The Complete Software Project Manager


Book Description

Your answer to the software project management gap The Complete Software Project Manager: From Planning to Launch and Beyond addresses an interesting problem experienced by today's project managers: they are often leading software projects, but have no background in technology. To close this gap in experience and help you improve your software project management skills, this essential text covers key topics, including: how to understand software development and why it is so difficult, how to plan a project, choose technology platforms, and develop project specifications, how to staff a project, how to develop a budget, test software development progress, and troubleshoot problems, and what to do when it all goes wrong. Real-life examples, hints, and management tools help you apply these new ideas, and lists of red flags, danger signals, and things to avoid at all costs assist in keeping your project on track. Companies have, due to the nature of the competitive environment, been somewhat forced to adopt new technologies. Oftentimes, the professionals leading the development of these technologies do not have any experience in the tech field—and this can cause problems. To improve efficiency and effectiveness, this groundbreaking book offers guidance to professionals who need a crash course in software project management. Review the basics of software project management, and dig into the more complicated topics that guide you in developing an effective management approach Avoid common pitfalls by perusing red flags, danger signals, and things to avoid at all costs Leverage practical roadmaps, charts, and step-by-step processes Explore real-world examples to see effective software project management in action The Complete Software Project Manager: From Planning to Launch and Beyond is a fundamental resource for professionals who are leading software projects but do not have a background in technology.




Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager (Updated and Revised Edition)


Book Description

No project management training? No problem! In today’s workplace, employees are routinely expected to coordinate and manage projects. Yet, chances are, you aren’t formally trained in managing projects—you’re an unofficial project manager. FranklinCovey experts Kory Kogon and Suzette Blakemore understand the importance of leadership in project completion and explain that people are crucial in the formula for success. This updated and revised edition of Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager offers practical, real-world insights for effective project management and guides you through the essentials of the value, people, and project management process: Scope Plan Engage Track and Adapt Close If you’re struggling to ensure multiple projects are finished with high value and on time, this book is for you. If you manage projects without the benefit of a team, this book is also for you. Change the way you think about project management—"project manager" may not be your official title, but with the right strategies, you can excel in this project economy.




Complete Guide to Digital Project Management


Book Description

Get a 360-degree view of digital project management. Learn proven best practices from case studies and real-world scenarios. A variety of project management tools, templates, models, and frameworks are covered. This book provides an in-depth view of digital project management from initiation to execution to monitoring and maintenance. Covering end-to-end topics from pre-sales to post-production, the book explores project management from various dimensions. Each core concept is complemented by case studies and real-world scenarios. The Complete Guide to Digital Project Management provides valuable tools for your use such as: Frameworks: governance, quality, knowledge transfer, root cause analysis, digital product evaluation, digital consulting, estimation Templates: estimation, staffing, resource induction, RACI Models: governance, estimation, pricing, digital maturity continuous execution, earned value management and effort forecast Metrics: project management, quality What You’ll Learn Study best practices and failure scenarios in digital projects, including common challenges, recurring problem themes, and leading indicators of project failures Explore an in-depth discussion of topics related to project quality and project governance Understand Agile and Scrum practices for Agile execution See how to apply Quality Management in digital projects, including a quality strategy, a quality framework, achieving quality in various project phases, and quality best practices Be able to use proven metrics and KPIs to track, monitor, and measure project performance Discover upcoming trends and innovations in digital project management Read more than 20 real-world scenarios in digital project management with proven best practices to handle the scenarios, and a chapter on a digital transformation case study Who This Book Is For Software project managers, software program managers, account managers, software architects, lead developers, and digital enthusiasts




Alpha Project Managers


Book Description

Imagine having access to the top project managers from organizations and industries around the world. Imagine uncovering what they do, how they approach their challenges, and what they know. Alpha Project Managers: what the top 20% know that everyone else does not gets you inside the minds of these top managers and shares their practices, their attitudes, and their secrets.




Agile Project Management


Book Description

Best practices for managing projects in agile environments—now updated with new techniques for larger projects Today, the pace of project management moves faster. Project management needs to become more flexible and far more responsive to customers. Using Agile Project Management (APM), project managers can achieve all these goals without compromising value, quality, or business discipline. In Agile Project Management, Second Edition, renowned agile pioneer Jim Highsmith thoroughly updates his classic guide to APM, extending and refining it to support even the largest projects and organizations. Writing for project leaders, managers, and executives at all levels, Highsmith integrates the best project management, product management, and software development practices into an overall framework designed to support unprecedented speed and mobility. The many topics added in this new edition include incorporating agile values, scaling agile projects, release planning, portfolio governance, and enhancing organizational agility. Project and business leaders will especially appreciate Highsmith’s new coverage of promoting agility through performance measurements based on value, quality, and constraints. This edition’s coverage includes: Understanding the agile revolution’s impact on product development Recognizing when agile methods will work in project management, and when they won’t Setting realistic business objectives for Agile Project Management Promoting agile values and principles across the organization Utilizing a proven Agile Enterprise Framework that encompasses governance, project and iteration management, and technical practices Optimizing all five stages of the agile project: Envision, Speculate, Explore, Adapt, and Close Organizational and product-related processes for scaling agile to the largest projects and teams Agile project governance solutions for executives and management The “Agile Triangle”: measuring performance in ways that encourage agility instead of discouraging it The changing role of the agile project leader




Applied Software Project Management


Book Description

"If you're looking for solid, easy-to-follow advice on estimation, requirements gathering, managing change, and more, you can stop now: this is the book for you."--Scott Berkun, Author of The Art of Project Management What makes software projects succeed? It takes more than a good idea and a team of talented programmers. A project manager needs to know how to guide the team through the entire software project. There are common pitfalls that plague all software projects and rookie mistakes that are made repeatedly--sometimes by the same people! Avoiding these pitfalls is not hard, but it is not necessarily intuitive. Luckily, there are tried and true techniques that can help any project manager. In Applied Software Project Management, Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene provide you with tools, techniques, and practices that you can use on your own projects right away. This book supplies you with the information you need to diagnose your team's situation and presents practical advice to help you achieve your goal of building better software. Topics include: Planning a software project Helping a team estimate its workload Building a schedule Gathering software requirements and creating use cases Improving programming with refactoring, unit testing, and version control Managing an outsourced project Testing software Jennifer Greene and Andrew Stellman have been building software together since 1998. Andrew comes from a programming background and has managed teams of requirements analysts, designers, and developers. Jennifer has a testing background and has managed teams of architects, developers, and testers. She has led multiple large-scale outsourced projects. Between the two of them, they have managed every aspect of software development. They have worked in a wide range of industries, including finance, telecommunications, media, nonprofit, entertainment, natural-language processing, science, and academia. For more information about them and this book, visit stellman-greene.com




The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile


Book Description

Streamline project workflow with expert agile implementation The Project Management Profession is beginning to go through rapid and profound transformation due to the widespread adoption of agile methodologies. Those changes are likely to dramatically change the role of project managers in many environments as we have known them and raise the bar for the entire project management profession; however, we are in the early stages of that transformation and there is a lot of confusion about the impact it has on project managers: There are many stereotypes and misconceptions that exist about both Agile and traditional plan-driven project management, Agile and traditional project management principles and practices are treated as separate and independent domains of knowledge with little or no integration between the two and sometimes seen as in conflict with each other Agile and "Waterfall" are thought of as two binary, mutually-exclusive choices and companies sometimes try to force-fit their business and projects to one of those extremes when the right solution is to fit the approach to the project It’s no wonder that many Project Managers might be confused by all of this! This book will help project managers unravel a lot of the confusion that exists; develop a totally new perspective to see Agile and traditional plan-driven project management principles and practices in a new light as complementary to each other rather than competitive; and learn to develop an adaptive approach to blend those principles and practices together in the right proportions to fit any situation. There are many books on Agile and many books on traditional project management but what’s very unique about this book is that it takes an objective approach to help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of both of those areas to see how they can work synergistically to improve project outcomes in any project. The book includes discussion topics, real world case studies, and sample enterprise-level agile frameworks that facilitate hands-on learning as well as an in-depth discussion of the principles behind both Agile and traditional plan-driven project management practices to provide a more thorough level of understanding.




The Socially Intelligent Project Manager


Book Description

This no-nonsense guide to social intelligence for project managers gives you a step-by-step process for building a bulletproof project team—no matter what gaps exist in personality, geography, culture, or communication style. High-performing teams don't happen by magic. You need processes that are designed in a socially intelligent way if your team is going to overcome the modern world's tough challenges with coordination. To be a star project manager, you have to communicate with people in their individual learning styles, provide accountability in ways that won't be demotivating, and run meetings and minutes that people won't tune out. Your processes must be constructed in ways that respect the complex realities of social dynamics step by step. You have to know your team before you can motivate them, and you have to motivate them before you can manage them. In this book are foolproof techniques to make sure your team connects with you, each other, and everyone they need to get the job done. After all, a team should be more than the sum of its parts—and it's up to the project manager to provide the glue that holds it all together.




User Stories Applied


Book Description

Thoroughly reviewed and eagerly anticipated by the agile community, User Stories Applied offers a requirements process that saves time, eliminates rework, and leads directly to better software. The best way to build software that meets users' needs is to begin with "user stories": simple, clear, brief descriptions of functionality that will be valuable to real users. In User Stories Applied, Mike Cohn provides you with a front-to-back blueprint for writing these user stories and weaving them into your development lifecycle. You'll learn what makes a great user story, and what makes a bad one. You'll discover practical ways to gather user stories, even when you can't speak with your users. Then, once you've compiled your user stories, Cohn shows how to organize them, prioritize them, and use them for planning, management, and testing. User role modeling: understanding what users have in common, and where they differ Gathering stories: user interviewing, questionnaires, observation, and workshops Working with managers, trainers, salespeople and other "proxies" Writing user stories for acceptance testing Using stories to prioritize, set schedules, and estimate release costs Includes end-of-chapter practice questions and exercises User Stories Applied will be invaluable to every software developer, tester, analyst, and manager working with any agile method: XP, Scrum... or even your own home-grown approach.




Agile Project Management with Scrum


Book Description

The rules and practices for Scrum—a simple process for managing complex projects—are few, straightforward, and easy to learn. But Scrum’s simplicity itself—its lack of prescription—can be disarming, and new practitioners often find themselves reverting to old project management habits and tools and yielding lesser results. In this illuminating series of case studies, Scrum co-creator and evangelist Ken Schwaber identifies the real-world lessons—the successes and failures—culled from his years of experience coaching companies in agile project management. Through them, you’ll understand how to use Scrum to solve complex problems and drive better results—delivering more valuable software faster. Gain the foundation in Scrum theory—and practice—you need to: Rein in even the most complex, unwieldy projects Effectively manage unknown or changing product requirements Simplify the chain of command with self-managing development teams Receive clearer specifications—and feedback—from customers Greatly reduce project planning time and required tools Build—and release—products in 30-day cycles so clients get deliverables earlier Avoid missteps by regularly inspecting, reporting on, and fine-tuning projects Support multiple teams working on a large-scale project from many geographic locations Maximize return on investment!