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Showing posts from August 30, 2009

The Manhattan Project

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Thanks to friend of the blog, Constantine Kortesis, for this contribution. It sure made me think... The following excerpt is from http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Med/Med.html "Despite its official founding in August, the Manhattan Project really began on September 17, 1942 when Col. Leslie Richard Groves was notified at 10:30 a.m. by Gen. Brehon Somervell that his assignment overseas had been cancelled. Groves, an experienced manager who had just overseen the collosal construction of the Pentagon, seized immediate and decisive control. In just two days he resolved issues that had dragged on for months under Compton. On September 18 Groves ordered the purchase of 1250 tons of high quality Belgian Congo uranium ore stored on Staten Island, and the next day purchased 52000 acres of land to be the future site of Oak Ridge. Groves was promoted to Brigadier General on September 23. By September 26 Groves had secured access to the highest emergency procurement priority then in exi...

Previous Food for Thought...

At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out.

Politics, Sex and .... Project Management?

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There's an old saying. "Never discuss politics, sex or religion in polite company." On the other hand, we all agree on many things. The earth is round (well, slightly spherical, actually), the sun rises in the east and sets in the west (actually the earth revolves around the sun), and the sky is blue (it really only appears blue to us). Well... you get the idea. Many aspects of project management do not seem to fit into the 'earth is round' category. What is the evidence? Here's just a few casual observations: 1. A PM on a popular professional networking site recently asked the question, " Does anyone really know what project management actually is? " Simple question, right? Nope! This has been the most popular 'discussion' (read: debate) on that networking site since it was launched about a month ago. This discussion/debate has more than 3x the comments then the #2 debate. And to add to the point, the #2 discussion is "There ...

Previous Food for Thought...

"Right answers to wrong questions are just as wrong as wrong answers to right questions."