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Coming to a leading position may sound like a career dream coming true. But a closer look at a whole load of responsibilities reminds me of how much hard work is required to be a good manager. If you’re already on this journey, it’d be useful to know what kinds of mistakes you’d prefer to avoid so you stay on track towards your professional goals.
A project manager approached me recently with a problem. She knew that some of the data that was being submitted in internal reports was — frankly — made up. It was made up with the best intentions from educated guesses and extrapolation. It’s probably fairer and less controversial to say that it was ‘estimated’ rather than created totally randomly from scratch.
In project management, back and white are your friends – murky gray is not. As a project manager, you want to deal with clear and verified information, not assumptions. When assumptions are made and not validated, mistakes get made, timelines get delayed, and projects fail. Assumptions are dangerous things to make, and like all dangerous things to make — bombs, for instance, or strawberry shortcake — if you make even the tiniest mistake you can find yourself in terrible trouble.
Projects need approval before they can be executed. A project charter is a project planning document that sells the project to stakeholders and sponsors. If you’re able to show its viability and return on investment, the work will get the green light to move forward. But there are a lot of elements to any successful project charter. If you’re new to project management , a project charter template can set you up to make sure you’re hitting all the major points.
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.
Unfortunately, many Project Management Offices (PMOs) become nothing more than a watchdog, one that ensures compliance to a strict set of rules. In this article, we will explore why this happens and what it takes for PMOs to become strategic enablers. PMOs Have Gone to the Dogs PMOs are started with the best of intentions. Management sees it as a way to give oversight to all the programs and projects.
Project management standards such as the PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition state that contingency reserves, which are established to offset the cost or schedule impacts of realized identified risks, are considered part of the project budget and cost baseline. As the project manager is authorized to spend the budget as planned, it is assumed that they have the ability to draw upon contingency reserves directly as risks are realized.
Project management standards such as the PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition state that contingency reserves, which are established to offset the cost or schedule impacts of realized identified risks, are considered part of the project budget and cost baseline. As the project manager is authorized to spend the budget as planned, it is assumed that they have the ability to draw upon contingency reserves directly as risks are realized.
Does this sound familiar: A manager calls an employee in and proudly informs them about new challenges, ideas and projects. But first of all, they need a concept, and the employee has to create one. Back at the desk, the employee sits in front of a blank sheet of paper or an empty Word file. What now? Following various analyses (e.g. risk analysis ), concepts are usually created as a starting point for important and large projects, as well as other endeavors.
This is a guest article by David Daly. Did you know, one survey found that the most common reason to adopt agile is to be able to deliver products more quickly? Yet the same survey found that 75% of people did not believe their organisation had a culture that supported agile ways of working. This matches my experience. I regularly see that software teams are expected to deliver new features faster, become more productive, and create amazing, intuitive and easy to use applications that are bug-fr
Agile is an umbrella term encompassing a variety of frameworks and approaches to value delivery in complex environments. The word agile came into widespread use following the creation of the Agile Manifesto in 2001. That year, a group of 17 software practitioners looking for a better way to deliver software settled on the the term agile to refer to their more rational, human approach to complex work.
Projects are a series of decisions. Each decision should, ideally, be the result of thorough research, counseling from the team and historic data. Project managers use a decision log to keep stakeholders updated on who authorized a decision and how it came about. A decision log is a critical communication tool that all project managers need to understand.
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?
I have had the privilege of managing three Project Management Offices (PMOs), composed of several project managers. The best project managers were the ones who had a habit of identifying and managing risks. Let's look at three ways you can improve your risk identification and reduce major misses. Wise project managers know that there are unknown risks lurking in every corner.
Similar to my previous article, this topic stemmed from a discussion I had with the learners of the PMP preparatory course I taught this week. While presenting the project risk management knowledge area from the PMBOK framework, when I indicated that while in our daily conversations risks are usually threats there can be positive risks as well, I was met with some disbelief and skepticism.
The Stage-Gate® process is a process model for the targeted development of innovations - for example, in the form of products and services. In the first part of this blog series, we looked at the definition and basic principles of the method according to Robert G. Cooper. In the second part, we now dive deeper into the strengths and weaknesses of the Stage-Gate® process as well as potential pitfalls and responsibilities.
I wanted to share some tips from the fabulous women in project management whom I have interviewed on this blog. Looking back through the discussions we had, there is so much wisdom and what struck me was the total willingness to share. Here are 15 practical tips from our community of amazing women, all tested and proven by the women themselves. Can you make these work in your projects and career?
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.
Since it’s the beginning of the year, it makes sense to talk about setting great goals. As you know, Product and Sprint Goals aren’t optional in Scrum. However, many teams are struggling with it. Btw, stay tuned for an upcoming video on that topic to uncover why setting goals is so hard. It’s not a Scrum Master accountability to set up goals. Instead you need to help your Scrum Team, and especially the Product Owner, to do so.
Uncertainty is a certainty in projects. Risks will arise and threaten the successful delivery of your project. Using a risk breakdown structure (RBS) is how you prepare for the unexpected. A risk breakdown structure is great for identifying and prioritizing risks so you know which will be more or less impactful. That’s the first step in planning, managing and mitigating risk in your projects.
I have had the privilege of managing three Project Management Offices (PMOs), composed of several project managers. The best project managers were the ones who had a habit of identifying and managing risks. Let's look at three ways you can improve your risk identification and reduce major misses. Wise project managers know that there are unknown risks lurking in every corner.
When we consider the benefits of non-solo working approaches such as pair programming or mobbing, the ones which normally come to mind are related to improvements in the speed or quality of delivery. The old adage “two heads are better than one” applies as we are usually able to get more work completed faster and with fewer defects. And by injecting variety by having participants alternate between different roles frequently, we also reduce the likelihood of fatigue.
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?
Content. Definition. Basic principles. One of the greatest challenges that companies are facing is the continuous development of new products and services. Only with innovations competitiveness can be secured and market share increased. Innovative strength is therefore an important competitive advantage. But, of course, creating innovations is not easy and brings several challenges: The entire process as well as targeted output are characterized by high uncertainty and risks.
The Complex Project Toolkit is really a book about paradigms in project management and how to encourage teams (and project managers) to stay curious and to embrace uncertainty. This is not a ‘how-to’ book with templates or checklists, but rather a scaled-out strategy view. It’s packed with examples from history, science, as well as some project anecdotes.
TL; DR: How to Sabotage A Product Owner — 53 Anti-Patterns from the Trenches to Avoid. One of my favorite exercises from my Professional Scrum Product Owner classes is how to best sabotage a Product Owner as a member of the middle management. The exercise rules are simple: You’re not allowed to use any form of illegal activity. So, outsourcing the task to a bunch of outlaws is out of the question.
All of your resources need to be in top form to achieve the goals and objectives of your work. When it comes to equipment, there’s an approach to this called total productive maintenance (TPM). Total productive maintenance helps you achieve equipment reliability and keeps your machines always working at their best. Whether you’re a project manager, facility manager or part of a maintenance team, you need to know what TPM is and employ it keep your business productive.
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.
Risk and uncertainty are inherent parts of all project work, making project risk management an important topic for teams to address. Which is why so many projects—especially large technology projects—run into trouble. When studies tell us that easily half of all IT projects run over budget and past deadline , we see how easily risk turns into real trouble for projects and their organizations.
You’d agree with me that a company’s biggest asset is its resources. However, no matter the size of it, resource management challenges are natural to occur. Keeping a perfect balance between your team members and the back-to-back projects can be a hustle. Most of the time we end up leaving unsatisfied and unhappy employees. Consequently, this greatly affects the success rate of the project and the growth of the company.
In the last parts of our blog series on innovation management with the Stage-Gate® process, we looked at the basics such as the definition, strengths and weaknesses, and the basic principles. In this article - the third part - we dive even deeper and look at the basic structure as well as exemplary the idea-to-launch model, which structures and accompanies projects from the idea to the market launch.
Planning poker® is a great technique for scrum teams. It is a team-based estimating approach to work out the efforts involved for achieving business goals. Even serious developers like gamification! Our company is a part of Wisebits Group and develops an online entertainment streaming service. The organization consists of several software dev teams that develop different parts of our product.
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.
Welcome to Scrum Sutra — a series where I shall share a 3-min overview of each element of Scrum and how it connects with the other elements in the bead to form Scrum Sutra. “Successful use of Scrum depends on people becoming proficient in living five values.” — Scrum Guide 2020. Scrum as a framework has no prescribed rule for every interaction and collaboration within and outside the Scrum Team.
Before defining an issue log, let’s define project issues. An issue is any roadblock or unintended impact that directly affects your project’s timeline and or performance. It’s different than a risk, which can be defined as a potential problem or future issue that might happen in your project. An issue is something that has already come up in your project, and you need to identify and track that issue immediately.
How Businesses Can Smoothly Manage Work Amid The Scare of Omicron Image Source: ProofHub It’s been nearly two years since the global pandemic of Covid-19 unprecedentedly arrived on the scene and threw normal life out of gear. Amid the grave threat to human life, social distancing and remote work have become synonymous in the last couple of years. Yes, scientists have introduced vaccines, and millions of people have been diagnosed with them.
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