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7 Good Project Management Practices for Replacing a Legacy System When you need to replace a legacy system quickly, it’s tempting to set aside good project management practices and push forward recklessly. But doing so results in delays, cost overrun, and organizational chaos. Take time to understand the problem, plan and estimate the solution, and set up your project for success. |
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Manage Project Problems without Getting Trapped by Catastrophic Thinking It would be short-sighted for any project manager not to consider the potential risks in the project and not to evaluate and continue re-evaluating what can go wrong. But there's a difference between planning for risk and falling victim to catastrophic thinking—focusing on unlikely or irrational worst-case scenarios. |
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When You Should Get Your Project Sponsor Involved If there are decisions to be made on a project, the project manager may think he's helping by going directly to the customer to get her opinion. But project sponsors represent the organization, and they should be consulted before any significant decisions are made. Do you know when you should get the sponsor involved? |
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Who’s the Boss? Let Agile Teams Manage Themselves This idea of a team in charge of itself is difficult for many people to accept. Traditional practices condition us to wait for someone to tell us what to do, and managers are accustomed to controlling everyone’s work and knowing everyone’s status. But agile teams can manage themselves—in fact, it's essential to agile. |
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Build the Right Things and Build Them Fast: Accelerate the Continuous Delivery Pipeline When most people think about continuous delivery, they think of improving the build-test-deploy-operate cycle. They don’t think about how to improve the intake process. Ensuring that quality is built into the application—not tested for after the fact—is the key to achieving accelerated continuous delivery. |
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How to Evaluate the Quality of a Research Study It’s wise not to accept a research report's findings just because they were published. You may discover the findings couldn’t be replicated, too small a sample was tested, or the results of studies that generated contrary results weren’t considered. Here are some questions you can ask to evaluate research. |
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7 Harms Done by Keeping Unrealistic Project Goals Project management is about supporting informed decision-making. No one wants to break the news that a project is not on schedule, but a good sponsor would want to know that the original goals are no longer realistic. Reluctance to communicate or unwillingness to hear have some real business consequences. |
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The Importance of Timing when Implementing Change Too many changes at once can prolong upheaval and delay people's adjustment to the new norm. If you are planning to start a complex project, introduce a new tool, or undertake any other major initiative, and employees are still reeling from other changes, it may be wise to delay the planned change if you can. |