How-To

Time-tracking solutions can help you uncover hidden opportunities to maximize your project’s value, from more efficient resource allocation to more accurate estimating and bidding. Here’s a closer look at how better time management produces more successful projects.

Code reviews are not typically viewed as part of a pure Agile process, but some of the technique's benefits, such as collective ownership, are in line with the Agile philosophy, and they can be conducted without slowing your project down. Here are some suggestions for adapting code reviews to work in an agile environment.

Sometimes a pure agile approach is not appropriate for a particular project — the important thing is getting the work done, not strict adherence to a process. Still, a non-agile project can benefit from the inherent values of agile, including strong team collaboration, prioritized, incremental development, and regular progress assessment and adaptation.

Agile projects incorporate a number of techniques that are not easily transferable to traditional waterfall projects. One technique is the estimation of the size of user stories with abstract story points, and the use of story points to determine how much work can be completed in an iteration.

A project failure is seldom caused by unknown or mysterious factors. In fact, failure is often predictable based on symptoms and warning signs. And it can be prevented by following a disciplined approach to recovery. Here, an experienced project recovery specialist shares his methodology for fixing a failing initiative.

It will almost always cost more to fix a requirements problem during the execution phase than if the same problem was discovered in the planning phase. And the root cause of these problems is usually people-oriented. Here are four key best practices for writing better project requirements.

Kanban is designed to help your processes, not define them. Along the way, it can provide enormous value to projects and teams, including improved focus, efficiency, communication, prioritization and visibility. Here is an overview of these benefits and tips for realizing them as you implement Kanban into your project work.

Retrospectives are a catalyst for continuous team improvement, providing a feedback loop to examine methods, teamwork and results. But holding monotonous retrospectives isn’t much better than holding none at all. Here are three techniques you can interchange for maximum effect.

Frustrated by project charter meetings that feature overly textual, often generic descriptions of what the team can expect and how to accomplish it, a project manager applied the agile concept of User Stories to better describe project interactions and inject more real-world meaning into a kickoff document.

On an agile project, the workload is determined at the beginning of each iteration. The Product Owner evaluates and prioritizes the work that needs to be done, while the team determines the amount of work they can complete. The iteration planning meeting sets the stage and should be run as a collaborative dialogue.