A Quick Guide to Project Management
5K- by KnowledgeHut
- 20th Feb, 2020
- Last updated on 28th Feb, 2020
- 2 mins read
The demand for project managers has seen a rise like never before with the influx of global transformation and multiple development projects. The Project Management Institute (PMI) predicts that on an annualized basis, employers will need to fill nearly 2.2 million new project-oriented roles each year through 2027 to meet the anticipated demands of the industry. Here’s a quick guide to project management covering the essentials to get you started.
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What Is Scrum in Project Management?
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The adoption of Agile has grown and evolved over the past decade, as organizations seek to adapt to changing industry needs and deliver products with higher quality and greater efficiency. Originally used in software development, Agile has now been adopted across all sectors and industries.As reported in the 14th Annual State of Agile, a whopping 95% of respondents are known to practice Agile development methods, of which the majority (58%) prefer to use the Scrum framework and its variants.What is Scrum Project Management?Scrum is the most popular among all the Agile frameworks. It offers immense flexibility—in fact, Ken Schwaber, the co-founder of Scrum, preferred to call it a framework rather than a methodology, as it simply outlines the delivery structure and leaves it to the team to determine their own best practices.In its simplest form, Scrum is a method of iterative and incremental product delivery that uses self-organizing and collaborative teams, who follow clearly laid out processes and follow prescribed events.In Scrum project management, work is executed in short time-boxed cycles called sprints, and the team holds daily meetings to discuss planned tasks and any impediments that need to be cleared.How does Scrum Project Management work?Usually used in software development projects, Scrum project management works well with small teams and for projects that require rapid development and testing, even with emergent and volatile requirements.Teams work in short sprints that are usually between 1 and 4 weeks in duration. This iterative cycle is repeated with a product incremental value being delivered at the end of each sprint. The cycle continues till the end of the project, when the entire product value has been delivered to the satisfaction of customers and stakeholders. Since the tasks are reviewed at the start of each cycle, and there is continual seeking of feedback from stakeholders at the end of every cycle, Scrum adapts well to changing requirements.This process is in sharp contrast to traditional ‘waterfall’ methods of software development, where the product scope is fixed upfront, and changes cannot be accommodated till the end of the project. In waterfall projects there is the need for extensive documentation and analysis before development can start, which often delays schedules. What’s more, feedback is not sought till the end, which often results in low quality products that are packed with features that the customer is unhappy with.The Scrum FrameworkA Scrum project starts with a clearly defined product vision and an outline of the features and functionality it is expected to have. These features are prioritised and listed out in the Product Backlog, which is a dynamic document that is ordered with reallocation of tasks at the end of each iteration (called a sprint). The sprint is a time-boxed event during which the team will complete a subset of the features and create a product increment that offers value. Sprints generally run for one to four weeks, a duration that is pre-set and is maintained through the project. At the beginning of the sprint, the sprint planning event is held, and the team commits to developing items from the product backlog that are required to be done first. These items go into the sprint backlog, which is a subset of the product backlog and includes the features and functionality that can be developed during the sprint. As the work progresses, the team meets daily, checking in with each other to discuss the progress of tasks. They tell each other what was done the previous day and plan the tasks for the day ahead and talk about anything that is holding them back from completing the tasks at hand. At the end of each sprint, the team demonstrates the product increment to the stakeholders and obtains their feedback. In accordance with this feedback received, the product backlog is ‘groomed’ and the remaining tasks are rearranged according to the new priority. A retrospective meeting is also held where they discuss what went wrong during the sprint, and how they can improve upon this in the next sprint.In this manner, Scrum processes follow the three pillars of Scrum: regular inspection, adaptation and transparency.Scrum RolesThe Scrum Team is a small group of people; typically, between 3 to 9 in number, who work together without any hierarchy. The Team comprises three Roles: that of the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developers. The Developers, also called the Dev Team, are the people who create the product increment during each sprint.The Scrum Master, often referred to as the Servant Leader, is responsible for ensuring that Scrum practices as laid out in the Scrum Guide are followed. Scrum Masters serve the team (hence the name ‘servant leader’) and also the organization at large.The Product Owner looks into the business side of things, and ensures that the product vision is followed. He or she strives to maximize the value of the product and manages the Product Backlog.The Application of Scrum in ProjectsScrum is applied by following Scrum ceremonies, which are events held at specific instances during a sprint.The main ceremonies are the following:The Sprint Planning Meeting is held at the beginning of the sprint and is when the entire team gets together to plan the upcoming sprint and finalise the user stories that will be completed during the sprint.The Daily Scrum is a short meeting, held daily at the same time, when each team member answers the following three questions: what tasks were completed yesterday, what are you working on today and is there anything blocking your progress?The Sprint Review is the event during which the team shows a demo of the work done to the stakeholders and elicits their feedback and the feedback from the rest of the team. This feedback is tracked by the Product Owner and is added as tasks to be undertaken in the upcoming sprints.The Sprint Retrospective is the last Scrum ceremony, which allows the team to reflect on the sprint that has just concluded and find ways of improving the work and processes for the next sprint.Tracking ProgressThe progress of the team’s work is tracked using three methods: the task board, the burndown chart and the Daily Scrum.During the Daily Scrum, as already mentioned above, the team discusses what was done the previous day and what will be done during the rest of that day.The task board typically has three columns: To Do, Doing, and Done. During the Daily Scrum, each team member will move items across the board (either using post it slips, or small chits that are pinned to the board) to indicate the progress of the tasks mentioned on each chit. It is a visual representation of what the team is working on at any given moment.The burndown chart is a visual representation of the progress of work in the form of a chart, with the x-axis showing the number of days in the sprint, while the y-axis indicates the number of hours of work required to complete all the tasks for the sprint. The slope of the burndown chart should, ideally, come down to indicate that zero tasks are left when the time is completed.Together, these three tools give a fairly accurate idea of the progress of the work. The team will be able to determine whether the tasks are likely to be completed on time, what the impediments to progress are, and how the tasks can be planned.Grooming the BacklogIn between the sprints, it is important to carry out a backlog grooming or refinement session. This basically means that the scrum team meets and discusses the product backlog items and the work to be carried out in the next sprint. This helps in keeping the backlog up to date and getting it ready for the next sprint. Grooming helps to keep the product backlog de-cluttered, removes uncertainty and risk associated with the sprint, helps eliminate further meetings that may be associated with product backlog and leads to better sprint planning.Release PlanningRelease Planning, usually done once in a quarter, is done for multiple sprints together. This is a longer-term plan that is undertaken to get a perspective on when the product release is likely to happen and evaluates value and quality constraints against the available time, resources and budget. The PO presents the list of features that must be completed during the upcoming quarter, and the team provides gross, rough estimates to check whether this will be feasible. The result of the meeting is internal and does not have to be showcased to the customers.Case study on Scrum in project managementWhile Scrum is most commonly used in software development projects, there are many examples of how Scrum has proved to be of great advantage in non-Scrum projects as well.A Scrum.org case study outlines the journey of a major US Airline with over 4000 employees that leveraged the Nexus+ framework to scale Scrum across more than 10 globally distributed teams. The result was clean, streamlined processes, with a stunningly quick turnaround and improved ROI.This company had earlier used waterfall methods to create and manage their software products, and it would typically take them months or years to deliver a product to market. In multiple cases, by the time the product was ready to ship it was no longer usable due to the huge lapse of time in the interim. Lola Tech was one of their software vendors, and their Head of Delivery decided to adopt agile across their entire product development suite for this company. Most of them had already worked with Scrum, and Nexus was their obvious choice. When they started the adoption, they faced challenges in:The capability of building cross-functional teams, so that outside dependencies could be removed The culture shift: changing from a Project Mindset to a Product Mindset Being able to apply the Scrum framework effectively in its entirety, not just in partsBuilding psychological safety across teams Strictly following the Scrum Values in mind and spiritGetting the teams trained was the first and most obvious step. PSTs trained the team members as well as vendors to achieve certifications that included PSM, PSD, PSPO and SPS, getting them aligned with the values and principles embodied in Scrum. Once the team had their fundamental knowledge in place, they created an Agility Transformation Backlog and roadmap. Each of the challenges was broken down and solutions found—ranging from organizing team events to foster connections between remote teams, to properly understanding how to apply the framework effectively. There were 5 Nexuses with each Nexus consisting of 5 to 9 Scrum Teams. Together, they worked on a product family made up of an operations platform for handling products sold, and two e-commerce platforms - a custom one, and another one for selling additional goods and/or services. These teams were brought in line to work with shared goals and a common vision and mission.After the first product releases, the results were quite astounding. They were able to achieve:Decreased Time-to-Market - From delivering yearly or twice a year in a waterfall fashion to delivering better software products, every quarter Increased Profits – Achieving a 100% ROI in just 2 weeks after going live Faster delivery - From getting the first releasable increment ‘Done’ in 2 months to having a releasable increment after a two-week Sprint Greater collaboration - From the Dev team having zero interaction with the PO, to all the Developers having daily interactions which increased transparency and accountabilitySlashed Costs - By automating deployments, features and releases they were able to cut costs dramatically.There are many more such case studies at this link.Understanding the Project Manager Role in Scrum – The Scrum Master vs the Project ManagerBoth the Scrum Master and Project Manager are roles that maximize value for projects. While there are similarities between the two roles, the responsibilities of each are quite different.A Scrum Master is the servant leader on a Scrum team, who ensures that the team adheres to Scrum values, and acts as a mentor, guide, leader and facilitator all rolled into one. The Scrum Master works with only the Scrum framework and does not adopt other methodologies.The Project Manager, on the other hand, is a leader who manages one or several teams to plan, execute and deliver projects, maintaining complete control and responsibility over the project in its entirety. A Project Manager is free to choose traditional or Agile methods or choose a hybrid model, based on the approach that is considered most suitable for the project.The Scrum framework helps organizations to address challenging adaptive problems, delivering products of the highest value. Scrum values, principles, and practices have been proven to empower businesses to adapt to volatile conditions, developing products that delight customers in a quicker time, with optimal use of resources. The Scrum Framework continues to be the preferred choice of agile practitioners. As its popularity continues to soar, with no signs of slowing down, it’s indeed time to go down the Scrum path!
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- 20 Jul 2021
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What Is Project Management Software & What Are Its Advantages
By KnowledgeHut
Over the years, there has been tremendous progress in technology. This has resulted in projects getting more complicated and extensive. Also, since our world is shrinking and geographies are getting closer, our projects are getting pan-global, involving resources from across the globe. What project managers need these days to effectively carry out tasks and ensure project success are tools that will help them manage their resources, time and money better.There are several such project management software engineering tools available in the market and this blog is your go-to guide to decide how to choose the right software tools to make your life easier as a project manager.What Is Project Management Software?What do project managers need? A tool that will help them better plan and schedule, manage resources, communicate and collaborate with stakeholders and team members. Project management software helps perform all these activities and more.Here is a list of things a project management software tool helps to accomplish: Project planning and scheduling Resource allocation Performance tracking Budget and cost management Change management Collaboration and communication Risk mitigation Monitoring performanceThere are several project management software platforms available, that provide several tools for easy project management. The main purpose of a project management software is to help in planning and tracking of the project components and facilitate communication between those involved. Some of the project management software packages available in the market include: Monday.com Microsoft Projects Skype Celoxis Wrike Benefits of project management software: There are several benefits that project management software have to offer. Specifically, a project management software should help with: Planning and scheduling:Planning and scheduling are the most important aspects of a project manager’s role. These include assigning tasks to resources, scheduling time for these tasks to be completed and allocating a budget for these tasks. Project planning and scheduling are used to attain project objectives and can be thought of as a comprehensive outline of the project objectives, scope, budget and time. An effective project management software should be able to help the project manager define and map project tasks efficiently. Team collaboration:Successful projects require utmost collaboration and communication between team members. Today’s projects are more distributed, with teams working from different corners of the globe. In such a scenario having a tool that maximises collaboration between team members will also result in positive outcomes for the project. And not just team members, effective collaboration needs to be maintained with the clients and stakeholders too.This is especially true for Agile projects that focus on transparency and trust. An effective platform to communicate the project milestones and challenges will help keep everyone on the same page in the context of the project. Task delegation:Task delegation is an important aspect of project management. A good project management tool will help in effective task delegation by allowing the creation of tasks, assignment of tasks to resources, setting of deadlines and generating status reports. Accessing and sharing files:Multiple team members working on a project will need to access shared resources such as files, trackers, reports etc. Efficient project management software should be able to provide a central repository of files and other shared resources that can be accessed by all team members, which in turn will enhance the productivity of the team. Integrating new members:Just like a good project management software will help automate tasks and collaborate, it will also help in easy integration of new members to the existing team. Risk management and mitigation:Every project is prone to risk and an effective project manager will always think of ways to mitigate risks before they occur. Effective risk management requires the project manager to monitor and ensure that the project does not exceed scope, time or budget. A good project management tool should have the facility to help project managers protect projects against risks and changes through analysis, assessments and tracking. Budget management: It’s very difficult to justify to stakeholders why the project budget has gone overboard. An effective tool should help a project manager create an accurate budget and help maintain it by monitoring costs and resources. The markets are fluctuating and so are costs for resources. In such a case it is possible that a project that is very extensive will go over the estimated budget. The project manager can simplify budgeting and keep a track on costs by creating accurate trackers and reports. Adding new costs, tracking labour costs, adding extra costs such as risk mitigation costs etc aid the project manager in maintaining the project budget and ensuring that there is no overrun. Remote working:Remote working has now become the norm, and the pandemic has made remote working a necessity rather than a convenience. Maybe a decade ago, managing projects remotely, getting resources to work together, allocating tasks etc would have seemed impossible. But project management tools available today have made remote working efficient and effective. A good tool should allow team members who are geographically dispersed and separated by time zones to work effectively, collaboratively and without a break in communication. From helping team members access shared repositories to sharing ideas to communicating effectively, the project management software should be seamless for virtual teams. Enhancing productivity:When your team has everything ready at its disposal and does not have to worry about anything other than the development of the project, then productivity increases and so does motivation to be productive. Efficient software can find loopholes in timelines, scope creep or budget and help you address them early on, thus helping you deliver better products on time and optimise processes. Your stakeholders in turn will be happy and so will your team members! Effective communication:Effective communication is the single most important thing to ensure that a project, be it Scrum, Waterfall, XP or Kanban, is delivered effectively. The project management software should provide a platform where team members can communicate through chat messenger, video or voice calls. This helps disperse information at the right time and in the right format for the right impact. To sum up... There are several project management software packages available in the market. Organizations should choose the software which suits their projects and team members. Effective project management software will not just help you track the progress of your projects but will help create an efficient system of communication and collaboration with team members and stakeholders, monitoring performance and mitigating risks before they even occur.
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What Is Product Development?
By KnowledgeHut
A company’s reputation is reflected in the brands and products it builds. All organizations strive to create products that reflect quality, sustainability and durability. A product’s lifecycle from its ideation to creation and shipping and distribution is a complex route and involves several processes, stages and teams across the company. In this blog we attempt to understand all about product planning and development and the various stages involved in it. Product Development—what is it?Product development encompasses all the stages involved in a product’s lifecycle and includes everything from its ideation to design, development, testing, and finally shipping and delivery. Irrespective of what product is being developed, whether it’s an IT product or a manufacturing product, the product lifecycle is always the same. How is Agile Product Development different? The agile approach to product development was born in the nineties when a group of software experts got together and created the Agile Manifesto, the bible for the agile methodology which laid down the guidelines to create processes that would help teams to use new methods for software development. The aim of agile was to put the focus back on the team, customers and quality and help organizations cope with a changing business scenario, making them more resilient to change. Agile uses the idea of iterative product development that requires the collaboration of self-organizing teams to define requirements and implement solutions. Agile product development produces high quality software—on time and within budget and which can improve on recommendations from the client.What are the needs & importance of Product Development?There are many needs for Product Development: To bring in new products into the markets To improve existing products To increase market share, revenue and profits To scale up to competition To enhance organizational reputation by launching quality products To benefit customers by giving them new and improved products To respond to market changes by launching new products or revising existing ones. The different stages in Product DevelopmentWhile the stages in product development may be different for different organizations and products, there are a few standard steps that all products follow: Ideation: Before jumping in and building the product, the need for the product has first to be established. What is its need, and what problem is it solving? How popular will it be? These and more answers justifying the need for the product can be got from surveys, research and communication with clients and customers. Conceptualization/design planning: The need for the product has been established. The creators have identified what problem or issue needs to be solved. Now they have to devise how the product that they build will solve the issue. Some solutions may be easy to come up with while others may need more in-depth research and brainstorming. The entire team comes together and designs how the product will shape up and how it will serve customer needs. Developing the product roadmap: The product roadmap is a plan of action that defines the short- and long-term goals of the product to be built. This is an important stage in the product development lifecycle as it outlines the product priority features that need to be delivered first and also outlines the progress of the product over time. The product management team develops the product roadmap. Developing the first version: Also called the minimal viable product, the development team creates the first version of the product that has the bare minimum functionality, but which allows the user to interact with it end to end. The MVP is further iterated and enriched based on user feedback. Testing: Testing is a part of the development process in Agile product development. It happens in parallel with the development. Continuous testing and continuous feedback help make the product better and ensures continuous improvement. Releasing the product: The product is released to the customer. Improving based on feedback: This is an ongoing phase where the product is continuously upgraded based on customer feedback. How to create a Product Development Plan in simple StepsProduct development includes stakeholders in order to understand their requirements and concerns while building the product. Every product development lifecycle must include a few basic steps which are important to ensure that the product delivered is of the expected quality. Create a product vision: No product can be built without an idea and a vision. The product vision and idea will define how it will be built and for whom, how it will shape up and what solutions it will provide. The product vision is created after consultations with the stakeholders. Agile is all about the customers and it is important that they are involved from the beginning till the end in the product development. The product vision is the primary stage in product development and also probably the most critical. It may be a little unclear in the early stages but through market research and analysis it soon develops into a ready reckoner for the team as it outlines the product goals and milestones that need to be delivered. Build the product roadmap: Agile follows the principle of early and continuous delivery of valuable software. The product roadmap defines the features of the product that must be prioritised in order to deliver a minimal viable product to the customer. The roadmap helps the teams to decide the time intervals at which features need to be delivered. The roadmap is built by taking into consideration customer requirements, market trends, and effort required. Build the product: Once the roadmap has been agreed upon, the teams decide the schedules and the project is broken down into smaller chunks, which in Scrum are called epics and sprints. Once a minimum viable product is created it is continuously iterated in order to improve it, based on feedbacks and testing.Product Development Vs Product ManagementProduct development is concerned with the actual development of the product. It may comprise of teams that are involved with the implementation of the product such as developers, designers, testers, etc. Product Management on the other hand is a wider umbrella and comprises of how the product goals will align to the overall organizational objectives and business goals. It includes a whole lot of processes that are all concerned with building the product, improving it and marketing it. The product management team liaises often with the stakeholders and ensures their buy-in during product development. How Does the Product Roadmap work in Product Development?The product roadmap helps the stakeholders see the broader strategic vision by aligning the product development with the goals and business objectives of the organization. The product roadmap helps the development team by giving them the vision of the product so that they might ensure meeting deadlines and delivering milestones, while avoiding scope creep and mitigating risks. The product roadmap is a go-to document for Product Owners and managers who use it to collaborate, assign tasks, create the product backlog and define priorities. The product roadmap is also a reference point for the organizational leadership as it helps them understand the overall scope of the project, the liabilities, risks and the advantages associated with the product. Who Benefits from Product Development?The Organization: This refers to the organization that has created the product for an end-user. The organization that creates the product will not just have its reputation enhanced as a formidable and quality-oriented organization but will also reap the profits of having created a quality product. The organization can counter stiff competition by creating a product that re-affirms its position in the market. The end-user: The end-user gets a product that is high in quality and solves issues that the user might have faced earlier. The team: The development team/teams that have created the product have much to gain from product development. The experience of having worked in a high-quality project, the satisfaction of having built a great product along with the goodwill from the stakeholders all go in favour of the development team members.A Last Word Product development is a continuous process. If there are consumers there will be product development. Agile has redefined product planning and development by putting the onus back on the customer. Agile product development follows methods that reduce overheads and streamline processes, ensuring timely deliveries and customer delight.
7316
- by KnowledgeHut
- 05 Aug 2021
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