Welcome to the December/January edition of carnival of project management.  And for this, our thirtieth edition, we have taken a trip to PMTips.net who is guest hosting the Carnival this month.



So - here is the round-up of the best project management articles submitted to the Carnival this time:



My favourite post this time comes from Elyse Nielsen at Anticlue. Her post is called Taming Chaotic Project Management - Dealing with Changing Priorities posted at Anticlue, saying, "Prioritization is the art of choosing what not to do, and it is hard for organizations without good business governance to choose what not to do. If you find yourself dealing with changing priorities, here are 5 tactics you can deploy."



Gilad Lev-Shamur presents What are the 5 basic rules of project management? at a relatively new blog called The Project Management's Thinker.  Not a particularly grammatical title, but it's good that there are new project management blogs entering the field, and this one looks promising.



Here is another relatively new site, aimed at contract project managers: Steve has been putting some final touches to Contractor Project Manager over Christmas, and the site looks great.  He submitted Advice on becoming a PMO/Project Management Assistant, so if any of you are looking for a career change in the new year, this could be a good starting point.



GeekMBA360 presents Is team work overrated in corporate environment? posted at GeekMBA360. A controversial post that I don't agree with - in a project environment I believe team work is essential. Granted, there are always people who don't pull their weight, but bad management (or absent/ineffective management) are equally to blame for allowing these situations to continue. Projects are done with teams, therefore teams are important.



SpiKe presents Productivity Down! An Emergency Response Guide posted at Organize IT. A good post on getting going again when you can't get a grip on what needs to be done.



Finally, here are two posts about public speaking, which I thought were interesting especially as I have just read Scott Berkun's excellent book, Confessions of a Public Speaker. First, GreatManagement presents How to use the audience for dramatic effect when public speaking posted at GreatManagement Blog, saying, "Many of us would love to start mastering public speaking.  One particular technique that works wonders in any public speaking engagement is to involve the audience."  He goes on to discuss how this can be done.



Second, CA has The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs posted at Atlantic Canada's Small Business Blog, saying, "The glowing feedback after my next presentation indicated to me that following the steps outlined in the book helped. If I can do it, so can you. Here are four tips that, if you adhere to, will ensure your presentation will be a success. To provide some context, my presentation shared the results of a project with senior management."