One of the challenges with speaking to senior stakeholders—and really I mean the stakeholders who sign the cheque that pays for our work—is being able to promise them something that … Continue reading Stakeholder commitments on a sliding scale
Category: Project management
Seemingly impossible goals can change reality
It’s a constant bugbear of software teams that deadlines are often just wishes. “You need to deliver it by this date” can be largely the same as a manager donning … Continue reading Seemingly impossible goals can change reality
Minimising “must have”s
I was speaking to friend the other day who had worked on a procurement project for a piece of machinery for his organisation. His role was to lead the requirements … Continue reading Minimising “must have”s
Moving from subjective to objective discussions
I often work with product teams who have conversations—sometimes very difficult ones with stakeholders—that are full of unstated assumptions, subjectivity, and a lot of unsubstantiated “I think…” comments. For a … Continue reading Moving from subjective to objective discussions
Granularity of project governance frameworks
I’ve worked with a few organisations that wanted to create a framework for reporting on and governing projects or programmes. The intention is generally good: we have lots of projects … Continue reading Granularity of project governance frameworks
Product owners and technical decisions
Sometimes a development team has to make a technical decision. Actually, a development team has to make techical decisions all the time, and 99% of the time those decisions are … Continue reading Product owners and technical decisions
Always build for real people’s real problems
I’ve been having fun this week watching some conference talks about my current favourite language, Elm, at Elm Europe 2017. And I enjoyed seeing an important idea discussed—important not just … Continue reading Always build for real people’s real problems
