Project Management Software > Risk Management Software

Last month we looked at how agile methods provide multiple opportunities for embracing proactive risk management. This month’s article extends risk management beyond the project manager role and introduces the benefits of making it more of a collaborative team exercise.

Agile methods incorporate many mechanisms for dealing with late-breaking changes that also lend themselves to proactively responding to risks. Here we explore how these methods make effective risk management easier to implement.

We've already looked at the opportunities agile methods offer for proactive risk management and examined the benefits of engaging the whole team in risk management through collaborative games. As our agile risk management series continues, we walk through those games and explains how to engage a team in the first three of the six risk management steps.

Project managers rarely have direct control over anyone on their teams; they don’t rule by decree. But good project managers do exert influence, which is more effective than making demands anyway. Strong leadership, with or without official authority, requires constant refinement of techniques and personal tactics. Here are five standards to keep in mind.

It's easy to find a million ways that software managers can fail with their teams and their projects. This article prioritizes seven practical leadership tips and techniques that can help build great teams that consistently deliver great projects. And these habits are so simple, you can put them into practice immediately!

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.

There is lots of great information available on how to use agile methods for custom software development projects, but less so for package implementations. Commercial-Off-The-Shelf solutions make up a large percentage of the IT projects undertaken by companies each year, and many organizations are missing out on benefits that an agile package approach can bring.

A project management office can operate on a continuum, from providing project management support functions in the form of training, software, standardized policies and procedures to actual direct management and responsibility for achieving the project objectives. Here, we look at some of the key responsibilities and features of a typical PMO.

Poor risk management is the culprit on many failed projects, but is the project manager solely responsible? Companies such as Marathon Oil are integrating automated tools into the process to assign ownership of risk issues, assess them quantitatively and qualitatively, and then manage them throughout the project lifecycle.

Too many projects, and not enough money or resources to do them all! We need to make prioritized decisions to determine which projects to fund. Chances are that you are in a software leadership role and can’t make the final determination alone; but your expertise will certainly be called upon to help make that determination. This article presents tips that can assist you in making those “fateful” project decisions.

As a manger or coach, if you don’t change a pacesetter’s behavior you run a high risk of being held hostage by one person’s abilities--and pay a cost in team productivity. This article is about a pacesetter as a team member on an agile software development team. We will explain what a pacesetter is, why it’s a problem and the effect that a pacesetter has on agile software development.

Risk meetings are under-appreciated--but a vital part of risk management during project execution. A regularly scheduled risk meeting can help keep risks managed properly, and it is the project manager’s job to bring the resources to the table and help assist the project by naming and mitigating risks.

The key criteria used to determine the successful outcome of a project applied against other engineering disciplines are also applicable to software ones. If we know that, why do software projects have a poor track record of delivery? Read on to find out how we can improve it.

Cloud computing offers cost savings, flexibility and speed of deployment that can be very tempting to all kinds of IT organizations, but don't forget about the risks inherent in turning over control of your data in the age of IT Governance and SOX compliance.

The cloud is moving in and taking over. What does this mean for the typical project manager? And as importantly, what does this mean for the organization considering moving its projects into the cloud? Clearly there are some benefits, but there are also some potential challenges. In this column, we examine both sides of the issue in an effort to bring some clarity to project management in the cloud.

It's easy to get lost in the Cloud if you are unsure who the major players are out there. This overview will examine several Cloud frameworks and identify the who's who of the big-league Cloud riders.

Why do so many project managers fail to deal with risks on their projects? In this article, we examine some of the reasons and explore some ways to tackle the problem.

All the project measures in the world are useless if the end result is not of high quality. But how do you quantify quality? What metrics measure how good something is? Agile practices respond by making quality part of the process rather than something you measure along the way.

It's important to clarify the purpose and status reporting expectations early in the project. Here, we share a sample integration management cadence for a large project or program that effectively balances the time with the administrative overhead.

Agile methods are all about delivering value. We work on the high-value items first and prioritize the backlog based on business value. Everything is value driven, aiming to maximize value delivered. Risks, on the other hand, are like anti-value--they have potential for value-robbing down time, rework and even project failures. Here we look at how to use Risk-Adjusted Backlogs and Risk Burndowns to illustrate and prioritize risk within agile projects.

One of the unsung PMO functions is managing risk. There are a lot of aspects of risk management where the PMO can provide tangible support to project managers in their endeavors. In this article, we explore some of that support in terms of identification, analysis and response.

Why do sponsors refuse to provide contingency for risks? It’s not going to go away, you know! It's time to talk about reserves--the amount of time and money that needs to be put aside to cope with the risks on a project. In particular, we want to look at the mindset of the sponsor who refuses to acknowledge this contingency in the budget and schedule.

Project managers hate risks. But is this always a good thing? When projects are established, there's a lot of focus on budgets, schedules and scope (and the relationships between those constraints). Here, we argue that there should be more conscious focus on the role that risks play in that equation--and explore why you shouldn’t always try to minimize negative risks.

What’s the best training for a project manager who already has the basics? Here's what you need to keep in mind when trying to advance your knowledge--and your career.

Some love 'em. Some loathe 'em. But these frameworks and schools of PM thought are here to stay. What benefits and challenges do they present? Read on for both sides of the alternative equation...

In the previous installment, we reviewed five effective leadership behavior questions. This article provides a set of technical project management questions that assess the candidate’s knowledge of project management tools and techniques.

In an agile program, the architects are an integral part of the teams, locally guiding the architecture and using that knowledge to make global decisions about the program’s architecture as the program proceeds.

Sometimes a pure agile approach is not appropriate for a particular project — the important thing is getting the work done, not strict adherence to a process. Still, a non-agile project can benefit from the inherent values of agile, including strong team collaboration, prioritized, incremental development, and regular progress assessment and adaptation.

Agile approaches help manage risk for projects. Is it possible to scale agile approaches to programs? Yes, and there are four areas to consider: backlog management, product architecture, managing risks across the program and explaining program state.

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.

Technical debt describes the cumulative consequences of cutting corners in software development, but it escapes the attention of many project managers as they focus on scope and schedule. That’s a mistake because it impacts both. Here are questions to help you ascertain the real state of technical affairs.

In examining trends in the outsourcing industry earlier in the year, a recent study identified five accelerators influencing the growth of global IT offshoring.

…a.k.a., “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know” or “A Treatise on How to Improve Spotting Risks on Your Project”. Quantifying the potential for that danger isn’t always easy for a lot of project managers. But here are some ways that you can improve the odds. (Cue Tom Cruise and Bob Seger!)

Is a mechanism really needed to provide structure for making key project decisions? Yes. Being in a leadership role, you’ll be pressured by people wanting decisions made for the best interests of the company, the employee or the customer--and they typically conflict. Let’s look at the three categories of influences.

There's no problem with the standard equation for risk, but it’s only part of the story. In this article, we look beyond impact multiplied by probability and think about risk trends over time.

Agile projects benefit from the rapid pace of feedback achieved through frequent releases, but what happens when you’re working on a complex project with a long timeline and resistance to releasing early? As a compensating strategy, story maps based on project goals can leverage some benefits of a release even if you aren’t “going live” any time soon.

Agile practices are not intrinsically “value-adding” — they must be aligned to business needs and goals in order to provide true value. By measuring their agility based on compliance with a particular method, organizations may prevent their teams from adapting practices to suit projects with different characteristics and needs.

After more than 20 years in the financial services industry, this writer thought he knew exactly what to anticipate moving into his new role as a software vendor project manager. He was wrong...