Project Management Training > Facilitation

Agile team dynamics are crucial, but most people don't have the time they want or need to read about and practice these topics. Luckily, this list of the Top 10 Team Practices will remind you of some of the basic points.

Bringing the customer into the requirements process is a key to success in every project. Sometimes, however, their expectations are unrealistic or even contrary to their best interests. Along with good facilitation, there are ways to negotiate with customers that give them the option to say "no" without you having to insist on it.

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.

Integrated support for customer product planning, requirements definition, release and iteration tracking, and defect and test management.

Iterations are too long. Stories are humongous. Everyone is multitasking. The product owner is not available enough. This is a rich, problem-solving environment--the project has a ton of problems. You know you can help the team fix these issues, but you just have one problem: Where do you start?

In most meetings, a variety of negative dynamics can hinder progress. Good facilitation skills can go a long way in turning great people into great teams and enabling smart people to make smart decisions. Here are six vital facilitation techniques.

So you want a career in project management? What will it take to be successful, and what about earning potential? This article will explore the pursuit of a career in project management, including looks at characteristics of successful PMs, what employers are looking for and salaries.

Putting out fires is an all-too-common job requirement for many project managers. If you are struggling with resolving conflicts on your team, here are some tips for turning those emotionally charged disputes into productive conversations.

The Agile2011 Conference drew more than 1,600 attendees to Salt Lake City, where dozens of companies showcased new technology solutions and training offerings. Here is a recap from the busy exhibition floor.

Don't make the mistake of thinking the key to a successful help desk is the right software. Yes, technology is important, but the real hurdle to get over is resistance to change. Here are some tips on getting users to embrace your help desk innovation.

How we function in a team is critical. Teams exist because we can’t be successful on our own; we need some help, we need specialist expertise and we need people to contribute to the heavy lifting. Put multiple people in a room together, however, and the challenges of communication, collaboration, confusion and conflict quickly come to the fore.

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...

Congratulations, you just accepted a job as CIO, now what? What you do during your first 30 days on the job will most likely determine your future success. The strategy you deploy is critical and will vary greatly with the circumstances you are inheriting. Here's a look at our first round of possible success strategies, which involve building peer constituencies and assessing perceptions.

Learn how to turn project post-mortems from a public execution into a constructive, positive and valuable team-building exercise that benefits everyone involved.

Business planning isn't just a good idea if you have the time, it's an essential part of getting projects and budgets approved and keeping your IT department in good standing within your organization. Plus, it's a rare opportunity for CIOs to write their own playbook.

So you want to be a project manager…there is one critical decision you need to make.

In this first article of the series, we examined some common challenges in defining and deploying Business Systems Analysts within organizations. In this second article, we will delve into the current state and examine the project management and organization implications of this conundrum. We hope that these articles will tickle your thoughts and nudge you towards strategically defining or refining the role of business systems analysts in your organization.

If a picture really is worth a thousand words, visual-based project facilitation sessions just might offer a team-engaging, idea-generating alternative to dry, data-driven meetings that so often fall flat. A leading practitioner of "visual language" discusses why it can improve project communications and team buy-in.

There is a push for a more flexible, dynamic approach to supporting knowledge work through technology. Software architect and author Keith Swenson is a leading advocate of adaptive case management, which recognizes the creative, unpredictable nature of knowledge work. He shares his thoughts on the concept.

What attributes of Web 2.0 bring the power of collaboration to life? Read on as we look at three crucial attributes and explore them further.

At the heart of agile methods is the key tenet that teams and teamwork are better than individual contributions and effort. Here we explore the key factors and attributes of teams and teamwork for agile project management.

Welcome to ProjectsAtWork's Executive Report (Vol. 1, No. 11), the newsletter for professionals engaged in high-level, enterprisewide project leadership. In this issue, we identify essential technology-oriented capabilities needed to manage global project teams ... present a PMO facilitation model that combines the more common support and supervision roles ... and share some basic lessons on crisis leadership. Also: a white paper from MKS on the successful implementing of an application lifecycle management solution.

Part of a project manager’s job description is facilitation — drawing out the best in a team and paving the way for a project to succeed. But you aren’t born with these skills, nor can you earn them with a diploma. Facilitation requires ongoing attention to nine disciplines, including detachment, engagement and even a sense of wonder.

When making the jump from project manager to ScrumMaster, behaviors and techniques that worked well before may work against you in the new paradigm. Here, two experienced project managers and Scrum trainers share their experiences and insights on navigating this challenging transition.

An event celebrating the 10-year-anniversary of the Agile Manifesto brought together 33 members of the agile community and sparked discussion about what agile has solved, what is unsolvable and what remains to be solved. Here, we talk to attendee Ryan Martens, CTO of Rally, about some of his and the group’s conclusions.

Running a process improvement project with little or no knowledge of the legacy systems gives a whole new meaning to "creative thinking." Here's how one team got over this hurdle to achieve breakthrough results

Now that a GAP analysis is standard operating procedure for most process improvement initiatives, it seems appropriate to explore how to go about performing it and what it should contain. Here is one man's definition and rules related to the performing and construction of a GAP analysis.

The CIO stands on unique ground when undertaking business process improvements: right in the middle of technology, business and people.

What does it take to do world-class business process improvement projects? Does it take a total corporate infrastructure dedicated to the task? Does it lots of automated tool sets that do process analysis, simulations and collaboration? The answer may surprise you as we conclude our two-part series.

"I'm sorry; I came here for a post mortem."
"Oh! This is Abuse. You want room 12A next door."

Sometimes its easy to confuse the two. Here's how to avoid that confusion and make your project post mortems constructive instead of just critical.

If you don't want a zombie project, don't be a zombie project manager. Show some passion in your leadership!

If your project team members hear “meeting at 3:00” and think, “Another waste of my time,” then it’s about time for a meeting overhaul. Meetings can be important team-building and idea-generating opportunities, but only if they are conducted the right way. Here are 10 pitfalls of pitiful meetings and how to fix them.

Project teams are highly susceptible to performance degradation caused by churn. But what are the symptoms of churn in a project team, and how might they be remediated so that team performance is restored?

The following section provides additional questions and considerations for Project Management Training Vendor Selection. While refining these selection criteria for your specific needs, consider what your organization requires when selecting training for your staff.

You're not using the same technology you used 20 years ago, so why are you using the same management techniques? The technology of management needs to stay ahead of the game, and you, the project manager needs to be the star player.

Beyond technical skills, success on Agile projects depends on productive self-organizing teams, according to Esther Derby, a respected consultant on teamwork, Scrum implementation and retrospective facilitation. Here, she shares some best practices for developing and supporting self-organizing teams.

Everyone in your organization has his own area of expertise. Bringing all that knowledge together is one of your most powerful tools toward process improvement. Here are six steps to get you up to speed.

Here we take a look at A Classroom of One: How Online Learning is Changing Our Schools and Colleges by Gene Maeroff.

This article presents a profiling technique that evaluates a stakeholder across a number of dimensions, resulting in a rating of the stakeholder that identifies the management strategy most likely to be successful.

Planning with dispersed teams can be tricky, but it can be done effectively by leveraging technology and adapting techniques to fit the situation.

If you’re struggling to implement PMO processes in your organization, here is a no-nonsense, lean PMO process set that focuses more on delivery—and less on bureaucracy.

Three Wisconsin IIBA chapters host business analyst conference on October 5.

With the emphasis on their ability to drive change, there is a growing requirement for CIOs also to change; they need to become Change Management Officers. So what will it take for CIOs to add organizational change management to their repertoire of expertise?

When it comes to the critical business analyst role in agile projects, it's all about the value.

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.

Sometimes an established project meeting has deteriorated so badly that the project manager must end it once and for all. Here are some common symptoms and possible corrective actions before you pull the plug.

We need to apply more focus on valuable activities toward valuable outcomes. With this in mind, let’s examine six “power tips” that can help us focus on valuable activities, simplify our processes and enable the “necessary” to speak.