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  Agile is a methodology to manage a project that uses iterative and incremental approaches during project execution. Organizations across the globe have been using agile to boost their project success. While Agile is widely used, there are several misconceptions related to the methodology. Due to its flexibility, people often relate agile with a lack of planning or structure. While it is essential to understand what agile is, it is also crucial to understand what agile is not. This is the area that we will focus upon in this iteration of agile learning. 1. Not a Silver Bullet Like all other project management methodologies and techniques, agile does not guarantee the success of the project. Project executed along agile principles can also fail and face issues like missed deadlines, over budgeting, and changed requirements. Like any other project management methodologies, it is essential in agile project management to bring the development team and the client close and provid...

  Quality is easily the make or break element of any product, service, or project. Organizations push to deliver prime quality for two significant reasons, first to satisfy their clients and second to stand out from the competitors. In layman terms, Critical to Quality requirements relate to customer's expectations and needs with the quality of the output delivered. While the need for the CTQ requirement is clear, it is not always easy to identify the exact features that provide the quality in the customer's eyes. This is where the Critical to Quality Tree comes into the picture. Critical to Quality tree is a diagram tool that helps in translating broad customer needs into specific, actionable, and measurable performance quantifiers. For example, "Deliver quality pizza and good service” is too broad a term to do much about it. CTQ tree is used to break this requirement down to actionable items.   Developing Critical to Quality Tree Step 1: Identify Critical Needs...

  Stakeholders are individuals or organizations who are involved in the project, or whose interests are positively or negatively affected by the result of the project. Stakeholders are essential as the project’s success or failure largely depends on the fulfillment of stakeholder’s needs or expectations. Due to this, the engagement of stakeholders intrinsically becomes an essential part of project management. The key to effective stakeholder engagement is “planning.” One has to systematically identify and prioritize stakeholders, along with establishing proper communication modes with them. So let’s look at the steps in the strategy to develop and optimize stakeholder engagement.   1. Stakeholder Identification The first step is to identify who all are being affected by the projects. It would be best if you considered all the individuals, interest groups, and right holders who would have an interest in the project. If you are running the project for a client, you may b...

  We are living in an unprecedented time. Never before has the global workforce been affected in this manner and to this magnitude. Working professionals across the globe had to make serious adjustments when they had to start working from home. While work from home was not unheard of before the pandemic, it was surely not so popular. However, the paradigm might have shifted, and experts are suggesting that a significant portion of the workforce will continue to work from home even when the pandemic ends. If you have been similarly affected by the pandemic, this article is for you. While people all around are discussing the benefits of work from home, there are a lot of disadvantages that may seep in as well.   Challenges 1. Communication: Communicating with a distributed team has never been easy, and with people working from home, this problem will grow. Managers and leaders will not only have to find new and efficient ways to communicate with everyone in the team ...

From a top view, the skills required to become a successful Software developer is very different from the skills needed to become a successful Project Manager. However, it is worth noticing that almost every software developer’s career journey passes through a point where he or she has to take care of IT projects. In this article, we will pay attention to the skills necessary for every software developer to transition from the role of software developer to project managers. While the role of a project manager is diverse, a typical IT project manager should be able to ·          * Identify methods to manage the project’s primary risks ·          * Help stakeholders and sponsors in identifying the success goals and release criteria ·          * Be aware of various risks and identify and develop a process to monitor and handle new risks ·    ...

PMCD framework or Project Management Competency Development framework was launched by PMI® in 2002 to provide individuals and organizations with guidelines to access, plan, and manage the development of project management competency. The third version (latest version launched in 2017) provides a comprehensive list of characteristics describing what a competent person in project, program & portfolio management should know, do, and be. The PMCD framework is useful for a variety of stakeholders like: Organizational decision-makers Individuals working in the project management spectrum or aspiring project managers Trainers/coaches and training organizations         For each of the project, program & portfolio domain, the competencies have been described on three competencies: Knowledge & Skills           Performance Personal behavior What is Competence?                 ...

Knowing project management jargon is the very first step for both preparation of standard project management exams and being a part of or handling a project. While acquaintance with PM terms is considered a primary step, not knowing the project management tongue can easily lead to miss-communication and eventually to critical loss during the project execution.   So, let’s revise the project management glossary to identify some standard terms that you may come across or should know as a project manager or as an associate working on any project. 1. Activity:  PMBOK V6 defines it as the smallest portion of a project used in planning, tracking, and control. It is also identified as an amount of work performed that converts inputs into appropriate output. 2. Assumptions:  Assumptions are listed factors while dealing with the statement of work. It contributes to ensuring the validation and result of a project. 3. Backlog:  Backlog is essentially everything tha...

PMI, the governing body of PMP, had earlier announced that the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam change would be effective from 1st July 2020 has now extended the change deadline to 2nd January 2021. In every 3 to 5 years, PMI researches to study the changes and trends in the project management domain. They find out if the changes are impacting the functions of a project manager. The research is conducted by PMI and PMP subject matter experts from around the globe, and from prominent organizations. On 30th June 2019, the new PMP Exam Content Outline was published. 1st January 2021, is the last day to appear for the PMP exam before it changes on 2nd January 2021. If you have been preparing for the PMP exam along the current outline, you can even take the exam online. However, if you are planning to wait for the current economic slowdown to pass and take the new PMP exam, this article is for you. What are the changes? The current PMP exam is based on the five domains...