Brian Pan - Notes on PM and Agile

 Original article here 1 - Initiating - This is where the project is formally authorized by the sponsor, initial scope defined, and stakeholders identified. - It is important that the PM is formally authorized at this point, as PMs have a lot of accountability and little authority.  2- Planning  - PMBOK outlines 24 discrete processes involved in planning  - Significant idea is to think through the process in advance 3 - Executing  - Since the project team is important in execution of the process, it is also important that cultivating the team is as well. 4 - Monitor and Control - One way to think about monitoring and controlling is to imagine that you were driving across the country according to your plan or a roadmap. But if you got lost and you didn't have a GPS you'd stop, ask for directions and get back on track, or maybe based on new information, such as a new road that would cut hours off the trip, you'd change or update your plan. 5 - Closing  -  The project manage

 Notes from here A form is a tool you use to record a single item - issue, change, problem, idea, etc. It gives it representation and acknowledges its existences A lot is list of all the items.  Having records of forms/logs promotes transparency and mutual understanding. It also serves as a reference for later use.  Many projects will have more items to track than originally anticipated, so plan for volume in tracking from the beginning.  Risk is a concern regarding the future. It is a comprehensive study resulting in a pillar known as Risk Management.  Issue is a concern of something in the present. It's happening now. Change affects things in the past. It is synonymous with scope management. The three may introduce new risk/issue/changes to each other, so it is important to be able to cross-reference.  Tasks should not be kept in logs, but incorporated into WBS and Project Schedule.  Management Process:  Plan for various items. Determine how to log. Document approach and estimate

 Notes from  here There are five phases of project management. 1. Project Initiation  Here, you are turning an scribble into a meaningful SMART goal. Business case is defined broadly and the project charter is created. Included within the cater is the goal, scope, key stakeholders, and register of roles. Technical aspects are not yet considered yet at this stage. 2. Project Planning  The project road map is planned out. Unless it is agile, this phase is very comprehensive and may account for up to 50% of the project's time. It includes identifying technical needs, developing a detailed project schedule, creating a communication plan, and setting up goals/milestones/deliverables.  3. Project Execution  Deliverables are being met.  4. Project Monitoring and Controlling Simultaneous with Step 3, PM makes sure that project objectives are being met and everything is good smoothly between the team and stakeholders. PM ensures that there is minimal deviation from the plan and establishes

 The common SMART goal seems to be very well spoken of and probably crossed your ears a few time. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based. While they might be quite useful in defining the goal, like all things, it needs an occasional update. Here steps in the CLEAR goals.  CLEAR goals are an agile counterpart to SMART goals. It stands for Collaborative, Limited, Emotional, Appreciable, Refine-able.  Collaborative - Who is on the team and WHY do these collaborators matter? Limited - What are the boundaries? When do you start/stop? And to what scale is or isn't the project? Emotional - How does this goal make a connection with you/your team? Is it meaningful? Does it provide any personal satisfaction? What of the atmosphere? Appreciable - What is the next action? Milestone?  Refineable - What can I anticipate changing? What may go wrong? How would you adapt? An example that I briefly scriblbed:   I will have lunch with my boss at Panera Bread next year to

  An interesting video fairly describes it well.  The V-P-C Framework presents distinctions between value, price and cost. As a reference to the image above, the green represents the value to customers, blue is the value to the company, and orange is the cost of producing said value/service. Companies naturally want to increase their blue value. In an effort to do that, they may do one of several things:  1) Decrease the value of green 2) Decrease the value of orange  3) Increase the value of green  4) A combination of the above choices. While certain companies may choose to under-deliver to their customers as a result of trying to capture the optimum gain, the best answer is (4). More specifically, the company should decrease their cost of production, increase their price to customer, and also increase the benefits to customer to which the customer does not lose any value. Essentially, it is baking a bigger pie.  So how can companies bake a bigger pie?  1. Optimize value to customers

 Reading here The author references the book "Conscious Capitalism"  by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia. It identifies four categories of conscientiousness:  1. Knowing a higher purpose of the work (beyond profit) 2. Having consciousness of stakeholders  3. Consciousness in leadership (and teamwork) 4. Consciousness on building culture and management (trust)