Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

"How can I become a project manager in 2021?" is a question I frequently hear.  Being a project manager is still (and will always be) a rewarding career opportunity, even in post-pandemic life.  And while the events of the last two years may have shifted some of the demand, project managers and project management skills are still in high demand. 

The Project Management Institute...

Management skills are usually grouped into several categories, including interpersonal, technical, and conceptual. But time management skills go beyond attributes that simply make you an effective leader. Knowing how to manage your minutes is crucial to the success of your business and your personal life. Here are a few examples of skills to refine that will have a positive impact on your time...

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

- Peter Drucker

Rather than wait for your project management future, if you are planning to pursue a career, get started now and create it.  Here are five tips you can use to predict the high quality of that future:

1. Have a clear vision for every project and the team, and communicate it to all stakeholders.  Add to this clarity of...

Whether you are a project manager or a scrum master, if you are leading an agile project, there are some critical things to keep in mind.  Some of these we have covered in past articles and some of them are new. Here are seven tips for agile project managers.  Repetition helps to build retention, so even if these seem old, think of them as new :)

1. Respect client deliverables. ...

The first month of a new year has already past - time flies by!  Perhaps as part of your New Year's resolutions you have decided to acquire new skills or take your career in a different direction.  Now is a great time to get started with project management.

Just a few years ago, Project Management Institute Research showed that there would be a need for around 22m new project managers...

COVID-19 has brought about a lot of change; however, some things remain constant.  In a more competitive environment, with constant change and fewer available resources, the skill of project management is now as important as ever. Projects must be more successful and deliver on their promised value to help organizations realize their strategies.  One of the unique benefits of...

2020 has certainly been a year to be remembered, and perhaps maybe forgotten.  It has created new working habits and patterns that are likely to stay with us for years to come.  Some with online business models remain largely unaffected.  Others have had to scramble and get quickly accustomed to work-at-home routines, shifting work times and priorities, and work with virtual...

I'm dreaming of an agile New Year
Just like the teams I used to know.
Where the backlogs glisten
And product owners listen
To hear improvement in the retro, oh, the retro.

I said I'm dreaming of an agile New Year
With every user story I write.
May your stand-ups be merry and hustle
And may all your New Years' be agile.

Our user story for you?  As a global citizen celebrating any winter...

Holding the project team and others accountable for completing their work is an important skill for a project manager.  It is especially important for agile and other less traditional project management methods where the team is largely self-organizing and self-managing.

To help the agile and other project managers remember how to best hold people accountable, I like to think of the 4Cs:...

With a growing number of organizations shifting to agile methods for projects, those in the traditional project management role may want to consider how to transition from predictive to agile projects.  In the future, the best project managers will operate more flexibly and manage projects with either waterfall or agile methods as needed. 

While many project management fundamentals...