The Truth About Agile | Top 30 Agile Myths- BUSTED

Posted by on Oct 23, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

The Truth About Agile | Top 30 Agile Myths- BUSTED

Agile is not suitable for fixed bid projects Before looking at this myth, it’s important to define “Fixed bid projects”. Does this mean fixed scope, schedule, and cost? History has proven that software projects of any significance in size or complexity cannot be accurately estimated well. What is more, according to CHAOS reports 24% of all projects fail and 44% are significantly challenged2. Regardless of the project management methodology, attempting to fix all three does not have a high probability of success. Something has to give – whether it’s adding resources, cutting scope, or moving the delivery date. As described in the myth “Agile Projects don’t provide Budget Estimates”, agile teams fix the cost, fix the date, and vary the scope.

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Are you making any of these 10 project management mistakes?

Posted by on Oct 23, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Are you making any of these 10 project management mistakes?

It is unfortunate that many project managers make basic mistakes and don’t put in place a solid foundation based on which the project can progress. This, amongst other factors, is preventing them from stepping up and becoming project leaders. Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Project leaders know that projects must be rooted in a logical and structured approach to delivery, as without it everything else falls apart. If we do not have a solid method for defining and controlling the project’s scope, benefits, deliverables, costs, quality, risks and responsibilities, the project is unlikely to be successful even if the project manager is excellent at leading and motivating people. It is true that people deliver projects, but processes support them in doing so.    Below is a list of the most classic mistakes that project managers make when it comes to the more process-related aspect of the job. Are you guilty of making any of these mistakes too?  1. Not paying sufficient attention to the planning stages of the project ; being too eager to start building and developing without knowing what the end game is and how to get there is a classic mistake.

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Import TeamPulse Tasks into your Outlook Calendar

Posted by on Oct 17, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

Import TeamPulse Tasks into your Outlook Calendar

Outlook Calendar allows importing tasks from a .csv file, so this can be combined with the TeamPulse feature to export work items (including tasks) into the same format. Thanks to this straight-forward export/import process, a portion or all of your project related tasks can be synchronized with any device using Outlook Calendar and you can always keep an eye on your assignments. In order to import your tasks from TeamPulse into Outlook Calendar you need to have the  TeamPulse R2 2013 version . This TeamPulse version supports both export/import of work items to a .csv file and the creation of custom fields for any work item. Then it is a matter of following 3 easy steps. Pre-conditions: In order to create or import a calendar appointment you’d need as a bare minimum the following tasks properties in TeamPulse: Title Start Date The following are not mandatory but nice to have: Description Start Time End Date End Time From the ones above, “Title” and “Description” already exist, but for the rest, you’ll need to create custom fields as follows: Step1: Create a “Start Date” field Start TeamPulse and go to Settings > > Work Items > > Manage Custom Fields > > add “New Field” Then configure the custom field attributes as per the example below: Step2: Create a “Start Time” field This is how the modified tasks would look like in TeamPulse. Note that in the “Start Time” field you can choose whether to use AM/PM format or not

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First 5 Agile Myhts- BUSTED

Posted by on Oct 16, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

First 5 Agile Myhts- BUSTED

Agile has no Process, doesn’t have Documentation, doesn’t believe in Contracts, doesn’t follow a Plan These four common agile myths most likely come straight from a misunderstanding of the Manifesto’s value propositions. In order to fully understand the value propositions, you have to take all three parts into account, not just the middle section. “That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.” Nowhere does the Manifesto say “Stop writing documentation” or “Ban all contracts”. There is indeed value in following a process, writing documentation, and having a plan. And contracts are absolutely necessary when dealing with external parties. However, they should not become the focus of the software project, nor should they prevent the users, customers, and development team from collaborating. Agile Projects don’t provide Budget Estimates When projects are scope-boxed (as they are in traditional development methodologies like waterfall), given a list of requirements, and estimates for those requirements, the budget and schedule are derived completely from the estimates

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Top 4 Challenges for Agile Planning

Posted by on Oct 9, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

Top 4 Challenges for Agile Planning

Despite trying to achieve simplicity, Agile teams may still run across difficult issues. In this section some of the more common challenges are explored. HANDLING INCOMPLETE WORK AT THE END OF AN ITERATION It is not uncommon for a team to have incomplete work at the end of an iteration. Unfinished work is an important issue to identify as it signals a potential problem with one or more aspects of the team. When an iteration is planned, the team sets an expectation with the customer. When those expectations are not met, the customer could lose faith in the team’s ability to deliver, which introduces conditions that make success less achievable. Unfinished work should always be analyzed by the team during every iteration retrospective

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