January, 2019

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How To Create A Simple Project Plan (Project Planning Process)

PM Basics

Let me put this straight: Project planning is a challenging and complex activity. You need to apply knowledge and skills from all aspects of project management. You operate with an enormous amount of information. And let’s be truthful: You’ll race against the clock. Nevertheless, project planning is a structured and logical process. In this article, I’ll show you a proven workflow.

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Project Prioritization: Stop Working on the Wrong Projects!

Meisterplan

The Ranking Method, the Scoring Method, and the Domain Approach at a Glance Scarce resources and even scarcer resources. This has always been the case in project portfolio management. Previously, money was the main scarce resource, but now it is employees. The implementation of projects is limited by the available capacity and skills of the employees assigned to those projects.

PMO 75
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9 Reasons Why Problem Solving Skills are Critical for Your Career

Project Bliss

When considering your career, you’re likely looking for a way to set yourself apart from everyone else at work. You may be looking for ways to grow in your career. And you’re possibly wondering what skills will be most beneficial. And you want to ensure you have job security, or that you’ll be able to get a job easily if anything happens to the one you have now.

Executing 185
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7 Uncomfortable Truths for Project Managers

ProjectManager.com

Project Managers are among the most positive of people. Armed with our methods and tools , our boundless optimism and our can-do attitude, it sometimes feels like we can do anything. Yet the fact is, there are limitations. We must all face some uncomfortable truths. This is a personal perspective, so it may reflect my own insecurities, rather than yours.

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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9 Essential Project Documents (With Templates)

Rebel’s Guide to PM

I picked up a project from someone else not that long ago and I was three months into my management of it before I realised there wasn’t a project charter. There were lots of other documents that all had a degree of overlap with a charter, but not an actual charter. That meant there were some key things missing from the project’s paperwork and the most important thing missing was who was going to pay for it.

PMO 377

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The Lazy Project Manager – Conference and Corporate Speaker

The Lazy Project Manager

As we all start the journey that is 2019, a few questions: Are you investing in your project management community? Does your team need better presentation skills? Do your sponsors and executives need better understanding of business change impact? Do you have plans for a business event in the coming months? Do you need help in any, or all, of the above?

2019 232
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Measure the measurable

Musings on Project Management

Without Metrics you're just another guy with an opinion - Stephan Leschka, Hewlett Packard* I get it; and mostly, I agree with Mr. Leschka BUT, there are a few other rules: Don't measure -- meaning: don't invest the effort to collect and analyze -- that which you don't manage Don't measure the unmeasurable -- meaning, don't assign false values and dimensions to that which is fundamentally.

Estimate 231
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Scrum Master is the Master of Coaching

Scrum.org

. Hello, great people of the world. Welcome back to the Scrum Master blog series with yours truly. As we enter the new year, we are seeing Scrum becoming the most commonly used framework to manage complex product delivery in the industry. As Scrum is becoming the de-facto standard for product delivery, the expectations from a Scrum Master from the industry is becoming higher.

SCRUM 195
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How to Handle Criticism at Work

ProjectManager.com

Criticism can be helpful, but even when it’s constructive, it can be hard to take—especially at work. How do you deal with criticism productively? Jennifer Bridges, PMP, shows you strategies on how to handle criticism at work. Here’s a screenshot of the whiteboard for your reference! In Review – How to Handle Criticism at Work. What is criticism?

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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 To Make 2019 A Successful Year for Your Projects

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Would you like to make 2019 a successful year for your projects? I’m sure you do. But what does it take to get there? I asked people two questions: What should people managing projects be aware of as we go into 2019 to make 2019 their most successful year ever? And. What will you be doing in 2019 to have your most successful year ever? Some amazing, talented people responded: people whom you may know as experts in their field and others, equally as insightful, who will be new to you.

2019 294
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What is Project Risk?

Project Risk Coach

If you say the word “risk” to ten people, each person may think of something different— insurance, threats, investments, bets, or potential loss. As we manage project teams, it's critical that you and your team members have a common understanding of what project risk means. Otherwise, people will be confused by your risk management efforts. It is no wonder that there is so much confusion about the meaning of risk.

Risk 331
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Do you need a Definition of Ready for your agile ceremonies?

Kiron Bondale

A Definition of Ready (DoR) is an agreement established by some agile teams to help them assess if a given product backlog item can safely be accepted by the team to be worked on. It is not expected to be used as a gate but rather as guidance. I frequently hear from teams who are frustrated with one or more of their ceremonies. There can be many reasons for such perceptions but some times the root cause relates more to what wasn’t completed in advance rather than what actually transpired d

Agile 204
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Simple Guide to Business Process Mapping – a Valuable Skill All Project Managers Need

Project Bliss

If you’ve been asked to complete a business process map it may feel overwhelming. You may have an idea of what that is, but you want to be sure you do it right. It’s not intuitive at first, but once you learn how, it’s much easier than you think. And k nowing how to create business process maps is useful in many situations. You’ll be able to provide a valuable skill for your team that can be used in many different situations.

Process 189
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The Constructor's Digital Transformation Playbook: Reducing Risk With Technology

Speaker: Dylan Secrest

Construction projects are high-stakes operations where even minor inefficiencies can lead to costly delays, safety concerns, and budget overruns. Managing risk in construction has always been a challenge, but as projects grow in complexity, traditional methods no longer cut it. Enter Digital Transformation - a game changer approach that replaces inefficiency with AI-powered analytics, real-time monitoring, and automated workflows to proactively manage risk.

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A Scrum Team Increases Their Velocity by Doing Less Work

Scrum.org

Sub-title: Breaking the Iron Triangle. Sub-title #2: Jeff Sutherland’s book could have been called: “Scrum: Twice the decision-making in half the time leading to half the work and twice the output.”. A discussion is raging at LinkedIn about the Iron Triangle because the co-authors of Scrum say that “Scrum breaks the Iron Triangle”. This, you can imagine, causes ripples through the Project Management community.

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How to Handle Chronic Complainers

ProjectManager.com

You probably work with someone who complains a lot. Sometimes that can be hard to manage, even with team management tools. Watch Jennifer Bridges, PMP, to understand where chronic complainers are coming from, and learn strategies for keeping everyone happy and productive. Here’s a screenshot of the whiteboard for your reference! In Review – How to Handle Chronic Complainers.

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How to Go From Technical Expert to Leader

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Domenic was very smart, very precise and had a lot of success in his current organisation (as a chemical engineer). He was given the opportunity to act as a team lead, a role he very much wanted and where he felt he could make a difference. He took the role on and was frustrated. Frustrated because he spent hours a week in meetings where he had the solutions to problems, but nobody was listening.

2004 279
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Quantitative risk for the new guy on the street

Musings on Project Management

Repetition and review are good--Malcom Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to be expert at anything--so here's a few words that will take a few minutes on three important quantitative concepts every risk manager should know: Concept 1: Centrality Most phenomenon of interest to projects, particularly naturally occurring phenomenon, tend to cluster around a central value, given enough samples.

Risk 236
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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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What’s in YOUR sprint backlog?

Kiron Bondale

The Scrum Guide states that a sprint backlog “ is the set of Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint, plus a plan for delivering the product increment and realizing the Sprint Goal. The Sprint Backlog is a forecast by the Development Team about what functionality will be in the next Increment and the work needed to deliver that functionality into a “Done” Increment. ” We expect to find requirements, enhancements and even fixes in the sprint backlog, but is that it?

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A Guide to User Story Mapping: Templates and Examples (How to Map User Stories)

Planio

Backlogs are exciting. Seeing all those potential features, updates, and bug fixes all in one place, just full of potential… Yeah, sure. Right about now you probably think I’m full of something other than potential. The truth is that backlogs can be confusing. It’s all-too-common for your collection of “could dos” to turn into a roadblock. When there are too many options, where do you even start?

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Expedite! Handling Unplanned Work in Scrum

Scrum.org

"You gotta flex. You gotta look good, bro." - Kiari "Offset" Cephus. Scrum stands on the three legs of transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Of these, transparency can arguably be said to come first. Unless a situation is made clear it cannot be inspected, and any consequent adaptation arising therefrom is likely to prove futile. Clarity over the amount of work which is thought to remain for a product is one example of transparency, and it is essential to have a definitive Product Backlog wh

SCRUM 189
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Strategic Planning in Business

ProjectManager.com

Businesses thrive on certainty, and yet, the future is never certain. That’s why smart businesses plan for the future as best they can through strategic planning. You can’t know what will happen, but you can know what you want and where you want to be when it happens. Both are points that can be mapped, and once you have these destinations on the horizon, then you can use tools to survey how to get there.

Planning 384
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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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How to Be a Mentor

Rebel’s Guide to PM

It’s a great honour to be asked to mentor someone, and whether that arrangement comes about as a result of an informal discussion or a formal corporate scheme, you should take the commitment to be a mentor seriously. It’s also a good career opportunity for you – working with a more junior project manager can give you a different insight into project management topics and they are likely to have different experiences to share with you as well.

2014 269
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Evaluating Risks Using Qualitative Risk Analysis

Project Risk Coach

Have you ever endured a project meeting where you spent hours evaluating risks? Afterward, team members walked down the hall saying, “What a waste of time! Now I can get back to the real work.” Today, let’s discuss the use of qualitative risk analysis to get you back on track. What causes this frustration? First, the evaluation process may not fit the project – too complex for simple projects or deficient for large, complex projects.

Risk 170
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Control partners should have skin in the game!

Kiron Bondale

I finally completed reading Nassim Taleb ‘s book Skin in the Game which I had written about in a recent article. In that piece I had applied his principles when comparing the benefits of a product-centric orientation to the project-centric model which is still found in many organizations. But after finishing the book, I realized that there is a much more compelling example of the challenges experienced with risk asymmetry in many large organizations, namely with those staff who are respons

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Agile strong -- a reveiw

Musings on Project Management

Trying to remember how you got here? Perhaps Understanding why you're sticking around is also important So, here's my top ten reasons why agile has worked for me 1. Agile is a "best value" method: it's doctrine is centered on value and accomplishment for the customer and user, not so much adherence to cost and schedule--though the sponsor's investment can not be exceeded, so cost is at.

Agile 218
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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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The illusion of agility (what most Agile transformations end up delivering)

Scrum.org

(fyi: this text has been slightly adapted from the original text that can be found at [link] ). Agility is a continuously evolving state that is unique to a specific organization, given that organization’s people, its constructs and its history. A traditional (industrial) approach to becoming more Agile (adaptive) commonly creates no more than an illusion of agility.

Agile 188
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Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: Understanding the Benefits of Both

ProjectManager.com

Defining skills as either hard or soft is slightly misleading. It implies that one might be more difficult or the other less important. The truth, as always, has a nuance that the jargon misses. Anyone who has spent time in a work environment understands that the distinction between hard skills and soft skills is an artificial one, as they often overlap.

Defining 380
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The Best Evernote Alternatives for Note-taking and Task Management

nTask

Evernote is a note taking app that is designed to help take notes, organize and prioritize ideas and create lists to keep productive and on track. Although the options Evernote offers can be very helpful, there are some areas where it could introduce potentially more useful features – especially for the price. Some of the more prominent features Evernote lacks and which can be found in other apps include task creation and management including time tracking.