Project Management Stack Exchange
Project Management Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
36
votes
7 answers

PMP vs PRINCE2 - Why one rather than the other?

What are the reasons why a project manager should select PMP certification rather than Prince 2, or vice versa? Are they complementary or competing?
Iain9688
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36
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4 answers

How do you convince a client to use Agile Methods?

Here's the thing: In agile, client has very important role to fulfill - if they aren't involved, agile loses much of its value. How do you convince clients to change the way they run projects, especially with big companies and at least medium-sized…
Mark Phillips
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36
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7 answers

What's the best definition and explanation of project risk?

I've had trouble in the past explaining project risk to non-PMs. For me the key element I struggle to get people to accept is that a risk is something outside the control of those on the project (so "the programmers miss their estimates" (without…
Jon Hopkins
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35
votes
15 answers

Is imposing "impossible deadlines" a Management Technique?

I am a developer aiming to become a manager. I want to know if the following is a valid management technique (within reasonable parameters, to be determined), I want to know how to deal with it and to use it or not. A group of developers is given a…
user1220
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35
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8 answers

How can a Scrum daily not be a status pull?

There's a widespread saying The Scrum daily is not a status pull; if it is - you are not doing Scrum. By "status pull" is meant everyone from the development team reporting they have done some work in the last 24 hours, reporting to a manager. And…
Vorac
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35
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7 answers

Is Planning Poker Bad for Software Development Teams?

We have a project manager that is adamant about planning poker. I have found that this adds stress to everyone on the team, and the times are always wrong. We have different skill levels on the team and expected to complete a task within the given…
Grim
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35
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16 answers

How long should an Agile Sprint be?

I'm currently the PM on a project that is scheduled to run for about 14 months. The current sprint structure is 4 weeks of development; week 5 allows us to show the progress to the client, deploy it for their testers, eliminate bugs and discuss the…
amelvin
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34
votes
17 answers

How to allow developers to get enough quality development time while keeping to support & maintenance obligations

I work for a small company of 6 multi-skilled developers where we have developed our own product which requires constant improvement but also maintenance and support, both for the current release from end users and from other areas of the…
3urdoch
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34
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7 answers

Advice for dealing with a cowboy programmer in an agile team

We have a cowboy coder in our team i.e. he likes to take advantage developing some new features or tools that are not always requested nor useful. We use scrum/kanban for development, and it is quite common that when he gets an item from the board,…
eMgz
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34
votes
8 answers

What is the ongoing value of the Kanban board to the developers as opposed to management

I want to understand what others believe is the ongoing value of a Kanban board to the development team I got into an argument recently at my small company because A) My dev team isn't properly updating the Kanban board B) I said that the Kanban…
user1786507
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34
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7 answers

How do you schedule delivery dates in Scrum?

I've run into a constant issue. When a project starts, the client typically has a list of functionalities to be built in to the application. As a team we would like to follow Scrum. But the next thing the client asks is for a go-live date. The…
John
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33
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4 answers

Which Scrum certification provider is most widely recognized or accepted?

I am planning to go for Scrum Master certification, and while researching the certification providers, I could not clearly make up my mind about which one was most widely accepted. There are two organizations providing Certified Scrum Master…
Incognito
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33
votes
5 answers

How can I manage team distractions like chit-chat?

I work with a team of developers who are talented but often distract each other with chit-chat. They can waste hours of the day with these 20-30 minute, non-project related jam sessions. Since I am PM on many of their projects I get frustrated with…
ChrisFM
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32
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10 answers

How do you deal with continuous work pressure?

I'm working as a QA for software product development. During the course of our meetings we typically discuss what tasks we are going to do and provide an estimate for each task. My manager has a habit of loading us at 100% for the tasks. For…
Mugen
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32
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10 answers

Should I cancel the daily scrum if the team has only minor issues to discuss?

If there are only minor issues to discuss in the next Daily Scrum, should I hold that Daily Scrum as usual or just tell the Scrum Master to cancel that Daily Scrum and deal with the issues by email or by some similar method or roll those minor…
user43394
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