Avon’s US$125M IT Software Project Mistake. Basic Principles and Benefits of the Agile Development Life Cycle. Written by: Rupen Sharma, PMP • edited by: Tricia Goss • updated: 7/7/2014 There’s so much talk about applying agile techniques to deliver software.
For people new to Agile, this article provides a quick overview of a typical Agile Development Life Cycle. Before we dive into the Agile Development Life Cycle, it is important to understand that Agile is an approach to software development. This approach was developed to mitigate the risks associated with the traditional Waterfall model.The basic premise that requirements are clear at beginning of a project is challenged in the agile approach. In reality, project requirements are unearthed, can change and may evolve over a project life Cycle. In a typical Agile Development Life Cycle, the smallest item of work is called a story.
Starting a New Project? Here Are Some Great Tips to Help You Get Started. July 17, 2014 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices Starting a New Project?
Here Are Some Great Tips to Help You Get Started By Michelle Symonds If you’ve just been allocated a project you’re probably extremely excited, particularly if you’re fresh out of project management training. This can be such great time, where you can gain control of the project from the outset, meet plenty of new people and learn new lessons from this project, regardless of your previous experience. Use Case Breakdown. July 3, 2014 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Definitions Use Case Breakdown By Demian Entrekin So, what exactly is a Use Case?
Do you need to get a definitive answer? Has someone asked you to create a Use Case? Do what we all do: do a search on the web. Right. Here’s my take on “what is a Use Case?” So for me, since I’ve just said it’s up to me, I will say that a Use Case can be defined as follows: “A Use Case defines a meaningful subset of a business life cycle.” 8 Tips for Handling Difficult Emotions. July 1, 2014 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Conflict Management, Project Management Best Practices 8 Tips for Handling Difficult Emotions By Ray W.
Frohnhoefer Back in April, we looked at 10 necessary skills for handling conflicts that occur during the course of a normal project. This article expands on one of those skills in particular – handling difficult emotions. 3 Personal Development Habits Every Project Manager Should Have. June 20, 2014 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices 3 Personal Development Habits Every Project Manager Should Have By Michelle Symonds A habit is a repeated behavior that you often perform without even thinking about as it has embedded itself deep within your subconscious mind.
Having positive habits is key to success, in particular, personal development habits which will enable you to grow as a person and excel in your professional life. Think of every personal development habit as a strength that you can draw upon whenever you need to, that can help you improve, move forward and ultimately succeed in everything you do. Here are 3 personal development habits every Project Manager should have: 10 Project Management Dos. June 12, 2014 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices 10 Project Management Dos By Susanne Madsen Project managers are working harder than ever before, even as we continue to have more knowledge, tools and technology available to us.
The business world changes rapidly, competition increases, technology advances, and a project manager’s game is always changing. Here are 10 practices to focus on in order to hone your skills, deliver triumphant projects, and have a great experience doing your job. New Project? Do These 3 Things First. October 22, 2013 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Project Management Guides New Project?
Do These 3 Things First By Brad Egeland You’ve just been assigned a fresh new project. All is good, all is new, no issues to speak of, and no one is upset. It’s like the first day of baseball’s spring training. You can take advantage of this fresh, hopeful season and run with it or you can choose to screw it up fast and fall flat on your face…and take the project down with you… As for me, I choose to take advantage of it and run with it and build on that hope and satisfaction that I can feel in everyone from my project team down to everyone on the customer’s side. So, with all that I mind, here are the first three things I do to make sure that I take advantage of that very fresh positive situation and get the project started on the right foot… Brad Egeland has written this article on behalf of the Mind Mapping Software Developer MindGenius.
Best Weekly Status Meeting Ever. Many project team members prepare for weekly status meetings with a sense of dread and resignation.
These meetings often subject people to long motivational speeches, an overly detailed review of project tasks and even the unpleasant prospect of speaking about their specific progress in front of project leadership. Sometimes these meetings last hours, causing team members to rush to complete project activities. No wonder they make excuses to miss these meetings! How can you, as project manager, structure a weekly status meeting so team members are engaged, informed and willing to contribute to the project's next steps? Here are some tips: Five Mistakes You Do Not Want to Make As a Project Manager. September 27, 2013 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings Five Mistakes You Do Not Want to Make As a Project Manager By Michelle Symonds Some mistakes can be avoided if you plan properly and in advance.
A Phase by Any Other Name: The 5 Project Phases. September 24, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management for Beginners A Phase by Any Other Name: The 5 Project Phases By Shelley Brodie Note: This article was slightly edited by PM Hut.
While there are a few different schools of thought on how to manage a project, the one thing all agree on is the fact all projects will go through certain phases before it’s done. Typically, a project will move through 5 phases with the length of time spent in each phase influenced and impacted by the size and nature of the project. 5 Communication Tips for Better Stakeholder Management. Over the past few years, I have written numerous posts looking at different aspects of stakeholder management. But what really matters and what is just useful to know? Here are my top five things to know to achieve effective stakeholder management: 1. Know who really matters. Make sure that the majority of your limited resources are being used to communicate with the stakeholders who really matter.
How Project Management and Managing Work Fit Together. November 27, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings How Project Management and Managing Work Fit Together By Ty Kiisel On the way home from work, do you ever feel like you’ve been riding a unicycle, trying to keep your balance while you juggle everything you do throughout the day? If you do, you’re not alone. A big part of the average workday typically includes a lot more than working on structured activities and formal projects. If you’re day is like mine, there are requests from colleagues, personal tasks, and the stuff I do every day that isn’t related to any specific project (like writing this blog), that I try to do. Do You Need Three Project Managers for One Project? November 20, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings Do You Need Three Project Managers for One Project?
By Maarten Rijken New Product Development is all about a new Product. Five Tool Managers. November 20, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices Five Tool Managers By Glenn Briskin In the world of leadership blogs encouraging managers to be leaders, I have a tiny niche where I encourage project managers to develop consulting skills. Capabilities Based Planning. I'm working on a set of Essential Views for program performance management. These views are the leading indicators of a programs cost, schedule and technical performance measures needed to Keep the Prorgram GREEN. The sponsor of this effort is a DoD office through a think tank. The result will be better assessment of large and complex programs once the concepts have been vetted and reach the field.
The basis of the Essential Views is to make use of lagging indicators of Earned Value Management, with Technical Performance Measures, Measures of Effectiveness, Measures of Performance, and Key Performance Parameters. All are needed to construct the Essential View that is a leading indicator. These indicators start with knowing the needed capabilities of the outcomes from the program. Complexity in mega IT projects. “Everyone thinks they are the big boss,” says Laura Aziz. 10 Common Project Management Mistakes and How to Correct Them. Consulting and Project Management. Make Business Process Realignment a Part of Every Technology Project. October 29, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices Make Business Process Realignment a Part of Every Technology Project By Michael Greer Do you ever wonder if your organization gets work done in spite of the rules, systems and processes that they have to follow?
I have been out working with clients for the last month and have heard and seen many people talking about this subject. Based on a conversation that I had with our Chief Performance Consultant, Dr. Karen McGraw, I wanted to share some thoughts on process realignment. Business processes are an important part of the way work gets done. In many cases, new technologies subsume or change old processes. Your First Project. How to Create a Perfect Action Plan. Making Projects More Profitable - Part 3.
5 Project Startup Communication Tips - Project Management 101. October 17, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Communications Management. Making Projects More Profitable – Part 2. Making Projects More Profitable – Part 1. Posted by Brad Egeland In this Part 1 of this three part series on making projects more profitable we’ll look at the role of effective management of project resources and how that plays into overall project profitability. Bringing resources onboard only when you need them, effectively and efficiently managing your project resources’ tasks that are assigned to them, and how you stay in touch and conduct team meetings all have something to do with keeping your resources working efficiently and keeping your projects as profitable as possible.
Resources aren’t cheap. Mostly likely you’re overseeing resources that are billing out to project clients in three figures per hour – using their time wisely and ensuring they’re working on what they should be working on can have a huge impact on the final profit margin for your project. Use tools to effectively manage resource tasks Bring resources onboard just in time.
Meet regularly with the internal team to stay on top of progress. Project Resource Management. 9 Lessons I’ve Learned in Project Management. Reader (78) 3 Simple Tips to Effectively Manage Customer Expectations in a Project. How To Get Things Done When You Don’t Have Enough Resources, Budget, or Capacity - J.D. Meier's Blog. What To Do When Your Project Is in Trouble.
An Example of a Project Charter. Setting and Resetting Expectations - PM Hut - Waterfox. Problem Solving and Decision Making Processes. Tips and Tools to Manage Your Projects More Effectively. 5 Key Trends for Project Success. 14 Key Principles for Project Management Success. Wrapping Project Management Around an RFP. Simple PM Tips on Managing Issues Effectively. One Hundred Rules for NASA Project Managers. Project Knowledge Capture.
Risk. Estimating. Some Thoughts on Projects and Resource Allocation. An Introduction to PMI’s Project Management Life Cycle. Why Projects Succeed: Risk Identification. Instant Messaging as a PM Tool - Waterfox. Fundamental Elements of a Project Scope Document. The Subject Matter Expert. Introduction. 7 Things I Learned About Project Management - PM Hut - Waterfox. The 7 Essential Behaviors of Accountable Leaders - PM Hut - Waterfox. Measuring What Matters - PM Hut - Waterfox. Project Performance KPIs - PMO Effectiveness - PM Hut - Waterfox. 5 Essential Building Blocks for Project Managers - PM Hut - Waterfox. 8 Traits of Top Project Managers - Part 1 - PM Hut - Waterfox. Legal Aspects of Contract Management. How to Start the Big Project You've Been Putting Off - Peter Bregman - Harvard Business Review - Waterfox.
Running a Project Status Meeting - Waterfox. Project Management, Collaboration and Knowledge Management Blog - Waterfox. The Financial Soup in Project Management: DCF, EVA, IRR, and NPV. Stakeholder analysis - Waterfox. Top 10 Project Management Trends for 2012 - PM Hut - Waterfox. 4 Metrics to Help Spot Trouble for Agile Teams. To Assure You About "Assure" - Waterfox.
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Framework - J.D. Meier's Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs - Waterfox. The Word on Risk - Waterfox. Every Project Has Risks - PM Hut - Waterfox. Agile for Learning Project Management? - PM Hut - Waterfox. 5 Agile Project Management Techniques You Can Start Using Today - PM Hut - Waterfox. Project Management, Collaboration and Knowledge Management Blog - Waterfox.