Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Meritocracy Over Tenurocracy Through Agile Approach
Some decades ago most of the public sector organizations used a very bureaucratic approach to reward their employees based on the seniority (tenurocracy), based on the wealth (plutocracy), based on family connections (nepotism) or based on the class (oligarchy). Due to the rapid expansion of the private sector organizations & concept of MBO (Management by Objective) most of the senior managers tends to follow a very result oriented approach named Meritocracy to reward their employees. This became very highly prominent in the modern business society to gain competitive advantages in the agile market. As a result of this, organizations are demanding highly dynamic, flexible, creative & talented professionals who posses quick learning skills with adaptability to fast pacing environment. Specially, agile management approach provides more democracy to the team members to utilize their creative talents to achieve the project objectives. Among the team members, there can be certain people who show leadership and imitativeness. Agile methodology like SCRUM will provide unique provision to these types of professionals to become scrum leaders in the future projects.
Due to the lack of hierarchy among the agile team, every team member will have an equal opportunity to express his or her ideas & implement the most feasible ones. Such opportunities will definitely help to encourage the team members and create good role model through scrum leaders & lead to build the trust that any team member can become a leader if they developed their skills & commitments.
The fact that we can realize is that the tenurocracy will have little room in the modern business society but creative talents & result oriented approach will always be rewarding & recognized by the senior management.
Due to the lack of hierarchy among the agile team, every team member will have an equal opportunity to express his or her ideas & implement the most feasible ones. Such opportunities will definitely help to encourage the team members and create good role model through scrum leaders & lead to build the trust that any team member can become a leader if they developed their skills & commitments.
The fact that we can realize is that the tenurocracy will have little room in the modern business society but creative talents & result oriented approach will always be rewarding & recognized by the senior management.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Challenges in adopting agile methodology
Today, most of the traditional IT organizations face various problems in adopting new methodologies to their organization. Especially, transition from structured methodology to agile approach can become a hassle in certain situations. Mainly, organization’s culture, senior management’s behavior, commitment of the team and many more organizational variables become barriers for successful implementation of agile methodology. However, since nothing in this world is stable, 100% structured or permanent, implementing a perfectly structured approach all the time is not feasible. Therefore, it may be a wise idea to customize our processes to positively respond to agility, and this may not be applicable only for the IT industry.
Following article describes those practical problems & the way to find solutions to them in very clear manner & it may be useful for agile practitioners from novice to professional.
http://www.agilechronicles.com/blog/2008/12/the-secret-to-organizational-agility.html
Following article describes those practical problems & the way to find solutions to them in very clear manner & it may be useful for agile practitioners from novice to professional.
http://www.agilechronicles.com/blog/2008/12/the-secret-to-organizational-agility.html
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Software Project Estimation….is not that easy task, But there are some easy ways too..!
Accurate estimation is a key factor in Project Management & success of a project. Most project managers face various challenges in estimation. Especially for project managers who having little experience & novice professionals, this may be a tedious task which may hardly effect to their projects, stakeholders as well as their career. Sometimes, even for well experience project managers, estimation can be a difficult task due to the nature of the project. When the innovativeness of the project outcome increased, the accuracy of the estimation is also going down. As a result of the unexpected incidents can happen in the Research & Development work also can cause expansion of the time schedule estimated. Contingency planning can help project managers to minimize the impact of schedule overruns due to unexpected incidents, but is that a solution to minimize the impact of INACCURATE estimation? If the answer is YES, How can we do a accurate estimation for contingency?. Again it is a problem of estimation.
Further, some of the well known projects managed by the experts also couldn’t complete on time. NASA, AIRBUS(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5402922.stm) & recent project LHC(http://www.lhc.ac.uk) are some of the example projects which were experience the schedule overrun.
To avoid the possibilities where can go wrong in tricky task of estimation, software tools & estimation methodologies will give some relief to project managers to make their work somewhat easy. Construx Estimate version 2.0 is one of such tool, which I have come across.
http://www.construx.com
Further, some of the well known projects managed by the experts also couldn’t complete on time. NASA, AIRBUS(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5402922.stm) & recent project LHC(http://www.lhc.ac.uk) are some of the example projects which were experience the schedule overrun.
To avoid the possibilities where can go wrong in tricky task of estimation, software tools & estimation methodologies will give some relief to project managers to make their work somewhat easy. Construx Estimate version 2.0 is one of such tool, which I have come across.
http://www.construx.com
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Business Flight Simulator!!!!!
What is the business flight simulator???, Is it really a flight simulator or a business simulator?. Everybody heard about flight simulators, which are very important to train PILOTS by mitigating possible risk for aircraft, trainer’s life, pilot’s life & the civilians’ life. But, how flight simulator can relate with the business?.
Have you heard that some of the well doing businesses become bankruptcy at any time? Best example is the present economic crisis occurred in USA, Europe & other developed countries. What can be the root cause for this? Firstly, bad business decision making, the poor monetary planning and immature decision making of the financial policy makers of the government should responsible for this.
Sometimes, you may have experienced instances where some businessmen, fail in their first or second attempt of the business startup and finally become succeeded. How these can happen? Why such businessmen couldn’t success at the very first time. Main reason is the immature business decision making or lack of experience.
Is there a way to avoid this? Can’t we have a way to provide this experience to novice businessman and make successful businessmen for future?
Why not?, Why cant we use simulators to provide real-time like experience to business decision makers? CIMA, BCS and the Metapraxis Ltd brought this concept to reality. They have designed an IT Based simulator to train business executives and started a certification & training programme to reshape the future business world.
http://www.amplifying-intuition.com/breakthrough.html
Good luck BUSINESS FLIGHT SIMULATOR!!!!!
Have you heard that some of the well doing businesses become bankruptcy at any time? Best example is the present economic crisis occurred in USA, Europe & other developed countries. What can be the root cause for this? Firstly, bad business decision making, the poor monetary planning and immature decision making of the financial policy makers of the government should responsible for this.
Sometimes, you may have experienced instances where some businessmen, fail in their first or second attempt of the business startup and finally become succeeded. How these can happen? Why such businessmen couldn’t success at the very first time. Main reason is the immature business decision making or lack of experience.
Is there a way to avoid this? Can’t we have a way to provide this experience to novice businessman and make successful businessmen for future?
Why not?, Why cant we use simulators to provide real-time like experience to business decision makers? CIMA, BCS and the Metapraxis Ltd brought this concept to reality. They have designed an IT Based simulator to train business executives and started a certification & training programme to reshape the future business world.
http://www.amplifying-intuition.com/breakthrough.html
Good luck BUSINESS FLIGHT SIMULATOR!!!!!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Does the Project Manager has to be a good Business Analyst?
Of course in most cases….
Specially in the IT sector, Project Manager Role & the Business Analyst role is going in hand in hand. Some organizations define Project Manager Designation with an additional role of a business analyst. However, in other business domain such as in other engineering disciplines, social development projects this will not be much applicable rule. But, having good understanding of various business domains, good analytical skills, negotiation skills & problem solving skills are definitely attributes of a good project manager. Inherently, theses skills are also essential attributes of a business analyst and ultimately Project manager should possess business analysis skills apart from the other general management skills.
If we consider about planning and estimation processes of the project management process groups, in activity duration estimation having a thorough knowledge in particular activities are very important to preparing an accurate estimation. Furthermore, understanding the interdependency of activities and activity sequencing also vital in a planning process. Understanding the UML as a modeling tool also very much advantageous for a PM to carryout his task. But, when we talk about UML most professionals consider it as a tool which is limited to IT or technical domain. However, it is really a business analysis tool which can be used in any business/technology related domain.
Specially in the IT sector, Project Manager Role & the Business Analyst role is going in hand in hand. Some organizations define Project Manager Designation with an additional role of a business analyst. However, in other business domain such as in other engineering disciplines, social development projects this will not be much applicable rule. But, having good understanding of various business domains, good analytical skills, negotiation skills & problem solving skills are definitely attributes of a good project manager. Inherently, theses skills are also essential attributes of a business analyst and ultimately Project manager should possess business analysis skills apart from the other general management skills.
If we consider about planning and estimation processes of the project management process groups, in activity duration estimation having a thorough knowledge in particular activities are very important to preparing an accurate estimation. Furthermore, understanding the interdependency of activities and activity sequencing also vital in a planning process. Understanding the UML as a modeling tool also very much advantageous for a PM to carryout his task. But, when we talk about UML most professionals consider it as a tool which is limited to IT or technical domain. However, it is really a business analysis tool which can be used in any business/technology related domain.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
PM Podcast
http://www.thepmpodcast.com/index.php?Itemid=9&id=77&option=com_content&task=view
This web site will provide valuable information & podcasts for Professionals who preparing for the PMP exam.
This web site will provide valuable information & podcasts for Professionals who preparing for the PMP exam.
Knowladge based tools at your fingertips
http://www.mindtools.com/
One stop shop to gain an insight on decision making skills/techniques for an excellent career.
One stop shop to gain an insight on decision making skills/techniques for an excellent career.
Mind Mapping Tools
Ohhh, Great !!!!.
This is a diagramming tool which is found to be the best and help me to organise my work methodically. It can be used for variety of tasks whether it is Project Management, Business Analysis, writting a Research Paper .....or anything else.
www.mindgenius.com
This is a diagramming tool which is found to be the best and help me to organise my work methodically. It can be used for variety of tasks whether it is Project Management, Business Analysis, writting a Research Paper .....or anything else.
www.mindgenius.com
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