Management-Business – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty

By Scott J. Pearson | December 5, 2024December 5, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Agile practices of project management have transformed how software is developed. Planning an entire project from the start often leads to unmet objectives and cost overruns. Agile instead proposes to start small by developing a minimal viable product and growing one feature at a time. In an age of the Internet’s instantaneity, continual deployment makes agile an achievable possibility. These authors, whose careers have all been hewn in software to some degree, propose undertaking the…

Leadership Management-Business

Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard Problems

By Scott J. Pearson | November 29, 2024November 29, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Big problems – the kind that societies face – often require an approach like Aesop’s fable. A bunch of blindfolded folks touch different parts of an elephant and describe them to each other. No one can make sense about what the reality is because they’re all describing different things like a tail, a trunk, a belly, or a foot. It’s only when they combine their descriptions into a consistent framework that they can gather that…

Management-Business Science

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science

By Scott J. Pearson | November 28, 2024November 28, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Most problems that contemporary society faces require experts from more than one discipline to explore them through research. Traditional fields of knowledge have become so subspecialized that teams, not individuals, are now the units to advance knowledge. Yet institutions and individuals are usually poorly equipped and organized to address these challenges. They often still exist in a dated mindset where different spheres of knowledge exist in hierarchies, not collaborative networks. The National Academies in the…

Cybersecurity Management-Business Software-Technology

Cybersecurity Tabletop Exercises: From Planning to Execution

By Scott J. Pearson | November 23, 2024November 23, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Cybersecurity is a trending business topic due to the incredible growth of the IT industry and the Internet. It affects almost every professional domain, whether in the business, healthcare, or financial sectors. Perhaps the biggest risk facing companies today is having their IT systems compromised in some way involving secure data – a very broad vulnerability. To limit or prevent harm, a company’s leaders can engage in “tabletop exercises” to run through common scenarios. These…

Management-Business Program Management

Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders

By Scott J. Pearson | November 21, 2024November 21, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Product management centers itself on coordinating several diverse, complex teams towards producing one coherent business product. It’s a fairly new role in organizations, and it’s especially popular in the IT sector. Software involves a disparate set of competencies, like writing code, graphical design, software design, marketing, customer relations, and subject matter expertise. A good product manager can act as a representative of a product’s “soul” to give voice to its essential human benefit. Alignment plays…

Management-Business Software-Technology

Putt’s Law & the Successful Technocrat: How to Win in the Information Age

By Scott J. Pearson | November 18, 2024November 18, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Great satirical works entertain while speaking deep truths. Like a court jester or Shakespeare’s comedies, humor can often unmask human nature where polite conversation can only obscure. Thus, when approached thoughtfully, jokes play an invaluable role to any thinking person. At their best, they can correct overly genteel approaches to problems. This book, written by a pseudonymous author, does just that. It speaks foundational truths about engineering organizations with a realism that surpasses more respectful…

Indie Management-Business Program Management

Practical Project Stakeholder Management: Methods, Tools & Templates for Comprehensive Stakeholder Management

By Scott J. Pearson | November 2, 2024November 2, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

There aren’t a ton of books available on coaching how to manage stakeholders while managing a project towards success. This independently published book attempts to fill that gap by providing a series of methods and tools to those new to the practice. First the strengths: The book indeed delivers as advertised by including most common practices for managing stakeholders. It explains them well and provides examples of documentation. It reads like an internal training document…

Leadership Management-Business

Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances

By Scott J. Pearson | October 31, 2024October 31, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Books on leadership continue to fill bookstores’ bookshelves. Most more or less peddle the same message: Exhibit these characteristics as a leader, and your team will perform great. The problem then becomes how to attain a leadership position. However, life and business usually don’t follow such a simple cause-and-effect pattern. A simple set of postulates cannot control team performance, as if it were a geometry problem. And individual leaders alone do not shape a team;…

Management-Business Program Management Software-Technology

Information Technology Project Management, 9th Edition

By Scott J. Pearson | October 18, 2024October 18, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

IT projects comprise a particularly difficult niche of project management. The field is so new, and IT professionals’ proficiencies vary widely. The technology quickly evolves, so what was true about project management a few years ago might not be relevant soon thereafter. Personalities can also pose a problem since software developers aren’t reputed to be the most personable workers. In this textbook, impressively in a ninth edition, Kathy Schwalbe provides sage advice by summarizing the…

Leadership Management-Business

Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard

By Scott J. Pearson | October 13, 2024October 13, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

We’ve all been there at some point in our lives: We tell ourselves, “This really, really needs to happen,” yet in the same breath, we answer ourselves, “But it’s impossible.” Say, we have a boss and a power structure around us that needs to shift. Or an intractable family disagreement with no obvious way forward. In our better moments, we all feel like we’re great leaders that shape history, but at other times, I wonder…