Knowledge vs Information

Knowledge = Information that is Practiced

One key point to emphasize is that this blog will heavily emphasize on implementing information so it becomes knowledge as shown in the knowledge funnel. All of us get tons of project management information from two sources:

• Literature (1-way medium) e.g., books, magazines, blogs, articles
• People (2-way medium) e.g., other project managers, general management, project stakeholders

These two buckets of information end up being filtered by our experience or things that we encounter or tasks with which we experiment. And knowledge is the processed information that pops out at the other end of this information funnel.

For example, I first read about  Monte Carlo simulations in Waltzing with Bears (literature). After talking to a Microsoft Solution Manager who actually had implemented this method (people), I tried using it for coming up with ranged estimates i.e., task X will complete within 10-15 days instead of single-point estimates (task X will complete in 10 days). Liquid Planner, an online alternative to MS Project, has Monte Carlo simulations  built in and is really cool for predicting the probability of completing a schedule by a certain date.

In fact, in one project, after putting together a schedule for a project, I had told my management that we only had a 10% probability of meeting the desired date and a 90% probability of meeting another date that was nearly two months later. While we decided not to share this info with our  client, at the end of the project, the Monte Carlo method had amazingly enough predicated the correct date to within a few weeks of accuracy!

But despite this very educational experience, I stopped using Monte Carlo because my consulting situation in another large firm didn't allow for online project management tools. And using the Monte Carlo method within MS Project 2007, the only authorized project management app, proved time-consuming. Still, it was valuable experience gained using this statistical technique.

So, whenever you read a post, my recommendation is that you try for a week or so what's been posted to see if the specific schedule management technique works for you. If it doesn't, please do drop me a note letting me know why it didn't work for you. I'm always interested in learning when specific techniques work and when they fail.

And don't worry.

In future posts, I'll spend less time pontificating and focus more on actionable information  that you can implement and thus turn into diamonds of knowledge.