Todd Williams
Todd Williams' Interview with Talk Business 360
eCameron History & Philosophy
The Foundation—Before eCameron
People say it is tenacity that makes me good at recovering projects, some say my attention to detail, and others just think I have a penchant for headaches, heartburn, and working long hours. I am not sure if there is one reason. As for myself, I know I like figuring out how things work and fixing them—be it clocks or cars, printers or projects. After working on a variety of projects that were in a shambles, projects needing someone to put them back together, I have developed a process for fixing projects that also shows how their problems can be prevented in the first place—allowing you to get the highest value out of you vision—solutions that do not look at who might win or who to blame. They focused on doing the right thing.
Negotiation and Management
People often fail to realize how many actions in work and our personal lives rely on negotiation. It could be negotiating a raise, setting up conditions about using a resource, determining a task's scope, or adjusting a delivery date. We do some form of negotiation daily. Even though we learn to negotiate at just about the same time that we learn to communicate, we rarely understand the science and art behind it. By establishing a process around negotiation, we maximize our chances for success. A process ensures that we understand the wants and needs of the person on the other side of the table.
Agile, Waterfall, and Kanban, Oh My!
Many organizations have only one methodology for running projects. However, nearly all organizations perform a variety of projects—deploying hardware, developing new products, changing internal processes, and running custom projects for customers. Some methodologies are much better for specific styles of projects. Therefore, organizations need a portfolio of processes that matches their portfolio of projects and their culture. Phasing, critical chain, agile all have valuable attributes that can be applied in specific areas.
Improving Project Inception
The fate of a project is often sealed long before the first person is assigned or charters, contracts, or SOWs are written. Experience with auditing dozens of projects and doing root cause analysis projects has shown that corporate decisions, not project decisions, have a very larger effect. This presentation, designed for executives, PMO managers, and senior project managers, focuses on a number of techniques learned while recovering projects that greatly improve the chances for success. It introduces the concept of guidance teams that get involved with the project at the customer inception stage and follows the project and team through to its completion.
Estimating: The Sociological Effects in a Group Workshop
Whether you are a project or a functional manager, estimates are a daily part of your life. Team members need to make estimates for a variety of reasons, these include:
- The amount of time for a task.
- The cost for resources.
- The cost of software, hardware and other materials.
- The time required to finish a task.
Back from Red: Recovering Failing Projects
Estimates for the annual cost of project failure are as high as two trillion dollars a year. The rates for projects being at risk are in the 60-70% range, and a quarter of all project's problems are so bad they are simply canceled prior completion. Preferably, all projects will run according to plan. However, moving from a 60% failure rate to 0% is unrealistic. To improve success rates, organizations must first understand what it is that makes their projects fail. Reasons range from methodology to human failure to lack of executive commitment. Taking a systems approach to analyzing projects uncovers all the factors that are contributing to the failure.
Toyota: A Saga of Success
Abstract: This book, edited by N Kelai Selvan, is a compilation of articles from sixteen different authors. Todd Williams supplied Chapter Four, which is a reprint of The Toyota Way synopsis
The Accidental Professional
The Accidental Professional, Vancouver Business Journal, September 1, 2006, Vol. 13, Issue 18
Abstract: This article is an interview with Todd Williams by reporter Neil Zawicki conducted at the Starbucks at Commerce Center in Vancouver, WA.
Recovering High-Tech Projects
Recovering high-tech projects, Vancouver Business Journal, July 21, 2006, Vol. 13, Issue 15
Abstract: Recovering high-tech projects may take a number of techniques. These may include Agile, Critical Chain and classic waterfall approaches.
Project Rescue Blog Posts
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Tales of an Expert Witness: Sex, Lies, and Video Tape (Part II) Written on Wednesday, 02 December 2015 06:30Trust relationships, certifications, and standards sound like such a safe harbor. These sound like such great words in a proposal or statement of work. How could you possibly go wrong…
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Tales of an Expert Witness: Sex, Lies, and Video (Part I) Written on Friday, 01 August 2014 00:00The subpoena shows up at the front desk and the call comes to you to pick it up. That nauseating feeling in your gut is the prelude to a long…
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The 6 Ps of Public Sector Project Failure: Profit, Periodicity, Politics, Passion, Press, and Pay Written on Friday, 30 May 2014 00:00"The government is incapable of running projects. Simply put, their miserably high failure rate proves that government should be out of the project management business." There are plenty of examples…
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Case Study: Division Of Unemployment Assistance, Massachusetts/Deloitte Written on Sunday, 30 March 2014 00:00In May 2007, the Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) signed a contract with Bearing Point, Inc. to modernize the State’s unemployment processing system. The project was called the DUA…
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Case Study: $250 Million Failure, Who Are You Going To Sue? Written on Sunday, 30 March 2014 00:00In order to comply with the Affordable Care Act, the State of Oregon made the decision to build its own Health Insurance Exchange (ORHIX). An online portal to allow applicants…
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Consultants Cheat Written on Sunday, 25 March 2012 00:00"We can fix this project ourselves." I hear that line all the time. And, of course, you can. It will just be a lot slower and more expensive because consultants…
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Decision Makers, Shakers, and Fakers Written on Sunday, 12 June 2011 00:00Decisions, deshmisions, what is the big deal? Anyone can make a decision! Hardly. After years of working with ineffective initiatives and consternated companies, I have a healthy respect for the…
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Passionately Dispassionate Written on Sunday, 29 May 2011 00:00People routinely ask me the question, "What do you do when you find yourself on a project that is a hopeless failure?" It was raised again a few weeks ago…
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Leading Without Authority Written on Sunday, 27 March 2011 00:00Leadership is more than leading the people reporting to you. Too often, you need to lead people over which you lack any authority. The absence of hierarchical advantage adds a…
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The Consultant's Lore Written on Sunday, 16 January 2011 00:00"Why is it that when you get hired you are no longer the expert?" A chuckle rippled through the audience; however, the woman asking the question was serious. I turned…
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The Snake Pit, Taking the Poison Out of Technical Debt Written on Sunday, 27 June 2010 00:00Projects build in technical debt and maintenance groups remove it—if your organization has a maintenance group. Technical debt accrues in any product, whether or not it has a technical component.…
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Five (more) Stupid Management Decisions on Failing Projects Written on Sunday, 20 June 2010 00:00A few weeks ago, I posted an article on five of the ten stupidest decisions management had done on troubled projects, as promised, here are the other five. Although these…
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