Category: Project Management
- The Hoshin Kanri Matrix for Strategic Alignment in Project Management ()
In an era where organizational success hinges on the seamless integration of long-term vision and day-to-day execution, the Hoshin Kanri Matrix (also known as X Matrix) emerges as a visual tool for strategic management. Originating from Japanese management practices, Hoshin Kanri, or “Policy Deployment,” is a disciplined approach to aligning strategic objectives with actionable initiatives, […]
- Earned Value Management (EVM) in IT Project Management: Quantifying Project Progress and Performance ()
In the world of IT project management, accurately measuring progress and performance is crucial for success. Enter Earned Value Management (EVM) is a powerful methodology that integrates cost, schedule, and scope to provide a comprehensive view of project health. EVM is a well recognized project management technique included in the PMBOK up until 7th edition. […]
- Effort Estimation: Rocks, sand and water in planning ()
Have you ever noticed a team planning extensively, only to deliver much less than expected? Common reasons include: “There were too many supporting tasks,” “Stakeholders added more work,” and of course, “An employee went on vacation” (what a surprise!). Consider this popular analogy: a jar is filled with large rocks, making it seem full. But […]
- Escalation Process in Project Management: Definition, Role, Process, and Best Practices ()
Project escalation refers to communicating project issues or concerns to higher levels of management or authority within an organization. It serves as a mechanism to address and resolve problems that cannot be effectively handled at lower levels of the company hierarchy. Preparing for potential Events Escalation Event — potential or actual matters that may result […]
- How to Run Better Status Meetings ()
Status meetings are how project leaders keep their fingers on the pulse. But too often these meetings get sidetracked. Here’s some time-tested advice to get your status meetings — and projects — beating to a unified purpose. First of all, good call: Helps solve problems faster than in writing. Motivates team members to work on […]
- Use Workstreams to Solve Project team Decomposition ()
Large projects often face the challenge of managing numerous people working over extended periods of time. This can lead to various issues, including the mistake of “everyone does everything” or overwhelming amount of internal communications. This approach can result in serious risks, including planners leaving gaps in the project plan by failing to anticipate all […]
- The MoSCoW prioritization method for Business Requirements ()
The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique used in project management to categorize business requirements into four categories: Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have. This allows business to prioritize which project requirements provide the best return on investment (ROI). 1. Must have: These are the essential requirements that are critical for the […]
- HD-RW-RM task setting method ()
In the name of the HD-RW-RM method, capital letters correspond to the first letters of the names of the blocks, and the hyphen serves to remember the rhyme (sang to himself: “h di – ar double u – ar em”). Structure H – Header The title of the task, beginning with a verb, indicating the […]
- Setting Project Goals: Zielkreuz method ()
In English-speaking world we are used to hear SMART when talking about goals. However, German has an alternative – Zielkreuz, translated as Target Cross. In order to formulate overarching goals or sub-goals of a development project and to set milestones and indicators, it is also advisable to work with the crosshairs. It is particularly good […]
- What is Organizational Project Management? ()
To answer the question “what is Organizational Project Management”, let’s read a fragment of the recent work “Company ‘As Is – To Be’: how Project Management theory can be used to improve and streamline processes in a real case study” by Micol Abello: The OPM is a ‘strategy execution framework to align portfolio, program, and […]
- How to create Project Status Update Dashboard in Confluence ()
Have you ever spent one hour writing a Project Status Update email collecting updates from a dozen of colleagues in chat? I have. And you know what? I don’t want to ever repeat that experience. If you use Jira or at least Trello in your workflow, you may say “Let’s make the requestor check statuses […]
- How to apply Lessons Learned to improve Project Delivery ()
There is no such thing as a perfect process. Ways of working can evolve to produce better outcomes. Lessons Learned is one of the tools that PMs use to identify issues and opportunities in processes. According to PMBOK Guide 7th edition Lessons Learned is a form of internal knowledge about improvements from a specific delivery […]
- How to combine Project Management and New Product Development ()
Breakthrough innovation creates a legal monopoly and helps to gain a competitive advantage. Increased accessibility to alternative suppliers through the Internet intensifies global competition and encourages organizations to optimize innovation processes. Companies develop new products to enter new markets, suit customer needs, stay ahead of the competition, or replace outdated products. New Product Development is […]
- Working with people on the project ()
As Project Managers, we always work with people: project team members, Project Management Office colleagues, stakeholders, and clients. Working with other people involves dealing with them both logically and emotionally. A successful working relationship allows PM to manage the project effectively and deliver results in a timely fashion. There are many aspects of working with […]
- How to improve Project Traceability ()
Traceability describes relationships between two or more elements throughout the development process. Usually, Project managers visualize these relationships using traceability matrices that depict many-to-many relations. In Project Management, these can be between requirements and workstations, requirements and test cases, requirements to requirements (dependencies), or multiple project deliverables. Working on a Project with good traceability, you’ll […]
- How to manage expectations on a project ()
On a project, each stakeholder and project team member has a specific view of what’s going on. They differ in understanding what steps the team will perform, how long they will take, and what the results will be. Managing expectations is about establishing a common denominator that aligns with Project documentation and plans. As a […]
- How to document projects properly: 6 Principles ()
Project documentation is often a deciding factor separating successful projects from unsuccessful ones. Every project with insufficient documentation is a gamble posing risk to the organization. Every requirement missing from the documentation can be viewed differently by stakeholders. Every decision made during the execution can be redone for no reason causing ineffectiveness. Project documentation is […]
- How to distinguish Process Management and Knowledge Management for Inexperienced Managers and Team Leaders ()
Being a manager or Team Leader, you will inevitably meet working with the team’s processes and knowledge. Techniques such as Scrum, Agile, and Kanban can help you with processes, and knowledge management software like Confluence can help you simplify Knowledge Management As Team knowledge often complements Teams’ processes, a problem arises: how to split information […]
- 💎 Top free courses on Project Management ()
Project Management is becoming an important skill for non-PMs as companies transition their models from Processes to Projects. I work as a Business Analyst in Banking and here’s my curated list of great PM courses. I believe that every research we do is a project. You can’t optimize the research itself with PM techniques. But […]
- Six Project Management Constraints ()
Project Constraints are limiting factors for your project that can affect quality, delivery, and overall project success. The project manager leads the project team to meet the project’s objectives and stakeholders’ expectations. It is in Project Manager’s responsibility to manage constraints and balance competing project constraints influence with the available resources. We will discuss types […]