PMcrunch

The Agile Method is touted for its free flow of ideas and lack of impedence by an overstructured environment.  We have provided other posts about project blogs, and this is an ongoing discussion.  It also is an ongoing developement out there in the project management world, as blogging is used as part of project management communication.

I am involved with the implementation of blogging as part of creating a diary of thinking on a project.  If you have ever kept a diary, you know how interesting and sometimes enlightening it is to read what you were thinking at one time.  Such is the same thing that can happen with blogging - and with blogging as part of managing a project.  It can be quite informative to look back and see “what you were thinking”, and what others on your project were thinking.  This can also be very informative for senior management as well as stakeholders and new project team members.

The great thing about it is that the commentary is free flowing.  It is more of a thought stream, than a carefully creafted and structured reporting of status.  As such, it is going to tend to promote creativity and innovation.

I had not really thought about it before, but the free flowing commmentary of blogging is very closely aligned with the agile process.  In the post ”Blogging and the Culture of Innovation“, the ‘agility’ of blogging is articulated in plain and clear language.  The post is informative and thought-provoking for its coverage of the benefits of free flowing thought - just like agile development looks for free flowing development.  The crux of the matter also is that structure can be dangerous in the sense that it can squelch innovation.  New technology platforms like blogs, it seems, provide a case that we do not need as much structure as we used to to make our projects successful.
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John Reiling, PMP
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