Author: Shane Drumm

10 Free Roles and Responsibilities Templates

Several documents are required to help ensure they are completed during the project creation and management. Roles and responsibilities templates are among them. Whether the document is meant to be part of your job description, an employee training manual, or as part of a project documentation process, having a roles...

50 Lessons Learned Templates (Google Sheets & Docs & PDF)

Maximize the effectiveness of your project management skills by using lessons-learned templates. A lessons-learned document is a simple breakdown, written by the project manager, of every potential and existing problem found within a project. An effective lessons-learned report will also propose solutions to these problems. We’ll focus on a template...

7 Free Release Plan Templates – Word, Excel, Powerpoint

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 in Project Management

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...

Advantages of Fast Tracking vs Crash Planning

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,...

Advantages of Resource Leveling vs Resource Smoothing

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...

12 Agile Collaboration Games for Team Building

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 (5 Stages of Team Development)

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...

Agile Project Management Guide (Skills & Methodologies)

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...

27 Risk Categories Examples for Project Managers

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 in Project Management

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...

SWAG Estimates in Project Management

In project management, the Swag estimate is a rough estimate of the amount of work that needs to be done to complete a project. This estimate is typically made during the early stages of a project when there is still a lot of uncertainty about the scope and requirements. This...

Top 10 Best Free Project Planning Tools in 2024

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...

PERT Formula Examples & PERT Calculator

3-point estimation and the PERT formula are two methods that can be used to estimate the completion time of a project. This can be tricky to understand, so we have included several examples of PERT formulas below. Firstly… The 3-point approach uses an average calculation in which values can be expressed as:...

15 Benefits of Relationship-Building Activities

Working together towards a common goal is one of the critical factors in an organization’s success. To achieve that, having strong relationships between team members is crucial.  Relationship building can help improve communication and understanding, making working together more productive and enjoyable. There are many ways to build relationships within...

Quantitative Risk Analysis PMP Overview

Quantitative risk analysis (QRA) assists in identifying factors impacting individual projects or organizations by applying research methodologies to measure and project future conditions. This type of analysis takes the probability and impact of risks on a project or organization using numerical data, thus creating a quantitative risk assessment (QRA). In...

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