via E-Mail.

RMD

(Translated by EG)

Now the video recordings of this year’s first IF Forum Jean Paul, the entrepreneur (Jean Paul, der Unternehmer) have been made available to the general public:

Herr Bernhard Echte of the Zürich Nimbus Publishing Company was our speaker. On Thursday, April, 11th, he started the IF Forum year 2013. To celebrate the 250-ieth birthday of Jean Paul, he told us about entrepreneurship in Jean Paul.

We made three video recordings.

Presentation PART 1 – Why Jean Paul was a successful entrepreneur:

Presentation PART 2 – How Jean Paul was able to stabilize his success as a writing entrepreneur over a long period of time:

Here is a short PART of the discussion after the presentation: what was Jean Paul’s “success drug?”:

InterfaceAG would like you to enjoy!

Here is a list of future presentations/workshops:

IF Academy
Ubuntu & Android as Used in Business (Ubuntu & Android im Business Einsatz)
Alexander Jachmann
May, 16th, 2013 | 18.00 hours

Technological IF Forum 
Craftsmanship
Craftsmanship
Workshop
June, 13th, 2013 | 14.00 hours, prologue starting at 13:00 hours

IF Forum
Jean Paul and Hypertext (Jean Paul und der Hypertext)
Annina Klappert
July, 11th,  2013 | 18.00 hours.

You are cordially invited to all and any of these. For registration, just send me E-Mail!

RMD
(Translated by EG)