Just-In-Time PM #5: The Iron Triangle - Forte Labs

Just-In-Time PM #6: Evolving Deliverables - Forte Labs

In Part 5, I introduced The Iron Triangle of Project Management and the idea that any given deliverable can be reduced or expanded in scope at any time. How should you use this newfound ability? You should use it to: Get started Maintain momentum Test assumptions

Just-In-Time PM #14: Personal Productivity Networks - Forte Labs

In Part 13, we looked at the benefits of Component Thinking, which involves thinking of any product we are working on as made up of subcomponents, which can be evolved or swapped out over time. Now I’d like to take a step back and consider the big picture of what it means to work in small packets.

Just-In-Time PM #8: Divergence and Convergence - Forte Labs

In Part 7, I argued for the importance of interacting with information, instead of just passively consuming it. Interaction results in better learning at the same time as it creates valuable deliverables. But incorporating all these new ideas about how work is completed – flow cycles and intermediate packets, downscoping and evolving deliverables, interaction over consumption – can be a little overwhelming.

Just-In-Time PM #12: Just-In-Case to Just-In-Time - Forte Labs

In Part 11, I introduced the concept of a “critical path” of tasks in a project, and the rationale for pushing tasks as late as possible on the timeline. The late starts approach inspires a tremendous amount of resistance, especially from creative knowledge workers. It sounds an awful lot like taking control from individual employees, centralizing it in a central decision maker, and forcing people to finish everything at breakneck speed at the last minute.

Just-in-Time PM #21: Workflow Strategies - Forte Labs

Now it’s time to look at the JIT Project Manager’s toolkit. How do we put these ideas into practice in our day to day work? Through Workflow Strategies, a set of practical techniques for executing modern projects. Here is the full list, according to whether they work better for small or large-scale projects, and what kind of situation they are best suited for.

Just-In-Time PM #15: Multithreading - Forte Labs

In Part 14, we looked at the potential for massively increasing our bandwidth by creating “personal productivity networks.” These networks are made up of packets of work that move between “nodes” where some kind of intelligence is applied, whether human or software-based. But what does it look like to operate such a network in our day to day work?

Just-In-Time PM #13: Component Thinking - Forte Labs

In Part 12, I described the shift from a just-in-case to a just-in-time philosophy of work, using late starts as an example of the benefits it offers. But if nearly everything can be done later, and there are major benefits to doing so, one question comes to the forefront: what in the world should I do now?

Just-In-Time PM #4: Intermediate Packets - Forte Labs

In Part 3, I argued that having a personal knowledge base is the linchpin of success in a creative economy. A knowledge base allows you to reuse past work, draw from past experiences, share your knowledge in concrete form, and eventually, build products and services out of that knowledge. This requires strategically structuring your work in the first place, as a series of what I call intermediate packets.

Just-In-Time PM #3: Flow Cycles - Forte Labs

In Part 2, I described the sublime and powerful experience of flow, which could be considered the “holy grail” of productivity. I argued that there is theoretically no minimum amount of time necessary to get into flow, contrary to popular belief. But in reality, as always, it’s a bit more complicated. Let’s look at what this looks like in a typical working session of a couple hours.

Just-In-Time PM #10: Structure, Features, and Purpose - Forte Labs

In Part 9, I explained why it is so important to create placeholders for your work-in-process: to allow you to pursue multiple projects across different spans of time without losing your progress. What we are converging towards is a set of core principles for how Digital Knowledge Work is fundamentally different from previous kinds of work.

Just-In-Time PM #7: Interaction Over Consumption - Forte Labs

In Part 6, I recommended treating any deliverable (whether it’s a simple email all the way to a full-fledged product) as a series of evolutionary artifacts, each one intended to test an assumption or make forward progress. But there is a deeper reason for downscoping deliverables and then evolving them through a series of stages.

Collections: Iron, How Did They Make It, Part III: Hammer-time

This week, we continue our four-part (I, II, III, IVa, IVb, addendum) look at pre-modern iron and steel production. Last week we took our ore and smelted it into a rough, spongy mass of iron called…

Just-In-Time Project Management: A Digital-First Framework for Modern Projects - Forte Labs

Technology has transformed every aspect of business, from the tools we use to communicate and collaborate, to how products and services are built and

Collections: Iron, How Did They Make It? Part I, Mining

This week we are starting a four-part look (I, II, III, IVa, IVb, addendum) at pre-modern iron and steel production. As with our series on farming, we are going to follow the train of iron producti…

Collections: Iron, How Did They Make It, Part IVb: Work Hardening, or Hardly Working?

This week, we close out our four(and a half)-part (I, II, III, IVa, IVb, addendum) look at pre-modern iron and steel production, although I ought to note that there will be at least one addendum di…

Dark Factories: Rise of the Trycycle – Dan Shapiro's Blog

Companies are now producing Dark Factories – engines that turn specs into shipping software. The implementations can be complex and sometimes involve Mad Max metaphors. But they don’t have to be like…