From the publications of Adam Smith, economies, top managers and company owners strived to implement separation of labor and hire specialists to fill all the key positions. But in more recent works, we can often find mentions of generalists as an important part of the organization in Digital Transformation processes. Thus, a question rises: who […]
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 […]
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 […]
Effective working relationships with the stakeholders are crucial for successful project execution for both Project Managers and Business Analysts. Therefore, it’s important to plan for Stakeholder Engagement (or Stakeholder Management) beforehand. As per BABOK Guide v3: Plan Stakeholder Engagement involves conducting a thorough stakeholder analysis to identify all of the involved stakeholders and analyze their […]
There are multiple Business Intelligence instruments available nowadays. However, many corporate world employees still don’t understand the scope of applications for dashboards and other visualizations. In this article, I’ll try to explain when and where you can and should apply BI instruments to deliver value to your company. Let’s begin with a fundamental concept. Data […]
Working as a Business Analyst, you’ll have to work with several documents for Software Development. BAs usually use two documents: a Business Requirement Document (BRD) and Functional Specification Document (FRD). However, other documents exist and they work together to create a comprehensive view of the project. One of the most important ones is Software Requirement […]
Issue Trees are the tool for “dividing and conquering”. An Issue Tree is a map of the problem you have to solve. Just like a good map it covers the whole problem area and doesn’t go into the slightest details (the specific hypotheses), but focuses on the broad aspects of your problem (the categories). It […]
Do more with less is a common trend in the business world. It requires filtering out low-priority everyday tasks in favor of long-term goals. Thus, Time management is one of the most useful skills for a specialist. One tool to systematize your efforts in business and personal life is Pre-Week Planning. It empowers people to […]
The next generation of software development tooling improves processes and software quality across each stage of the software development life cycle (SDLC) enabling more and more nontechnical employees to create applications. These tools include technologies like low-code/no-code platforms, infrastructure-as-code, microservices and APIs, AI “pair programmers”, AI-based testing, and Automated code review. Even though these technologies […]
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 […]
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 […]
When talking about the future it’s convenient for managers to plan things: a set of actions we want to perform, ideally, with concrete timelines. Planning is one of the five management functions apart from organizing, controlling, motivating & leading, and decision-making. Planning usually takes good judgment skills and includes something like “rent a floor” or […]
It’s natural to seek career progression into management or in-depth specialization. Today I’d like to discuss what companies are looking for in leaders to give you an overall understanding of the skills, responsibilities, and everyday tasks of middle managers. Being a head of a team, you maintain a complete and specific function within the organization […]
Much of the real work of companies happens despite the formal organization. Often what needs attention is the informal organization, the networks of relationships that employees form across functions and divisions to accomplish tasks fast. These informal networks can cut through formal reporting procedures to jump-start stalled initiatives and meet extraordinary deadlines. But informal networks […]
Digital product management is booming: salaries are high, requirements for candidates are low and many companies are searching for senior PMs. Being an experienced product manager with experience with physical products you may think about switching to digital products. However, in an interview, you may face many questions to which you don’t know the answers. […]
13-14th of October 2022 in Moscow Center of International Trade the biggest e-commerce conference took place. Conference “Electronic trade 2022” united online shops, producers, sellers and retail under one roof. Topic of the event was “Big Remake”. Between 18th and 20th of May 2022 26th Russian Internet Forum took place. What was discussed at these […]
A performance review allows both the employer and employee to discuss what has been completed during the last performance review cycle, assess what went well, where areas of improvement may lie, and proactively implement needed support. Employees often underutilize performance reviews. They are great opportunities to get feedback and to present your achievements to reach […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
