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1500 questions
32
votes
10 answers
What's the difference between Scope Creep vs Scope Change?
Not a beginner question.
I've seen too many otherwise competent PM's that don't know the difference, and I'm curious how others define it. Bear in mind, Scope Creep and Gold-plating are not the same either.
Trevor K. Nelson
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32
votes
9 answers
Project is late, how should PM act?
There's a project where:
In the middle of project it is already late
Initial estimates were done by development team
It looks like estimates were too optimistic
Development team says it's client who changes their mind all the time, but it's just…
Pawel Brodzinski
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31
votes
2 answers
Why do Scrum user stories only use the Fibonacci series?
I know that user stories in Scrum are measured with a Modified Fibonacci sequence (0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40...). Why does Scrum only use Fibonacci numbers to estimate stories?
Anoop
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31
votes
14 answers
Why does management have to "buy into" Scrum?
I have read over and over that in order for Scrum to work, "Management has to buy into Scrum." Can you tell me why that is? What management are they talking about, the company stakeholders that have paid you to build it, but are not on the…
johnny
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31
votes
2 answers
What are the definitions and differences between: Theme, Epic, Feature, User Story and Task?
There are several terms which we use to describe requirements:
Theme
Epic
Feature
User Story
Task
What are the formal definitions of these terms and what are the differences between them (except volume of described requirements)?
If there are some…
Sergey Kudryavtsev
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30
votes
7 answers
How to go about taking over a failing project?
I work for a pretty small company employing less than 150 people, for the last 35 years this company has never had any sort of project managers and every project that they have had has always come over budget and over the deadline. Two years ago,…
JKRockStomper
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29
votes
9 answers
What is the difference between Project and Product Management?
From a cursory survey, they appear extremely similar.
Is this the case? Other than Projects tending to be short-term and Products tending to be ongoing endeavours, is there a difference in the two?
If so, what are the differences?
warren
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29
votes
10 answers
How can I get my team to value self-organization and self-improvement?
I'm working as a project leader in a team of 5 developers and myself and taking the role of analyst. Within the company, we've been applying the agile principles for several years.
Some of the principles I value most are self-organization and…
zweefs
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29
votes
12 answers
How do I stop going over my estimates?
I consistently underestimate my work. I'm gaining a bad reputation for it. I want to get past it.
I think the main problem is that I don't fully outline every step that needs to be taken. The first development agency I worked for wasn't big on this.…
Brenden
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29
votes
14 answers
Do projects ever end early?
When scheduling, I tend to add a lot of reality into the guestimates I am provided with.
I always add in generous amounts of probable sick days for manpower and extra time for integration and bug fixing. (All this based on decades of experience.)
As…
Danny Schoemann
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29
votes
9 answers
Should a PM also be a resource on the project? Why?
we have a small team of highly technical people and one of them is the project manager for the project. The person who is in PM role for this project is experienced and has previous project management experience also. So it felt 'natural' for him to…
JBRWilkinson
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28
votes
14 answers
Can a Product Owner be a developer in Scrum?
Can a Product Owner be a developer in Scrum? In theory, yes, but is it recommended by Scrum?
Bastien Vandamme
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28
votes
6 answers
Are Gantt diagrams compatible with Agile methods?
If they are, is it simple to use them with theses methods? Have you some use cases to present?
Pascal Qyy
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28
votes
7 answers
Scrum, Agile, Kanban looking for 'for dummies' type of information
I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I have heard and read a lot of snippets of information about this topic and I've formed my own understanding - probably not the best way to assess the value or try to implement it.
Can you post your favorite…
Perry Wilson
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28
votes
5 answers
Do technical leaders compete with project managers?
Technical leaders in our projects are competing with project managers.
Or in more general aspect, is it a problem if someone with greater domain specific knowledge tends to dominate in project or become an informal PM?
If a person with technical…
pixel
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