July, 2019

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How to create a project budget

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Creating a project budget involves: being able to identify all the items that are going to cost money building a complete picture of what you need to spend getting approval for that amount. I have left items out of several project budgets and I can tell you it’s pretty embarrassing having to ask your project sponsor to approve spending from the reserves because you messed up the budget.

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If Risk Is Your Business, Do It Better Than Captain Kirk

LiquidPlanner

As a great philosopher and chewer of scenery, Star Trek ’s James T. Kirk once said, “ Risk is our business ”—nothing great can be accomplished if you’re not willing to take some risks. I like to say, “If failure isn’t an option, then innovation isn’t an opportunity.” However, risk must be managed carefully. In “ Return to Tomorrow ,” The Original Series episode that this line comes from, the risk is poorly managed, and the impact is nearly catastrophic for all of humanity.

Risk 119
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The Agile Manifesto, Explained

ProjectManager.com

Any good movement has a manifesto, which is a public declaration of policy and intention. There have been manifestos for art movements, political movements and just about anything you can think of. More along the lines of project management, though, is the Agile Manifesto. Agile is a bit of a controversial topic in the field. Some call it a methodology, while others refer to it as a framework.

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The Best Tips for Accurately Estimating a Project

TimeCamp

Project management has existed forever now and with it – project estimation. Now it’s more.

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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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Can Project Duration Estimation be done without Assumptions?

MPUG

One of the most frequently asked questions when someone is about to start a new task is likely, “how much time will it take?”. Time is limited. Our lives are limited, and unfortunately, we just cannot wish away time limitations. That is why duration estimation is one of the most important aspects of project management. Sometimes, the above question is not directly asked; however someone still imposes a deadline.

More Trending

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Getting the Most Out of Your Project Planning Sessions

Project Smart

As a manager or team leader, you should be full to the brim with innovative ideas about how you can improve both your workflow and business objectives. When you come across an idea that you want to implement - whether that's a new way to sustain growth, manage your inventory, or hire new staff - chances are you'll be in a rush to get it launched.

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10 Places to Get Free Project Management Templates

Rebel’s Guide to PM

You’ve got responsibility for a project. And yet… somehow the organisation doesn’t have the documentation you need to get it started, keep it on track and close it down successfully. So you turn to the internet to find the paperwork you need. Let me make it easier for you. I have researched the best places to get free project management templates for download online.

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30 Best Business Quotes to Inspire Entrepreneurs & Go-Getters

ProjectManager.com

Daily affirmations have long been used to boost self-esteem. They compel people to start their days on the right foot. But while letting a smile be your umbrella might fortify your positive attitude, it’s not going to inspire your business ventures. Everyone must work, but for many of us that job isn’t just a paycheck, it’s an opportunity to express ourselves and make something better.

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Discover The Best Flowchart Software of 2019

The Digital Project Manager

A list of the best flowchart software and diagramming tools, along with FAQ and an explanation of the criteria used in selecting the top choices. The post Discover The Best Flowchart Software of 2019 appeared first on The Digital Project Manager.

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Strategic Finance Essentials: A Project Manager’s Guide to Financial Impact

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 expendi

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Want to reduce digital distraction for your team? Physician, heal thyself!

Kiron Bondale

Two articles caught my attention this morning so I thought I’d connect the dots between them in this week’s article. The first article indicates that the Microsoft Teams collaboration support tool has passed Slack in terms of daily users. In combination, both tools are used by roughly 23 million users daily which is more than half the population of Canada.

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How to Perform a SWOT Analysis

Project Risk Coach

If you are looking for a great way to engage your key stakeholders and identify project risks, perform a SWOT Analysis. Project managers or other facilitators can use this powerful tool to identify strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, strengths may give rise to opportunities and weaknesses may lead to threats. Let's look at how to perform a SWOT Analysis.

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Agile Leadership — A Brief Overview of Concepts and Ideas

Scrum.org

TL; DR: Agile Leadership. I recently started aggregating my notes, links, and references related to agile leadership to understand better what it — in the context of an agile transition — may look like. In the end, becoming agile is not the goal of a transition; surviving as an organization is. Hence I appreciate whatever appeals to business leaders and their motivation to delve into agile ideas, frameworks, or practices.

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Backlog Review (Nulab – 2019)

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Backlog (from Nulab) is a project management tool for prioritising and tracking work. This is a review of the product using my laptop and Chrome browser, and my iPad with Safari, in June 2019. General Information. Name: Backlog. Vendor: Nulab. Hosting options: Online and enterprise version which is self-hosted. Cost and plans: There’s a full free trial for 30 days, and a free plan (1 project, 10 users, plenty to give it a test drive).

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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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7 Problem-Solving Skills You Need to Improve to Get More Done

ProjectManager.com

When confronted with a problem, many of us like to procrastinate or avoid the problem altogether. Avoiding problems is a short-term solution. Problem solving keeps you moving forward. It’s essential for getting work done. Therefore, the faster you can solve a problem, the faster you can get the work done or review the solution to ensure it’s correct (and get home on time).

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The 10 Best Creative Project Management Software For Creative Teams in 2019

The Digital Project Manager

Here’s a list of best software and what to consider when choosing creative project management software for creative teams, agencies, and studios. The post The 10 Best Creative Project Management Software For Creative Teams in 2019 appeared first on The Digital Project Manager.

2019 293
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6 Tips to Time Management for Maximum Productivity

nTask

When it comes to tips to time management, I love how Jackson Brown Jr. put it all together. He said, “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”. Well, Brown may be right about 24 hours theory, but time management is an entirely different realm.

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Five Ways to Reduce Risk Exposure Early

Project Risk Coach

When is risk exposure greatest in a project? In the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the project? It's actually highest in the beginning. Let's look at how to reduce risk exposure early in your projects. Why Risk Exposure Is Greatest in the Beginning So, why is your risk exposure greatest in the beginning? Project managers have the least amount of information.

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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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PO Perspective: Team development for the Development Team

Scrum.org

A while ago I was brushing the teeth of my 3 year old son when I thought of something. This little dude can walk, run, talk (A LOT!), climb, undress, etcetera, but somehow every morning and evening I’m brushing his teeth, instead of him doing it himself. This mainly has to do with the fact that I’m always short on time. At night he just needs to go to sleep quickly and in the morning we are rushing to get to the kindergarden.

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Project Management Prepcast Review [2019]

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Social media has been awash with info on the changes to the PMP exam that take effect in December. The CAPM exam changes in September. And my inbox has been full of people asking what they should do. My advice is if you know you want to do the PMP or CAPM exams, do it now before the changes come in. The changes to the exam content don’t actually look that sweepingly different, but with any new exam comes a period of adjustment for candidates and examiners, and testing how the questions score.

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Save Yourself! 7 Ways to Prevent Information Overload

ProjectManager.com

What a time we live in; there are so many choices. We are experiencing a freedom unlike any other in history, where we can pick exactly what we want and when we want it. But, too much choice can be overwhelming, and we’ve known this for almost two decades. In 2000, psychologists Sheen Iyengar and Mark Lepper published their groundbreaking study, When Choice Is Demotivating , where they studied consumer reactions to being offered a large variety of jams in contrast to a smaller display.

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The 10 Best CRMs For Small Businesses in 2019

The Digital Project Manager

A list of the best CRMs for small businesses—use Customer Relationship Management software to analyze customer journeys, provide support & much more. The post The 10 Best CRMs For Small Businesses in 2019 appeared first on The Digital Project Manager.

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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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Ask a PM: What to Do When Your Sponsor Is Too Busy

LiquidPlanner

Dear Elizabeth: We have quite an established project management office, and we use a standard methodology and tools. My team is good, they have experience, and we work well together. My problem is with the levels above me. My sponsor won’t even meet me. She’s a very senior executive, and I can’t get past her PA [personal assistant] to organize a meeting, and she doesn’t respond to emails.

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The Power of If-Then Risk Statements

Project Risk Coach

IF. Have you thought about the use of this two-letter conjunction in risk management lately? Let's look at how to use the power of If-Then risk statements. IF is a simple word that can open up new doors to writing clear risk statements. And it can be used to write opportunities as well as threats. If-Then Risk Statements Write Opportunity Statements Opportunities are events and conditions, that if they occur, have a positive impact on your project objectives (e.g., schedule, scope, budget, quali

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Scrum Has a Messaging Problem

Scrum.org

You Are not Doing Scrum. "You are not doing Scrum." How many times have you heard that? Scrum Police are a legion. If you are not doing , you are not doing Scrum. Whether you should be doing Scrum, whether it applies to your environment and context, whether your organizational capacity for change is capable of absorbing the shock Scrum framework will inevitably introduce (notice, that shock, in this case, is not mandatorily a bad thing), is not the focus of this post.

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Roles and Responsibilities Template [Free Word Doc]

Rebel’s Guide to PM

Does your project team have a roles and responsibilities document that sets out what everyone does? You should do. It’s a really simple document that helps clarify how everyone is contributing to the project. Scroll down you’ll be able to download a free roles and responsibilities template that will make it super fast for you to document team roles.

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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.