Rich, B.R. and Janos, Y., Skunk Works, Little Brown and Company, New York, 1994

I have had this book in my library for quite some time and although I've browsed it before, I recently had the opportunity to actually read it. Why I didn't read it earlier, I just don't know because it is just so full of stories and wisdom on many levels.

For those who don't know - the Skunk Works were (are still?) a top secret Lockheed shop for the design, development and manufacture of advanced and innovative aerospace systems. If U2, SR-71 Blackbird and stealth planes mean anything to you - then this book tells their story.

A Strategic Risk Based Approach to Regulating Technologies and Vulnerabilities based on HolisTech's® Regulatory Framework presented at the 2007 International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS`07), titled Risk, Vulnerability, Uncertainty, Technology and Society, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA in June 2007. Co-authored with Graham Durant-Law.

The paper outlines a strategic risk based approach to regulation based on the generic regulatory system developed with the participation of nine of Australia's premier regulatory organisations. The result is a generic strategic management paradigm of regulation and the various behavioural interactions that regulatory systems may utilise. It includes regulatory strategies that may be employed to influence how organisations and people behave, as well as other aspects of regulating, including regulatory metrics, regulatory types, and the mechanisms of regulation. The generic nature of the framework provides for its application in almost any context and to any objective. It also provides for a top-down strategic approach to risk management, an unfortunately all too rare occurrence.

A while back, I was asked by a business colleague to assist in providing an insight into how an organisation could handle their knowledge asset better and how they could weave a network of advisors and small/medium enterprises.

After a couple of coffees and a long chat, he asked if I could encapsulate our discussion in a short brief. Always up for a challenge, I based the brief on the one hour executive briefing we (HolisTech Pty Ltd) provide to executives in Government agencies on leveraging Web 2.0.

If Web 1.0 is the broadcast web ("here I am and this is what I do" - it is read only - static) then Web 2.0 is the collaborative web ("here I am and we can do this together" - it is read/write and interactive - a far richer experience).

I said in a previous blog (The Value of a Program of Projects) that projects are a way of ".....pulling one or more of the levers of revenue, expenses or investment in a "controlled" manner. Because projects are a deliberate and "controlled" mechanism that supports proper governance with defined expenditure, risks, schedules and outcomes or benefits."

I just wish to provide more insight into what I have said.

Designing an Emergent Capability Based Strategy: Toward a New Business Planning Paradigm?  A paper published in the Australian Defence Force Journal in 2003.

One of my goals in life is to illustrate the value of projects to the general management fraternity. Perhaps more accurately, explaining the value of project management to executives. For a number of years now I have been "monitoring" the level of acceptance of project management into the broader management community. I do this by looking for project management books in the management "guru" sections of bookshops. I must say .... I am yet to find one devoted solely to project management. Normally the project management books are in the IT section or the academic sections. It's an interesting "index" which I have started to call the "PM guru status" index.

Camrass, R. and Farncombe, M., Atomic: Reforming the Business Landscape into the New Structures of Tomorrow, Capstone Publishing Limited, UK, 2004.

Atomic attempts to identify the future business construct based upon trends identified today. Camrass and Farncombe take the analogy of an "atom" that can become part of larger molecules to form value adding business structures. These are more agile and focused organisations than the monolithic businesses today. To their credit, they try to identify those "atoms" rather than just generalise:.

This concept can be viewed another way - as a chronology or evolution of systems. A system enters its life at some point in time. In the below diagram some have begun their life prior to say, 2006. Others entered their life after 2006.

You will also note that the system will commence life as being in use (green), then at some point start to degrade (yellow), then become critically degraded (light red), until finally it is obsolete (red).

Many project management books and texts (and perhaps blogs) start with a definition of a project. Or if not, it is certainly in there shortly into the book. But why is that?

Well I guess they all need to put a boundary around what they are talking about, but also because it is pretty useful leading into the wider part of the text.

I am no different in that sense because I do need to answer that question "What is a Project?". But I think what I am about to say is different because the way I define a project is different to what you might find in the more traditional texts.

So ... what is a project?

I am exploring a number of concepts under an eclectic collection of
subject areas. I am also exploring some of these in my blog about small
and medium enterprises and micro-businesses at Lukim All. Undoubtedly, I will add to these in time.

Formal. Pat is a very experienced program and project manager with a strong academic background in the profession which includes post graduate project management qualifications. He has a significant and current consulting and business background with a particular strength in communicating complex concepts in simple and pithy ways including discussions, presentations, blogs and papers.

Informal. I am the normal family man - wife and two daughters, two dogs (german shepherd and golden retriever - stupid and cupid as the kids call them!), a stack of frogs in the gardne and a visiting family of magpies (a native Australian bird that is quite at home in the urban environment).