Thinking about the Future

I have been thinking about the future. There are many technologies and projects going on that will have a huge impact on our future society.  Many of these technologies are breaking the rules as we know them and many of the tasks that we do today may not be the tasks that we do tomorrow.

I have been reading a lot and thinking about what technologies are going to have this big impact.  Something small that I think is already here is voice activated technologies.  Although I use my Amazon Echo almost everyday to hear music, the news, and weather, but it is getting better.  There may be a day that the keyboard is a thing of the past.  We already have voice activated typing, it is a little clumsy, but it is getting better.

Another area related the the first is the internet of things or IoT. IoT is already here, it is possible to connect many of the common devices we already use.  It is important to understand IoT because there are huge security implications involved in connecting all these devices.  The secret is the interfaces.  If you pair voice activated with IoT, it creates a huge convenience with a huge security concern.

One technology that helps with the security concern is blockchain technology.  When people think of blockchain, they think of cryptocurrencies. Cyptocurrencies are really just the tip of the blockchain iceberg.  This is a technology in which I am researching much more.

Other technologies that are here and getting better include robots, automation, artificial intelligence, deep learning, and many more.

The point of this post is that the future is coming and people really need to be prepared to continue to learn new skills on a continual basis.  It will be important to learn these skills not just for work, but also to just basically live in a more connected world.

***Remember help me out with the survey about Program Manager Critical Skills***

Critical Skills for Program Managers Survey

In the interest to find out what the critical skills that Program Manager's need today and in the future,  I have created a survey to asks those questions.

If you have a minute or two to answer a few questions, I would appreciate it.

If you want the raw data from the survey, leave your email at the end and I will send it to you.

Critical Skills for Program Managers Survey

Share this with friends and coworkers who might be interested.

Thanks,
Kevin

Tools Tuesday: Requirements Tracker

The requirements tracker is an important tool that you can use to log and track requirements.  I use this tool to log, categorize and to track the requirements that I elicit from the customer.  Of course, this helps as you start to work the project and start to complete the requirements and as new requirements are discovered.  It also helps to keep the track of those requirements that are in the contract and those that are not.

This document was made in excel and is updated as needed.  This is a handy tool to communicate with project team members and stakeholders.

Another way to elicit requirements is through a survey.  I have in the past had mixed results with the survey.  In my recent experience, the survey was not sent to the subject matter experts and the survey data was not very helpful.  As a matter of fact, the group/panel discussion provided much better data.  It was a step backwards from where I wanted to go, but at least I found this out early in the project and did not attempt to provide a product that did not meet the requirements.

This is why requirements are important for the successful project manager.