We recently published our list of 25 must-read books for product managers and product marketers alike, but felt like there was something missing. Despite going through a lot of books as part of our commitment to self-learning, we realized that what we lacked was actual feedback from readers who were product managers and product marketers themselves. So we reached out […]
By Alan Zucker Time is the dominant constraint on all projects. There is a constant race against the clock. Many projects have fixed completion dates determined by external forces. Projects that fall behind schedule, struggle to catch up. I have never met a project manager who said there was too much time. “Time is also a unique […]
By Alan Zucker When teaching classes on Agile and DevOps, I am always presented with the comment, “We’ve been Agile for years, but…” The student then continues to describe an organization rife with Agile ant-patterns. Agile and DevOps are primarily cultural transformations. To “be Agile,” we need to unlearn many of our existing management and software development beliefs. We need […]
By Alan Zucker Adopting a product mindset is critical when transforming to an Agile development methodology, like Scrum. Shifting our thinking from project to product expands our view beyond the confines of the triple constraint—scope, cost, and time. The product mindset forces us to consider the larger, strategic roadmap and the value we want create. Product vs. Project The Economic […]
By Sinikka Waugh As end of another season approaches we begin to think about the new projects that lie ahead, thinking about initiating seems timely. The following quotes are taken from Section 3.3 of the PMBOK 5th Edition. 1 “The key purpose of [the Initiating Process Group] is to align the stakeholder’s expectations with the project’s purpose, give them visibility […]
“All project management is risk management” (Eric Verzuh) Risk management is an essential activity in any project or organisation. Risk is defined by M_o_R (Management of Risk, the OGC risk management methodology) as uncertainty of outcome. A risk manager is concerned with managing the risks (uncertain issues and incidents) that, were they to occur, would affect the product or services […]