Embarking on the entrepreneurship journey offers excitement and challenge, particularly for those stepping into this arena for the first time. The path from the initial spark of an idea to the tangible reality of a functioning enterprise is fraught with intricacies. Aspiring entrepreneurs must navigate the intricacies of business plans,...
Project plans, timelines, and Gantt charts are just a few of the many tracking and planning records the project management team needs to oversee a project successfully. But imagine if you have to create these documents—and many others—from scratch. What a dull way to waste time, huh? Every project manager...
You may have heard the term network sensitivity if you’ve been studying critical path methodology (CPM) and project schedule development. Without going into a lecture on constructing project networks with forward and backward passes, I’ll define sensitivity in simple terms. A project schedule is considered sensitive if the critical path...
The best way to determine whether your project is feasible is to complete a Feasibility Study. This process helps you gain confidence that the solution you need to build can be implemented on time and under budget. So here’s how to do it in 5 simple steps. Completing a Feasibility...
If you’ve worked with external vendors at any time, I’m sure you’ve noticed the variety of formats vendors use for a project schedule. In some cases, it is a formal MS Project schedule. In other cases, it is a set of dates described in an email or developed in every...
Welcome to the first chapter of our new blog series: Project Schedule Quality 101 I’ve been thinking a lot about schedule quality lately as I’m integrating one heck of a project schedule that involves 5 different vendors, 3 project managers, and a lot of scope. I’ve received multiple vendor schedules...
During updates, a release plan template is a time-saving tool for the Product Owner (PO). It enables the product team to compile all features of a large project, facilitating the creation of a clear roadmap. This roadmap outlines the schedule for bug fixes and future feature enhancements, indicating when specific...
Risk Acceptance is a risk response strategy whereby we, as the project team, decide to acknowledge the risk and not take any action unless the risk occurs (PMBOK®, 6th edition, Glossary). All risks should be assessed equally and documented in the risk register. Accepting risks should be done with caution, and...
Project tracking vs. crashing is two project management schedule compression techniques to speed up a project. Fast-tracking is when tasks planned to happen in sequence now happen in parallel. Crashing involves adding more resources to the functions to complete the work quicker. While fast-tracking and crashing can be helpful techniques,...
Each project task requires a resource that can follow the project budget and schedule. As the project progresses, unexpected events and challenges may force you to reconsider your resource allocation. In this case, you must adapt to ensure that project deliverables are unaffected. This is where resource leveling comes into...
Agile collaboration games are designed to encourage engagement in group agile activities such as estimating sprint work. We use planning poker. Agile collaboration is about working in increments towards a shared goal. Agile collaboration games are about working together as a team, and facilitators use various games like the one below to...
The Tuckman Ladder Model is a popular framework for understanding team dynamics. The model describes teams’ four stages as they work together: forming, storming, norming, and performing. This makes a team development process very important in project management, as it empowers individuals and teams to work together to achieve a...
To understand the skills and tools in Agile Project Management software processes, you first need to learn about the basics. Agile project management is a type of project management that works in short iterations rather than creating one big plan in traditional project management. Because of these short cycles, there...
A risk category is a classification of risks based on the organization’s business activities. It gives a systematic overview of their underlying and possible risks and potential risk sources. Individual project risks can be grouped into risk categories for evaluating and responding to them. Risk can be defined as an...
Bottom-up estimating is an essential project management technique. It is used to estimate the project cost, duration, or resources. It starts by gathering the details at the lowest level of the work breakdown structure and estimating work for each work package. The estimate of the entire project is the sum...
Being a successful project manager requires the ability to wear many hats. From planning and budgeting to dealing with stakeholders and keeping the project on track, a lot goes into it. However, effective project planning is one of the most important aspects of a successful project manager. Planning a project can...
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