Innovation is the new buzz word. Or hold on… maybe it’s always been that special buzz word that you reserve for clients and shareholders. As a project manager, it is so easy to be bogged down by the short-term goals, tasks, schedules and the deadlines. Is it possible to not just keep your head above … Continue reading Innovating in Project Teams

Other than staring at Excel sheets and Power Points, that is. In a way, that’s what the PMP course is all about. But, the role of a Project Manager (PM) is quite often misunderstood, wrongly perceived or at the least, there are some myths hovering around it. Is Project Manager a human schedule tracker? Continue … Continue reading What does a Project Manager actually do?

Project estimation can even make the best project management experts pull their hair out. The challenge with Project estimation in software development, unlike other industries, is that it’s often done with partial data and sometimes with incorrect data, too. Several techniques have been introduced over the years to make the process systemic and not a … Continue reading Series on project estimation – Part 1 – Estimation challenges

Estimation is a tough nut to crack, even for a seasoned programmer. The reason being every project brings its own unique set of challenges, domain, technologies, people and other complexities. Software domain experts have explored different approaches, systemic and others, to compute project effort. In this article, we introduce some of the common methods that … Continue reading Series on project estimation – Part 2 – Estimation techniques

In this third and concluding part on the blog series on estimation, we focus on Agile estimation. The reason we look at Agile estimation in detail is that not only does it offer an interesting and a unique approach to estimation, it also plugs one of the most common loopholes in estimation which is to … Continue reading Series on project estimation – Part 3 – Agile estimation

Let us run through this handy checklist to gauge your risk management quotient. 1) Have you created a risk matrix? A risk matrix is a core artefact to be prepared by the PM, right at the start of the project. Creating such a document compels the PM and everyone else to look at the project … Continue reading Are you asking all the right questions to manage your project risk?

Research proves that the word ‘status’ is used a million times during the course of a project by a Project Manager. Okay, I’m just kidding! But, you get what I mean. Many a times, it feels that a project is running on the heels of status reports. A status report appears to be that core … Continue reading Five common mistakes in status reports

You have decided to jump into the ‘Agile’ bandwagon, convincing your team that the traditional waterfall model is outdated. You lug your team into a week of ‘agile’ training and the team, refreshed by a new set of terminologies to boast, is all geared up with their sleeves rolled. Congratulations! You’ve taken the first step. … Continue reading How to make Agile work for you?

Yes, and the excitement is in the air. Time to say goodbye and move on. The team is in the brink of project closure, the core goals had been met and within the next week, everyone is going to be reallocated to different projects. It is almost like a graduation ceremony. Everyone is excited to … Continue reading It’s time to pack the bags but hold on…

Managing stakeholders can often turn out to be the ‘make’ or ‘break’ aspect in a project. What makes it really important is that, one has to be cognizant of this through all cycles of the project. Right from project initiation to closure, the project manager cannot afford to ignore the key stakeholders. Interestingly, stakeholder management … Continue reading Manage your stakeholders with elan

Quality Assurance is one of the key aspects in the Project Management space and arguably one of the fastest transforming areas in software creation. Often, when we discuss Project Management, we tend to focus a lot on execution not discussing the qualities required for a QA Project Manager or the challenges associated with ensuring software … Continue reading The changing QA landscape

It is the monster that tops the ‘dread’ list of most project managers. Time delays are manageable, scope creeps are a way of life, but ‘communication breakdown’ in a project is a strict no-no. It is a clear signal that the project is headed towards failure. Let us tackle the elephant in the room by … Continue reading Seven reasons why communication breaks down in a project

Grading the happiness quotient: You choose your levels such as High-Medium-Low or 1 to 5 and then write them out on a white board. Iterate through the list of discussion items and ask the team members to grade each item by placing a tick mark or a post-it on the white board. Then you choose … Continue reading Handy list of retrospective techniques