Project Management Archives - Page 2 of 3

Agile doesn't necessarily mean faster or cheaper

Project Management / By Enrico / February 19, 2019

The agile approach to project management does not necessarily mean saving time or costs. The very idea that requirements can be continually refined contains within it the possibility of infinite work cycles and possible reworks with the consequent unpredictability of the completion times of a project. Agile is in fashion. It is an attractive concept according to which projects can be managed without the need to apply the principles and techniques of waterfall project management. […]

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Project Management

5 rules to make plans that work

Project Management / By Enrico / February 25, 2020

The best plans of mice and men fail. So stop working on the best plan possible and start working on a plan that will work! Rule number 1) Work on a simple plan rather than a complicated, over detailed and too long-term one. The plans that work should be logical, easy to understand by the people who have to implement them and they should be convenient to track for the project managers. REMEMBER: the project plan should only be as detailed as you are prepared to follow

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Project Management

In the end, there will only be one left ... as Project Manager

Management, Project Management / By Enrico / October 2, 2019

Some considerations on the decision of some companies to put an IT project manager and a Business one with divided responsibilities on a single project. I have happened several times in the past to find myself working on projects that were assigned to two project managers, one for the IT part and the other for the Business part. At the time I was not able to focus exactly what was wrong with this type of approach, but after studying different methodologies and obtaining the Prince2 certification

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Management, Project Management

Stakeholders: who they are, how to manage them and why!

Project Management / By Enrico / February 19, 2019

Project stakeholders are all those who, impacted by the project for one reason or another, believe they have the right to have their say on some aspect of the project. Stakeholder mapping is a fundamental sub-process in project management and consists of listing the names of the project interlocutors based on their function. Noting next to each one what will have to be communicated to them and when during the project. Stakeholder management is a process

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Project Management

How to make meetings productive

Management, Project Management / By Enrico / February 19, 2019

We often talk about meetings, some people speak well of them, others see them as a waste of time. In some companies there are too many, in others too few. In the various companies I have worked for I have seen all sorts of things. I have seen long meetings lasting for hours where no one took notes and no one followed up. If no one takes notes then it is very difficult, if not impossible, to remember with certainty what was decided. Think about it.

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Management, Project Management

Project management certifications

Project Management / By Enrico / February 19, 2019

In my project management experience I have taken 2 project management certifications: Prince2 first level and the PMP certification. I have also studied some agile methodologies for a while but without finding the motivation to take the certification. In my experience I have found a much greater completeness in the PMI and Prince2 waterfall methodologies compared to the agile methodologies and although neither of the two alone can be considered sufficient, the study of both can be considered a baggage of technical knowledge

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Project Management

10 fundamental project management techniques

Project Management / By Enrico / February 3, 2020

Project management is a profession and as such it involves the use of techniques that must be known and applied. In this article we will see 10 techniques to be used in the 5 phases of the project life cycle: At the beginning of the project, in the phase defined as initiating by the PMI, where the project must be started, it is essential to understand what the project wants to achieve and who will have to take charge of the project in this phase. Two techniques can be used in this phase*: 1) The creation of the project

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Project Management

What project managers need to monitor

Project Management / By Enrico / February 19, 2019

Tracking, or monitoring the progress of work with respect to the time and scope decided, is one of the main tasks of a project manager, but it is far from an obvious task. 1) The question that all project managers who are about to do tracking ask themselves is, what do I have to monitor? At what level of detail do I have to go to be sure I am doing a good job as a project manager? The first thing to know is that the level of detail

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Project Management

Points in common between Scrum and Prince2

Project Management / By Enrico / December 11, 2021

Usually, we tend to highlight the differences between waterfall and agile methodologies. But it is also interesting to note the common points: for example, 'product planning'. One of the mantras of the agile methodology is the ability to complete portions of potentially usable product. To do this, sprint planning is necessary, which consists of grouping a series of functionalities to be developed and delivered within the time frame of the sprint. Prince2 instead provides that the planning of the entire project is done starting from the identification

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Project Management

Difference between product scope and project scope

Management, Project Management / By Enrico / July 11, 2020

In PMI methodology, the product scope answers the question “what will the product do when completed” while the project scope answers the question “what activities will be performed during the project”. For example, creating a post-release maintenance plan for the product may be part of the project scope “project scope” but not part of the product scope “product scope”. In terms of project evaluation, we say that the results of the product scope are measured

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Management, Project Management