Games – Leading Answers

April 6, 2023September 27, 2025Certification, Events, Games, Visual Learning

PM Illustrated Free PDU Webinar

Please join me with Peak Business Management for a Free PDU webinar on April 12th at 7:00 pm Eastern Time. Along with Barb Waters, I will be demonstrating the PMP® Exam curriculum from a visual learner’s perspective and giving a tour of PMillustrated.com. We will explore the videos, mindmaps, animations, and games that make learning fun and more effective. We will also be available to answer questions about the PMP® Exam, eligibility criteria, and what to expect in the exam. Reserve your place now and automatically receive 1 PDU for attending the event. I hope you can join us. Register Here

August 20, 2021October 12, 2026Agile Project Management, Books, Certification, Events, Games, Leadership, PMI-ACP, Visual Learning

Announcing “PM Illustrated” – The Fun Way to Prepare for Your PMP® Exam

I know, “Fun” and “PMP Exam” are rarely used in the same sentence. When I studied for my PMP credential in 2001, materials were text-based, process-focused, and dry! Unfortunately, not much has changed since then. However, fun is a serious business in adult learning, it boosts retention and cuts study time. We recall facts about our favorite hobbies and sports teams much easier than boring information because our brains prioritize fun experiences for recall. It is why good trainers who can make a topic enjoyable are so valuable. Visual Learning The other secret weapon in slashing our study time is Visual Learning. Research into visual thinking by David Hyerle, reports that 90% of the information entering the brain is visual. […]

January 16, 2021October 3, 2026Agile Project Management, Estimating, Games, Metrics, Risk Management, Teams, Visual Learning

Creating a Risk-Adjusted Backlog

This article explains what a risk-adjusted backlog is, why they are useful, how to create one and how teams work with them. What is a Risk-Adjusted Backlog? A risk-adjusted backlog is a backlog that contains activities relating to managing risk in addition to the usual features associated with delivering value. Agile projects typically prioritize the backlog based on business value or perceived needs. The Product Owner or business representative prioritizes the backlog elevating the highest value features to the top, so they get delivered first. Taking an Economic View of Decision Making Prioritizing based on business value is an example of the lean concept of ‘Taking an Economic View of Decision Making.’ In deciding which feature to develop first, those […]

September 6, 2018Agile Project Management, Events, Games, Travel

Agile Animations

Following my Agile 2018 conference workshop, I had a couple of people ask how I created the smooth PowerPoint animations. I have always liked using animations to explain ideas since they help me understand processes. My logic has been, if they help me understand it, then they should help others understand it too. Visual learning, and especially animations, are valuable on knowledge work projects. Animations help us overcome the three challenges of knowledge work: Invisible – designs and ideas are often abstract and hard to visualize. Intangible – bits not atoms. Since we cannot see or feel ideas there is a real danger other people might interpret them differently, leading to difficulties with collaboration and problem-solving. Transient – Our work […]

April 27, 2017Agile Project Management, Books, Certification, Events, Games, Leadership, Lean, Metrics, Planning, PMI-ACP, Retrospectives, Risk Management, Teams

New PMI-ACP Workbook

I am pleased to announce the availability of my new PMI-ACP Workbook. This new workbook focusses on a smaller subset of 50 key topics. My original PMI-ACP Exam Prep book distilled all the relevant content from the 11 books on the PMI-ACP recommended reading list in a common voice. The workbook is also different by providing lots of exercises and many situational questions like you will find in the exam. So, while my PMI-ACP Exam Prep book covers all the background and theory – ideal for a comprehensive coverage of everything in the exam, the new PMI-ACP Workbook is a practical, hands-on study tool that focusses on the core topics needed to pass the exam. If you already have your […]

October 21, 2015October 3, 2026Agile Project Management, Books, Events, Games, Leadership, Lean, Metrics, Planning, PMI-ACP, Risk Management, Teams, Travel

PMI-ACP Training in Calgary

I am testing demand for another Calgary based PMI-ACP Exam Prep course. Please let me know via email to Mike <at> LeadingAnswers.com if you are interested in attending a 3-day Calgary based PMI-ACP Exam preparation course. Evolution of the PMI-ACP Credential I ran a couple of Calgary based PMI-ACP courses three years ago when the exam first came out. Since then the certification has grown in popularity from niche to mainstream with over 10,000 people now holding the credential. This makes it the most popular experience based agile certification and the credential of choice for hiring managers looking for the rigor of a ISO 17024 backed PMI credential. In October 2015 the PMI rolled out the updated version of […]

April 9, 2015October 3, 2026Agile Project Management, Events, Games, Leadership, Planning, Risk Management, Teams, Travel

Agile 2015 Conference Session

My presentation outline “Eat Risks for Breakfast, Poop Awesomeness All Day!” was accepted for the Agile 2015 Conference in Washington D.C., August 3-7. As much of the agile community seems engaged in scaling debates I am really happy to share some useful tools that can be used on any project, regardless of approach. The learning objectives for the session are: See why project managers are the least equipped to effectively identify and manage project risks. Learn engaging ways to educate team members about risk management including identifying threats to avoid and opportunities to exploit Preview 5 collaborative games for effective threat and opportunity management from planning and identification, through management, to reporting and closure Understand the untapped potential of an […]

February 28, 2015October 3, 2026Agile Project Management, Events, Games, Leadership, Risk Management, Teams

Eat Risks for Breakfast, Poop Awesomeness All Day!

I have submitted a presentation for Agile 2015 Conference about team based risk and opportunity management that may well get rejected based on its title alone! It has always been a good practice to engage team members in the estimation process; then agile methods taught us how teams should do the local planning and decision making too. So it should come as no surprise that the best people to undertake effective risk management are team members. They possess the best technical insight and are closer to any execution issues than team leads or project managers. However, risk management as tackled by many organizations, is academic, boring, seemingly removed from real-work and it often ignores the maximization of positive risks (opportunities). […]

January 22, 2015Agile Project Management, Books, Games, Leadership, Teams

Big Agile, the Route Less Travelled

Scaling Collaboration not Process is the Key to Enterprise Agility. Agile methods have been found to be extremely effective when used correctly. A reasonable reaction to witnessing any great performance in an organization is to demand more of it. So a tremendous amount of time, effort and resources have been expended over the last few years on scaling agile for the enterprise with all the new processes and models that can go along with that. I admire a lot of the work done to scale agile methods in the attempt to replicate the success of the initial `golden-teams` to all groups in an organization. Unfortunately these roll out attempts largely result in disappointment or failure because the investment and effort […]

April 28, 2014Agile Project Management, Events, Games, Leadership, Lean, Metrics, Planning, Risk Management, Teams, Travel

PMI-NAC Conference

On May 5th I will be presenting at the PMI-NAC Conference on the following topics: 21st Century Risk Management: Supporting mathematical analysis with social influence PMO Evolution: Frameworks to Support a Mix of Traditional, Agile and Lean Project Approaches I am looking forward to the event and will share thoughts and feedback on the sessions here afterwards. Until then here are the presentation outlines: Presentation 1: ”21st Century Risk Management: Supporting mathematical analysis with social influence” Today’s complex projects need proactive risk management to stand any chance of executing successfully. Yet, all the steps of: identifying, classifying, analyzing and prioritizing are for nothing if the risks cannot be effectively avoided, transferred, or reduced. These risk avoidance and reduction steps are […]