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Change management helps when implementing risk responses
Kiron Bondale
MARCH 3, 2019
A student in a project management class I taught shared the concern that it was very hard for her to get risk responses implemented.
Kiron Bondale
How much technical knowledge should a Product Owner possess?
Kiron Bondale
APRIL 14, 2019
In an earlier article I’d written about the pros and cons of a Scrum Master or agile lead having deep technical expertise in the solution space but what about a Product Owner (PO)?
Songs for when you are in a project management state of mind
Kiron Bondale
FEBRUARY 24, 2019
As a teenager who had an eclectic taste in music, one of my hobbies was attempting to create the perfect mix tape to fit the theme of different activities I would do such as studying, working out or just relaxing. So how about project management? To quote Barney Stinson: “Challenge accepted!”
Proactive dependency management with agile approaches
Kiron Bondale
APRIL 7, 2019
When we are managing projects using a predictive delivery approach, dependency identification and tracking is done as part of the BPUF (Big Planning Up Front) exercise using the activities from a work breakdown structure and the collective wisdom of our team members and key stakeholders.
Task Management For Project Managers
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How can project planning that stretches over months or years remain relevant and account for new ad-hoc activities that arrive every day?
Are you being (responsibly) transparent?
Kiron Bondale
MARCH 17, 2019
We might assume that transparency should be a given when delivering value through our projects so why is it that the actions of teams or the stakeholders supporting delivery don’t always demonstrate that basic hygiene factor?
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How hidden are your hurdles?
Kiron Bondale
MARCH 24, 2019
My article last week discussed the need for team members to act with responsible transparency. Each team member requires discipline and wisdom to judge when an issue preventing them from completing their work items can be resolved quickly without the need for broader communication or escalation.
What if the PMBOK Guide was a Choose Your Own Adventure® book?
Kiron Bondale
MARCH 10, 2019
I’m midway through reading Choose Your WoW! from Scott W. Ambler and Mark Lines of the Disciplined Agile Consortium.
Justify yourself!
Kiron Bondale
DECEMBER 9, 2018
A project manager asked me this week whether I was aware of any studies which could be used to justify the assignment of a “real” project manager to manage a project as opposed to having this function performed by someone else within a team.
Managing The Project Budget - Developing Your Project Management Skills
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This eBook describes the process of managing the project budget and its associated costs.
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Breaking habits requires substituting one routine for another
Kiron Bondale
FEBRUARY 10, 2019
I was asked to facilitate a lessons learned session for a program team using a retrospective format.
Do you need a Definition of Ready for your agile ceremonies?
Kiron Bondale
JANUARY 27, 2019
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.
How do you know when your agile ceremonies are Done?
Kiron Bondale
FEBRUARY 3, 2019
In last week’s article, I wrote about the benefits of having a Definition of Ready for agile ceremonies as one method of ensuring that they are adding value and not being perceived as just more wasteful meetings. But how do we know that we achieved what we were hoping to from the ceremonies?
Evaluate your ceremonies with a W5 check
Kiron Bondale
FEBRUARY 17, 2019
I’m midway through Priya Parker’s book The Art of Gathering and her insights into how to make an event a meaningful gathering rather than “just another boring meeting” are apropos to ceremonies.
Top 5 Project Management Report Templates
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These FREE most popular templates will help you perform your role more efficiently.
What’s blocking your benefits realization?
Kiron Bondale
JANUARY 20, 2019
PMI just released the Benefits Realization Management practice guide this month which provides comprehensive but still easily consumable coverage of a benefits management framework covering principles, practices and roles.
Because “It’s there” is not a good reason to pursue agility!
Kiron Bondale
OCTOBER 7, 2018
I’m seeing increased similarities between online hype surrounding agile and the marketing of weight loss products. Losing weight or being agile are being promoted as the main objective when both of these are just a means to an end.
Will all improvement ideas from a retrospective consume capacity?
Kiron Bondale
NOVEMBER 18, 2018
The Scrum Guide indicates “ The Scrum Retrospective is an opportunity for the Scrum Team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint.
Measure the Immeasurable: Beyond Vanity Metrics
Speaker: Sari Harrison, Product Management Instructor, Product School
As a product manager, it's your job to realize your product’s vision by executing your chosen strategy. It’s also your job to deliver value to the business. Ultimately, these two outcomes are aligned so the temptation is to focus primarily on business metrics. Doing this can cause you to lose focus on the real value you are trying to achieve, in favor of moving the vanity metrics such as launches and time spent. Join Sari Harrison, Product Management Instructor at Product School, as she explains how to use immeasurable success criteria along with your more standard KPIs to deliver products that don't just get used a lot, but deliver real value.
How many hats should a Scrum Master wear?
Kiron Bondale
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
I’ve run into a few situations recently where Scrum Masters (SMs) are performing multiple roles and while they might have the capacity to do so, on any moderate sized initiative, it might be difficult for them to fulfill all the responsibilities of the SM role.
Improving organizational culture through retrospective recognition
Kiron Bondale
NOVEMBER 25, 2018
After observing the frenzied shoppers competing with one another at Black Friday sales this week, one might be forgiven for forgetting that Thanksgiving was originally about expressing gratitude.
What’s in YOUR sprint backlog?
Kiron Bondale
JANUARY 13, 2019
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.
How effective are your agile ceremonies?
Kiron Bondale
DECEMBER 2, 2018
We hope that by conducting effective ceremonies we will achieve the agile trinity of improved value delivery, better quality and more fun. But these objectives might be reached via multiple paths so we might not be able to prove causality between our ceremonies and those objectives.
Build Delightful Products with Customer Validation
Speaker: John Little, Head of Product Marketing, Centercode
When it comes to delivering a solid product/market fit, customer validation is key. After all, you want to provide customers with a product that not only fills the need, but is delightful -- right? To get there, you need to commit to a vital blend of market research, strategy, and user testing. Join John Little, Head of Product Marketing at Centercode, as he explains a two-part approach to customer validation. First, how do you strategically identify your top product areas that need attention prior to release. And second, how do you turn user data into strategic priorities that help the right teams make the right decisions.
Control partners should have skin in the game!
Kiron Bondale
JANUARY 6, 2019
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.
Is increasing agility a recurring resolution?
Kiron Bondale
DECEMBER 23, 2018
As we kickoff the final week of 2018, many of us will be making New Year’s resolutions. While some of these resolutions might relate to achieving a specific goal or objective (e.g. I resolve to run a marathon this year), most relate to changing our behavior (e.g.
Product-centric teams have skin in the game!
Kiron Bondale
DECEMBER 16, 2018
I’m midway through Nassim Taleb ‘s latest book, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life. As is usual with Taleb’s writing, he provides thorough but humorous coverage of a concept which can be applied to many contexts.
What are the tipping points for your agile transformation?
Kiron Bondale
NOVEMBER 4, 2018
I’ve frequently said that agile transformations are marathons and not sprints. But when someone runs a marathon there are mile markers to understand how far they’ve come and to help them get their second (or third or fourth) wind.
Get Growth With Partner Integrations
Speaker: Mandy Howard, Product Manager, ServiceTitan
Once your SaaS product hits a certain level of revenue, you'll need to change things up to move past the plateau. One of the ways to do this is to move past your core product and introduce new business streams. If you're strategic about your integrations, you can strengthen your ties to your target market. Join Mandy Howard, Product Manager at ServiceTitan, as she takes you through the three key questions that you need to answer to grow your product with the right partner integrations. Whether you're a start-up, or working on a new product in an enterprise environment, you'll learn how to push through to a new level of growth.
Does a Scrum Master have to be a techie?
Kiron Bondale
OCTOBER 21, 2018
Recently I wrote an article about the potential for a Scrum Master to take on additional roles. While I was teaching a class this week, one of my learners voiced a concern about Scrum Masters who didn’t possess deep technical knowledge of the product solution.
Helping functional managers through an agile transformation
Kiron Bondale
SEPTEMBER 16, 2018
A lot has been written about the challenges caused by functional managers when their company undergoes an agile transformation. But with this emphasis on what they shouldn’t be doing, not as much gets published about the specific activities we should be doing to help them through the change.
Need help team building? Try to escape an escape room!
Kiron Bondale
SEPTEMBER 23, 2018
There are multiple types of external events which a project manager or Scrum Master could consider to increase the level of collaboration and cohesion within their team. Escape rooms provide a fiscally responsible, but highly effective option.
Humility is a prerequisite to agility
Kiron Bondale
NOVEMBER 11, 2018
The Scrum Guide identifies commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect as Scrum Values. Those values apply regardless of the delivery framework or method used and missing any one of those reduces the benefits of an agile journey.
Leverage Your Organization for Best Product Decisions
Speaker: Rene Kolga, Senior Director of Product and Marketing, Nyotron
You can learn a lot by studying your product data, but the real magic happens when product managers blend different types of data from different sources. If you want to blend data and intuition to make bold decisions that move your product forward, you'll need to open yourself up to new data sources - but where do you get this new information? Rene Kolga, Senior Director of Product and Marketing at Nyotron, knows the answer: from other teams in your organization! Join us as Rene goes through the different teams you'll find in a B2B organization, how to build a strong relationship with those teams, and what kinds of insights you can get that will benefit your product.
Timing is everything for your team!
Kiron Bondale
MAY 27, 2018
Those of us who have managed projects with team members dispersed across distant time zones are well aware of the risks caused by geographic, cultural and temporal distance.
The perils of percentage availability…
Kiron Bondale
JULY 15, 2018
Through education or experience most of us learn early in our project management careers about the dangers of using percentage complete for any activity where the work completed cannot be reliably measured. This is unfortunately the case for most knowledge-based work.
What is your project management familiar?
Kiron Bondale
JULY 29, 2018
Familiar – Noun, a supernatural spirit or demon, often in the form of an animal, supposed to serve and aid a witch or other individual.
Have you rotated your project’s tires?
Kiron Bondale
APRIL 22, 2018
A standard semi-annual ritual for many who live in cold climates is swapping all season to winter tires on our cars and back again. This exercise also presents a good opportunity to catch up on any other outstanding preventative maintenance for our vehicles.
How To Launch A Feature To Maximize Growth
Speaker: Brian Balfour, CEO, Reforge
Have you ever been part of a launch that, despite everyone's hard work, was more like a balloon deflating than a rocket taking off? It turns out that some of the most popular product and feature launch tactics can be counterproductive to achieving sustainable growth. Brian Balfour, Founder and CEO of Reforge, has taken a close look at these practices to figure out just why they can slow - or even hurt - growth. Now, he has a repeatable model for you to use in your next launches to get the growth you're looking for.
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