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Wisdom from Consulting: Getting and Vetting Advice When you hire a consultant, they may appear to have a wealth of experience and knowledge—and may actually have it. But accepting their advice without question is dangerous. Here are some good practices to keep in mind when you're receiving advice, including asking questions, exploring alternatives, and analyzing risks. |
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Signs of a Project Headed for Trouble Projects rarely get in trouble suddenly. More often, the descent into trouble is gradual, and the signs are easy to miss—but they are there. If you detect any of these potential signs of possible failure, it would be wise to take steps sooner rather than later to address them and get the project back on track. |
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5 Factors That Could Be Making Your Project Estimates Go Wrong Why do our estimates for a project or a testing phase so often turn out wrong? Whatever causes underestimation, we clearly do not learn from experience, as we repeatedly make estimation errors, despite feedback showing previous errors. It’s a chronic problem. What could be driving these errors? Here are five factors. |
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The World Has Product Ideas—and So Can You From where do organizations—both big and small—get product ideas? Most often, pioneers and revolution makers have ideas that are homegrown, but today the market is such that the world has ideas. Our industry has plenty of patterns, trends, and ideas to work on and augment. |
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Project Management in Any Industry Software teams in niche industries may think they require a project manager with expertise in their domain. Good project managers can anticipate and address the primary considerations for any project, regardless of industry, but if you encounter a skeptic, here’s a generic template you can use to pitch any project. |
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The Risk of Overemphasizing Risks We are trained to identify and evaluate risks. This prevents teams from making decisions that are unlikely to work, saving time and money and helping the team move forward. However, a risk-avoidance mindset can also stop progress. Successful agile teams see risks as ways of starting a conversation, not stopping it. |
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Refining Your Scrum Planning Meetings Scrum events are meant to be productive opportunities for collaboration that replace more tedious, wasteful meetings. If you find your planning meetings becoming passive events where no one is asking questions or actively seeking to understand the backlog, the problem might be in the execution or the preparation. |
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A Checklist for Managing Go-Live Decisions and Risks If you have to replace a complex existing data system in production, decisions about when and whether to go live should be treated with gravity and care. One process that can help keep you honest is developing checklists that describe very clearly what is expected to be accomplished and verified at each milestone. |
