Academia 2.0 – beyond online

The world is changing massively, in almost every aspect (except for the basic human needs). Every business model is having to be revisited, but… are universities, as we understand them, something that can prevail by pivoting their business model? How sustainable is their business model on the long mid term?

As with any business model, we would have to start by considering the value proposition of universities. Why do we have them? In every debate I’ve been in (and there have been many), people seem to think they have a clear picture: training students. And that is not only unarguably simplistic: in my view, it is even wrong. Continue reading “Academia 2.0 – beyond online”

Project sponsors and project managers

To the project managers out there: do you know who your project sponsor in your organisation is? To those not calling yourselves project managers: in your activities, is there anybody who makes sure that what you makes the company go forward. To those of you leading organisations (be it companies, your own startup, volunteer organisations, etc.), how do you make sure all projects are taking you forward.

If your organisation has a decent size, there’s two scenarios. Either it’s a patchwork of projects that you hope people are driving in the right direction, or you actually have started your journey into having project sponsors for each of the projects. Continue reading “Project sponsors and project managers”

The explorer and the road-builder

In a research project, how important (or even relevant) is to say how your final software or method will look like? Some time ago, I was having an interesting discussion with Filipe about his PhD thesis proposal. The main question was whether it was relevant to emphasise the fact that we are looking forward to developing a software tool that will include these results (and more).

The question was trickier than one would think. The algorithms in the tool do not need to be bleeding edge computer science research, but the human aspect of the tool is. Continue reading “The explorer and the road-builder”

Daniel visits Riga

Last April 19th, I had the honor of being member of the jury for the Project Management Championships organized by Young Crew Latvia, part of the Latvian National Project management association. The Project Management Championships is a competition for students in project management. They first go through a pre-selection process, in which they compete on an online challenge with multiple questions on project management. Those who are best at it will make it to the face to face finals. They will have some hours to solve a case study and present it in front of a jury, who will assess which team is most capable and well prepared. Continue reading “Daniel visits Riga”