SPaMCAST 24 - Edelson, Coaching, Specialization

SPaMCAST 24 - Edelson, Coaching, Specialization ** Note – Traceability paper will be out on the feed this week. ** Show 24 features an interview with Marilyn Edelson, a Principal at IT Decisions Coaching LLC.  The interview covers project management, leadership, the similarities, differences and how coaching can make both better.  This was a wide ranging interview with lots of tips and take “aways"! Marilyn Edelson, cofounder, is a Master Certified Coach, entrepreneur and certified Best Year Yet® program leader with over 25 years experience in behavioral management. She has has been coaching executives, managers and corporate teams for the past 10 years and was voted 'Top 10 Coach 2007' by Women's Business Boston (a division of The Boston Herald). She has a strong behavioral background and easily integrates the principals of emotional and social intelligence with the structured, measurable results oriented approach provided by the Best Year Yet® system and DiSC behavioral and values assessment tools. She teaches, mentors and trains professional coaches, and is the coaching consultant for the first National Institute of Health study on the efficacy of coaching in healthcare. She holds a Master of Science degree from Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.   Here are the links for ITDC and Marilyn! IT Decisions Coaching - ITDC email:  Marilyn’s email:  m.edelson@itdecisionscoaching.com The essay this week is titled “Specialization: Making It Work For You!" The essay seeks to answer the question, “when did process, documentation and certifications become the goal rather than a path for attaining project success?"   This frightening question caused me to relate two seemingly different concepts during quite times of contemplation over the past few weeks.  The first was the impact of hyper-specialization in the process improvement world (and by extension anywhere it is used) and the second was a need to refocus process improvement groups on helping organizations deliver project results.  This could be scary stuff but solvable and solvable in a way that won’t break the bank.  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at  Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111 Twitter – BLOG –  Future Events and the next . . . I have a couple of free webinars coming up in early 2008.  The first is “Getting Performance Improvement Out of Your Software Process Improvement" on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT And the second is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement" May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: The next Software Process and Measurement Cast features an interview with Grady Booch chief scientist of (now a part of ).  We will discuss structure, design, architecture, agility and discipline amongst other things.  This is another of those interviews where you will want to take notes!