The successful rollout of a fundamental change needs support and buy-in from senior stakeholders. The project manager therefore needs to plan for adequate and persistent senior stakeholder engagement. This article introduces two measures--Appetite for Innovation (AI) and Trust (T)--that can be used to predict likely responses of senior stakeholders to organizational change. Low AI can be addressed by making the change real and relevant to stakeholders. Low Trust can be addressed by improving the awareness of senior stakeholders about the change that is being introduced. This article download has been translated into Japanese.
As an experienced agile coach, this writer often gets asked about agile tactics and practices--what works and what doesn’t. There are no singular answers, but there are some generative behaviors and rules for agile done well. In this article, he explores a set of common anti-patterns that he sees in an effort to share what not to do in your agile journey. This article download has been translated into Japanese.
Program management bridges the gap between corporate strategy and projects. But how does it differ from project management? Simply stated, are program managers really just senior project managers? Or is it something more? This article download has been translated into Japanese.
Question: We’ve just been purchased and the new CEO wants me to set up a better way to manage our project managers working on projects. We seem to be either overworked or sitting around idle. Since we are a big organization, most of the “one team” solutions don’t fit--we’re also a hybrid of traditional methods plus an agile sensibility where it can be worked in. Ideas?
A.
Set all of your teams up to be Scrum teams and hire a ScrumMaster to oversee everything. Traditional methods no longer work in today’s business environment.
B.
Hire a Business Analyst for each team and have this person supervise the project manager to make sure the mix of work to relaxation during the day is more equal than in the past.
C.
Plan that this transition may take several years, then start with a Resource Manager position and look to tighten up the activities done by project managers so that they work at their maximum efficiency. Base your actions on providing capacity information to the portfolio team you create or repurpose for this larger corporate project.
D.
Suggest that all personnel be hired from an outside sourcing agency, so that the numbers of people working on your projects can vary from week to week. This is called Resource Leveling, and will save the organization a sizable amount of money.
When you take over an in-flight project, it's important to know the circumstances of the change. This article is a personal story about taking over a well-managed project that was necessitated by unfortunate circumstances. This article download has been translated into Japanese.
What exactly is it about project managers that make them “good” or “bad” leaders? Certainly it’s a combination of different factors--personality, integrity, communication skills--but is expertise a requirement of a good leader? This article download has been translated into Japanese.
Organizations treat business cases as sales pitches until projects are approved, then they seem to transition into items that should be rapidly forgotten. There must be a better way! This article download has been translated into Japanese.
