Opaque Transparency: The Silent Project Killer A 2014 report from the Standish Group showed that a staggering 31.1% of software projects get cancelled before completion. Further, over 50% of projects will cost nearly 200% of their original estimates, and only 16% of software projects are completed on time and on budget. The report cited user collaboration, executive level support and clearly stated requirements as key contributors to success, but what's the common denominator? Having led many public and private classes, and consulted with many corporations, I hear the same pain points over and over. Sharing these pains (which everyone of course believes are unique to them!) will hopefully lead to more project managers pushing for support, executives introspecting a little deeper and more realistically, and team members asking for more project transparency! I've summed up the major project pains from folks mentioned above in to one collective term: transparency. Transparency means clarity, and there are many opportunities from day one of a project to introduce clarity, yet so often these opportunities are missed one after the other. This makes the lack of transparency a silent project killer, slowly choking any chance of success and lending itself to the sad statistics shown above. Thankfully, there is hope! A clear and realistic project charter gets things off to a good start, but it needs to be followed up with other key processes. This presentation talks about those key processes, and more importantly, the fact that brilliant processes are useless without the right people employing them.
Putting the PMBOK® Guide - Seventh Edition to Work In this session, the Lead for the PMBOK® Guide - Seventh Edition will go through each section of the Guide and discuss ways you can use it to help you manage your projects and lead your team. We will also cover how organizations can use the new PMBOK® Guide to update policies and practices. This and other IIL Learning in Minutes presentations qualify for PDUs. Some titles, such as Agile-related topics may qualify for other continuing education credits such as SEUs, or CEUs. Each professional development activity yields one PDU for one hour spent engaged in the activity. Some limitations apply and can be found in the Ways to Earn PDUs section that discusses PDU activities and associated policies. Fractions of PDUs may also be reported. The smallest increment of a PDU that can be reported is 0.25. This means that if you spent 15 minutes participating in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.25 PDU. If you spend 30 minutes in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.50 PDU. What You Will Learn: Identify how to use the principles to shape project management behaviors and policies Determine how to project performance domains can be tailored to apply to your project practices Apply the tailoring model to your projects Identify how the section on Models, Methods and Artifacts can be used as a resource for your projects
Resolve: Leading Through Tensions to Project Success How do you navigate your team through the tensions that are both inherent in projects, and those that can arise whenever a group of people work together to accomplish goals? This workshop provides support to project managers to recognize, anticipate, courageously engage and effectively lead teams through conflict to success. By using practical strategies and techniques, project managers can analyze and plan the best course of action to proactively lead their team through choppy waters to the solid landing of project success. These techniques help to lower the stress level and to strengthen relationships within the team. At its core, teams are made of individuals who want to contribute to the project success by using their talents and expertise. When project managers utilize facilitation and conflict resolution techniques to engage members and to ensure each member is heard, the outcomes are successful deliverables strongly supported by a unified team. This and other IIL Learning in Minutes presentations qualify for PDUs. Some titles, such as Agile-related topics may qualify for other continuing education credits such as SEUs, or CEUs. Each professional development activity yields one PDU for one hour spent engaged in the activity. Some limitations apply and can be found in the Ways to Earn PDUs section that discusses PDU activities and associated policies. What You Will Learn: Recognize common tensions inherent to projects and how planning will lessen the impact of inherent conflict. Identify indicators of when team tensions arise and use effective communication approaches to manage team stress and conflict. Lead the team in decision making by utilizing facilitation techniques that ensure every member is heard and that connect the member's expertise to project success.
Strength in Scenarios - Getting Meaningful User Feedback on Designs 'What do you think?' and 'How does this look?' are easy questions to ask when presenting users with potential design concepts, but they rarely give way to meaningful feedback. Using scenarios (workflow-based stories that provide a framework for getting user feedback) allows the user to give more honest, relevant feedback that's more closely related to the work they do on an everyday basis. It's essential to gather user feedback during all stages of an iterative design process and using scenarios to support design assessments works well within an Agile environment. In this workshop session, geared towards designers and product owners, we will explore what goes into creating meaningful scenarios and how they can be used. We will practice writing scenarios based on provided user workflows and paper prototypes. Scenarios can be a great tool in your toolbox for gathering requirements that your users will appreciate. Learning Outcomes: Write realistic scenarios that help users give meaningful feedback Discover the differences between what you see and what you hear Apply feedback and observations to refine designs
Ten Essential Scaling Patterns We Can (Probably) All Agree On It seems like everyone is scaling Agile these days. And why not? What enterprise wouldn't want to enjoy the business and personal benefits of self-organization, higher quality and productivity, and the intrinsic motivation of effective Agile teams? It is the how that is the question, and on that there are many opinions. In this interactive tutorial, Dean Leffingwell describes the ten essential patterns for effectively implementing Lean-Agile development at enterprise scale. As part of the tutorial, attendees will be invited to rate the importance of each pattern, and privately rate how effectively your enterprise applies them. This and other IIL Learning in Minutes presentations qualify for PDUs. Some titles, such as Agile-related topics may qualify for other continuing education credits such as SEUs, or CEUs. Each professional development activity yields one PDU for one hour spent engaged in the activity. Some limitations apply and can be found in the Ways to Earn PDUs section that discusses PDU activities and associated policies. Fractions of PDUs may also be reported. The smallest increment of a PDU that can be reported is 0.25. This means that if you spent 15 minutes participating in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.25 PDU. If you spend 30 minutes in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.50 PDU.
Deciphering a Learning Mindset: How It Supports an Innovative Company Having a learning mindset in today's environment is essential. With technology growing at an exponential rate, it is harder than ever for companies and individuals within companies to keep ahead of the curve (the fight to keep your skills, and hence your products up-to-date and relevant). This idea is very prevalent in certain communities such as technical ones, and not much so in leadership communities but it is the leaders that set the tone for the company. In this talk, Toby Newman will explore how leaders can drive success and innovation through a learning mindset. To have a true learning mindset, you have the responsibility to share back your new insights within an organization. This is where good leaders become great ones. This is where innovation really gets going. As leaders you have an extra responsibility as you set the tone and environment for this sharing to happen.
How to Build Curiosity: The Key to Improving Innovation, Engagement, and Productivity Employees can be more innovative, engaged and productive by improving their natural curiosity, but they must be trained to do so and be rewarded for their efforts. Harvard Business Review found that while 83 percent of C-suite executives believe they encourage curiosity, only 52 percent of employees feel they are rewarded for their curiosity-and are therefore less likely to provide innovative ideas to the organization. HR professionals and leaders can benefit from recent ground-breaking research discoveries regarding what affects curiosity. Once organizations recognize and overcome the four factors that hold people back from being curious, they can develop training and development plans to unleash it. This and other IIL Learning in Minutes presentations qualify for PDUs. Some titles, such as Agile-related topics may qualify for other continuing education credits such as SEUs, or CEUs. Each professional development activity yields one PDU for one hour spent engaged in the activity. Some limitations apply and can be found in the Ways to Earn PDUs section that discusses PDU activities and associated policies. Fractions of PDUs may also be reported. The smallest increment of a PDU that can be reported is 0.25. This means that if you spent 15 minutes participating in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.25 PDU. If you spend 30 minutes in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.50 PDU.
Building and Scaling a Data Science Culture As your data and AI teams scale from one to thousands of employees, you will encounter roadblocks along the way. From handling messy data to productionization and customer adoption, these obstacles can delay or even derail otherwise strong teams. Drawing on experiences gleaned from hundreds of clients, Michael Li presents a framework that successful companies have embraced to build and scale their data teams. The talk goes over how organizations progress along three maturity curves: Analytical, Operational, and Organizational. As enterprises strive to move along each of these maturity curves, they must solve various organizational challenges and develop new capabilities and skills in order to become data-driven organizations. We will provide key takeaways for managers and executives for each step of the maturity curves. This and other IIL Learning in Minutes presentations qualify for PDUs. Some titles, such as Agile-related topics may qualify for other continuing education credits such as SEUs, or CEUs. Each professional development activity yields one PDU for one hour spent engaged in the activity. Some limitations apply and can be found in the Ways to Earn PDUs section that discusses PDU activities and associated policies. Fractions of PDUs may also be reported. The smallest increment of a PDU that can be reported is 0.25. This means that if you spent 15 minutes participating in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.25 PDU. If you spend 30 minutes in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.50 PDU.
Building and Scaling a Data Science Culture As your data and AI teams scale from one to thousands of employees, you will encounter roadblocks along the way. From handling messy data to productionization and customer adoption, these obstacles can delay or even derail otherwise strong teams. Drawing on experiences gleaned from hundreds of clients, Michael Li presents a framework that successful companies have embraced to build and scale their data teams. The talk goes over how organizations progress along three maturity curves: Analytical, Operational, and Organizational. As enterprises strive to move along each of these maturity curves, they must solve various organizational challenges and develop new capabilities and skills in order to become data-driven organizations. We will provide key takeaways for managers and executives for each step of the maturity curves. This and other IIL Learning in Minutes presentations qualify for PDUs. Some titles, such as Agile-related topics may qualify for other continuing education credits such as SEUs, or CEUs. Each professional development activity yields one PDU for one hour spent engaged in the activity. Some limitations apply and can be found in the Ways to Earn PDUs section that discusses PDU activities and associated policies. Fractions of PDUs may also be reported. The smallest increment of a PDU that can be reported is 0.25. This means that if you spent 15 minutes participating in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.25 PDU. If you spend 30 minutes in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.50 PDU.
Defrag Your Brain: A Balanced Holistic Approach to Life and Work Defragging your brain or training your mind to recognize and manage stress is a key component to a balanced healthy life. An effective employee needs to be focused, intentional and emotionally present as they partner with their teams and stakeholders. Learning to defrag your brain is a leadership skill that can be enhanced by learning to manage your time and well-being. This and other IIL Learning in Minutes presentations qualify for PDUs. Some titles, such as Agile-related topics may qualify for other continuing education credits such as SEUs, or CEUs. Each professional development activity yields one PDU for one hour spent engaged in the activity. Some limitations apply and can be found in the Ways to Earn PDUs section that discusses PDU activities and associated policies. Fractions of PDUs may also be reported. The smallest increment of a PDU that can be reported is 0.25. This means that if you spent 15 minutes participating in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.25 PDU. If you spend 30 minutes in a qualifying PDU activity, you may report 0.50 PDU.