5 Superior Stakeholder Questions for Project Leaders to Ask

Whether you are a project manager or a business analyst, these five open-ended questions posed to the project sponsor and other senior executives can get you vital information you need for project success in a short amount of time:

• What does success look like to you? – Learn what is most valuable to manage the triple constraints appropriately.
• What are your biggest challenges and opportunities? – Confirm your project is solving the most critical problems.
• What happens if we don’t change or succeed? – Determine the importance of project success for future reference and communication plans.
• Who will be impacted, and to whom else should I speak? – Grow and confirm your stakeholder register, so no one important is missed.
• What else may impact the project? – Grow and confirm your risk register, so priority risks, especially those outside your project, are not missed.

5 Tips to Improve Your Agile Project Management

As Agile and iterative methods grow in popularity, it is easy for those with a solid project management background to work in a new environment.  These 5 tips will help:

1. Question traditional PM practices: everything you know still applies, but question how to tailor and improve past practices for the new environment.
2. Use pictures over words: lighter Agile documentation benefits from images and diagrams more than written words.  Make a conscious effort to use more images.
3. Risk and schedule management are still relevant: make sure these are included in lighter versions: more diagrams and schedules map out sprints, rather than details.  Use burndown charts to show progress. Re-examine risks when planning each sprint.
4. Consider the user experience: customer involvement is critical.  Don't lose sight of who needs to use the project.
5. Always re-evaluate your process. Frequent retrospectives will enable continuous...