December, 2022

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Using the 5 Whys in Project Management

LiquidPlanner

Nearly 2,500 years ago, Socrates (when he was not occupied with founding Western philosophy and instructing his star student, Plato) pioneered a method of asking questions that led people to draw conclusions and pursue deeper truths and realities. His practice of relentlessly picking apart ideas earned him the deserved reputation of being the gadfly of philosophy.

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Five Techniques for Risk Identification in Projects

Project Risk Coach

Risk identification is an integral part of project risk management. It is essential for any project manager to know what risks might affect a project and navigate them. This article will examine the five techniques for risk identification. Techniques for Risk Identification 1. Use a Risk List A risk list is a list of potential risks for an industry, organization, or company.

Risk 395
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Project lessons I learned from installing ceramic tiles

Kiron Bondale

For those of you who are Do It Yourself (DIY) pros, you may not consider this a significant accomplishment, but not usually being a DIY’er, I am quite pleased with having installed ceramic wall tiles for the first time ever. In this particular case, the tiling was backsplash for our main bathroom sink area. Once the work was completed, a friend who had provided a lot of hands-on assistance and tool support suggested that there might be some delivery lessons I could harvest from this home i

Risk 244
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8 Essential Project Management Documents You Need to Know About

Epicflow Blog

Project management involves creating lots of documentation. If you look into project management standards, you will find at least a dozen of various plans, multiple types of reports, and numerous other documents. The good news is that a project manager doesn’t have to write all of them – the idea is to compile only those that will be essential for workflow efficiency and required by stakeholders.

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The 2nd Generation of Innovation Management: A Survival Guide

Speaker: Chris Townsend, VP of Product Marketing, Wellspring

Over the past decade, companies have embraced innovation with enthusiasm—Chief Innovation Officers have been hired, and in-house incubators, accelerators, and co-creation labs have been launched. CEOs have spoken with passion about “making everyone an innovator” and the need “to disrupt our own business.” But after years of experimentation, senior leaders are asking: Is this still just an experiment, or are we in it for the long haul?

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How Culture Can Impact Communication in the Workplace

Rebel’s Guide to PM

It’s no secret that culture can have a big impact on communication. Just think about how much harder it is to communicate with someone from a different country who doesn’t speak your language. But culture can affect communication even when everyone speaks the same language. Different cultures have different ways of communicating, and if you’re not aware of these differences, it can lead to misunderstanding and conflict.

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What Is The Project Life Cycle: The 5 Phases & Why It’s Still Important

The Digital Project Manager

What is the project life cycle? Is it even relevant these days? Sure, agile complicates things a little bit, but the project life cycle is still a useful way to think about projects. Regardless of what project management methodology or framework you’re using, every project follows the same life cycle. The project life cycle guides […]. The post What Is The Project Life Cycle: The 5 Phases & Why It’s Still Important appeared first on The Digital Project Manager.

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Top 10 Agile Estimation Techniques for Project Managers In 2023

nTask

One of the things agile project managers struggle the most with is an accurate agile estimation. How are PMs identify the time and effort required to accomplish a task in the backlog? How can one be sure that their plan will work in the long run? When things get tough for PMs, they turn to […].

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Strategic Project Management and the Agile Crystal Method

The Strategic Project Manager

The agile Crystal methodology provides a unique flavor to the general agile approach to managing projects. This post defines what the agile Crystal method is, key aspects of the mindset behind the Crystal approach, strategic consideration, and impacts for project managers. What Is the Agile Crystal Method? Crystal was introduced by Alistair Cockburn at IBM in 1991.

Agile 52
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Six sins with work boards

Kiron Bondale

Regardless of what type of work your team does, work boards can be a helpful tool. But just because they can be helpful doesn’t mean they are always implemented well. The most common mistake is when teams don’t keep their work boards up to date with the actual status of work that is being done. Increasing transparency is a great way for stakeholders to understand what is going on and to increase their level of trust in teams.

SCRUM 177
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Breaking Ground on Better Payment Processes: Strategies for Construction Pros

Speaker: Timothy Allsopp

Payment challenges often lead to delayed projects, financial bottlenecks, and strained relationships. With construction projects becoming more complex, outdated processes are no longer sustainable. By refining financial workflow, companies can improve cash flow, reduce error, and foster trust between stakeholders. Discover practical strategies for redesigning payment systems to overcome workflow challenges while creating a smoother, more reliable process for contractors and subcontractors alike.

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Everything You Need to Know About Release Managers

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Do you have a release manager on the team? Or are you wondering whether it would be a pretty good job to move into? It wasn’t until I worked in IT as a project manager that I had a lot of contact with the release management process. My software projects needed releasing, so we had to follow the formal process and engage with the release manager to make sure that the bug fixes and new features got pushed to the production environment in a controlled way.

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What Is Lean Portfolio Management? A Quick Guide

ProjectManager.com

Having many projects to manage in a portfolio can be daunting. You need to strategize and plan your resource allocation to ensure that every project has what it needs when it needs it. There are many ways to do this and one of which is lean portfolio management. Let’s first define lean portfolio management and then delve into how it works. This will give you an idea if it’s the right strategy to execute your portfolio management.

Lean 361
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How can Product Owners get maximum value from Scrum?

Scrum.org

Scrum is a lightweight framework for solving complex problems. Therefore, the mechanics, as shown in the next picture, are relatively easy to understand: . It's the Scrum Master's job to bring the Scrum framework to life. And yet that is no guarantee that the product will be successful. It is the Product Owner's job to maximize the value of the product.

SCRUM 238
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Exploring Monte Carlo Analysis: What You Need to Know

Project Risk Coach

You are a project manager and have to make decisions on the fly. And this can be particularly difficult when estimating the cost and the timeline of complex, volatile projects. In this article, I will share what you need to know about Monte Carlo risk analysis , how it works, and an overview of when it should be used. Whenever we manage projects, we rely heavily on assumptions.

Estimate 195
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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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How many ways to say "Cost"?

Musings on Project Management

How many ways are there to say "Cost"?Certainly, more than one!When "they" ask: 'How do YOU manage cost?", your answer is: 'It's complicated' because there are so many varieties of 'cost'.Project managers certainly have at least this list:Estimated cost (of course, an estimate has to be made in the context of a plan: scope and schedule and resource plans)Baseline cost (estimated cost at the.

Estimate 186
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How To Create A Procurement Management Plan In 8 Easy Steps

The Digital Project Manager

If you’re not using a procurement management plan and working in tandem with the procurement team, you’re missing a key step in managing risk on your project and staying on budget and on schedule. The procurement management plan sets the boundaries for the entire procurement process, and covers risk management, vendor management, and even the […].

Planning 177
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Project Requirements: The What, Why, and How

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Have you ever been a part of a project that just didn’t seem to be going anywhere? Maybe it felt like there was no clear goal, or that the requirements kept changing. If so, then you know how frustrating and even maddening it can be to try to work on something without having a good understanding of what is required. Requirements are essential for any project, yet they are often one of the most difficult aspects to get right, especially if you work in an environment where there are high lev

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What Is Resource Loading and Why Does It Matter in Project Management?

ProjectManager.com

You’ve heard it countless times; teams are projects’ most valuable resource. They do the work. But a project manager has to connect each team member to that work. Resource loading is a process to keep team members fully engaged throughout the project. Being able to balance the resource load across your team is important. Resource loading in project management helps you avoid overallocation, which can erode morale and weaken productivity.

Budget 324
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Prepare Now: 2025s Must-Know Trends For Product And Data Leaders

Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, Terrence Sheflin, and Mahyar Ghasemali

As we look ahead to 2025, business intelligence and data analytics are set to play pivotal roles in shaping success. Organizations are already starting to face a host of transformative trends as the year comes to a close, including the integration of AI in data analytics, an increased emphasis on real-time data insights, and the growing importance of user experience in BI solutions.

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Don't make this planning mistake during Product Backlog refinement in Scrum

Scrum.org

The refinement process for those practicing Scrum determines the detail, order and size of the items in the Product Backlog. The purpose is to ensure that we have the highest-ordered Product Backlog items (PBIs) ready to Sprint. During refinement, the team discusses what we will deliver with each Product Backlog item. Although it's easy to drift into sorting out how we will deliver each PBI during these discussions, planning at this stage is a mistake. .

SCRUM 254
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Why are projects often delivered late?

LiquidPlanner

Why are projects often delivered late? Missed deadlines or missing deadlines – both can challenge your project and cause late delivery. I recently undertook a complex journey by car involving six locations, a number of people, and finally the drive back home. It was over a long distance and took most of one day to complete – but I completed it, and, in fact, I arrived home a few minutes earlier than expected.

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Nobody follows the plan!

Musings on Project Management

It's so damn frustrating!You spend a lot of time planning, coordinating, evaluating.And then it's D-Day, circumstances intervene, and nobody follows the plan ? (Well, they follow bits and pieces, but the plan as such is almost unrecognizable)That's a few sentences to say what we all know:No plan survives the first touch with realitySo, if this is all too obvious, what is it you do?

Planning 170
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10 Critical Project Management Concepts You Absolutely Have to Know

Online PM Courses

If you're starting out, you may be wondering: what are the most important Project Management concepts that you need to understand? The post 10 Critical Project Management Concepts You Absolutely Have to Know appeared first on OnlinePMCourses.

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How to Drive Cost Savings, Efficiency Gains, and Sustainability Wins with MES

Speaker: Nikhil Joshi, Founder & President of Snic Solutions

Is your manufacturing operation reaching its efficiency potential? A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) could be the game-changer, helping you reduce waste, cut costs, and lower your carbon footprint. Join Nikhil Joshi, Founder & President of Snic Solutions, in this value-packed webinar as he breaks down how MES can drive operational excellence and sustainability.

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Build, Excite, Equip: How to Simplify Change Adoption in Your Projects

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Build, Excite, Equip: How to Simplify Change Adoption in Your Projects, by Nicola Graham, is a handbook for business change management aimed at project managers. Given that project teams have to incorporate the business change elements to make sure projects land as expected – but often without the support of a dedicated change manager – this is a useful and much-needed book.

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PERT and CPM: Their Differences and How to Use Them Together

ProjectManager.com

Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM) are both useful tools when planning and controlling a project. PERT and CPM are complementary and both are important analytical techniques in project management when managing tasks. There are differences between PERT and CPM, of course, which is why they work so well together when calculating the time it’ll take to complete tasks in your project.

Estimate 320
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How can a Scrum Master serve the organization?

Scrum.org

How can a Scrum Master serve the organization? . There is a very sad joke about Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters regarding work at organization level – “an Agile Coach is a person who works with the organization and makes sure the Scrum Master doesn’t ”. It is both very wrong towards some of the Agile Coaches and unfortunately very right in other cases. .

SCRUM 227
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Step-by-Step to Smooth Project Closure

LiquidPlanner

Project closure is one of my favorite times in the lifecycle as a project manager. It’s when all your hard work pays off and you complete a structured, efficient handover to the business as usual team. At least, that’s what I was planning for in my head! In reality, it ended up more like a rush to get everything on the project closure checklist ticked off, complete the project wrap up and move on to the next initiative.

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Navigating Chaos in Project Management

This text offers practical guidance for project managers navigating diverse frameworks. It covers topics like centralized reporting, standardized metrics, communication, training, risk management, and alignment reviews. By implementing these strategies, project managers can improve efficiency and achieve their project goals.