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Project Status Reporting – 6 Key Considerations
Project Health Check
OCTOBER 9, 2017
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, Project Managers (PMs) live and die by the Plan.
Project Health Check
Cancelling Projects: The Project Isn't Being Done Right
Project Health Check
NOVEMBER 27, 2017
In part 1 of this article series, we accepted that Projects sometimes need to be cancelled. In part 2, we look at how sometimes the Project being worked on is no longer the right Project. In this part 3, we will look at the other cause of cancelling: the Project isn't being done right.
Cancelling Projects - It's Not the Right Project
Project Health Check
NOVEMBER 20, 2017
In part 1 of this article series, we accepted that Projects sometimes need to be cancelled. In this part 2, we look at one of the two reasons we identified: it's no longer the right Project.
Cancelling Projects - Should We?
Project Health Check
NOVEMBER 15, 2017
Work in Project Management long enough, and eventually you will come across everything - this will include having a Project you were working on cancelled.
Ask the "Right" Questions: Your Analytics-Guided Product Strategy
Speaker: Yoav Yechiam, Founder and Head Instructor, productMBA
Analytics are highly important for product managers - and yet, analytic implementations often fail to actually help us. It's not the technology, and it's not the tactics. In most cases, it's our approach that's misguiding us! Analytics are there to answer important product questions, not just to collect data. How can we be mindful of our analytics so they enable us, rather than confine us? Join Yoav Yechiam, Founder and head instructor at productMBA, as he explains best practices for a data-guided strategy that helps product managers get to the "why" of their biggest product goals.
Project Start-Up: The Plan for a Plan
Project Health Check
AUGUST 8, 2017
Du ring the Project Start-up and planning phase, projects will execute detailed planning processes to produce a Performance Measurement Baseline of Cost/Schedule/Scope and an associated Project Management Plan.
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Cancelling Projects: How?
Project Health Check
DECEMBER 4, 2017
In part 1 of this article series, we accepted that Projects sometimes need to be cancelled. In part 2, we look at how sometimes the Project being worked on is no longer the right Project, and in part 3, we looked at the other cause of cancelling: the Project isn't being done right.
Introducing the PRINCE2 Principles
Project Health Check
OCTOBER 23, 2017
PRINCE2 is a popular UK Project Management methodology, that continues to gain traction in other locations around the world. Now managed by Axelos, it is part of a comprehensive and integrated best practice suite along side other methodologies such as Management of Risk (M_o_R) and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP).
The Tyranny of the Urgent - and how to manage it
Project Health Check
AUGUST 27, 2017
Urgent requests: it seems like most requests we get are. I took over a role recently, and rather than a detailed Knowledge Transfer plan covering many topics over a number of weeks, it basically took half an hour. Most of what I do is respond to urgent requests".
What is Lean Six Sigma?
Project Health Check
OCTOBER 2, 2017
Lean Six Sigma, a management buzzword that seems to persist and many don't understand. But what is it and how is it related to Project Management? Lean Six Sigma is an approach for Process Improvement Projects, combining many different conceptual tools depending on the situation.
What Is (and Isn’t) Product Management?
Speaker: Steve Johnson, VP of Products, Pragmatic Institute
Product Management is one of the most exciting - and most misunderstood - functions in technical organizations. Is it strategic or tactical? Is it a planning role or a support role? Many product professionals are unclear about what is (and isn't) product management. After all, product management spans many activities from business planning to market readiness. In this session, we’ll examine many product activities and artifacts for product strategy, planning, and growth, and introduce a simple tool that you can use in your organization to clarify the roles of product management and others. Steve Johnson explores the many roles of Product Management in this fun talk focused on why product managers should obsess on problems instead of solutions.
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Introduction to Kanban
Project Health Check
MARCH 5, 2018
Ka nban is something that features in both Lean Six Sigma and Agile software development. It descended from the Lean improvements of the Toyota Production System, and is a proven approach to optimise effectiveness of a production line system.
PRINCE2 Principles: Manage by exception
Project Health Check
FEBRUARY 19, 2018
We’ve all been there, a manager taking far too much interest in our every action at work, micro managing our day to day lives. We may have even fallen accidentally into this trap ourselves, spending far too much time in the detail.
Project Assumption Management
Project Health Check
AUGUST 21, 2017
We all make Assumptions every day, mostly without thinking about it. The reason we don't think about it is because we are so confident they are true; be it how something will turn out, what someone will do or what something is like.
Scrum Experiences & Suggestions
Project Health Check
DECEMBER 11, 2017
Agile is an approach which is extremely prevent in the IT industry, to the point where unfortunately the word “agile” tends to be thrown around everywhere, often out of context.
Innovation: Five Signs You Might Be Faking It
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Scrum Meetings: 7 Steps To Get Them Right
Project Health Check
OCTOBER 16, 2017
Agile is a methodology which is getting more and more traction in the IT industry, to the point where the word is agile is thrown around out of context and with incorrect capitalisation. There are many variants, but a feature now common to many is the idea of a daily Scrum meeting to manage the work. In our experience, how this meeting is planned and executed will set the tone for the entire project, and how effectively they embrace the true Agile approach.
Dependency Management
Project Health Check
SEPTEMBER 18, 2017
Let's talk Dependencies. A Dependency is a relationship between two activities, and is most often encountered in the Project Schedule. In this case they are used to structure the order of tasks, to help you plan the Project.
Book Review: Project Management Pocketbook
Project Health Check
SEPTEMBER 11, 2017
This is a new one for us - Book Reviews! Continued learning and development is important not just for Project Managers, but for practitioners in any field; this development needs to be a combination of new in-the-field experiences, and the theoretical grounding it is based upon.
Knowledge Transfer
Project Health Check
SEPTEMBER 4, 2017
When you're starting a new project, you of course identify staffing requirements as part of your estimating. You start to "put bums on seats" as you ramp up the project towards the Execution phase and on-board your project team.
Plan for Product Launch Success with Data and Analytics
Speaker: Piyanka Jain, President and CEO, Aryng
When you launch new feature (or an entirely new product), there are many questions that you'll need to answer. Is the feature being adopted? Do your customers like it, or does it need to be improved? Was the launch successful? Well, that all depends on how you define success. Join Piyanka Jain, President and CEO of Aryng, as she explains why - and how - you should use data and analytics to define and track a successful launch.
What's your Data Point?
Project Health Check
AUGUST 24, 2017
There's lots of talking on Projects; too much really. And so little of value said. People lurch from meeting to meeting, telecon to telecon, wear out the carpet on their mobile phones. People proffer opinions, half baked viewpoints, analysis and hot air.
Lessons Learned - A suggested Process
Project Health Check
AUGUST 14, 2017
In our Precious Blog entry we reflected generally on Project Lessons Learned. Now let us spell out a structured Process that we suggest: Plan Lessons Capture - Lessons Learned (L.L.) need to be pro-actively orchestrated by the Project Manager, they won't just happen by accident.
Project Lessons Learned - A Reflection
Project Health Check
AUGUST 6, 2017
Here's the thing about Lessons Learned: you're not learning them. In our experience, most organisations at best identify them - but is anything actually learned? Is changed behaviour ingrained into the lifeblood of the organisation? We have our doubts.
Issue Logs
Project Health Check
AUGUST 2, 2017
Project Risk Logs are pretty well institutionalised, and we mentioned them in our last blog post. But what about Issue Logs? We've heard Issues defined as an impacted risk, an unknown question that needs answering, or just a general spanner in the works that will cause you to go off-plan.
The Magic of Intent: Start Knowing The Goals of Your Users
Speaker: Terhi Hanninen, Senior Product Manager, Zalando, and Dr. Franziska Roth, Senior User Researcher, Zalando
It's important to know your users - what are their preferences, pain points, ultimate goals? With user research and usage data, you can get a great idea of how your users act. The tricky part is, very few users reliably act the same way every time they use your product. Join Terhi Hanninen, Senior Product Manager, and Dr. Franziska Roth, Senior User Researcher at Zalando, as they explain how they were able to reach a new level of user understanding - by taking their user research and segmenting their users by point-in-time intent. You'll leave with a strategy to change how your product team, and organization at large, understands your users.
Processes and Project Management
Project Health Check
JULY 30, 2017
We regard Processes as the bedrock for successful Project Management. I think W.
Risk Management: Known / Unknown Unknowns
Project Health Check
JULY 29, 2017
On February 12 2002, US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld made a now famous remark that has since went on to be commented on widely by critics and thinkers.
Risk Identification Workshops: An Overview
Project Health Check
SEPTEMBER 25, 2017
Risk Management is one of the well established fundamentals of Project Management. Whatever system or tool you use, the basics of rating risks with some degree of severity and impact is well understood, and then doing something to stop it (because they usually are threats). But I have a challenge for you: look back over your last Project and consider - how many of the issues that occurred along the way were from impacted Risks that were identified on your Risk Log? I predict very few of them.
How to Prioritize Work When Everything Is #1
LiquidPlanner
OCTOBER 11, 2018
All projects—especially large, complex projects—need clear priorities. Easier said than done. You can count on technical projects, no matter how well-planned, to involve change orders, re-prioritization and the regular appearance of surprises. It’s just the natural order of things. But still.
Meet Your Goals with a Practical Product Strategy
Speaker: Nils Davis, Principal, NPD Associates
Whether you manage a feature, a product, or a whole suite of products, you likely have some goals that you're trying to meet. But do you have a strategy? Strategy and goals are different. It's your strategy that allows you to make decisions that help you meet your goals in the first place. For example, if you want grow your revenue, your strategy may be to enter a new market - and you may decide to make your product stand out in that market by adding analytics. If you want to have an articulated strategy that you can use to make decisions, stay on-track, and meet your product goals, this is the webinar for you! Join Nils Davis, author of The Secret Product Manager Handbook, as he explains how you can get your team aligned to a practical product strategy.
Will a Project Management Certification Help Your Career?
LiquidPlanner
AUGUST 14, 2018
Let’s say you’re well-qualified in your technical skills—be it Java, programming languages, infrastructure, networks or system administration.
The PM Skills You Can Forget About (And the Ones You Really Need to Know)
LiquidPlanner
SEPTEMBER 4, 2018
What are the project management skills that you really need to focus on today? I hear from project managers every week who aren’t sure what skills they should be building on.
Ask a PM: How to Get Proper Estimates
LiquidPlanner
NOVEMBER 1, 2018
Dear Elizabeth: I work in a technical team as a project manager. We do a lot of projects that are innovative (for us), and my development colleagues always seem reluctant when it comes to project planning. They won’t give me timescales that will help me plan.
5 Reasons Why Using Spreadsheets is a Horrible Way to Manage Projects
LiquidPlanner
AUGUST 28, 2018
Once in my career, I was lucky enough to work with a true Excel spreadsheet master. Chris could make Excel do anything, except he never used spreadsheets to manage a project. He was a wise man.
Your 2-Part Metrics Audit for High-Value Products
Speaker: Sam McAfee, Product Development Consultant, Startup Patterns
You know what they say: what's measured improves. As product managers we're in a golden age of being able to get all sorts of metrics and run all sorts of experiments. But what are your measurements and analytics focused on? Are they really truly objective? Do they contribute to the ultimate vision of your product? And is everybody clear on that vision? Join Sam McAfee, Product Development Consultant, as he takes you through a two-part measurement audit. First, you'll learn how to make sure your measurements actually align with your product strategy. And second, you'll learn how to evaluate your culture of using measurements, so future experiments will more consistently provide high-value results.
Top Down vs. Bottom Up Management: What’s the Difference?
ProjectManager.com
JUNE 4, 2019
It’s best to have a management style in place before attempting to carve out a piece of the marketplace or execute a big project. Two of the most popular approaches are top down and bottom up management, both of which provide a good introduction to the tenets of management.
5 Powerful Ways to Improve Your Project Approval Process
Project Risk Coach
JUNE 10, 2019
Many organizations have a Project Board that approves programs and projects resulting in a project portfolio. The Board chooses projects and programs that align and support the organization's mission, values, goals, and strategies.
5 Team Productivity Blockers and How to Overcome Them
ProjectManager.com
MAY 28, 2019
Team productivity is one of the most important ingredients in business, and it’s everyone’s responsibility to keep themselves on track. Without productivity, projects can fall behind deadlines, leaving teams scrambling to deal with the consequences.
7 Ways to Sell Agile to Project Stakeholders
LiquidPlanner
SEPTEMBER 6, 2018
Whether you’re making the move to Agile project management in your development group or creating an Agile process for your in-house project management methodology, chances are you’re going to have to sell this change to executives in your organization. And, they’re going to be business people too.
Task Management For Project Managers
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