Blog
Agile as an Excuse?
It seems that Agile is too often used as an excuse to avoid careful planning and preparation. In this post we are going to review the root cause of this phenomenon.Project AllocationsThe majority of large government agencies and non-government organisations operate...
Scheduler in a Project Team Structure
Scheduling is a “skeleton” of project control. It connects time, cost, requirements, resources, benefits, risks & interdependencies. Scheduling not only supports project managers to plan work and collect actuals, but also to perform “what-if” analysis and...
Agile is for IT Projects. Myth or Reality?
There is a general acceptance that Agile delivery is good for IT projects and many IT departments in various size organisations are considering or have already started adopting Agile frameworks. At the same time, I’ve heard that some of the IT project managers...
Assumptions and Risks. What is the difference?
In a project management language, an assumption is an “event” with a probability of over 50%. If the probability of the event is also less than 100%, it is a risk!!! An assumption is something that you assume to be the case, even without proof. While there is a...
Planning vs Scheduling
Are you aware that the majority of projects develop a schedule but actually don’t have a plan? Often projects produce a version of a project plan which covers both planning and scheduling. They are not able to differentiate one from another when required. ...
Next-Gen Project Risk Management Technologies
Mature project management is critical for innovations. At the same time, innovative technologies could also be applied for project delivery. This would speed up technology development and implementation even further. Next-Gen technology platform for Project Risk...
Schedule Quality vs Schedule Maturity
Very often project participants mix up project schedule maturity and schedule quality concepts. While these two aspects are interdependent, misunderstanding the difference is often causing conflicts between a project manager, a scheduler and a PMO team.Target...
“B” for Bottlenecks
Majority of projects/programs manage critical project-related live data via project registers, known as DRICA, RAID, etc. Each letter represents a type of project metadata: R - risks, I - issues, A - assumptions (or actions), D - dependencies, C - change requests,...
Project Success Criteria (PSC)
In project constraints golden triangle, which of the criteria is more important: Time, Cost or Scope?If your project is behind the schedule and you have an opportunity to speed up project delivery by applying extra resources to complete testing earlier, what would...
How to visualise WBS out of MS Project?
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a very powerful view to represent project scope in a hierarchical way. It allows to validate scope and identify potential gaps. WBS is a key input into the schedule development process. Ideally, use a scheduling tool that supports...
Start-to-Finish Dependency
Perhaps every project practitioner is aware of 4 basic types of project dependencies and two types of activity delays. Unfortunately, their knowledge is often limited by these two facts. If they don’t know how to apply these correctly, it will impact the quality...
3-Points Estimation Technique
The most useful scheduling technique which, in my opinion, has to be used in each project is 3-Points estimation technique. It is simple to use, it improves team productivity and project performance.As projects complexity level keeps growing, projects become less...
Project Dependencies Types
Some companies define project interdependencies as “Hard” or “Soft” based on a type of constraint in their scheduling tool. In other situations, project interdependencies indicate a level of risk as probability, impact, or risk exposure. Some project management...
Project Controls Expo Virtual 2020
We are delighted to announce that our Senior Consultant, Alex Lyaschenko, will be a speaker at the Project Controls Expo Virtual 2020 with the following topics: * "Resource Limited Project Management" * “Portfolio Schedule Management in Sydney Trains (Australia)” *...
Supporting tools for planning and scheduling
Show me you scheduling toolkit and I can tell you who you are! Successful planning and delivery of complex programs and portfolios are not possible without application of best scheduling practices and advanced methods. Application of these methods and practices is...
Tool agnostic?
Do you think that professionals should be tool agnostic? Or should they come with their own set of tools? Let’s imagine you have a leakage at home. After you have done your research and got some recommendations, a good plumber comes to your place to fix this...
Agile & Waterfall Integration. Vendors
Some companies complain that vendors don’t support them with “Agile way” of delivery. The reality is that many companies are only able to engage vendors on a fixed price (FP) type of contract. However, the companies are expecting the vendors to work in a Time &...
DCMA 14-Point Assessment
How to make sure you are getting the right skillset when hiring a master scheduler/planner? Someone who doesn’t only have an understanding of scheduling tools, but also has a strong planning acumen. Check out if the person would recommend using DCMA 14-Point...
Schedule Maturity Planning. Part 2 – Questions
Which of key project knowledge areas is missing in the project maturity framework? P3M3 organisational assessment has 7 knowledge areas:* Organisational Governance* Management Control* Benefits Management* Risk Management* Stakeholder Management* Finance...
Waterfall & Agile Integration. Part 1: Hybrid projects in Enterprise portfolio
Some time ago I analysed the structure of the portfolio I worked on ($1.3B / 380 projects) and found out that we had: · 41% of Waterfall projects;· 33% of Agile projects;· 26% of Hybrid projects;· 3% Not real projects (PMOs, Contingency, etc) The issue was that we...
Schedule Maturity Planning. Part 1 – Categories
While the majority of project and program managers recognise the importance of good quality schedule, project stakeholders have their own view of what a “good quality” actually means.Well, based on my observations, project managers often forget to do one critical...
Portfolio Management (Waterfall style)
pic (Y. Pogorelov)PMO | Portfolio Planning & Delivery | PMP | P3O Practitioner | AgilePM Practitioner | Six Sigma
Welcome to Success Driven Planning & Delivery Blog!
Agile and Waterfall are the two most popular project management methodologies and widely used to deliver business, technology and infrastructure projects. Effective integration of projects with different delivery methods is a significant challenge for many...
