Introduction to Raven's Brain: November 1st, 2005

Hello! My name is Raven, and I am a project manager living in Seattle, Washington. I have over 13 years of project management experience, with a focus in IT, Web and Software Development. I'm a 5 year PMI member and a writer who likes to ramble, live from Seattle WA. I'm also a drummer, music lover, motorcycle mama, movie fanatic & partime couch potato. 

I hope to use this space to generate discussions on various topics with PM's from all over. I've had a personal site up for some time and thought it was time to move things over to MSN Spaces to make the content more organized, easier to update and hopefully more useful. Here I plan to discuss such varied topics as project management tools, methodologies, professional affiliations, books, useful websites, blogs, columns, whitepapers, articles, seminars, webinars, podcasts, tips, tricks, training and anything else that sparks interest. More importantly, I hope to bring focus to a lot of the soft skills that project and program managers need to use for success. Managing projects, portfolios and programs is about more than scheduling software, project plans, estimating and managing risk and change. Don't get me wrong, these things are very important to a pm's success, but I also think we tend to focus too much on process and forget about the people doing the work. Things like learning how, what and when to communicate (good and bad news), dealing with conflict, negotiating without yelling, discussing without arguing, leading and facilitating an effective meeting, coaching, mentoring, counselling, challenging, stimulating creativity, brainstorming - all of these skills are critical to a PMs success, yet most books, seminars and training classes focus on processes and ignore the people side. I hope to use this space as a launch pad for discussions on both PM processes and the soft skills that will seperate an excellent PM from the good, the bad and the ugly.

UPDATE: I recently added some new categories to house the various business, personal development and technology articles, tools and other content/resources I blog about. This allows me to keep the Project management category focused on 100% PM content. Be sure to check the new categories out:

• Personal Growth
• Brainstorming & Creative Thinking
• Leadership
• Communication Essentials
• Software & Web Development
• Management
• Agile
• Project Management Humor
• Technology & Business
• Blogging
• Tools & Utilities

and of course don't forget the Project Management category!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and come back soon if you're interested in reading more of my project management blog and/or checking out the various PM Resources on my space: lists of books and other resources, links to business content, PM tools and templates, online assessments and more. Interested in subscribing to future updates? Sign up for blog updates now!

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Got something to say? I'd love to hear from you! Email raven_young AT hotmail DOT com. I'm interested in connecting with other project and program managers, business analysts, management & leadership gurus, IT professionals and anyone else interested in developing on both personal and professional levels.

Hope to see you back!

Raven Young
Email raven_young AT hotmail DOT com

Posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Project Management
Technorati tags: Project Management, Project Management Blog, Project Manager

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