|
The Highs and Lows of Contract Project Management
byDone well, contract-based project management can deliver the kind of results that simply wouldn’t be possible using only employee resources; done poorly, it can be a disaster.
ADVERTISEMENT
Agile: What’s in It for the Project Manager? (Part 2)
byMaking a transition from what you’re currently doing to an effective agile process is a project in itself--but it can easily be worth it. Let’s look at what we can gain by adjusting our approach--our concluding installment looks at interpreting requirements and tracking progress, and offers some further caution and advice.
Agile: What’s in it for the Project Manager? (Part 1)
byMaking a transition from what you’re currently doing to an effective agile process is a project in itself--but it can easily be worth it. There are no guarantees, but let’s look at what we can gain by adjusting our approach...
Phased-Based Governance
byGovernance happens in projects all the time, and a well thought-out governance process can be a powerful project tool. In this article, we will examine why governance is necessary, where governance is most effective and how we as project and program managers can use governance to powerful effect.
Involving Governance Stakeholders (Part 2)
byYour project seemed to be going along swimmingly. Suddenly, there was a surprise from a governance stakeholder. Will you avoid the guillotine? In our conclusion, we focus on managing governance stakeholders in requirements gathering.
You Wanna Be Starting Something?
byDetermining the nature and scope of a project is essential to refining how the resulting effort will accomplish business needs. A crucial component of this is having the knowledge of the business environment and the demands it must meet.
Involving Governance Stakeholders (Part 1)
byIt was the best of times--your project seemed to be going along swimmingly. It was the worst of times--suddenly there was a surprise from a governance stakeholder. Will you avoid the guillotine?
Agile Governance: A Rock and a Hard Place?
byCombining agile and governance seems, at first glance, to imply boxing people in from each perspective and forcing them to chose an option that is neither fully agreeable to each. But this combination is in the best interest of both camps; learn some practical approaches to make it work.
Process Mapping Saves the Day
byMapping business processes is not just a method to grind out workflows. It should be the way IT works with the business to communicate how innovative technologies will transform activities.
Stamping Out Requirements Dysfunction
byAll project failures are related to miscommunication of requirements. And it's the requirements that define the purpose, function and value--the business requirements--that are the biggest culprit as they are especially hard to define.
PMO Responsibility for Process Improvement
byWe all know that process improvement is important, but who should deliver it? Whoever owns a process should also be accountable for the improvement of it--and when we are talking about PM processes, that frequently means the PMO.
Stakeholder Analysis Worksheet
PREMIUM deliverable
This sample of actual Premium and Corporate content is available for FREE download through April 17, 2009.
Every project has stakeholders. Your job is to get to know the ones who will be crucial to your project. This analysis worksheet will help you get a feel for what to expect from various key parties who have an interest in your project.
Requirements Gathering Guidelines and Checklists
PREMIUM deliverable
Start your requirements gathering with this all-inclusive document outlining the entire process from start to finish.
System Requirements Specification
PREMIUM deliverable
The System Requirements Specification (SRS) document describes all data, functional and behavioral requirements of the software under production or development.
Business Process: A Lesson in Anatomy
byIn an attempt to help those of you struggling with Business Process Improvement and Business Process Analysis, our expert presents these “anatomical components” in terms of a series of rules so that you can use them in your efforts.
Matching Scope and Benefits
byYou won’t get the right benefits unless you start with the right scope. As project managers are increasingly asked to become involved in the business side of project execution, many elements they previously didn't have to worry about are now becoming relevant.
Diving into the Project Plan
byThe project plan can be a strange environment of murky waters, but the adventurous project manager can see clearly if they dive in and explore the depths.
Contingency Planning for the Knowns
byMany IT project teams do a good job of identifying project risks and applying associated contingency reserve factors to the project plan. Unfortunately, project teams sometimes overlook the unique challenges that distinguish many applications and affect all projects undertaken in a specific application domain.
Where's the Quality?
byIn software development, testing is one of the most important functions. But too often, there is a fundamental problem: We aren’t always testing the right things. Where’s the quality? Testing is a relative exercise, not an absolute one.
WBS Analysis
byCreating a work breakdown structure for the project and refining it until it can be used as the pattern for the project plan may seem like overkill for some projects, but the WBS can help create a schedule that fully supports the work of the project.
Principles of Evolutionary Architecture & Design for Agile PM (Part 2)
byLarge-scale change of enterprise-level architecture and infrastructure presents a challenge, especially in today's networked world. Enter agile project management. In our concluding installment, we look at successful architecture and design from history, explore the challenges that come with the principles of evolutionary architecture and design--and identify a short list of evolutionary design principles.
Principles of Evolutionary Architecture & Design for Agile PM (Part 1)
byLarge-scale change of enterprise-level architecture and infrastructure presents a challenge, especially in today's networked world. Enter agile project management and the ideas of refactoring and continuous improvement, which involve creating innovative new solutions for each problem encountered.
The Bruce Campbell Guide to Management
byCan a low-budget cult film actor pose as a paragon of sound management practice? What, if anything, can we learn from Bruce Campbell to further our pursuit of management knowledge? Whether you are a manager of resources or a project manager with matrixed resources, put aside those business textbooks and tune in.
The Big Chill
byWith the steady industry shift away from custom code applications to more commercial software packages and services, IT project management practices are necessarily changing to adapt to the new conditions. Is this a glimpse into what the future holds?
Achieving Olympian Goals: Five Rings of Project Success
byThe Olympic rings are five intertwined circles that represent the elaborate and complex Games. Similarly, project managers can bring five rings of discipline together to manage very complex projects. Each of these rings builds upon the other--and they give the project manager a taxonomy by which to manage Olympian efforts
When Being Done Is Actually 'Done'
byBeing clear about what constitutes “done” ensures that the product or service developed at the end of an iteration is completed to the satisfaction of the customer, which is the whole purpose of doing agile in the first place. Got it? Just in case, read on...
ADVERTISEMENTS
|
"Whatever does not destroy me makes me stronger." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche |
