Blog Archives

The AI team takes a deep dive into Dennis Sherwood’s 2007 book Seeing the Forest for the Trees, a manager’s guide to applying systems thinking, which provides managers with a structured framework to navigate and master the inherent complexity of organizational life. By utilizing causal loop diagrams, leaders can visualize the interconnected nature of business problems, moving beyond the linear, isolated perspectives often found in traditional spreadsheets. The text distinguishes between reinforcing loops, which act as engines for exponential growth … Continue reading →

The AI team taxes a deep dive in the book ‘PRINCE2 for Dummies‘. Despite its title, the book is a comprehensive guidebook serving as a practical manual for individuals entering the field of project management. It provides a structured framework for the entire project life cycle, from drafting a business case and project charter to final closure and retrospection. Key instructional areas include building a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), managing resource allocation, and navigating various organizational environments. The authors emphasize the human element by offering strategies … Continue reading →

The AI team takes a deep dive into the PeopleCert book Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (2023) which serves as a comprehensive guide to the project management methodology. The content covers the seven PRINCE2 principles, such as “ensure continued business justification” and “focus on products,” and introduces the seven practices: Business Case, Organizing, Plans, Quality, Risk, Issues, and Progress, which describe essential project management aspects. Furthermore, the source details the project lifecycle processes, including (1) Starting up a project, … Continue reading →

The AI team takes a hilarious deep dive into the official correspondence and internal memoranda related to a grievance filed by Joe Kasser against several officers of INCOSE, the International Council on Systems Engineering. The initial letters from December 2014 inform Kasser that an informal committee decided to ban him from presenting at the next two symposia (IS 2015-2016) and reject his submitted papers due to past “non-conciliatory” behavior during panel discussions in 2012 and 2014. Kasser’s extensive replies … Continue reading →

The AI team takes a deep dive into an unpublished manuscript, written by an anonymous engineer, which presents a critical analysis of the “Formal Systems Engineering Process” (FSEP) prevalent in the older, large-scale aerospace and defense contracting industries. The author argues that FSEP, combined with an ideology called “Managerialism,” fosters an inefficient, top-down bureaucratic culture that stifles innovation and leads to high costs and reduced reliability. This system, characterized by excessive reliance on formal requirements, spreadsheets, micromanagement, and favoritism, is … Continue reading →