This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast. Earn 37 PDUs::
Cornelius Fichtner and Jesse Fewell
This interview with Jesse Fewell was recorded at the 2015 PMI® Global Congress in Orlando, Florida. We discuss his paper and presentation "Can You Hear Me Now? Working with Global, Distributed, Virtual Teams". Here is the paper's abstract:
Today's work world has changed radically. Whether video chatting with China or taking a call at from home, more and more professional work is no longer in person. It can be frustrating, but a deeper look reveals some surprises: Everyone is doing it, and not just for costs; many organizations are thriving with it. Most pain points have simple work-arounds. This paper will walk you through tips and benefits for working with people outside your office.
With the rise of the Internet, emerging economies, and the trend of working from home, today’s professionals are dealing with a workplace that is very different from anything the world has ever seen. Never before in the history of mankind have we been able to conduct so much work, so quickly, with so many people outside our own location.
Of course, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. We struggle with time zone issues, language barriers, limited visibility, poor infrastructure, and so on and so on. Sometimes we choose remote teams intentionally for their benefits. But often, this kind of organizational structure is handed to managers and team members without choice.
This paper is about how to deal with all those issues and strengthen your teams.
Good communication is essential for risk management in agile projects so you are sure to pick up some great ideas from this episode -- whether or not you are working in an Agile environment.
This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for the PMI-ACP® Exam:
Bill Dow, PMP, ITIL, CSM - Author
You don’t necessarily have to manage a social media project in order to recognize the benefits of using the tools of social media project management. Furthermore, being a social media project manager is more than simply publishing a few project updates on Facebook.
In order to really reap the benefits, social media has to be a fully integrated and planned part of your project’s communications management strategy.
Why do project managers need a formal project charter?
What is the role of a program manager?
What are the top 10 pitfalls to avoid when starting a project?
What is the single best way to prevent scope creep?
All answers are detailed, easy to understand and often come with tips and tricks tables and graphics and everything you need to fully understand and implement good practices on your own projects.
This book is also great for anyone preparing for their PMP® Exam. So if you are looking for a good PMP Book then check out the great reviews it has received on Amazon!
This second edition is not just a rehash of what Jeff originally published some years back. Far from it. Jeff revisited every single question and wrote an updated answer to include changes in our industry. So it’s not surprising that he now also includes sections on Agile, Scrum and Stakeholder Management.
This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP® Exam:
Bryan Bowers, MBA, PMP
This is another episode in which I am proudly introducing you to one of my successful students who was able to pass the PMP. His name is Bryan Bowers (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bowersbryan) and he is a student of the PMP PrepCast.
There are two reasons that make me especially proud of helping him pass. First of all, Bryan has taken over a dozen certification exams, and second he says that “this was by and far the most brutal exam I have ever taken”. And so I feel very satisfied that it was my exam preparation course that showed Bryan how to prepare for PMP.
In this PMP lessons learned interview you are going to hear him talk about his journey to becoming PMP certified from start to finish.
Do you use an Agile project management approach? And have you maybe noticed a certain fatigue -- an Agile burnout, a Scrum burnout in your team?
Well, Agile is indeed an excellent methodology that is responsive to business changes with quick turnaround and highly visible results. But at the same time, the pace of a project using scrum project management -- or any Agile approch -- is relentless. It never seems to stop and this is potentially one of the biggest agile project management issues that the team may face. Unlike Waterfall there are very few built-in times for team members to catch their collective breath and celebrate milestones. Perhaps project managers in a Waterfall environment would disagree, but I think you can see what I mean.
This Scrum burnout was the basis of the article Agile Fatigue written by Kim Wasson https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimwasson. It’s a relatively short article that contains some good tips on how to combat this effect. So in our interview just now we are going to talk about the following symptoms:
Burnout
Meandering
Stagnation
The daily stand-up turns into a grind
A secret move back to waterfall
But more importantly, we discuss what to do about them in order to battle the burnout, so agile project management with scrum doesn't mean risking your mental or physical wellbeing. Scrum agile project management training is one way of ensuring you are using good practices to manage the process, and in the interview Kim will share more ideas.
When I was a junior project manager, I thought that managing my projects meant for me to focus primarily on the schedule. But as I grew from junior to senior I learned that in order to improve my project manager skills, I needed to learn how to manage project management relationships.
Every project is made up of people, and people are diverse and unpredictable beings. The fascinating study of people, how they interact, and what makes them tick is the heart of project management. It is also at the heart of "People-Centered Project Management", which is a free eBook by Kim Wasson https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimwasson.
The eBook is all about people project management and explores "The five elements that will make or break your project (unless you’re living in a cave)". The five elements are
Building Relationships
Common Goals
Learning Style
Motivation
Skills Matching
These elements are not only at the core of project human resources management, they are also at the center of our discussion. We review each element and and give you lots of tips and tricks so that you can improve your project manager people skills.
Project Management for Beginners and Experts
Going beyond Project Management Professional (PMP)®, PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®, and Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®
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