I just read Fred Wilson's post From Blog To Forum, and it struck a cord with me, relative to a closed discussion forum in which I participate with a group of trusted associates. While the subject area of Fred's blog is different from the discussions of that private group, the behavioral patterns are very relevant to what that group is trying to create, which is a powerful forum for exchanging ideas and challenging one another.  Two key differences, though, are (1) Fred uses a blog whereas this private group uses a discussion forum and (2) Fred's blog is entirely open to all, this group is not.

This led me to ask the private group to consider those two points as we talk about the future of our group. Then, I realized that my reflection on these points would be good perspective to share with anyone who's interested. So, in the paragraphs below, I call out what I believe the the most important differences between a blog (which is typically open) and a forum (which can be either, but I'm especially focused on those that are closed, like the one I mentioned above).

I was recently asked,

What do you consider to be the most important ingredients in a Project Management Organization (PMO)?

My answer to this question comes in three sets of ingredients. The first set of ingredients define the purpose of – and relationships between – IT Portfolios, Programs and Projects.

Figure 1 - Relationships between IT Portfolios, Programs & Projects

IT Portfolio Management - Select and manage the portfolio of opportunities for IT to contribute business value to the enterprise. Leading practices often use IT spending categories like: Infrastructure (maintain the steady state), Transactional (to reduce costs), Informational (improve decision-making) and Strategic/Risky (make transformational improvements).

IT Program Management - Manage a defined set of interrelated projects that support common business outcomes.  Focus on maximizing the business value or impact of IT dollars, even if it means delaying or killing some projects or programs when they no longer best meet business priorities. This also includes juggling resources and other interdependencies to maximize project synergies.

IT Project Management - Manage resources to complete a specific scope of work on time, on budget and to customer satisfaction. Follow a consistent methodology across projects.

Building on my previous article about Blog Technologies, the next web 2.0 technology to introduce is a web feed. A web feed is a data format used for providing readers with frequently updated content. Let's say, for example, we wanted to add a new feature to the Newton PTO Council website which collected news and announcements from all 21 Newton school PTOs so that parents had one place where they could read it.

I recently started writing a column for the European Newsletter of The Concours Group (updated: now part of nGenera). I'll use my blog here as a place to post these articles and make them available to others.
The purpose of the postings listed below is to build some common vocabulary in fairly simple "business terms". These articles will intentionally be short and written for non-techies. Here's an initial list of Web 2.0 technology topics that I plan to cover (or already have). As articles are written, the topics here will link to them.