There is More than PMP Certification in Project Management

Some people says that PMP certification is the only solution to deliver the projects on time, within budget and to the satisfaction of customers, but PMP certification is only one piece in the puzzle of project management expertise. This articles discusses the three main pillars of successful project management: knowledge, experience and people skills. These three sisters play complementary roles and have a symbiotic relationship. You should ideally cultivate all three together to achieve success in software development projects as they play complementary roles.

Agile, Kanban and Software Craftsmanship Culture

This article introduces a model of culture that is simple to understand and apply to the Agile, Kanban and Software Craftsmanship approaches. The Schneider Culture Model defines four distinct cultures:
* Collaboration: culture is about working together.
* Control: culture is about getting and keeping control.
* Competence: culture is about being the best.
* Cultivation: culture is about learning and growing with a sense of purpose.

This model is used to show that Agile, Kanban and Software Craftsmanship have strong cultural biases that limit the scope of their applicability. Finally, an approach is outlined to select approaches that work with the culture in your organization.

Scaled Agile Framework

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAF) is a publicly available framework for applying Agile and Lean practices to the enterprise. It will soon be available to the general public on an interactive website. SAF has been scaled to over 140 teams and 1,000 people, yet can still be applied to smaller companies preparing for growth. This video presents the Scaled Agile Framework so you can scale your company. View this video on the Project Management Planet web site that provides news and resources for software project managers.

Tracking Software Projects with Finance

In the world of software development, estimates usually don’t hit the mark – scope creeps,  specs change, and sh*t happens. Clients change their minds and the provider has to live with the implications – cost, resource or otherwise. “Tracking Software Projects from a Financial Perspective” discusses the need to manage software development projects from a financial perspective and not just with estimates and progress tracking. Bringing financials into your development environment helps you track projects work from a profitability standpoint whilst educating all involved about the simple truth – profit from your projects is essential.

Social Contracts for Project Management

In the context of project management, a social contract for a project contains a set of rules a team agrees to, that are above and beyond what their basic project roles and responsibilities mandate. These rulescan differ from project to project and they consolidate understanding of how the team will behave and interact.

Watch this video on Project Management Planet

Redefining “Management” in Agile Project Management

I have found on the Project Management Portal an interesting article Agile Development: Redefining “Management” in Project Management that discusses the new role project managers and their team members play when applying Agile methodology to their software development projects. Agile methodology has not only challenged the traditional methods of software development, but has challenged the ways in which software organizations look at their project management processes.

You can read it on http://www.projectmanagementplanet.com/agile-development-redefining-%E2%80%9Cmanagement%E2%80%9D-in-project-management/.

Kanban for Government Projects

This video shows how Kanban helped a government agency to deliver high quality software.

http://www.tvprojectmanagement.com/project-management/kanban-for-government-projects/