Learning to Love the PMBOK®–It Wasn’t Easy
Years ago, I begrudgingly took my project management certification (PMP®) exam. I passed. Almost a decade later, I now teach PMP® preparation classes and see […]
Scrum vs. Kanban: What to Choose?
Organizations starting their Agile journey are confronted with an array of choices. One early decision is, what methodology and process to follow? The authors of […]
Culture and Successful Projects
Project management has a consistent and unimpressive performance record. The Standish Group’s on-going survey of project performance finds the percentage of projects that were deemed […]
Eliminating Waste in Knowledge Work
Many of us are “knowledge workers.” We do not physically create a product. We work in areas that are important to our enterprise, but do […]
The Importance of the Product Owner and the Product Backlog
Agile is an effective software development framework. Teams using Agile deliver value in short, iterative, increments. The starting point of the delivery cycle is the […]
Effective Communications = Productive Project Teams
Effective communications are the cornerstone to successful projects and productive teams. The Agile Manifesto extolls the virtues of collaboration, individual interactions, and face-to-face communications. Projects […]
Stakeholder Management: A Key to Project Success
Projects with involved stakeholders are far more likely to be successful. But many projects suffer from low engagement from executives, users, and key stakeholders. The […]
Agile and the Product Mindset
Adopting a product mindset is critical when transforming to an Agile development methodology, like Scrum. Shifting our thinking from project to product expands our view […]
We’ve Been Agile for Years, But…
When teaching classes on Agile and DevOps, I am always presented with the comment, “We’ve been Agile for years, but…” The student then continues to […]
If Agile is Better, Why is Adoption So Low?
Agile software projects have significantly better outcomes than Waterfall methodologies. Statistics from the 2015 Standish Group’s Chaos Report show that, on average, Agile projects are […]