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Ruth Pearce knows everything there is to know about motivating your project team. I caught up with Ruth to find out more about how to motivate teams and why it’s something you should be actively doing. Why do you think motivation on project teams is so important? She’s even written the book on it. So how do we do it? Gertman et.
I definitely see many good things happening within our community, and the teams and organizations we work with. In short, I’ll describe how poor facilitation of the Scrum events can cause Zombie Scrum. It might seem that a team has all the important elements of Scrum in place. What’s the dynamic within the team?
Either way, project managers have to prepare for risk, either good or bad—it can interfere with project objectives. More often, you’ll address it during the planning phase when you assign roles and responsibilities to your team members. Risk is usually thought of as a negative impact on the project’s budget, timeline or quality.
TL; DR: Workshop Design with ChatGPT The following article explores whether we can use ChatGPT-4 to create workshops for agile practitioners; for example, Scrum Masters. While Liberating Structures have simplified the task, workshop design with ChatGPT may provide an alternative. Shall I notify you about articles like this one?
Ruth Pearce knows everything there is to know about motivating your project team. I caught up with Ruth to find out more about how to motivate teams and why it’s something you should be actively doing. Why do you think motivation on project teams is so important? She’s even written the book on it. So how do we do it?
Suitable agile metrics reflect either a team’s progress in becoming agile or your organization’s progress in becoming a learning organization. At the team level, qualitative agile metrics often work better than quantitative metrics. A team may have deliberately built some temporary solutions to speed up experimentation.
In my project management workshops, I ask this question, "What are the top causes of project failure?" Nine times out of ten, I hear the answer—poor communication. What happens when poor communication exists? Consequently, individuals misunderstand and make bad assumptions. Heck, your team may even abandon ship.
TL;DR: Stop Shipping Waste When product teams fail to establish stakeholder alignment and implement rigorous Product Backlog management, they get caught in an endless cycle of competing priorities, reactive delivery, and shipping waste. Wasted resources, frustrated teams, and missed business opportunities. The result? The result?
We challenge leaders, we talk about risk and what might go wrong and we call people out on poor performance through project monitoring and control. Conflict should be a healthy part of any team’s development, and it’ a good way to challenge requirements and ensure that your business case and plans stand up to scrutiny.
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. When dealing with certain companies or teams the ability to suggest a mindset shift as a project manager is easier said than done. Conclusion.
We discussed creating a project team culture. Elizabeth: This week in the Project Management Cafe Facebook group we’ve been talking about team culture and various different bits and pieces, and I know this is something that you’re kind of an expert in, because you’ve been chipping in and answering the questions.
A product vision is more than just a statement; it's the guiding star that illuminates the path for your product, team, and stakeholders. It serves as a rallying cry that keeps the team focused, motivated, and driven by a shared purpose. It helps your team understand what they are working towards and why it matters.
It’s a set of tools to help you develop the knowledge and skills to solve the tricky issues (and probably even the easy ones). How can you turn the problem into a visualization like a diagram so the team has a shared understanding of the challenge? It’s attractive, and the team has definitely made the course a great user experience.
Stick with me, and we’ll explore what project requirements are, why they’re important, and some tips for developing good ones. First, they provide the project team with a shared understanding of the project’s goals and objectives. Tips for developing good project requirements. Well, this is my life!
It’s not a bad practice, but why save it for once a year? A software development conference with workshops on the theme of Our Digital Tomorrow. The conference serves developers, team leads, architects and project managers. There is no time like the present for looking backwards and planning forwards. GOTO Chicago.
For years, I’ve fulfilled the role of Scrum Master for many different organizations and Scrum Teams. These teams were mostly focused on software development. These organizations were able to attract the smartest developers and create products customers loved. Examples of a Developer Culture.
Long has spoonfeeding solutions and off-the-shelf feature descriptions prevailed in many developmentteams. Although some issues might have been fixed, I rarely see the full potential of a Scrum Team being achieved. Going all-in on predefined features fails to capitalize on hidden ideas in the brains of team members.
Your Scrum team is consistently failing to meet commitments, and its velocity is volatile. How would you address this issue with the team? If a Scrum Team is exhibiting a volatile velocity, consistently failing to meet their forecasts, it suggests that velocity is being used as the prevalent metric for measuring that team’s progress.
These are the situations that separate out the good project managers from the poor, and the true project leaders from the ‘merely competent’ project managers. Or will you involve team members and, if so, to what extent? My book, Brilliant Project Leader , identifies the four essentials of team leadership.
It was (and I still can’t quite believe this) one year ago that I last stepped off a plane after a visit to Geneva and Zurich to deliver a series of presentations and workshops for CERN and PMI Switzerland. It hasn’t all been bad. New keynote topics developed and ready (just call please).
There are plenty of other ways of learning things if your company is cutting back but you know you have areas that you want to develop. It’ll help develop all kinds of skills and will introduce you to some other people. Then join a club/sports team where you can practice leading! And not just PM Today and PM Forum online.
It has a plan that’s executed by a team with a deadline with the final deliverable being the event. They’ll also develop a theme, if appropriate, and oversee the event to make sure it runs as planned. A bad one may result in lost customers and a tarnished brand reputation. Corporate Events. Private Events.
We can do nothing else if we want our teams to behave well and deliver for us. You cannot look after your team and your stakeholders unless you are in robust physical, mental and emotional health. A couple of poor nights’ sleep in a row can damage your judgement and emotional stability just as much as an excess of alcohol.
The PO’s are then unsure what needs to be developed. For instance, a lead developer or architect prepares the work for sprints ahead, acting as a proxy between the teams and the PO’s, splitting the requirements in tasks per team. I advise to start finding one person to be the single Product Owner for all teams.
TL; DR: Solving Impediments as a Scrum Team. The interruptions impeded the flow of work through the team. Moreover, the team missed the Sprint Goal twice recently. Solving impediments as a team has become a necessity. Solving Impediments like the Interruption Problem as a Team. Types of Impediments.
Long has spoon-feeding solutions and off-the-shelf feature descriptions prevailed in many developmentteams. Although some issues might have been fixed, I rarely see the full potential of a Scrum Team being achieved. Going all-in on predefined features fails to capitalize on hidden ideas in the brains of team members.
As a community, we excel at putting our fingers on the sore spots of what teams and organizations do wrong. Some examples of good Scrum versus bad Scrum we all seem to agree on…. But how useful is it for members of a Scrum team or an organization that actually wants to succeed with Scrum? Why does it matter?
We can do nothing else if we want our teams to behave well and deliver for us. You cannot look after your team and your stakeholders unless you are in robust physical, mental and emotional health. A couple of poor nights’ sleep in a row can damage your judgment and emotional stability just as much as an excess of alcohol.
Health Checks for Agile Teams Agile teams thrive on continuous improvement and adaptability. Self-assessment isn’t just a health check measuring tool but a compass guiding teams toward their potential. It’s not an audit; it’s a mirror reflecting a better version of your Agile team.
It is located in the neocortex and developed relatively recently. In the context of a product development it might refer to poor performance of the product group or a business unit, deteriorating revenues, outgoing quality etc. A software development effort is always a system! Systems Thinking in Organizations.
The sales team sells unauthorized features to meet its quota. I will describe a conflict situation in a Scrum team. Your suggestions include surveys, talks, interviews, team meetings, games, exercises, or including other parties like stakeholders or line managers, and other useful practices. ChatGPT Prompt for Scrum Masters.
In this blog, a short description of one workshop from Chapter 11: Guiding The Product Ownership. Misconceptions about the Product Owner (PO) role often lead to reduced agility, development bottlenecks, and teams that do not understand the customer domain well enough to make autonomous decisions during a Sprint. .
These top 25 influencers for 2025 aren’t just keeping up with the trends—they’re setting them, reshaping how teams collaborate, innovate, and deliver in today’s fast-paced world. His passion for digital transformation and his ability to coach professionals to lead teams make him a respected figure in the project management space.
In Scrum, the Product Owner’s purpose is to maximize the value of the Scrum Team’s work (the product). Delivering value to the customer (beneficial customer outcomes) is the ultimate measure of success for the Scrum Team, including the Product Owner. We can consult with Developers on the Scrum Team for ideas.
Many teams have been adopting an iterative way to deliver new services, products, and complex projects. The picture below is an example of user requirements and definition of done for a wedding agency, as well as an example of definition of done for software development. Complexity. How do you fix it? DoD Matrix at Sprint Planning.
Throughout this blog, I use a variety of terms such as meeting, event, and workshop ostensibly as synonyms. Many new Scrum Masters need help to gain facilitation skills to leverage the potential of diverse perspectives within their team. Ensure the desired outcomes of the workshop are clear, both to you and the participants. .
It is not a sign that a team or a particular department lacks courage or abilities. Also, it is not necessarily a sign that a particular framework or method is bad. They decided on a change and handed it to a change team. The slightly better way was developing a plan, selling it to the employees. Please look at Figure 3.
Bad management can send employees racing for the door. ProjectManager.com lets teams collaborate online and in real time. If a team member is thinking about moving on, they’re going to have to weigh whether a new opportunity will give them the same level of freedom that your business offers.”. Offer Incentives.
Anyone who has worked in Professional Services/Consulting has probably experienced incentive plans that rewarded individuals and teams based on billable hours or improved net promoter scores (NPS). When teams are recognized for higher velocities or delivery of more features, they will change how they estimate work.
Back in January 2023, I would not have taken the next step in the Scrum Master interview process, inviting ChatGPT to a full-size interview with several Scrum team members. The most popular discussion on LinkedIn this week was : Agile Metrics — The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. ? ?? So, if the GPT 3.5
Source: [link] In this post, we are going to discuss how the HR teams benefit from the project management systems. One of the crucial activities is to build skills and experience to lead projects and teams. It simply means that there can be an opportunity to lead a team having big tasks or tight deadlines.
Idea Management Team collaboration requires active participation and engagement from your employees. Team collaboration will only be effective if it’s a voluntary action and desire from the individuals involved. It’s a very motivating and inspiring experience for the whole team. Sign Up for Free Trial Today!
The most obvious are impacts on project success, team performance, budgets and timelines. This is a complex question that I have created an entire presentation and workshop on. Read Next: Check out the 6 principles of stakeholder engagement for a better way to work with a team than the bullying behaviour described here.
Why many Scrum teams struggle with continuous improvement, and how you can do better. Are members of your team wondering what the point is of talking about improvement when nothing ever happens? Are you struggling to improve with your team, even though the whiteboard, Mural, or desk is littered with stickies with improvement ideas?
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