Month: August 2020

Agile Project Management, Events, Leadership, Remote Work, Teams, Warning Signs

The Perfect Storm for The Project Economy

The winds of change were strong before the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by three macroeconomic trends, the need for projects and project managers was increasing. These three trends are: 1) Accelerating rates of technology adoption 2) The switch to alternative energy sources to maintain GDP and meet emissions targets 3) Infrastructure projects for population growth. These movements occurring together were spawning an explosion of projects to turn ideas into reality. This increase in project demand was christened The Project Economy by PMI in 2019. To be fair, these trends and strategies for handling them had already existed for more than a decade. Globalization and business transformation have been discussed extensively. Eric Ries documented his lean startup methodology in 2008 as a way for […]

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Agile Project Management, Estimating, Metrics, Planning, Teams

Estimating Agile Projects…Or Not

Project managers generally like plans and estimates so we can forecast when things should be done and how much they may cost. It helps manage client expectations and answer the type of questions they ask, such as "When will it be done?" and "How much will it cost?" So, when project managers hear about ideas such as "let's stop estimating," it can trigger a knee-jerk reaction. It sounds lazy and avoiding the hard work of having to estimate. It can seem like people want to shirk their responsibility and accountability. First, those lazy agilists wanted to stop doing documentation; now they want to stop estimating too! There has been a debate raging since 2012 about the use and value of […]

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