Application Development > Modeling Tools

Projects can be delivered without software tools, but it sure makes it easier if you have a few tools in your pocket to make project execution a little easier. Inside you'll find four key tools you can apply on everyday engagements.

With the recent economic challenges, project pressures have grown even more--there’s less money available, and that means fewer resources and a need to get money-making (and money-saving) work completed more swiftly than ever. Can project teams be the secret to better project management in the future?

The average project manager has a challenge, and a large one at that. Most of us don’t have a career development plan. In fact, most of us didn’t necessarily pick this as a career--it picked us. But now that we’re here, the challenge is to figure out exactly where we go with it. To understand how our careers progress, it helps to have a model with which we can associate. Find out what important trio awaits inside...

This cloud thing’s just not working...the silver bullet seems to have misfired. So what went wrong? A tool won't solve all of your problems; in reality, it's a combination of the tool, training, process re-engineering and integration with other corporate functions that will keep you up to speed.

How can you adapt Scrum-like tools and techniques within a Waterfall project management environment? What can you do to reduce resistance and reap the benefits Scrum has to offer? In short, how can you get down and Scrummy within a Waterfall world? Here are some ideas you might find useful.

Few know the evolution of Application Lifecycle Management and how the Structured Revolution of the 1970s and '80s was a major turning point in software development. This article presents a retrospective on ALM and Structured Development Life Cycles--those that shaped it, the influencing principles and the related methodologies and tools the movement spawned.

Which governance/compliance model is right for you? Like so many things in project management, there is no one-solution approach to governance. Here we discuss two models.

Applying Monte Carlo methods to risk analysis does not need to be complex, and it should not be feared or avoided. Following these seven simple steps can help ensure robust and realistic modelling, and allow you to gain the benefits of this powerful technique.

We seem to be moving from the “every PMO is different” model to the “PMOs fit into one of several types” model. However, since the heady days of Y2K the world has changed a lot--and created a lot of opportunities for PMOs to reinvent themselves and create a new model. This writer may be a power-crazed egomaniac, but he thinks PMOs can run the organization (if not the world).

What sets PM Masters apart from the rest of us? Is it their learning, innate talents and aptitudes or is it more? In observing those who exhibit PM mastery this writer has found they share some common traits and capabilities that provide some interesting insights.

In his latest course, an experienced project management trainer makes the case for a durable but resilient schedule model that accounts for requirements, dependencies and uncertainties as fully as possible.

The goal of this article is to encourage project managers to participate in an academic survey to help determine if an organization is ready to apply earned value management to its projects. If you are interested in learning more about EVM--and providing input into an assessment tool to help determine if an organization is ready to apply earned value--please read on!

Ever stop to ponder all the different PM frameworks that have been developed over the years and which one you should be using in your organization? Is there really one best framework out there? The options are dizzying, so here we take a look at four of them in depth. What can they do for you? Remember, one size does not fit all...

A new study finds that Agile project teams are 37 percent faster to market, 16 percent more productive, and able to maintain quality even as schedules are dramatically compressed.

Project managers usually tend to focus on the methodology for executing the technical part of the project. However, a good understanding of a practical SOA landscape and its associated challenges can help a technical PM make the SOA adoption on technology projects run even smoother.

The secret to rapidly capturing requirements lays in understanding the business processes that the application is suppose to leverage and support. And it is in the gap between how things work today and how they need to work to achieve core business objectives that the fruit of the requirements tree can be harvested.

Getting in step with workflow means knowing the difference between workflow and process, and keeping it straight.

The secret to rapidly capturing requirements lays in understanding the business processes that the application is suppose to leverage and support. And it is in the gap between how things work today and how they need to work to achieve core business objectives that the fruit of the requirements tree can be harvested.

A new agile procurement process--one that can operate in conjunction with and alongside an agile software development methodology--should significantly improve both the procurement of software vendor’s services and and successful delivery of software projects. This article will explore the underlying principles as well as map the reconciliation points required to harmonize agile development and procurement methods.

Earned Value Management is recognized within the project management domain as an effective cost and risk management technique. The formulas are not difficult to understand. So if EV isn’t difficult to calculate, why isn’t it more prevalent?

Welcome to the PMO! Does your Program Management Office have a plan for helping new project managers? More than any other function, the PMO varies hugely from one organization to the next--and even from one division to the next. That means that there will always be a ramp-up period for anyone entering as a project manager--and yet many PMOs make no allowance for this.

Does ALM change product project management? Perhaps the biggest challenge that ALM faces is simply that it is not yet well understood by all of the people that it is aimed to help. Until both business and IT groups understand what ALM offers and the tangible benefits that it can bring, then there is a danger that ALM will continue to generate either a blank look or images of expensive software suites. Perhaps it's time you you focus your ALM efforts on the business first and the software second.

In the years ahead, the job of project manager will only become more complex. That’s largely because the profession has finally gotten the recognition it deserves, taking its much-deserved place alongside other essential organizational functions.

Is your work more industrial-worker based or knowledge-worker based? The way people work together on projects has changed. Have your project management methods kept up?

The first step in scaling agile is to move from partial methods to a full-fledged, disciplined delivery process. The second step is to understand eight scaling factors and determine which are applicable to the range of complexities your project teams face. Here, agile thought leader Scott Ambler presents his scaling model.

Have you ever been involved in a process improvement (PI) project? Have you ever led one? Have you ever wondered if there are any criteria, methods or standards that really define how to conduct these projects that are supposed to deliver huge returns for the company while delivering more value to its customers, employees and owners? And if there were, what should a process improvement methodology look like anyway?
Well, wonder no more. Just spend a few minutes and this short primer will help you understand what to look for in selecting a Process Improvement (PI) Methodology.

Successful portfolio management requires sound processes for building consensus on what is important and how project results will be measured. Here are four value-based models to facilitate better decision-making.

When is "new" good, and when is it just a fad? Sometimes, new processes and approaches may seem appealing and effective simply because they’re new and optimistically presented--and we haven’t yet been faced with examples of where they’ve been perverted and compromised.

This series of resource management articles will describe an overview of a resource management model, how to build one, maintain the model and support decision making for the project portfolio.

PMOs might take a page from New York City’s war on crime, which produced a sustained drop in reported crime. By focusing on solutions instead of symptoms, then targeting the most serious strategic or execution-related pain points, a PMO is more likely to make a transformative impact.

The past two articles introduced the resource management model and provided step-by-step instructions to build the model. Now we look at the ever-important updating that needs to be done.

What is maturity? Can an organization be considered mature if it does the wrong things well? What if it does the right things in the wrong way? The OPM3 business standard helps organizations become more mature. But misperceptions still exist about what “maturity” means. This issue is not explained in the standard itself and has never been written about by anyone, so what better place to do so than here and now?

How do we adapt in the face of consistency, or of anarchy or of brutal regimentation? As project managers, the only thing we really have control over is ourselves. Given this, how do we change our approach in a way that enables us to be effective in producing project results, rather than bashing our head repeatedly against an unfeeling and unchanging wall of bureaucracy? Here we take a look at adaptation in the face of organizational consistency.

It’s time that we face up to a fundamental reality: organizations grapple with making project management work successfully on a consistent basis. Yes, there are exceptions--and some notable ones--but on the whole they simply prove the rule. It's time for a different approach.

Many organizations understand the need to build and mature a business analysis center of excellence but are scratching their collective heads over how. Where do you start? What does it look like? Who owns it? How does it evolve? Here is some step-by-step guidance.

Models are supposed to provide a better way of managing than whatever came before. But in many instances, the result is far from an improvement. The reality is that many implementations have made things worse. What are organizations doing wrong, and what can we do differently that will enable positive results?

When planning a sprint, many factors will influence what works best, particularly the experience of the team in self-organizing. Here are some guidelines that can help project leaders focus the planning effort — without taking it over — and a few techniques to engage everyone and establish a shared vision.

This writer's consumer-focused perspective has taught him to look at stakeholders from a slightly different angle. One of the many models he uses to gauge stakeholder needs is a variation of the “needs-wants-haves” matrix.

How do you align the method to the natural attributes of a project? First, you have to understand the various software development project approaches. This article provides an overview of several popular SDP approaches and identifies some basic criteria for selecting one approach over another.

One approach to improve project management maturity is through a project management community of practice, an informal group of PM practitioners who share advice, tips, techniques, lessons learned and promote relevant topics in the project and program management domain.