Author Archives: donmcalister

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About donmcalister

I retired at the end of 2011, after a 39 year career in the Aerospace industry as a Propulsion Engineer, Engineering Manager and Program Manager. My professional interests and expertise are in the areas of Program, Risk and Knowledge Management. I'm passionate about life-long learning in a wide variety of topics and I'm committed to sharing my knowledge and ideas with those who are interested. I'm an Aerospace Industry Consultant. I serve my community as a Rotarian. My hobby is playing as a jazz keyboard.

Knowing When to Re-baseline Your Project

Posted on April 22, 2012 by donmcalister

There is much debate over when, and even if, it’s appropriate to “re-baseline” a project.  For the purpose of this blog, I’ll define re-baselining as actions taken by the Project Manager, with the customer’s concurrence, that result in the elimination … Continue reading →

Posted in Program & Knowledge Management | Tagged | 5 Comments

Striving for No-Surprise Project Management

Posted on April 16, 2012 by donmcalister

We have a love-hate relationship with surprises. In our personal lives we tend to love surprises. Surprise Parties, surprise call from friends, surprise wedding proposals, and movies with surprise endings. In fact, research shows that when we are pleasantly surprised, … Continue reading →

Posted in Program & Knowledge Management | Tagged | 1 Comment

Tactical Application of Project Management Maturity Models

Posted on April 10, 2012 by donmcalister

Project Management Maturity Models (PMMMs), can be powerful tools for improving the performance of project teams and the businesses and customers they serve. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the way that most of the current PMMMs are designed and used, I … Continue reading →

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Found in Translation – My Experiences in Japan, Part 1

Posted on April 2, 2012 by donmcalister

Remember that movie “Lost in Translation”? It was a romantic comedy starring Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson. Bill Murray plays an American movie star (Bob Harris), in the autumn of his career, who reluctantly takes his first trip to Japan. … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Personal Development, That's Life | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Project Management in the Matrix Crossfire

Posted on March 19, 2012 by donmcalister

Many businesses have adopted a Project/Functional matrix management organizational model as a way of ensuring enterprise focus on both the near-term execution and long-term process capability. Matrix organization theory says that Functional Managers are responsible for building, deploying and supporting … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Red-Eye Flights & Mind Games

Posted on March 8, 2012 by donmcalister

        Research has shown that our brains are constantly and rapidly constructing predictive models of what we expect to happen in certain situations, using the input from our senses and our experience in similar contexts. The following … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, That's Life | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Gorillas in the Midst

Posted on February 29, 2012 by donmcalister

I’ve been doing a lot of studying recently about the processes that go on in our body sensory systems and our brains as we interact with the world and each-other to learn, create and collaborate. I make no claim of … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Leadership, Personal Development, That's Life | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Knowledge & Risk Management Competence

Posted on February 23, 2012 by donmcalister

Why are we typically so ineffective in performing project risk management? Why, in spite of all of our smart people, great tools and extensive experience are we continually surprised and impacted by things, we realize in retrospect, could have been … Continue reading →

Posted in Program & Knowledge Management | Tagged | 2 Comments

“Sign Guy” Marketing

Posted on February 18, 2012 by donmcalister

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that there’s been a significant proliferation, over the last year or so, of those “Sign Guys” (my term…for convenience only…no pejorative connotation or gender bias intended) you see along the … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, That's Life | 1 Comment

“Are We There Yet” – Grain Elevators and Learning

Posted on February 11, 2012 by donmcalister

They say all stories have teaching moments. The following is a story from my childhood. Although as you’ll see it made some immediate difference in my life, it took me another 40 years to understand and appreciate the learning. As … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Personal Development, That's Life | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments