January, 2017

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The 30-Minute Miracle That Will Change The Way You Leave The Office

Rebel’s Guide to PM

I have one word for you today: Transitions. How am I only realising this now? I need time to transition between activities in order to keep my work/life balance from imploding. You might have worked this out a long time ago, but it’s only been a few months since I realised this applied to me as well as my pre-schoolers. I manage their transitions well: “We can play for 10/5/3/1 more minute and then we are going home.”.

2009 266
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Never neglect the human side of agile!

Kiron Bondale

People and not policies, processes, practices or platforms are required to achieve successful projects. This is why the following principle from the Agile Manifesto needs to be careful considered whenever an agile transformation is underway: Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. .

Agile 189
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My Top 10 Most Popular Blog Posts of 2016

Project Risk Coach

Wow! It’s been a great year. So much so, I’ve decided to leave the corporate world to help more project managers than ever. Thank you for making this possible. Approximately 42,000 visitors came to The Project Risk Coach in 2016, up from 33,000 visitors in 2015. Also up from 21,000 in 2014. As you can see, the visitors have doubled in two years.

2016 191
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Agile as a recursive methodology

Musings on Project Management

In the past in my describing the adoption of Agile by conventionally trained managers and sponsors I've described the "grand bargain" that has to be struck between sponsor and project. In effect, to repeat a bit, the "change" is first with the management paradigm of fixed-scope for a fixed price. The essence of agile is unfixed scope -- tactically -- with a fixed scope (product framework).

Agile 150
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Understand Digital Debt, Form a Team, Set Goals, and Plan Roadmap for Transformation

Understanding digital debt is crucial before digital transformation. Assemble a team to assess internal operations, market pressures, and digital debt's impact. Define future digital vision with measurable goals. Refine hypotheses and conduct market analysis. Develop a roadmap for transformation with defined projects, cost estimates, and governance.

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You want them to understand…but do you really understand?

Ron Rosenhead

It is an interesting situation. It is also disturbing. Why? Project managers and project team members are not able to articulate why they are doing the project (what problem are they trying to address), nor what they are doing. Let me explain what I mean in more detail. When running a project management course , I prefer participants to work on an actual company projects rather than a case study.

More Trending

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7 Best Productivity Apps For Project Managers

Rebel’s Guide to PM

I’m pleased to be working with Devart, the company behind TMetric, to bring you this sponsored article. All opinions are my own. There are simply not enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want to. I can’t add more hours, so I’m always on the lookout for productivity shortcuts and tools that will help. My basic three-step productivity approach is: Prioritise.

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Everything in moderation…

Kiron Bondale

The end of the holidays is the traditional time for people to make resolutions and a common theme for many is to practice moderation in eating, drinking or spending. Too much of anything, even a good thing, is unhealthy and the same can be said about project management practices. While there is a “right” amount of discipline which should be applied to a given project, it is quite easy to go beyond minimally sufficiency with negative repercussions.

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6 Practical Ways to Actually Improve Your Cost Management

Project Risk Coach

PMP Exam Series - Cost Management Think about it for a minute – what have you done in the last six months to improve your cost management? Review the projects you’ve completed in the last year. How many of those projects came in over budget? Consider John, a savvy project manager, who was asked to manage a project to replace a dated network system.

Estimate 210
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Perceptions on risk -- a perfect storm of problems.

Musings on Project Management

The messenger: “Unfortunately, my King … here I am, unwilling and unwanted … because I know that no one ever welcomes a bearer of bad news.” —Antigone by Sophocles, circa 442 BC The surprise: “It is pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised.” —Frederick, the Great Pedro C. Ribeiro, writing in ASK magazine for NASA, has a nice posting on risk perception.

Risk 174
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Strategic Project Finance Essentials: A Project Manager’s Guide to Financial Metrics

Speaker: Ketan Jahagirdar - Sopheon’s Director of Product Management

Empower yourself as a project manager with insights that directly influence the financial landscape and strategic direction of your organization! Join us for a deep dive into the world of financial strategy, as we dissect key metrics that drive CFOs and business leaders’ investment decisions. This session will equip you with the necessary tools to craft compelling business cases as well as a comprehensive understanding of the crucial distinction between capital expenditure and operational expend

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What is the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act?

Moira Alexander

PMI's Pulse of the Profession report shows "only 64 percent of government strategic initiatives ever meet their goals and business intent -- and that government entities waste $101 million for every $1 billion spent on project and programs.". This type of waste goes back many decades, spans several administrations, has an enormous cumulative undesirable impact, and ultimately the financial burden transfers back to taxpayers in one way, shape or form.

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Project Management: DOs and DON’Ts of Managing a Project Team

Ganttic

Project management isn't solely about managing projects, it's also about managing a project team. And being a good project manager isn't only about delivering successful projects. It's also about being a good manager to your team. Or maybe it's still about acing the projects you take on because it's really the people in your team that make all the acing possible.

Energy 125
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Overcoming Noisy Communication

Rebel’s Guide to PM

This is a guest contribution from John Edmonds from pearcemayfield. Noise hinders communication. It’s so obvious that I hesitate to say it. But it is often something that is overlooked when we are planning communication activities with stakeholders. Noise, in communication terms, means any interference that makes it harder for the stakeholder to firstly receive, then interpret the message and its meaning.

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Tips for taking over an active project

Kiron Bondale

I’ve written previously about the need for a project manager to proactively plan for a smooth transition if someone else will be assuming the role on one of their projects. Should you be fortunate enough to find yourself taking over from a project manager who has followed some of those suggestions, it will make your life easier. But often we don’t have that luxury.

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20 Common Mistakes Made by Inexperienced Project Managers

You’ve read the PMBOK® Guide several times, taken the certification exam for project managers, passed, and you are now a PMP®. So why do you keep making rookie mistakes? This whitepaper shows 20 of the most common mistakes that young or inexperienced project managers make, issues that can cost significant time and money. It's a good starting point for understanding how and why many PMs get themsleves into trouble, and provides guidance on the types of issues that PMs need to understand.

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How to Keep Your Projects Financially Fit

Project Risk Coach

I received a Fitbit as a gift. “Fitbit tracks every part of your day — including activity, exercise, food, weight, and sleep — to help you find your fit, stay motivated, and see how small steps make a big impact.”. Keep Your Projects Financially Fit. After using the Fitbit for about three weeks, I’ve discovered it works. How? First, I see my performance — the number of steps, activity levels, and sleep — throughout the day.

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Keeping a sense of Fidelity

Musings on Project Management

Fidelity, faithfulness, and commitment often seem to be the tension between: What the customer/sponsor/user want, and. What the project charter/scope calls for. Why so? Why isn't it straightforward? The business case begets the project charter; the charter begets the project plan; and then the project team is off to do the deliverables. Simple, right?

Planning 150
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Do you know, really know….?

Ron Rosenhead

The project manager had no view at all of his performance and no development needs were discussed. How do I know? He told me that he had not had the usual performance management review nor sat with anyone to produce a personal development plan. He was unsure about his future…. I suggested he needs to put himself into the driving seat. How? I sat with him and we worked our way through various options.

Retail 136
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Agile project management: A beginner's guide

Moira Alexander

If you're new to project management and the agile methodology, the answers to these 10 questions will arm you with the information you need to get started. And if you're a project management veteran, these frequently asked agile questions are a good refresher. What is agile? Agile is a project management methodology that uses short development cycles called sprints to focus on continuous improvement in the development of a product or service.

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The Big Payoff of Application Analytics

Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.

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Business Leadership for IT Projects [Book Review]

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Before I’d got far reading Gary Lloyd’s Business Leadership for IT Projects I realised he was offering a critical assessment on the Standish report on project failure – thankfully. I knew then that we were going to get along just fine. Don’t get me wrong – I have no issue with the Standish research and the CHAOS report itself, but it is often used for a quick headline without any analysis of how the numbers were arrived at.

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Fewer choices beats full freedom when introducing self-organization!

Kiron Bondale

A recent Harvard Business Review article provides support for what I’ve witnessed with organizations which are attempting to move their work management model from a highly prescriptive approach to a self-organized one where teams determine the best approach to conduct their work and then refine their practices over time. The authors of the article assert that where goals are simple, motivation is high and the main challenge is with getting buy-in on a given approach, then a greater degree

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3 Team Techniques to Improve Cost Estimates

Project Risk Coach

Improve buy-in and support for your project budgets Do you ever feel like the Lone Ranger when trying to improve cost estimates? You’re not alone. Actually, you have a team. Many project managers are left to their own devices when estimating projects. This can be rather challenging. So, how can we improve our cost estimates? I’d like to suggest something different — engage your project team and key stakeholders.

Estimate 150
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Leadership without impulse

Musings on Project Management

Point: Impulsive and unpredictable are some leader's styles. Such keeps managers -- who revere plans -- off guard and even defensive, but it wreaks havoc on strategy (ever changing) and metrics (rebaselining at every turn). Of course, your competitors may also be constantly off guard. In some businesses (start-ups, sports) and some military situations (See: General George Patton), "impulsive.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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Are You Ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

LiquidPlanner

We are on the verge of an unprecedented time in history. Radical technological advancements—powered by AI, IoT, robotics, quantum computing, biotechnology and more—will change the way we work and live on a global scale. We’re living in an exciting time! A world where robots and humans work side by side and where self-driving cars become a reality is all part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Agile 96
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12 Project Management & Resource Scheduling Tools

The Digital Project Manager

You’re probably asking – do we really need project management tools or resourcing and scheduling tools? The answer is probably no, and yes. No, you. The post 12 Project Management & Resource Scheduling Tools appeared first on The Digital Project Manager.

Software 150
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7 Reasons Why Multitasking Is Not the Answer

Rebel’s Guide to PM

This is a guest article by Kristy Dickerson from STARTplanner. Multitasking has been praised by many as the secret sauce to reaching success at record speeds. But over the years, that’s been dispelled. Studies aimed at disproving the claimed advantages of multitasking have popped up, urging the public to actually turn the process of multitasking inside out to see if it’s an ally or an enemy.

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11 ways company politics can thwart your projects

Moira Alexander

Workplace politics are ultimately types of behaviors or actions injected into business situations that can complicate, impede, or derail progress altogether. Politics and its impact are often underestimated until it's too late. However you can mitigate the risk and the first step is to identify the type and level of political behaviors that might curtail the efforts of a project, program, portfolio, or even an entire organization.

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From Complexity to Clarity: Strategies for Effective Compliance and Security Measures

Speaker: Erika R. Bales, Esq.

When we talk about “compliance and security," most companies want to ensure that steps are being taken to protect what they value most – people, data, real or personal property, intellectual property, digital assets, or any other number of other things - and it’s more important than ever that safeguards are in place. Let’s step back and focus on the idea that no matter how complicated the compliance and security regime, it should be able to be distilled down to a checklist.

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Increasing the Probability of Project Success

Herding Cats

Increasing the Probability of Project Success Simple in Theory, Complex in Practice. When we hear any suggestion about improving the probability of success of a project, there are some simple tests to confirm there actually is such a thing. This means having a set of Principles, Process, and Practices to test the suggestion against. Let's start with the Principles.