2010 Trends in Project Management

2010 brings with it multiple trends for Project Management.   It is not surprising that many of these trends will help mature the world of project management as we know it today.  Just as businesses must be flexible with market conditions – Project Management professionals and organizations must also adapt accordingly.

In talking to industry leaders in Project Management – several trends stand out.

Economic conditions have changed – Companies are changing – and project managers must understand these changes to be the leaders needed in 2010.

Trend 1 – Enterprises continue to look for Efficiencies in Process & Technology

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The Business Driven Software Development webinar series

Business Agility enables an organization to respond quickly to external forces (such as new market opportunities and competitive forces) as well as to respond quickly to new insights attained internally.

While many organizations have achieved the local optimizations of more effective teams, few have achieved agility at the organizational level. Even when team agility has been achieved, if improvements to how the business is selecting their product enhancements isn’t done, overall return on investment of software development may not have significantly improved.

This series is organized around “roles” - Executives to Team Leads – so each person in an organization can be introduced to what “they” need to know to achieve business agility.

FREE Webinar Series – 7 sessions:

  • Session 1 – An Overview
  • Session 2 - Product Portfolio Management
  • Session 3 – Where to Start Your Agile Transition
  • Session 4 – Team Agility: Scrum or Kanban?
  • Session 5 - Essential Skills for the Agile Developer
  • Session 6 – Acceptance Test-Driven Development: Bring the Customer, Developers and Testers Together to Understand Requirements Up-Front
  • Session 7 - The Role of Management in Lean-Agile Transformations

….SCROLL DOWN TO Reserve your seat for each session….

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VIRTUAL WORKSHOP – Identify, Scope, & Prioritize Features using Agile (On-Demand)

greg-smithAvailable On-DEMAND…

We always need to define the scope, duration, and costs of a project quickly.

Sponsors want as many details as possible before providing total funding. The team wants to understand the scope of the work they will be pursuing. Everyone wants to know what the major risks to the project are.

In this virtual workshop we will show you how to scope a project when information is low and requirements are still evolving. You will quickly define an overall project/release plan, and while doing so you will identify risks, prioritize features, and bring the project team and customer together with a common project vision.

Click book to purchase

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

  • Use a powerful Agile planning tool – The Feature Card
  • Perform the correct level of planning – based on the information available
  • Work with the customer to understand and scope project features
  • Identify feature attributes that allow you to quantify value, risk, and uncertainty
  • Involve the project team during feature scoping and sequencing
  • Identify the minimal marketable feature set
  • Deliver a project/release plan early, when requirements are still evolving

YOU WILL TAKE AWAY:

  • Templates, Examples and Guides to use in your workplace after the workshop.

INTENDED AUDIENCE:

  • IT Project Managers
  • Business Analysts
  • Product Managers
  • Program Managers
  • Product Owners
  • PMO executives or managers
  • Anyone who works on software projects (developers, analysts, testers, DBAs, architects)

INSTRUCTOR: Greg Smith is a Senior Project Manager, ScrumMaster, and Agile coach with ten years of experience leading project teams to a more agile process. Greg has received numerous awards for his work in helping start-ups establish good software practices, and for helping enterprises overcome bureaucracy and deliver urgent projects. Greg has worked for companies including Philips Electronics, The Seattle Times, R.R. Donnelley, Washington Mutual, and JP Morgan Chase. Greg has been teaching Agile Project Management at Bellevue College since 2005. Greg is also a co-author of the top rated agile adoption book, Becoming Agile in an Imperfect World.

PDU’s: 1.5
COST: $57 (An on-demand course – recorded on January 14, 2010)

.Click to Enroll

WEBINAR – Applying Lean Thinking to IT Projects

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In today’s business climate, ”more-for -less” is becoming very important.  Applying “Lean Thinking” promises to deliver business results by greatly increasing quality, throughput, and productivity for organizations.  An understanding of “lean concepts” can be used by Project Managers to improve process and enable IT organizations to more efficiently and effectively meet customer needs.  This webinar with Carson Holmes will discuss lean practices that Project Managers can begin applying to IT Projects right away.

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WEBINAR – Becoming Agile for Project Managers

webinars4Scroll down to Listen to Webinar Recording…


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Learn WHEN, WHERE & HOW project managers can leverage and actually use Agile techniques to deal with…

  • compressed schedules,
  • changing requirements,
  • risk,
  • and much more…

…in order to deliver what the customer actually needs !

PDU’s: 1

COST: Free………….

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WEBINAR – Becoming Agile Introduction

Listen to the entire webinar recording <click here>

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(click book to purchase)

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Learn how more traditional PMBOK and Waterfall organizations are becoming agile.

…and listen to great Q&A sessions with the audience on topics, such as

  • Is Agile only for software projects?
  • How and Where to identify areas to leverage Agile
  • How do you move to Agile?
  • How does Agile affect the traditional Project Manager role?
  • and more…

SPEAKER: Greg Smith is a Senior Project Manager, ScrumMaster, and Agile coach with ten years of experience leading project teams to a more agile process. Greg has received numerous awards for his work in helping start-ups establish good software practices, and for helping enterprises overcome bureaucracy and deliver urgent projects. Greg is also a co-author of the top rated agile adoption book, Becoming Agile in an Imperfect World.

PDU:  1.5……..*** PDU information is provided in the video **

COST: Free


FREE Scrum Training (ie. Scrum for PMP’s)

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Do you want to learn more about Scrum or get better at it?

Danube’s Scrum Core Training Webinars are led by five Certified Scrum Trainers–offering regularly scheduled webinars on the fundamentals of Scrum, from roles and terminology to its best practices.

Special Event Webinar Topics include:

  • Scrum for PMPs
  • Estimation: STory Sizes and Related Topics
  • Explaining Scrum to Management
  • Introcution to Scrum

*** See Danube’s lineup of ScrumCore Webinars at http://danube.com/scrum/webinars/scrumcore

Mixing it up with Agile & PMI – Shifting Focus

agile2Many PMI project managers are looking for help in introducing Agile techniques into largely traditional organizations to help better manage today’s projects.  Especially for non-software development projects where Agile teams are looking for help in gaining acceptance of their approaches and integrating what has been working well for them.

I’ve seen Agilistas criticize the command-and-control nature of some PMI approaches….I’ve also seen Traditional managers condemn the seemingly unstructured techniques practiced in Agile.

TIME TO MIX IT UP !

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Have you ever seen a purist in either of these approaches?  In reality, a smart mix of approaches can bring success to projects and organizations that so desperately need to start doing more with less.

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Doing More with Less by leveraging Agile & PMI

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The current economy and budget cuts/freezes have sparked great interest in doing more with less… …Less people –  Less money — Less time.  As a result of this trend, the interest in Agile methodologies is grabbing the attention of many PMO organizations and CEOs, including the IT space, product development and other projects in general.

“Can Agile and Waterfall methods coexist?”

Absolutely they can…they already are.   This transition from Waterfall to Agile won’t happen overnight, but the boulder has started rolling down the hill and is picking up momentum.   The need is there !

Many project managers and PMO organizations are looking for help in introducing agile techniques into largely traditional organizations to help better manage today’s projects. Likewise, agile teams are looking for help in gaining acceptance of their approaches working well for them into larger communities.

THE SOLUTION:   Two major forces are collaborating to work together….changing the world…

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“Virtual Teams” are the future…How to keep them on track !

virtualteam3It is said that “Virtual Teams are the Future“. With gas prices soaring and the economy in a slump – it is critical for organizations to take advantage of the best talent “where they are at” and not limit their resources to local ones only. If you could leverage an excellent DBA from Oklahoma, a Developer from Alabama, a PM from California, etc…. — then you could form teams of the “best people” possible.   Why would you not want to do that?

If you are worried about keeping them on-track, then you need to understand that virtual teams will more frequently have relationship problems that can derail things. Problems with remote colleagues are significantly more difficult to solve and last longer than those with on-site colleagues.   They will either ignore the person, gossip about them, or criticize them…destroying productivity if not dealt with.

What’s the solution?

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WEBINAR – Becoming Agile for Project Managers

Sorry you missed our Webinar with Greg Smith on 12/2

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To listen to the recording:….. click here

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