Congratulations to Mr.Suraj Sambasivam PMP for achieving the PMP credential. Suraj prepared for his PMP credential with the PMdistilled Project Management Professional training conducted by PMRI. It gives us immense confidence when he says he did not use any other reference material except the PMdistilled Guide, Online on demand modules, quizzes, exam practice and the one 2 one meetings with the Instructor. Now we have added mandatory weekend instructor led classes as well, with the hope of speeding up the preparation. When people attend in groups, that will definitely create healthy peer pressure to complete the exam on time. Suraj has given us some inputs to improve the course effectiveness further. We will do that as fast as possible. Once again thank you Suraj for trusting us to be your Project Management Professional Certification coach and mentor.
Now the PMdistilled PMP programs have mandatory weekend online instructor led classes, attended by all participants. This improves experience sharing, and also will improve positive peer pressure to complete the course along with others.
Here is a comparison of the older version of the PMdistilled PMP program and the New PMdistilled PMP Program;
Comparison
Older version of the PMdistilled PMP Program
Key features
Weekly 121 meetings between the instructor and the participant
The Project Management Body Of Knowledge (PMBOK) comprises of the globally accepted project management best practices applicable to most of the projects, most of the time. The Construction Extension to the Project Management Body of Knowledge provides best practices relevant for construction projects. PMBOK construction extension is updated whenever a new version of the PMBOK is released. As you might already know, the new PMBOK is principle based and covers predictive, agile and hybrid project management. Construction extension (latest) is fully aligned to these approaches and at the same time have additional knowledge areas relevant for construction projects.
Though there is one to one mapping, the content within each knowledge area is more specific to construction projects in the construction extension to PMBOK Guide.
Should we go with agile or waterfall or hybrid is the major decision one should make before getting into detailed planning. There are construction projects which got great benefits by following agile during the engineering phases, which facilitated concurrent engineering by distributed teams. While that is the case with project management strategies / approach, project execution strategies are also equally important. For example, I know a construction project which could meet their tight deadline because they decided to go with pre-fabricated components in the project. Project strategies can also revolve around make or buy decisions, various contracting types, technologies used etc…
While the factors to be considered for developing the project’s strategy / approach are multidimensional , the rest of this article will discuss about the various project management strategies that can be adopted for successful execution of projects.
When to go with predictive or waterfall?
If the scope is very clear (Construction projects)
If the technology is well known
If the engineering discipline do not allow for change
If the contract type is fixed price, fixed duration
When to go with Agile?
If the scope is evolving
If the technology is new to the team
If the engineering discipline allows for change (Information technology, Engineering phase)
When to go with Hybrid?
When the team is moving from Waterfall to Agile
When some phases are ideal for agile and some phases are ideal for waterfall, within the same project some phases can follow agile where as some phases will follow waterfall (predictive) style. For example, in a construction project, the architecture, approvals, engineering, procurement, snags, punch lists are potential candidates for agile where as the actual construction phase will benefit by following predictive approaches.
Even in a predominantly predictive project management approach, adopting some of the agile ceremonies like daily meetings, short term planning, burn down charts etc can improve productivity.
Good project approaches / strategy will play a major role in meeting the timelines within cost with quality.
A Sprint 0 is the name often given to a short effort to create a vision and a rough product backlog which allows creating an estimation of a product release. Some organizations adopt the practice of having a Sprint 0 before the project actually kicks off for real. It is the foundation and most critical Sprint for any project. In my experience, it is well suited for the organizations who are in process of transitioning from Waterfall to Agile.
Sprint 0 is usually claimed as necessary because there are things that need to be done before a Scrum project can start. During Sprint 0, the Scrum team might be assembled, product backlog can be populated and any technical issues like hardware, software, architecture, infrastructure, procurement, resource and collocation issues can be sorted out.
The goal of Sprint 0 is “being ready and able to deliver business value that is usable and potentially releasable” through discovery process. It isn’t about planning the future items in detail but should be about setting the vision, creating an initial backlog to meet that vision and getting initial estimates against it.
Possible SPRINT 0 Deliverable:
Activities listed below will make the team ready for the upcoming Sprints and mainly Sprint 1 &2. This is just a checklist with all the possible items to start with in Sprint 0, which could be between 2-6 weeks, depending on the Project size. Nonetheless, every environment is different and may require specific actions tailored in the best way to address the specific needs of that environment.
Product Backlog/Requirement:
Product owner, business analyst and technical architect should closely work to prepare the Product Backlog and create the release plan so that team can visualize the PO’s vision from the product perspective.
Should review and analyze User Stories in collaboration with PO’s and relevant stakeholders.
Should prepare a Product Backlog (or decision on Definition of Done) with the Acceptance Criteria for each User Story.
Should identify and document any non-functional requirements (authentication/security, performance, 508 requirements, scalability, etc.).
Should prepare for Sprint Planning, prioritize and freeze requirements at least for sprint 1 and 2.
Infrastructure Readiness:
Without the infrastructure, team won’t be able to progress on anything. There is a high dependency on following items, and it should be worked out with the infra stakeholder:
Network Requirements
Environments readiness; to start with team at least need Dev and Test and later Pre-Prod (UAT) and Prod environments.
System readiness with all the software installed
Logistic requirements like phone, video conference etc.
All the tools up and running
Environment Specification:
Identify various tools to be used in the project, such as
Front-end Tool
Back-end Tool
Database Tool
Data Migration Tool
508 Testing Compliance Tool
Team Readiness:
Create a resource plan or team structure:
How many full time and shared resources are required with their allocations
Identify skill sets needed for the required resources
Interview and hire resources (if required)
Create team On-boarding activities and tasks
Each resource should have all the required software
Each resource should have accounts and access to the required systems
Training:
Training will make team ready for the development/testing and is critical to project success. Training on following maybe be recorded for the future use/training of new associates:
Domain
Technical
Architecture
Development Framework and Process
Testing Framework and Process
Tools
Design/Architecture:
Initial draft of high-level architecture management plan that talks about the technical architecture of the future product from the technical architect.
Project Release Roadmap:
Work with PO’s on Product Vision and prepare Release Plan with following information:
Number of Sprints
Sprint Start and End dates
Epic or functionality planned to be covered in each Sprint
Project Management Plan (High Level):
Identify Project In-Scope and Out-of-Scope
Cost Estimation: Along with Project Cost, determine other costs (if any), such as My Access Cost, Certificates Cost, Environment Cost, Security Assessment / Authorization Cost, etc.
Good time to introspect on the year 2021 and to set goals for the Year 2022. Thanks to all our customers, partners and students. Wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2022.
