PM Training Blog Posts

Story Mapping is an agile technique that finds itself applicable in the delivery of a new product or new feature in an already established product. Created by Jeff Patton, this method allows for a customer to visibly navigate through all of the user tasks it takes to utilize a product from the beginning till the end.

The assignment of these tasks are ordered in such a way that brings the most value to the customer. Nicholas Muldoon, the Co-Founder of Easy Agile, describes this process as “a facilitated, curated conversation” that essentially gathers everyone involved to navigate through it.

A user story mapping can be used whenever you need to create understanding of the future releases of your product while simultaneously maintaining the current state of the product vision.

User Story Mapping Illustration from Beliminal

The process of the agile user story map is most beneficial for agile teams. It is a useful tool in agile planning that assists in development and allows for the team to be able to receptively respond to change.  

When developing story maps, an agile team would take into consideration of the Agile Manifesto values that communicate the importance of collaborating with a customer in place of the negotiation of a contract and responding to change instead of following a plan.

These values creates the environment for the team to maintain flexibility as well as prioritizing the customer journey for a viable product. 

Flat Product Backlog vs Story Mapping

Flat Backlog vs Story Mapping | Easy Agile

Flat product backlog is one of the most common tactics utilized in agile software development. It is essentially developed as a “to-do” list of things to cross off that will essentially bring value for a customer. It is designed with a top-down approach in mind which places the most valuable items at the top of the list with the least valuable items at the bottom.

This allows for things to be crossed off in order of priority. This differs from story mapping as story mapping contextualizes each list item into a bigger portion of the development task. Story mapping established the entire picture of a product while flat backlog simply does not.

Flat backlog makes it difficult for a product manager to make a determination of whether or not their team identified the necessary user stories. It also doesn’t give product managers the ability to explain how the system works and what it does.

User story maps creates a visual that allows for the agile development team to focus on the customer outcomes that are desirable. Agile teams are able to identify and execute a variety of features based on how each customer responds as well as track progression. This also produces less waste with improved outcomes for the entire product in contrast to flat backlog. 

Creating User Stories

One way to begin creating a user story would be to define what your goals are. The best way to initially format the user story would be to think about product interactions from this perspective: As a [type of user], I want to [action] so that [benefit]. 

A few user story examples of this would be:

As a visitor of this site, I can type the color of the product I want in the search bar so that I can find what I’m looking for.

As a returning visitor, I can have my previous history saved so that I can return to what I was looking for. 

According to the Jeff Patton, creating the user map in done is six steps:

Establish your idea

Create the big picture

Explore

Develop a release strategy

Develop a learning strategy

Have a development strategy

It is important to first approach developing a backbone in your story to describe high-level tasks or high-level features from beginning to end. These steps creates the building block to producing a collaborative approach for the story map. 

How to do User Story Mapping

User Story Mapping – helping Agile Product Owners manage their product backlogs

Walking Skeleton

Walking Skeleton Story Map

The walking skeleton is in essence the core of a user story and one of many parts that creates the entire story map. It is utilized to give a visual representation and descriptor of essential components that are required to release a valuable product.  They are stories provide a user experience with tasks that they can perform throughout the product. This particular set of stories allow for the product to be functional at the bare minimum and are interchangeably known as minimum marketable features. Combining the walking skeleton with other user persona type like the backbone and other stories underneath the walking skeleton, you will then have a full story map.

INVEST Criteria

Creating and assessing the quality of a user story in the initial story map is traditionally done through the INVEST criteria. If there is any part of a story that does not meet any of the criteria, it would be important for the story to either be readjusted or reworded. 

INVEST Criteria | Tech at GSA

Independent – every user story should represent independent business values so that they can deliver those values if they were to be released alone. 

Negotiate – The method to achieving each goal should have the ability to being negotiable. Regardless of who is involved in the transaction. This could be between the product owner and the customer, or the product owner and the development team. Stakeholders can also find themselves involved in the negotiation process. 

Valuable – Each story should represent some form of value to any specific user type. 

Estimate –  There must be enough information readily available so that the story could be appropriately sized so that the plan can be properly implemented and there is commitment to completion. 

Small – Small stories are preferable for user stories so that they are able to be completed within a single sprint.

Testable – The entire team should be able to utilize precision as a means of verifying the completion of a user story. 

3 C’s in User Stories

Having an established approach in creating user stories is beneficial to this agile format. The most common approach is the Three C’s approach. This approach was coined by Ron Jeffries in Extreme Program Installed. The Three C’s specified are card, conversation and confirmation. Jeff Patton also discusses this approach in more detail at Flowcon.

User Stories: A Comprehensive Guide | Just In Mind

Card The card portion of the Three C’s approach is essentially having a written description of a story that is utilized to plan. Having the ideas from your entire team written on a card, sticky note, or even a whiteboard launches the ability to put everything into a draft.

This is a collaborative exercise that is implemented by throwing out any information that comes to mind, including potential titles of the stories themselves. Be mindful that stories should be written in a manner that creates a statement of value and intent. This is known as user voice.

Conversation The goal of the conversation process is to discuss ideas and work together to develop solutions. It is important in this process to ask the who, what and why of a story. It is the responsibility of the product owner to answer these questions in the planning process. This is to ensure that the team as a common goal. 

Confirmation Confirming a story map gives the technical information of a story as well as confirms that the execution of a particular story is upholding its intended value. Having a unified team consensus on what is appropriate to build should also be recorded. 

Advantages and Mistakes in Agile Story Mapping

Benefits

There are direct advantages of story mapping in the agile processes. Story maps allows for everyone in the development team to understand the entire construct of the application, especially the parts that finds itself to being the most difficult. This process also allows for your team to have a complete visual of the product, solving a major complaint that exists in agile teams. Teams are able to see where each part fits into the entire system. 

One additional benefits of user stories is that it assists teams in identifying what areas to develop first. If it appears when developing a website that the user journey of a website finds itself focused on a specific section of the about me page more often than other web pages, then it would be most beneficial to begin building upon it first.

Mistakes

It is important for product managers to be mindful of common mistakes that occur through mapping.

A common mistake that occurs in utilizing user story maps is that teams can find themselves working with a customer that is not familiar with their product. It is vital to have someone familiar so that you will have more certainty in the value that they provide when navigating. 

Not keeping the story map visible to your agile team is another mistake that appears in development. The story map is a reminder for the entire picture of an application. If it is not seen clearly and often by the team, a lot of goals can become lost in the process. 

Tools for creating agile story map

Finding the right tools is vital to creating an agile story map. Jira is considered one of the most useful tools for developing the map. Here is a list of mapping programs that integrate with Jira:

1. Easy Agile

Easy Agile User Story Maps

2. Bauer

Bauer Story Map

3. StoriesOnBoard

StoriesOnBoard User Story Map

4. Cardboard

CardBoard User Story Map

5. FeatureMap

FeatureMap User Story Mapping

The main aim of progressive elaboration is to enable a team to solicit and receive feedback from a range of stakeholders at each stage of a new project. This often leads to a modification of project requirements, and it gives the team the facts, insight, and knowledge it needs to see the project through to a successful completion.

As a Agile project manager we expect change as we are innovating and a lot of the time are dependent of user feedback to make educated decision on how best proceed. There are instance in traditional project management where there are unknowns and it makes sense to mitigate these risks by taking a rolling wave planning approach.

This way of planning can be very useful on extremely complex projects. It is a way of ensuring that people are not overwhelmed by the enormity of the tasks, and that they are able to do one thing at a time—and do each thing well.

Progressive elaboration involves continuously improving and detailing a plan as more detailed and specific information and more accurate estimates become available. Progressive elaboration allows a project management team to define work and manage it to a greater level of detail as the project evolves.

ProjectManagement.com

PMBOK 6th Edition mentions two types of progressive elaboration; rolling wave planning and prototypes.

Progressive Elaboration in Waterfall Project Lifecycle

Progressive elaboration is a process of the Project Planning Process Group set out in the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge. It involves the continual improvement and development of a plan as more details about it become available.

The waterfall method is stricter. It flows from well-defined project requirements; and it is designed to move sequentially as follows: requirements-design-implementation-verification-deployment-maintenance.

The waterfall method is most suitable for projects in which the requirements are known and unlikely to change, and in which there are a great many dependent tasks and specific deployment dates. This method is easy to understand and manage. There are usually few production issues, and there is better budget management.

Change Requests as a Result of Progressive Elaboration

The employment of one of the above progressive elaboration methods may result in a change request. If the process has yielded new information, insights, and facts, the project manager may be compelled to ask for a change to the initial plan.

This can lead to more work for the project manager which is a tradeoff for mitigating the risks involved. Agile has a principle of less documentation as they embrace change.

Agile Project Management

The agile method gives teams the power to adjust the project mid-course to address customer needs or to solve problems that arise. It works best on projects without known deadlines or a full scope of requirements. It tends to require a smaller budget and is perfect for projects that are more experimental in nature.

Rolling Wave Planning and Progressive Elaboration

Rolling wave planning is a technique of progressive elaboration. It consists in planning at a very detailed level the activities that are closest to you in time, and planning in a less detailed way the operations that must be undertaken later in time.

This is one of the more flexible ways of project management. It allows your team to put their focus of effort on what is immediately before them.

Githens, G. D. (2001). Manage innovation programs with a rolling wave. PM Network, 15(5), 35–39.

Prototyping vs Iterations in Iterative process

The language of manufacturing design has made its way into the professional management industry. There is no mystery as to why this is the case. The methods required to design a product that is usable and safe can be applied to an organization that similarly wants to create an effective end-product.

The iterative process is a repeated cycle of designing, prototyping, testing, and refining multiple versions of a product. Rather than working in distinct stages, the project management team makes small adjustments to the proposed end-product in real-time. It allows the team to identify problems, get stakeholder feedback, and come up with innovative ideas as they go along. It is a more intuitive way of managing a project.

When using an iterative process, you should never have to start from scratch. You are constantly refining at every state of the process.

Benefits of Progressive Elaboration Planning

These are some of the pros and cons of using progressive elaboration:

1. Efficient Project Goal Setting

The projects most likely to succeed are those with clear and firm goals. Progressive elaboration makes it easier to set SMART goals. The acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. SMART goals will help you deliver the project on time and on budget.

2. Better communications with Progressive Elaboration

Progressive elaboration makes it easier to manage stakeholders who are critical to project success. It gives project managers the ability to build and keep their teams together. The method is also helpful in enlisting the help of organizational experts and getting feedback from frontline workers.

3. Accurate Project Risk Assessment

Progressive elaboration allows organizations to identify the biggest risks of undertaking a project before you even start it.  Doing so will enable you to plan for such contingencies and make better decisions when problems emerge.

4. Avoiding Rigid Planning

There is also the risk of becoming too rigid in the execution of plans, which can create a stressful environment in the organization. The iterative process is a repeated cycle of designing, prototyping, testing, and refining multiple versions of a product. Rather than working in distinct stages, the project management team makes small adjustments to the proposed end-product in real-time

5. Identify Problems + Incorporate Feedback Earlier.

It allows the team to identify problems, get stakeholder feedback, and come up with innovative ideas as they go along. It is a more intuitive way of managing a project.

Maximize the effectiveness of your project management skills by using lessons learned templates. A lessons learned document is a simple breakdown, written by the project manager, of every potential and existing problem that has been found within a project.

An effective lessons learned report will also have proposed solutions to these problems. Now, the reason why we’ll be focusing on a template, is so that one won’t be starting from scratch with every report they write and it’s done right.

Creating Your Lesson Learned Template Steps

Identify – Though it may sound obvious do not discount the importance of this step. Identify what valuable lesson have been learned throughout the project and why they might be valuable to remember for the future. This is where the survey is truly so important because it is through the surveys that the greatest lesson are usually gleamed.

Document – After the lessons learned have been identified, it’s important to report them to project stakeholders. One should be sure to tailor the report to the audience that will be receiving it, but nevertheless the value of identifying the learned lessons is only appreciated through the documentation. This is part of why one creates the lesson learned example.

Analyze – once everyone knows what lessons have been learned it’s important to figure out how much value they hold. It’s one thing to learn a lesson but if you can’t understand why it was important not much has been learned from it. Analyzing the lessons makes one better appreciate the hard work gets put in to trying to complete a project. This is where the heuristic value lies.

Store – This is one of the easier steps. Make sure that the lessons that you’ve learned and that you have now reported on or stored in a place where they can be found and called upon in future. It’s important to know where these documents are because of all the time and effort to go into creating them.

Retrieve – Like we touched on in the last step, as long as documents are stored correctly, and in a place and manner that is easy to attain, one is able to use them so as to not repeat mistakes. So, this step is really just retrieving the work that you’ve already done so that you can get better and better as you continue working on projects.

Google Docs Lesson Learned Templates

We converted these templates from Word because Google Docs are collaborative compared to having local version and sharing via email. Google docs you are sharing links making it quicker and easier to complete the lessons learned templates.

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 01/40 – Lessons Learned Log Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 02/40 – Project Lessons Learned Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 03/40 – Project Management Lessons Learned Blank Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 04/40 – Lessons Learned Report Example

Top Tips for Creating Lessons Learned Documents

Work with the stakeholders. They want to see the project succeed as much as you do if not more. So, be sure to include them and use their valuable insights to make sure the project takes steps forward at every point.

Be sure to not only use, but appreciate the lessons learned log. This will help lessen the workload when it comes down to writing your analysis. If you keep up with this log throughout the project you won’t have to dig through papers that you probably won’t remember writing, and instead you’ll be able to appreciate what struggles were being encountered.

Find out how you best communicate your thoughts and ideas to others. This way you’ll be able to effectively capture the lessons learned during the project and you’ll be able to make it make sense to others.

Just like in the last step appreciate your communication styles so that not only in your report will you be able to share your thoughts, but you’ll be able to share your lessons learned. Whether this is in your report or in a one on one basis between colleagues you’ll be able to help others appreciate the lessons learned.

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 05/40 – Simple Lessons Learned Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 06/40 – Project Management Lessons Learned Blank Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 07/40 – Organization Project Lessons Learned Blank Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 08/40 – Department / Project Lessons Learned Example

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 09/40 – Agency Project Lessons Learned Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 10/40 – Student Lessons Learned Template

How to Create a Lessons Learned Template

To begin your lessons learned template there are a few things that you will need to keep in mind:The best way to begin is by analyzing past lesson learned document to understand what I was required and get one in the mindset of analyzing the failures and the accomplishments as seen in the project.

By seeing what has been done successfully one is better able to assess the task at hand.

All documents that represent the major ups and downs throughout the project should be collected and used during the lessons learned analysis. It’s easy to forget the little things when looking at the end of a project, but it’s a little things that make a big changes and affect the outcomes.

A project survey will need to be completed by everyone working on the project so the better insight can be had into the inner workings of the day-to-day tasks completed in order to provide results. This survey should ask questions about all different parts of the project so that a better understanding can be had by all.

You’ll need the change log, or the record of every change requested, made, and suggested for the project in question. This contributes insight to where things started out, and what changes could be made, could not be made, and potentially should’ve been made.

It’s important to note that though they are similar, the lessons learned report is different from the project closure document. The project closure document is an overall assessment of the project and, as stated in the name, can only be completed once the project has ended. The lessons learned analysis takes place to show what was done correctly, what was done incorrectly and seeks to provide a heuristic benefit.

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 11/40 – Program Lessons Learned Blank Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 12/40 – State Department Lessons Learned Example

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 13/40 – Lessons Learned Log Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 14/40 – Project Lessons Learned Report Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 15/40 – Reflective Learning Lessons Learned Log Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 16/40 – Management Lessons Learned Document Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 17/40 – University Management Lessons Learned Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 18/40 – Project Lessons Learned Report Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 19/40 – Lessons Learned Log Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 20/40 – Project Lessons Learned Report Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 21/40 – Lessons Learned Example Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 22/40 – Lessons Learned Document Preparation Guidelines

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 23/40 – PRINCE2 Lessons Learned Report Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 24/40 – High Level Project Lessons Learned Report Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 25/40 – Simple Lessons Learned Report Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 26/40 – Project Information Lessons Learned with Action Plan Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 27/40 – IT Management Lessons Learned Log Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 28/40 – Company Lessons Learned Report Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 29/40 – Project Tasks Lessons Learned Template

Google Doc Lessons Learned Template 30/40 – Lessons Learned Report Outline Example

Lessons Learned Templates in Google Sheets

When accessing a Google Sheet to edit you need to go: File / Make a Copy. This will only be available of you are logged into Google.

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 31/40 – Blank Lessons Learned Log Table

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 32/40 – Project Lessons Learned Log Example

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 33/40 – Project Management Lessons Learned Template

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 34/40 – Lessons Learned Document Example

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 35/40 – Financial Statements Lessons Learned Tracking

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 36/40 – Event Lessons Learned Log with Example

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 37/40 – Blank Lessons Learned with Instructions

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 38/40 – IT Management Lessons Learned Example

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 39/40 – Project QA Testing Lessons Learned Example

Google Sheet Lessons Learned Template 40/40 – Blank Project Management Lessons Learned Template

Lessons Learned Templates in PDF

This is a platform one should use if using an existing template or lessons learned example. This is also a perfect platform to use when the analysis is fully completed and one wish is to share their findings with others, but while creating an analysis this might not be the easiest technology to use.

At Your Business Lessons Learned Template in PDF

Lessons Learned Template in PDF

Smartsheet Lessons Learned Template in PDF

Stakeholdermap Lessons Learned Template in PDF

Weber Lessons Learned Template

Minnesota Government Lessons Learned Template

Lessons Learned Template Online Software / Tools

Instagantt – Online Lessons Learned Template

Creately

Instagantt – Lessons Learned Template

Creately – Lessons Learned Template

Let us know what you thought of this article! If you found it helpful please reach out to us in the comment section and let us know! I’m glad that I was able to write this because I know when I was first faced total with the lessons learned document I was completely confused. Hope this was helpful if so please let us know

It is costly mistake choosing the wrong outsource software development model. As a project manager or product manager you want to always be delivering value to the customer. You don’t care about software engineering practices. Its outcomes you want not outputs.

The software development model will determine how you will communicate with the team going forward. It manages expectations and set ground rules for ways of working. we know communication is the reason most projects fail.

Software Development Outsourcing – A Free Guide from DICEUS

Choosing the right outsource software development model

If you plan to have a long standing relationship with the software development team it needs to be an agile approach. That is an absolute MUST HAVE. The real decision is to choose lean project management vs agile methodology such as scrum.

Lean Software Development focuses on delivers outcomes

When you should use lean is you want to have your development team part of the mission to service your customers. You need to provide them with your problems not requirements. The last thing you want is to spoon feeding the development team requirements as this just leads to poor results. You want the team to be focused on delivering outcomes.

Scrum focuses on delivering outputs

When you should use other Agile methodologies such as Scrum Agile Framework work is when you are outsourcing your software development. You need to realize though what you are doing is staggered waterfall not Agile per se. Scrum gets lost in following the framework vs delivering value. If you want your IT department to be a cost center and think its okay you should read LeanEssays: The Cost Center Trap.

Avoid Feature Factories

John Cutler came up with the term feature factory as he saw some companies become more interested in completing story points than learning what types of functionality users actually wanted. John viewed these organizations as factory workers assembling features without thinking about what they contributed to the product.

We discuss how you can avoid this by implementing a lean methodology vs agile in our latest blog post.

Lean project management vs Agile isn’t the question you should be asking. It is if lean vs scrum or XP. This is because in my opinion lean empathizes what Agile set out to do. It is product management at its core. There is no bigger waste than building features that a user won’t use. Lean is focused on addressing this.

1. Outcomes vs Outputs

As a business owner or product manager you want to always be delivering value to the customer. You don’t care about software engineering practices. Its outcomes you want not outputs.

The IT department plays a critical role in the success of your business. You will be investing a lot of money for them to help you deliver strategic plans and revenue for the company. It should be deeply integrated with business functions. How to do this is by having product teams.

When you should use lean is you want to have your development team part of the mission to service your customers. You need to provide them with your problems not requirements. The last thing you want is to spoon feeding the development team requirements as this just leads to poor results. You want the team to be focused on delivering outcomes.

Lean focuses on delivers outcomes

When you should use other Agile methodologies such as Scrum Agile Framework work is when you are outsourcing your software development. You need to realize though what you are doing is staggered waterfall not Agile per se. Scrum gets lost in following the framework vs delivering value. If you want your IT department to be a cost center and think its okay you should read LeanEssays: The Cost Center Trap.

Scrum focuses on delivering outputs

2. Lean Project Management & Agile Have Same Principles

Lean is actually the most Agile of all methodologies if you look at the principles. I have attempted to map lean principles to agile principles below. There is a comprehensive overlap. Why I favor lean over other Agile methodologies is the acceptance that there is waste in Agile methodologies and we should look at reducing it.

Lean focuses on delivering value to customers faster by identifying and removing waste from a manufacturing process, or (put another way) by reducing lead times through optimization of the value stream. Lean primarily focus is reducing waste. Scrum focuses on user centered product. There are 7 types of waste in lean product development.

Maybe you don’t need a estimation session every week so you have a backlog of story points for the next 18 months. This is why I feel other Agile methodologies hide behind the framework which can quickly turn into a staggered waterfall approach vs agile project management.

Scrum: An Agile Framework process with ceremonies around small incremental “sprints” of 2-3 work weeks

Kanban: An Agile Framework that uses a Kanban board to visualize and limit Work in Progress to deliver quicker

Extreme Programming: An Agile framework that encourages feedback but focused on improving software development practices

DevOps: Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment of development work

DevOps is mainly geared towards the first 3 principles of Agile:.

Principle 1: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Principle 2: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.

Principle 3: Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

3. Lean Product Development vs Scrum

Lean project management was first crafted by Mary and Tom Poppendieck by taking lean manufacturing techniques and using them for software. The wrote the book “Lean Software Development”, which utilized Lean values, practices, and principles to the software industry.

Scrum is the Agile methodology of choice used by large enterprises. They are utilizing Scrum as a hybrid project management as staged project management vs staying true to Agile principles. Methodologies such as SAFE and LeSS are a high contributing factor to this.

The core idea of Scrum was to release small increments of value to the customers. This works well in small companies. Unfortunately, in large companies, it’s not so easy when you have multiple layers of people acting as the customer. You are reporting and gathering feedback from managers and there is a large disconnect in the entire process.

Scrum has clearly defined ceremonies to enable these 9 principles from Daily stand-ups, planning, sprints, estimation, refinement and retrospectives but these are number 4 to 12 in the 12 Agile Principles.

A lot of these software development processes such as daily stand-ups are great to increase communication. Having retrospectives and review sessions are essentials forums to gather feedback and improve as a team.

A couple of issues I found with Scrum, which I personally found anti-agile were:

Project managers are only interested in the sprint complete dates,

Scrum masters see the ceremonies as rules that can’t be broken,

Business sees burndown charts are seen as the source of truth,

The development team only care about a feature up to end of a sprint,

Operations aren’t included in the planning of sprints,

POs having to reject bugs for at least 3 weeks till next sprint.

The role of Product Owner is one of the main issues with the Scrum framework. They are the linchpin in Scrum. In my opinion the business has a product owner in place to be the project manager to give status updates, the team expect them to be a business analyst being bale to prepare detailed stories and specs. Mary Poppendieck discuses this problem very well.

The Product Owner Problem

In a essay published on Mary’s blog she highlights the problem with Product Owners. “There was serious confusion about the Scrum role of Product Owner and its fit with the classic role of Product Manager. In addition to business responsibility, the Scrum Product Owner has the team-facing responsibility of managing the detailed product requirements.”

How she addressed this was comparing to “highly successful vertical markets, there was no Product Owner preparing and prioritizing stories for the development team. Instead, the Product Manager had regular high level conversations with the development team about the general capabilities that would be desirable over the next two or three months. They discussed the feasibility of adding features and the results that could be expected. A real time application was created to show live web analytics of several key metrics that the Product Manager correlated to increased revenue. Then the team developed the capabilities most likely to drive the metrics in the right direction, observed the results, and modified their development plans accordingly.”

Mary Poppendieck

4. Lean Avoids Feature Factories

In theory it might seem they are applying Agile principles but what they are really doing is building endless backlogs and feature factories. John Cutler came up with the term feature factory as he saw some companies become more interested in completing story points than learning what types of functionality users actually wanted. John viewed these organizations as factory workers assembling features without thinking about what they contributed to the product.

“Moving From a Feature Factory to User Value Creation Organization” by Michael Rutledge

I have a similar opinion to John as team leaders are more interested in burndown charts and hitting sprint goals than the business outcome achieved. This is how success is measured. It can be argued other Agile methodologies such as Scrum which are centred around software development teams and processes.

Even though most companies I have worked with, have implemented Scrum, some better than others. There was always a disconnect to actually releasing due to testing and scheduling etc. After reading The Phoenix Project it gave me a new understanding of these struggles but from Ops team point of view instead of the feature team.

Simply because a feature has been “released” from a sprint doesn’t mean that it actually goes “Live” into a production environment. I admit I took for granted the struggles of deploying code into new environments and never really understood the struggles that the development team were protected from.

The Phoneix Project teaches W. Edward’s Deming ‘appreciation for the system’ which highlights the need to ensure the fast, predictable, and interrupted the flow of planned work that delivers value to the business while minimizing the impact and disruption of unplanned work, so you can provide stable, predictable and secure it service.

Lean project management puts the customer first.

5. Lean Project Management is Based on Toyotas Success

The phrase Lean Project Management is adoption from lean manufacturing which is focused in eliminating waste. Lean Manufacturing methods were developed by Toyota from studying the work process in supermarkets fulfilling stock needs. The supermarkets were able to fill the shelves with just enough product to keep the consumer happy and enough stock to keep shop owner happy.

When Toyota brought the concept to the factory the workers used to deliver a card or “kanban” to each other to signal that they have capacity to pull more materials

Toyota wanted to replicate this in their factories so they assigned Taiichi Ohno one of their engineers to implement it. This is in turn created lean manufacturing and the word Kanban was used by Toyota to describe the process. The word Kanban translates to signboard in Japanese ().

When working in a start-up though we avoid this issue by working in teams that have full end to end accountability for delivering business outcomes. The product and tech team are actively reviewing data to make decisions to help deliver the outcomes.

Lean Product Development Explained

Product management is critical to developing the right thing at the right time for the right people.

6. Lean Recognizes 7 Types of Waste

The 7 types of waste in lean product management include task switching, defects, waiting, extra processes, not finishing work.

7 types of waste found in software development

I feel lean is the perfect Agile methodology if you want to be a user centered organization. At its core its about providing value to the end user. The core lean tools such as Kanban Boards, Value Stream Mapping, A3 for PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), Devops as Software development all incorporate lean thinking.

7. A3 for Easy Planning and Analysis

A3 a structured way to learn about a dilemma and explore options for improving the situation. It can include value stream maps.

A3 Report by MoreStream

8. Kanban Framework for Improved Ways of Working

The core principles of Lean Product Management were created by Mary and Tom Poppendick inspired by Lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing used Kanban boards such the Toyota system.

Kanban is a framework for managing flow of materials or information. Kanban matches amount of work to a teams capacity giving them more flexible planning options, faster output and transparency throughout the development cycle.

Kanban has one main tool the Kanban Board, which augments the traditional Iteration Backlog with additional detail by including the development steps/processes as well as introducing work limits per queue.

Small tasks that don’t warrant a story.

Support team as it prevents overloading team members with work and they can just pick up next tasks on top of the queue.

Even though Kanban doesn’t define a full agile life cycle it has gained popularity as it replaces the Iteration Backlog and can adapt to change a lot quicker. It is also been used by companies new to Agile as it can fit in with their current process without much interruption. 

Why to use Kanban Boards

Most project can be viewed as a process to achieve a desired result. Kanban is a tool for managing the process and manage the optimal flow of work within the project. There are 3 rules to implement Kanban..

Rule #1: Visual Workflow

A visual representation of the process is key for success especially with more complexed processes. To create the visual representation you need to determine the workflow of the tasks to complete the project. For software development a simple example workflow would be…

Analyse -> Design -> Develop -> Test -> Release

These would then get their own columns in the Kanban board. After you have created the Kanban board you need to set limits to each column.

Rule #2: Limit Work in Process (WIP)

The Work-In-Process (WIP) is the limit of tasks for each column. The concept is that only a number of things can be worked on at the same time to be done well. There is always an optimal amount of work that can be processed regardless of team size, organization etc. The lower the WIP the quicker bottlenecks or pain points in the process will be revealed but if too low the team will ignore them and learn nothing. Moderate WIP limits is a good compromise with a resilient team to the new process.

Rule #3: Measure and Improve

Similar to other Agile Methodologies improving the process is a constant process and based on metrics. The key metric in Kanban is the WIP and the manager should be focused on looking for the optimal WIP to get the team to reach their maximum potential. Another metric that is brought to light from Kanban boards is the cycle time to complete a task and also the manager should be looking to reduce.

9. Devops for Frequent Software Releases & Quicker Feedback

DevOps goal is shortening software delivery cycles and improving the stability of deployments.

The Agile Admin’s popular blog post, What is DevOps?

“DevOps is the practice of operations and development engineers participating together in the entire service lifecycle, from design through the development process to production support.”

defining DevOps is chronicled in The DevOps Handbook,

“DevOps is the outcome of applying the most trusted principles from the domain of physical manufacturing and leadership to the IT value stream. DevOps relies on bodies of knowledge from Lean, Theory of Constraints, the Toyota Production System, resilience engineering, learning organizations, safety culture, human factors, and many others. Other valuable contexts that DevOps draws from include high-trust management cultures, servant leadership, and organizational change management. The result is world-class reliability, stability, and security at ever lower cost and effort; and accelerated flow and reliability through the technology value stream, including Product Management, Development, QA, IT Operations, and Infosec.”

What feels like a departure from process is merely the continual refining of a process

Some of the key management practices of Lean management and monitoring include:

Lightweight change approval processes. “Teams that reported no approval process or used peer review achieved higher software delivery performance…teams that required approval by an external body achieved lower performance.” (Accelerate)

Monitoring. Use data from monitoring tools used for applications and infrastructure to inform daily decision-making.

Work in Progress (WIP) limits. Keep teams efficient and focused, increasing throughput, by minimizing the different projects in process for a particular team at a given time.

Visualizing work. Make use of a Kanban board or similar method to show work moving through development stages.

As my experience with DevOps is only starting I don’t have any pet hates like I do for Scrum but Scrum does help build teams very well so with this and a new focus on continuous delivery and integration coming from Devops it might be the perfect match. I was always in favour of a Scrumban approach so maybe in the future, this might be the happy medium combined with a CI/CD release process.

Further Agile Learning – Our Beginners SeriesAgile Development Methodology Wiki – Agile Beginners Series 35 Agile Skills Every Beginner Needs to Know Extreme Programming for Beginners made Easy – Roles & Practices Agile Scrum for Beginners made Easy – Roles, Practices & ceremonies Lean Project Management (Kanban) for Beginners made Easy Agile Certificate for Beginners? Scrum Master? Agile Coach?

Last week I discussed about stakeholder management and I planned on running a roles and responsibilities workshop. I want to bring some order and process to the product development process.

Its clear to me there is an overlap of Agile team roles and the delivery of sprint work seems to be effected. The priorities are changing. Scope is being expanded. Is it my responsibility to help improve predictable delivery? I’m not sure. The role is not clear but also its not clear who is responsible and are they kept accountable.

I have since been planning on how to approach this with the team. To address this with the team I plan on presenting 4 simple slides, which you can find below:

Stages of Team Development

Expected Roles in Agile Teams

Roles Explained

Map Roles to People within Organization

Above all any approach we use to clarifying roles to encourage people to play more roles not less! While preparing this blog post I discovered fascinating approach by using the concept of jobs to help achieve this. The idea that a persons job changes depends on the situation and everybody self organizes to achieve the outcome.

If you are not clear of who is responsible for what within the team according to the 5 stages of team development you are at the forming stage. I expect all team members want a high performing team so I will approach the situation outlining that I’m confused with current work structure.

Agile Team Roles

Secondly, before presuming everybody knows what to expect in an Agile team I outline the various roles. You can have multiple leaders within Agile environments from Product Manager, Product Owner, Technical Lead, Architect, UX, Sponsors, SMEs, Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Agile Project Managers. In smaller organizations you will have people multi-jobbing which can confuse things even further.

It can be very confusing who is responsible for:

Prioritizing the work for development team

Managing scope of product features

Delivery of product features within sprints

Planning sprint work for development team

In a well formed organization with clear roles defined these questions will be easily answered. That said you can’t just presume the team has the same experience. Agile can be implemented in various ways in different organziations.

Agile Team Roles Defined

Agile Team RoleRole Description Responsibility​Product Owner​– Creating, Ordering and clearly communicating Product Backlog items;​ – Ensuring that delivered features meet user needs​​Technical Lead​– Delivery of agreed sprint work and ensures definition of done has been met by team members​ – Identifying and clearing technical roadblocks for team​​UX Designer​– Works with product owner and tech lead to create mockup designs ​​Developer​– Works on prioritized work by product owner in the sprint​​Tester​– Work with Product Owners to define Acceptance Criteria and the Definition of Done.​ – Measuring and reporting test coverage across all applicable coverage dimensions​​DevOps​– Version control, testing, security, integration and deployment method​​Architect​– Defining and maintaining the structure of the solution, and ensuring that it will meet the requirements​​Scrum Master / Agile Coach​– The removal of impediments to the Agile Team’s progress​ – Ensuring that all ceremonies take place and are positive, productive, and within the timebox.​​Project Sponsor / Stakeholders​– Project sponsor empowers the product owner to act on their behalf​ – Stakeholders work with the product owner who manages communication with project team​​Agile Project Manager​– Responsible for planning, leading, organizing, and motivating Agile project teams​​Product Manager​– Identifies the customer need and the larger business objectives that a product or feature will fulfill. ​​

Agile Team Roles Table

Agile Team Roles Defined

Thinking of Agile Roles Differently using Jobs

Agile by Design propose that you define a small number of overarching jobs descriptions made up of lots of narrow and overlapping roles and behaviors. All of the different things people can do are captured as behaviors. Behaviors are identified by people in teams, and required behavior can and will change based on the emerging needs of the team.

In tech organizations the 3 jobs.  Every one fits into one of those three jobs. Every possible permutation of what people can do to create value is slotted into one or more of these jobs. We empower people to flesh out the details in terms of level, behaviours, roles, etc. But official job titles are limited to these three.

Engineering people that perform the creation and operations of our technology solutions. Product people focused on achieving market success with our technology solutions. Delivery people that assist and facilitate the delivery of our technology software.

Agile by Design propose team members to refine their job and role description in terms of what behaviors are core to their job (what they are accountable for), and what behaviors are adjacent to others. Try to move as many behaviors as you can into the adjacent bucket. Keep revisiting until the team becomes more comfortable into letting the “play determine the role”.

I will need to do further research into Agile by Design approach but from the above images you can see there is a clear benefit of encouraging team members to do more but making it clear who is accountable.

Passing the CAPM with specific CAPM Practice Exams will triple any exam takers chances of passing the exam. We have gathered a list of 5,017 questions that you can practice for free. The more questions you review the better. What really helps though is practice exams so try to do as many as possible. What even helps more is having CAPM questions structured in exam simulated format helps prepare and is critical to passing.

When to take the CAPM Exam

Remember when practicing CAPM questions and answers, take notes especially for the mistakes you make. Its okay to get them wrong but you want to ensure you learn from mistakes and avoid them in the real exam. As a guideline when taking exam simulators:

CAPM Practice Exam Scored Over 70% –> We recommended score to sit for the CAPM exam confidently. CAPM Practice Exam Scored Below 70% –> We don’t recommended score to sit for the CAPM exam.

Top 3 CAPM Exam Simulators

A benefit from the new PMI “Authorized Training Partners” program is that all ATPs get access to official CAPM Exam questions from PMI; hence the updated simulators will be providing a better sense of the type of questions you will be facing.

This is why we encourage you to consider selecting an exam simulator developed by an ATP organization to get proper training.

SupplierDescriptionExamsQuestionsPricePM Exam Simulator Premium 2021 CAPM SimulatorIndustry-leading CAPM trainers who helped created the new 2021 PMP exam.5650$69Masters of Project Academy CAPM SimulatorEnroll in CAPM Exam Simulator and get a 30 Day Refund Guaranteed9 1,350$49p/mWhiz Labs CAPM Exam Simulator3M+ professionals and 100+ companies across the world to succeed in their careers with multitudes of courses across IT domain5750$39.95

Premium CAPM Practice Exam Simulators

Sneak Peak at some CAPM Test Simulators

Whiz Labs CAPM Exam Simulator

PM Exam Simulator Premium 2021 CAPM Simulator

PM Exam Simulator Premium 2021 CAPM Simulator

CAPM Exam Q&A

What is CAPM exam?

CAPM which stands for Certified Associate in Project Management. It is the entry level certification for project managers with little experience and looking to get formal certification.

Does CAPM increase salary?

Certified CAPM will receive approximately $51,000 to $110,000 on an annual basis. You can also work as a certified project management professional and enjoy around $78,000 to $127,000 yearly.

What level is CAPM?

CAPM is a PMI introductory project management certification and targeted at entry level project managers. Many PMPs start as CAPM as they don’t have the experience to apply for PMP and want start learning.

CAPM Test Prep Video

Master of Project – FREE CAPM Questions and Answer

CAPM Study Materials

Process Exam – PMI CAPM Certification Exam

15 Top CAPM Exam Questions And Answers (Sample Test Questions)

CAPM Test Questions and Answers pdf

PMI CAPM Questions 2020 PDF

CAPM Exam Prep Questions 2010 PDF

Top 5 Free CAPM Practice Quiz Online on Quizlet

CAPM Free Quizzes on Quizlet

CAPM Practice Exam – Quiz Flashcards | Quizlet Created by Fletcher_Lowe7

CAPM PRACTICE EXAM 5 Flashcards | Quizlet Created by AdibaKhan3

CAPM Exam Prep, PMI Questions, PMBOK 6th Edition – CAPM Prep, CAPM Exam Prep Flashcards | Quizlet

CAPM Exam Flashcards Flashcards | Quizlet Created by sabeena_sebastian

CAPM Practice Exam Flashcards | Quizlet Created by Nicole_Albanese3

List of Free CAPM Test Questions

SourceNumber of QuestionsPM Prepcast Exam Simulator 7 Day Free Access to Premium Exam45 questionsWhizlabs – Free 100 Question CAPM Exam Simulator100 questionsCAPM Practice Exam | Simulated Mock Exam (greycampus.com))100 questionsSimplilearn – Free CAPM® Exam Prep Practice Test150 questionsKnowledgeHut – CAPM Practice Test (6 Practice Test Series)150 questions (25 questions per series)Test Prep Training – Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) Free Practice Test10 questionsExam Topics – PMI CAPM Exam Actual Questions1102 questionsPM Exam Simulator – Free CAPM Exam Simulator45 questionsCAPM Exam Preparation (83 Test)830 questions (10 questions per test)Pocket Prep – PMI CAPM® Exam Prep800 questionsTest Prep Preview – CAPM Practice Test15 questionsITExams – Certified Associate in Project Management (PMI-100) (CAPM) Exam1103 questionsCertification Academy – CAPM Practice Exam25 questionsCertLibrary’s Certified Associate in Project Management (PMI-100) (CAPM) Exam1103 questionsPractice Quiz – CAPM Project Management Exam Prep37 questionsCertification Questions – PMI CAPM Certified Practice Test10 questionsPMP Teacher – CAPM Practice Exam Questions10 questionsCertDemy CAPM Practice Questions (5 Practice Test)150 questions (30 questions per test)WhizLabs – Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® Certification100 questionsTechFAQ360 Free PMP Simulated Test (CAPM)20 questionsExamsnet – CAPM certification Practice Tests (9 Practice Test)450 questions (50 questions per test)

Free CAPM Practice Exams

Learn More About Project Management

Weekly PMT #3 – Startup Stakeholder Management for New PMs running a Digital Transformation

Shane Drumm No Comments

Welcome to another edition of Weekly PMT, my free newsletter packed with tips, insights and opportunities to grow your Project Management Career After recently joining…

Read More

Why You need Expert Power + Reward Power in a 2021 Workplace

Shane Drumm No Comments

Power Dynamics in the workplace can be tricky grounds to navigate especially if you are lacking expert power as a project manager. The authority you…

Read More

The Projectless Manager – Book from Distributed Project Managers

Shane Drumm No Comments

I originally wrote this article on virtual portfolio planing for the newly published book called The Projectless Manager. It is a collection of stories about…

Read More

How to Choose a Career in Project Manager vs Product Manager

Shane Drumm No Comments

Throughout my career, I have struggled between choosing a product manager vs a project manager career path. Both have great opportunities and bring their own…

Read More

Welcome to another edition of Weekly PMT, my free newsletter packed with tips, insights and opportunities to grow your Project Management Career

After recently joining a startup one of the key tasks I set out to do was bringing some order and process to the product development process.

In my opinion it wasn’t clear who was doing what and how it all worked. We had multiple projects in play. Lots of opinions on what was most important and how to do it. Worst of all we had zero to no budget to grow the team.

There was an immediate need to learn who were the key stakeholders and their needs and wants. I use 3 tools to help me accomplish this:

Stakeholder Map

Dangerous Animals

Build a RACI Chart

I’m not one to jump in with my bright ideas and tell everyone they are wrong. I take couple of weeks to get an understanding of the internal workplace dynamics especially. This helps avoid cognitive bias from only speaking to select set of peers.

Stakeholder Map

Firstly, I started my stakeholder map so I could identify who were the key stakeholder in the company. I kept this simple and just had it on the back of my notepad as it was a personal opinion than a project specific.

If in a project environment I would look at creating a formal stakeholder map using Miro or something similar.

Stakeholder Map

Included with the titles I added the peoples names to help me remember. One of the first was the CFO and understanding his needs.

CFO Needs…

Health of company

Revenue

Market share

Average order size

Profitability

Return on assets

Health of finance

Order to cash cycle

Accounts receivable

Accurate and timely financial reporting

Borrowing costs

As the weeks fly by I will look at doing the same with the other executives and key stakeholders.

The Key Stakeholder Disruptors

Secondly, started identifying the various characters in the company. The 4 common people I run into as a product manager is the HIPPO, the RHINO, the WOLF, and the ZEBRA.

These are common across businesses especially in small companies where opinions run riot. I quickly started assessing and put tactics in place to tame them.

Printing out the below and putting up on a wall is a great way to get people to identify which animal they are being Hopefully they have the self-awareness to realize what they are doing is being disruptive and look at improving their behaviour.

Finally, after identifying the key stakeholders, some of the key disruptors and attending some sessions I quickly realized that the team were not clear and who was accountable for what.

RACI Matrix for Stakeholders

Working in a small company this can be pretty tricky as people double and triple job the lines can easily get very blurry.

For example we need user guides. Ideally we would have a technical content creator or product marketer than can could oversee this piece of work. We had no such person but the task had to be done.

Instead it would fall to the Product Owner, Designer, Team Lead and Digital Lead. It was just not clear who was ultimately responsible for the success of delivering this output.

RACI Matrix for Stakeholders

This why I held a roles and responsibilities session where the output was a RACI chart. Firstly, we identified all the roles we would expect if we had unlimited budget.

Secondly, we listed all stakeholder across the top of our RACI table. Complete the cells of the model identifying who has responsibility, accountability and who will be consulted and informed for each task.

We ensured every task had at least one stakeholder Responsible for it.

No tasks had more than one stakeholder Accountable.

As we went through each task we resolved any conflicts where there is more than one for a particular task. Read more about creating a RACI chart here.

Conclusion on Stakeholder Management

All of the above was very much step one of identifying stakeholders and putting some guard rails in place to help the project run smoothly but that’s just the start.

My attention will swiftly switch to improving communication channels within the company and stakeholders which I will cover next week.

Kind Regard,

Shane Drumm

Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail

Founder PM-Training — Helping Project Managers Further Their Careers

Power Dynamics in the workplace can be tricky grounds to navigate especially if you are lacking expert power as a project manager. The authority you will have as a project manager will be determined by the organization structure you are working within. The power you have will be determined by the characteristics you have as a project manager.

Relying solely on expert power as a having experience in the area or being a subject matter expert can be a cortical mistake. We outline the other types of power a project manager can use to successfully deliver a project. Specifically reward power can be used so easily and effectively its silly not to use it.

A great project manager can utilize different types of power depending on the situation regardless if they work in functional or weak matrix organizations. They will look at their skills of building relationships in the workplace to achieve the desired results.

Having expert power is always a bonus to come across as an authority in the subject and avoids relying on other expert opinions but this can be hard to be avoided depending on how technical the project can be.

In some organizations they will choose a project manager based on their knowledge of the area already. Then the project manager will be able to utilize their exert power to influence the project. They are a source of knowledge which others in the workplace are then coming to them for help which provides leverage and good working relationships.

Power Dynamics per Type of Organization for Project Managers

Types Of Organizational Structures – Must Read Concept for PMP

There have 5 types of organizations that a project manager will find themselves working in. The different organizations provide formal authority which is legitimate power from French and Ravens 6 basis of power. With expert power in any organization it will give you an advantage.

Power and authority are both methods of influencing other people. Power is a personal trait derived from knowledge and expertise, while authority is a formal title or position given by an organization or another personal. Authority is legitimate and formal, while power is neither.

Difference Between Power and Authority (with Comparison Chart) – Key Differences

Type of OrganizationImplications for Project MangerFunctional MatrixAll project team members report to a functional manager with little to no authority.Weak MatrixedProject managers do have some authority; but not over the resources on a project. Balanced MatrixProject managers share authority with the functional managers. Strong MatrixProject managers have more authority than the functional managers as focus is on the delivery of the projectProjectized OrganizationProject manager makes all of the decisions about a project’s schedule, quality, and resources.

Project Management Organizational Structures

Understanding the type of organization gives you a better a footing on what actually authority you have over the project tram and management. This said you don’t need to just use your authority to deliver a project.

A project manager should have a charisma to influence managers decisions in their favor, motivate team members to work harder, gather information for their team members and proactively get in front of issues. These are all examples of power.

6 Types of Power by French & Raven

R.P French and Bertam Raven studied the subject of power and determined 5 basis of power. Dividing it up in 5 separate categories. They identified those five bases of power as coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, and expert power. Informational power was added after.

Basis of PowerFurther DifferentiationProject ManagersCoercive PowerUsing threats or force to get stakeholders. Very similar to bullying in workplace. Project managers usually avoids using coercion as it is unlikely to win respect and loyalty from employees for long.Reward PowerMotivate colleagues by offering raises, promotions, and awards.Project managers lack the power to use monetary incentives but can report performance to line managersLegitimate PowerFormal Legitimacy (position power), Legitimacy of Reciprocity, Equity and Dependence (Powerlessness)Project managers, especially in a matrix environment, lack this power. In a strong matrix though they will have legitimate power to command stakeholders.Expert PowerPositive and Negative Expert. Experts need to continue learning and improving.Project managers are often chosen for these characteristics and they gain considerable power in this regardReferent PowerReferent Power is the ability to convey a sense of personal acceptance or approval. It is held by people with charisma, integrity, and other positive qualitiesProject managers have certain characteristics that make people want to follow them.Informational PowerInformational Power is where a person possesses needed or wanted information. This is a short-term power that doesn’t necessarily influence or build credibility.Project manager may have all the information for a specific project, and that will give her “informational power.”

Basis of Power for Project Managers

Important Power for Project Managers

Referent Power

A project manager should have the ability to lead people regardless of authority. The ability to build relationships with team members by having humility, caring, approachable, friendly personality helps project manager get people to like them. People are more inclined to follow people they like. People also will follow decisive leaders who aren’t afraid to make decisions.

Reward Power

Team embers who perform well should be rewarded and recognized. It doesn’t have to be a bonus or monetary terms which will not be available to the project manager.

HBR share new research on the power of symbolic awards such as thank you notes, public recognition, and certificates. They find that these simple interventions can significantly improve employee motivation, but clarify that to maximize their effect, it’s essential to customize these rewards to your unique context.

Saying thank you doesn’t cost anything. It will make the person feel appreciated. You don’t need to think too outside the box to utilize reward power.

Every project manager should look at incorporating reward power into delivery strategy. From calling people out in lessons or daily standups just thank people.

Maslow’s Laws for Recognition

Expert Power

One of the most powerful of the 7 types of power is expert power. It will give you give instant rapport with team members and organizational leaders. You will instamtly understand what the project team are speaking about and be able to provide valuable insights based on your experience.

When reporting to leadership team you will easily instill confidence in your ability by having an in depth knowledge of the subject matter. This will ease any concerns the leadership team might have about certain aspects of the project. That said just expert power without project management training will not ensure a successful delivered project.

Expert Power Pros and Cons

Seen as an authority on the project by default as team members will look to you for guidance either technically or based on past experience

Don’t need to rely on others for advice or to help remove blockers from the team.

It takes experience to build up expert power which means some project managers might struggle attain this if they switch between industries

Can require outside of work time to keep up skill level within an area or subject.

Gaining Expert Power

Coercive Power

Project managers should avoid coercive power as much as possible. The use of threats is not a practice that should be used in a healthy project management environment.

Conclusion of Expert Power Dynamics in Workplace

Relying on just expert power can be a critical mistake for a new project manger. Not only will they will still need to utilize project management skills such as project planning, managing risks, communicating changes, managing updates, informing stakeholders but they should look at improving their reward and referent power too.

As in modern project management a project manager will utilize various types of power. They should not be held back based on the organization they are working within. It is good to recognize the type of organization you as a project manager are working within. From weak matrix to fully projectized environment. It helps to understand power dynamics between you and functional managers within an organization to determine who has authority and not.

Having the skillset to deliver projects regardless of organization is the test of a true project manager. Having the ability to leverage expert power requires lots of time but can be critical to building confidence in your ability. A quick win that every project manager should look at utilizing is reward power.

Recognizing team members or stakeholders efforts with a simple thank you can be instrumental to build up a relationship and happy team member. It cost nothing to say thank you. You can go above an beyond by having printed certificates or simple thank you notes. It all makes a difference.

Project Management Templates

To help you become a better project manager we have gathered some useful templates you ca use in your day to day.

13 Key Stakeholder Map Templates to Choose From

Shane Drumm No Comments

Having a stakeholder map template is a critical tool for any project or business owner to understand the key stakeholders they must interact with. Recently…

Read More

79 Free Scope of Work Templates

Shane Drumm No Comments

Scope of Work Templates is a critical piece of the Statement of Work (SOW) document project manager need to kick off projects and avoid scope…

Read More

27 Concept Map Templates with Free Examples

Shane Drumm No Comments

Use the right concept map format, style, and tool to get your point across effectively. From collaborative online workshops to complex systems we have examples…

Read More

Top 10 Free Fishbone Diagram Templates with Download Links

Shane Drumm No Comments

Virtual brainstorming is hard. It relies on people working together in sync. The team needs to be able to contribute an collaborate at the same…

Read More

Having a stakeholder map template is a critical tool for any project or business owner to understand the key stakeholders they must interact with. Recently when I joined a new company I utilized a stakeholder map to understand the importance of the different stakeholders within the company. It provided me with the information on who I need to meet one to one, who I should try keep informed, what are their interests and how can they affect my project positively or negatively.

Stakeholder Template Example

Identifying Stakeholders

Firstly, do you know what a stakeholder is?

Stakeholders are individuals (or groups) that can either impact the success and execution of a product or are impacted by a product. The first “upstream” category includes everyone who must contribute to or approve of the activities required to design, build, and bring the product to market. The second “downstream” batch includes both those who purchase or use the product, as well as those who must support, sell, and market it.

What is a Stakeholder? | Definition, Strategies, and Overview (productplan.com)

Simply a stakeholder is an individual you need to work with during the project or product or process. There are two types of these stakeholders you need to be familiar with.

Internal Stakeholder: The people who work within your company. Your colleagues, your boss, their boss, customer support, the receptionist, people working in your companies shop. When tryin to identify stakeholders use artefacts such as company organization charts, speak to people within your department to help you.

External Stakeholders: The customers and external agencies such as suppliers of goods. It can also be a bank clerk, investors, competitors. When trying to identify external think who will use the product, who will it effect. Ask who in the community is interested in this? Are there any third parties who I need to interact with or are interested in this?

Categorizing Stakeholders

Once you have completed identifying stakeholders the next step is to start ranking them. I create a list of all stakeholder in a table and start brainstorming all sorts of stakeholders. Ideally you want to eliminate as many low interest, low power people as possible so you can focus on key stakeholders you should engage with.

TypeStakeholderInterest (1-3)Influence (A-C)InternalJohn (Receptionist)3CInternalJames (Marketing Manager)1AExternalMary (Customer)1A

Identifying Stakeholder Table – Launching New Website

Mapping Stakeholders

The next step is to start mapping the stakeholders visually. If you have created a table ranking them already this step is a lot easier and more of a job of visualizing to double check and make it clear for others more than anything else. It can also help categorize the various stakeholders by drawing further pictures of what the stakeholder groups are. The main benefit of a stakeholder map is to get a visual representation of all the people who can influence your project and how they are connected. You have a variety of tools available to help you.

List of Free Stakeholder Map Templates

We have gathered a list of the top free templates you can use but sometimes it simply comes down to what tools are you familiar using. If you don’t have a Microsoft license you would be better using an online tool or google free tools. If you are not tech savvy just look for a PDF that you can print and use physically.

Microsoft Word – Stakeholder Map Template

Lucidspark- Stakeholder-Template

Microsoft Word – Stakeholder Map Template

Mural – Stakeholder Map Template

Milanote – Stakeholder Map

Powerpoint – Stakeholder Map Template

Miro – Stakeholder Map Template

Microsoft Word Stakeholder Templates

TemplateLab: Free Stakeholder Map Template

StakeholderMap: Download free Word template

Powerpoint Stakeholder Templates

Slideteam: Requires sign up to download the ppt

24Slides: Sign up free to download

StakeholderMap: Free download zip file

WordLayouts: Free download zip file

Google Slides Template

SketchBubble: 2 colour themes to choose from.

Online Tools to Create Free Stakeholder Templates

This list of online tools have a collection of maps for you to use easily. For cresting stakeholder maps in particular this is my prerefence:

Visual Paradigm Online – No signup required just edit very easily straight away.

LucidSpark: Use a stakeholder map to plan communications with stakeholders based on their role and interest in your project.

Miro: Understand the people who have influence over your projects, so you can get their support.

Moqups: Stakeholder mapping template will help you identify, prioritize, and understand your project’s key stakeholders

Mural: This template helps minimize confusion of who is who, provide clarity of responsibilities, and ultimately catalyze a transition for stakeholders from strangers to collaborators.

Milanote: By visualizing people on this matrix will make it easier to see where everyone fits on your project, and the level of communication you should be delivering to each person

Stakeholder Mapping Step by Step Instruction Video

@Lauren Kress, The Business Scientist explains the role of stakeholders in this short video on stakeholder mapping. Learn how to identify the people who will be affected by what you say and do (they have an interest in your activities) – and who will have an affect on what you can say or do (they have influence on your activities) and find a place for them on your stakeholder map.

Benefits of Stakeholder Mapping

The benefits teams can enjoy when the stakeholder mapping techniques include:

Shared understanding of the key players

Create team level communication and engagement strategy.

Prioritizing stakeholders according to their roles.

Avoid stakeholders feeling unheard.

Project Management Template Archive

We have created a a collection of other templates you might find helpful to deliver your project successfully:

79 Free Scope of Work Templates

Shane Drumm No Comments

Scope of Work Templates is a critical piece of the Statement of Work (SOW) document project manager need to kick off projects and avoid scope…

Read More

27 Concept Map Templates with Free Examples

Shane Drumm No Comments

Use the right concept map format, style, and tool to get your point across effectively. From collaborative online workshops to complex systems we have examples…

Read More

Top 10 Free Fishbone Diagram Templates with Download Links

Shane Drumm No Comments

Virtual brainstorming is hard. It relies on people working together in sync. The team needs to be able to contribute an collaborate at the same…

Read More

80% of people who fail the first time will solely rely on the PMBOK for theory PMP preparation. If you take away one thing is that DO NOT SOLELY RELY ON PMBOK to pass the exam. Let me explain.

Project Manager Book of Knowledge is the PMI bible for traditional project management. It was the original document the PMI created and what the PMP exam is based on. Do not expect to pass the PMP by just reading this book as it is not written to help people pass. Instead, focus on practice exams or exam simulators to prepare you for the exam.

Top PMP Prep Books in 2021

In 2021 there is a new TOP seller on Amazon the PMP Exam Prep Simplified: Covers the Current PMP Exam and Includes a 35 Hours of Project Management E-Learning Course which has some impressive reviews from passing PMPs worth checking out.

PMBOK not Updated for 2021

PMP Prep Books I Used

When I was studying I used Andy Crowes: How to Pass on Your First Try It covered all the content in the PMBOK but presents the content with the test in mind. I found it very helpful where it had questions at the end of each chapter and a complete test at the end of the book. I also read the PMP Headfirst but that is out of date now.

April 23, 2021

Top PMP Prep Books to become PMI Certified

raquel

80% of people who fail the first time will solely rely on the PMBOK for…

Read More

April 23, 2021

December 15, 2015

Online Exclusive How to Pass PMP Exam On First Try PDF

Shane Drumm

I found an online version of Andy Crowes how to pass pmp exam on first…

Read More

December 15, 2015

September 16, 2015

Passing With PMP with Head First PMP 2021

Shane Drumm

I created this Head First PMP review so you can easily see the benefits of…

Read More

September 16, 2015

If I Had to Choose PMP Training Again

If you have the budget or in a position, you need to 100% pass on the first attempt you should consider instructor type training. Top of the line premium training is PM Prepcast PMI Official Course brought to you by Cornelius Fichtner, is a registered PMP with 20 years of experience in many industries. He formerly served as a Project Management Institute (PMI®) Chapter President but has since moved on to become a founding member of PMI’s New Media Council and Social Media Advisory Group

PM Prepcast Discount Code – PMP Exam Simulator

Shane Drumm No Comments

The PM Prepcast discount code is for their PMP exam simulator. It is a MUST HAVE product that increases the chances of success in the…

Read More

PM PrepCast PMP Review – Training & Exam Simulator

Shane Drumm No Comments

PPM Prepcast has a Premium PMP Exam Prep Course 2021 which is an 5-Day Official PMI Course and an Exam Simulator with over 2,100 Questions…

Read More

Velociteach PMP Review: Bootcamp + Self-Study Bundle

Shane Drumm No Comments

Velociteach PMP offers an Exam Prep Bundle and 4-Day Bootcamp which they white-label to other PMP trainers

Read More

Brain Sensei PMP Review: Exam Prep Course

Shane Drumm No Comments

Becoming a PMP is a stressful but exciting time that you are going to love! We are going to review Brain Senseis PMP offering to…

Read More

Review of the Best PMP Course on Udemy 2020

Shane Drumm No Comments

When choosing a PMP course on Udemy you should realize it’s not a one size fits all. Let’s take a look at some of the…

Read More

Online Exclusive How to Pass PMP Exam On First Try PDF

Shane Drumm No Comments

I found an online version of Andy Crowes how to pass pmp exam on first try pdf and I quickly realized it was a fantastic…

Read More

Passing With PMP with Head First PMP 2021

Shane Drumm 1 Comment

I created this Head First PMP review so you can easily see the benefits of the book and figure out if its suitable for you.…

Read More

You will need a scope of work template when you are kicking off a new project with a client. SOW documents are traditionally associated with waterfall projects but are also useful in Agile environments. For small projects, they will be sufficient to clearly outline the work required and help prevent scope creep. This should be kept to one page as the WBS will detail exactly how the work will be broken down and completed.

Statement of Work vs Scope of work

In larger projects a scope of work is a sub-section of a statement of work document. The statement of work will provide a high-level overview of what the project will entail such as the high-level description of expected outcomes, requirements, associated dependencies, costs, risks and timelines. The statement of work should be kept high-level limited to 1-2 pages providing just enough information that the benefits can be understood so it can be weighed up against other pieces of work.

Responsible for Scope of Work

A Scope of Work template should be filled in by the project manager who will be responsible for the project or the initial requestor of the piece of work. The project manager should work with the business analyst to gather all requirements and meet other stakeholders including the sponsor to ensure it covers all expected areas. The statement of work then will require a sponsor who is willing to approve the project. The next step in portfolio project management would be to review an SOW and prioritize it against other projects.

Statement of Work Exampes

Example provided by: https://ift.tt/2zUmSqM

Free Scope of Work Templates Google Docs

Scope of Work Template in Google Docs

Free Scope of Work Templates PDF

RWU sample Scope of Work in PDF

COAA sample Scope of Work PDF

Scope of Work Templates in PDF and Word by Templates.net: 36+ free templates to use

PDFFiller: Create SoW with this online PDF editor

FormSwift: Create free Scope of Work using this online editor or download their template in PDF

Scope of work ppt template free download

Download here: https://ift.tt/3dsqGGs

Free Scope of Work Templates Word

Scope of Work Templates in Word by TemplateLab: Over 30 ready-to-use Scope of Work Template

Scope of Work Templates in Word by WordTemplatesOnline: 12+ free Scope of Work Template

Scope of Work in Word: Requires paid version of Microsoft Office to edit

Scope of Work Template in Word by Microsoft: Requires paid version of Microsoft Office to edit

Free Online Scope of Work Excel Template

SmartSheet free excel scope of work template

Scope Management Explained Further

Scope of Work Q&A

What should a scope of work include?

A scope of work should outline all the required work required to successfully complete the project. It will consist of all steps expected to be undertaken, what processes to complete those steps, and what equipment such as hardware or software will be required.

How do you create a scope of work?

A scope of work is created in conjunction with a WBS which identifies all work required to complete the project. Then all process and tools required to complete this work is identified.

How do you define scope?

The scope is defined by gathering an understanding from all stakeholders what requirements are expected to be delivered within a project to make it successful. The scope should be clearly identified to avoid scope creep later on in the project.

What is scope creep?

Scope creep happens when new requirements are added after a project has started which leads to delays and rework. One of the underlying factors of this is when a project scope hasn’t been defined very well at the start and the requirements need to be expanded on to meet the deliverable expectations

Other Free Templates

27 Concept Map Templates with Free Examples

Shane Drumm No Comments

Use the right concept map format, style, and tool to get your point across effectively. From collaborative online workshops to complex systems we have examples…

Read More

Top 10 Free Fishbone Diagram Templates with Download Links

Shane Drumm No Comments

Virtual brainstorming is hard. It relies on people working together in sync. The team needs to be able to contribute an collaborate at the same…

Read More

The PM Prepcast discount code is for their PMP exam simulator. It is a MUST HAVE product that increases the chances of success in the exam. It is a web-based PMP Exam preparation environment. A PMP aspirant can increase his chances of passing the exam by practising with a PMP Exam simulator. Rated at an average of 5.0 (which is very much considerable), the PM Exam Simulator is the only simulator on the market that offers a Live Feedback service!

You get access 2,100 PMP Exam Questions

5 PMP Exams in the Simulator

200 of which are clones of the PMP 2021 exam – that the PMI provided to PM Prepcast

This simulator offers five features for your success:

Target Score – Statistics from successful students: Students with 70%-90% correct in simulated exam reported 96%-99% exam pass rate.

Quality Questions – Containing 2100 High quality and realistic PMP exam questions created by PMP certified professionals with detailed explanations, complying latest PMI exam policies.

Get Help – Click on the Live Feed Back button to get assistance on any query answered by highly experienced mentors. 

Realistic Simulation – Created to provide a live/real exam environment with all loaded features like a time clock, mark-up, strikeout, and status overview.

Gap Focus – Practice test reports help you to focus on weak domain’s

PM Prepcast Discount Code

PM Prepcast typically offers coupon codes and rotates various course offerings monthly at a discount price.  As a PM Prepcast affiliate, I am aware of the latest and sometimes even upcoming PM Prepcast disocunt code, which I will share below. Please keep in mind that the coupon code will only work during the date of the sale as indicated. 

PM Prepcast typically offers coupon codes and rotates various course offerings monthly at a discount price.  As a PM Prepcast affiliate, I am aware of the latest and sometimes even upcoming PM Prepcast coupon code, which I will share below. Please keep in mind that the coupon code will only work during the date of the sale as indicated. 

April

Coupon Code: Apr21

Sales Date: 01 April 2021 to 30 April 2021

Sign-up to PMP Exam Simulator Now

The PM Prepcast PMP Exam Simulator Demo

Why is this important? The PMP exam old pattern was based on the traditional phase-based approach but now, it is modified to domain-based approach. The new exam has seen the inclusion of Agile methodology. There were 200 objective/multiple-choice questions in the older version of the PMP exam. Now, PMI has included multi-pattern questions and the number of questions is reduced to 180 which all will be evaluated. You have 230 minutes to answer all the questions. PMI has included:

Drag and Drop Questions – Candidates may be requested to match the processes with respective process groups.

Hot Spot Questions– Candidates will be required to interact with a digital graphic and use their calculations to estimate specific data points.

Scenario Based Questions – These questions are case-based, wherein candidates will be required to pick the right option from the scenario given. 

Multiple choice Questions –   In this section, questions carry more than one right answer; you have to pick all the correct answers.

Successfully adding PMP to your list of project management qualifications is one of the best career investments you can make. We created this PM PrepCast PMP review of their training offerings help you achieve this. It is a premier, professional, and competent PMP certification training provider founded by  Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM.

Cornelius Fichtner, is a registered PMP with 20 years of experience over many industries. He formerly served as a Project Management Institute (PMI®) Chapter President but has since moved on to become a founding member of PMI’s New Media Council and Social Media Advisory Group.

Cornelius founded OSP International LLC in 2006, with a mission to “Empower project managers and Agile practitioners to advance their careers through superior multi-media training.”. A by-product of OSP International has been PM PrepCast which is authorized and approved by PMI.

With over 12 years of experience in the training domain, it offers a PM certification training program and has assisted thousands of professionals in getting this global certification in the first attempt. PM PrepCast has two products to offer for PMP training.

Table Of Contents

PM Prepcast Training Options

Training OptionSuitable for You ifThe PMP Exam 2021 Booster CourseStudied old PMP material which didn’t cover Agile methodologiesPremium PMP Exam Prep Course 2021You’re ready to commit to taking the PMP examPremium PMP Exam Simulator 2021Want more high-quality practice exams to build confidence to pass the PMP Exam.

PM Prepcast Options for Aspiring PMPs

The Prepcast Team

PM PrepCast has helped 40,000+ professionals (and still counting) in achieving their dream credential and that is thanks to the amazing team they have behind them. This is the same team that has helped the PMI update their own training program and become one of the first PMI Authorised Training Partner (PMI ATP)

This replaced the REP (Registered Education Providers) system which did not uphold the training standard expected from the PMI. PMP candidates were paying for training that didn’t train students to become PMP but merely providing contact hours so they could apply for the exam. This lead to large numbers applying and failing on the first try. Though there are many REP’s existing, it is suggested that the exam seekers shall enrol with ATP’s only to ensure the training offered is as per the latest ECO.

PMI Seal Published on the PM Prepcast Website

Another way to combat these rogue training options PMI has announced that it shall be the sole provider of this self-paced course and the instructor-led training from ATP. PMI at present offering this self-paced course at a discounted price of $699 (against actual $799). This is considered to be a significant initiative from PMI to encourage exam seekers to avail this cost-effective instructor-led training from its registered ATP’s.

That said the PMI self-paced course by itself will mean you pass the exam. What will is having a study plan that has multiple practice PMP exams is the secret sauce that the PM Prepcast.

Another major change as part of this ATP program is the addition of a mandatory Train The Trainer (TTT) program. Meaning, instructors must pass the TTT program to be eligible to become the tutor for PMP prep courses. of the PM Prepcast have been trained in TTT and are a whose who in the project management world.

The team comprises top-class PMP trainers who have contributed their expertise in shaping the career of thousands of project professionals through training them to get their PMP credentials. The training team is powered by:

Cornelius Fichtner: Apart from being the founder, Cornelius is the President of leading online training companies for the PMP Prep and has coached hundreds of project managers to prepare for the PMP exam. He is a very experienced trainer with his inimitable coaching style.

Antje-Lehmann Benz: Antje is an experienced tutor who runs highly interactive project management and Agile courses online through classroom workshops. With her, you are all ensured about detailed knowledge on all PMP topics.

Oliver F. Lehmann: He is one of the renowned coaches/trainers for the PMP exam and certification. He is known as part of the bedrock of project management. He has been delivering PMP training classes since 2001 and builds his exam success on experience, and makes the workshops an interactive and joyful one.

Herbert H: Herbert is a trainer, assessor, and consultant with over 30 years of experience leading projects worldwide. Besides being a respected PMI volunteer, he shares his handful of experiences and knowledge throughout the training session, making it a more practically oriented and interesting one.

The PMP Exam 2021 Booster Course

As of January 2, 2021, the PMP exam has changed. The exam pattern is changed to make the certification program more practically oriented. The Exam Content Outline has seen major changes and has been modified to suit the current exam responsiveness. The new exam will focus on three new domains compared to the five domains in the previous version. The major difference is the exam will cover questions from both predictive and agile/hybrid approaches to project management.

The new exam has an entirely different structure. PMI has shifted its content outline from project phase-based concept from universal aspect by including these three domains. 

PEOPLE: emphasizing the skills and activities associated with effectively leading a project team

PROCESS: reinforcing the technical aspects of managing a project

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT: highlighting the connection between projects and organization strategy.

Domains aligned to Real Life Practices

PMP Exam Updates 2021

180-questions (the previous exam was 200), but the same number of questions will be scored in 230 minutes to complete the exam.

One additional break for a total of two 10-minute breaks for computer-based tests. No scheduled breaks for paper-based exams.

Questions will be a combination of multiple-choice, multiple responses, matching, hotspot, and limited fill-in-the-blank.

Note that the PMBOK guide is not the syllabus used for the PMP examination, rather it is a guide for the exam outline and a reference. 

As the PMP exam is changing radically in its content outline, relying on PMBoK 6th edition (current one) may not be a wise option for the exam seekers from 2nd Jan 2021 since this would not assist the aspirants in exam preparation as expected.

Though this edition of PMBOK is not changing, you can continue using this as reference material with other external credible references that offer training according to the revised ECO. 

But one should have real-world experience to grasp the new ECO, which covers both agile and hybrid approaches. In this case, PM Prepcast would offer you a helping hand in getting your credential on the first attempt.

No need to hear it from me, this is a live stream video that Cornelius put together:

PM Prepcast The PMP Exam 2021 Booster Course will upgrade you to the new exam specifications and help you bridge the gap between what you studied for the old exam and what you need to know for the new version.

The booster course includes the following:

2021 Booster Study Checklist (xls)

Formula Study Guide (pdf)

Audit eBook

Weekly Exam Tips Newsletter

Discussion forum access

15 PM PrepCast video lessons (5 hours)

29 Agile PrepCast video lessons (11 hours)

5 Expert audio interviews (3 hours)

Buy Booster Course Now

Premium PMP Exam Prep Course 2021

Studying for the PMP is a stressful time. 90% of people start with reading through the PMBOK which is a huge waste of time. Then they take online exam simulators and are shocked that they aren’t getting top marks. End up buying more books or a cheap course of Udemy, book the exam and put in long hours on the build-up to the exam. Losing weekends with their friends and family while trying to balance their 9 to 5 job.

80% fail on first try because of this approach.

What they should have done is get professional training that has the primary out come of helping them pass the exam. Yes you do learn and improve as a project manager but the goal is to get PMP. This is what PM Prepcast focuses on.

If you have already studied a self-paced course (just make sure it covers 2021 changes ie.did it cover Agile?) and you are looking to fine tune your knowledge I recommend skipping to PM Prepcast Exam Simulator.

If not there are 3 things you need to consider when choosing PMP training:

Official PMI Course with 35 contact hours: To qualify and appear for the PMP exam, PMI requires an applicant to achieve 35 contact hours (PDU’s) by participating in the training/workshop program. PM PrepCast makes sure you would get a contact hours certificate once you enrol and participate in the training program.

Real PMP Exam Examples: The course material comes with lots of exam samples and study materials, with a best-in-class exam simulator that contains 2100 exam practice questions and 210 REAL cloned PMP exam questions. This, in turn, is supported by a 12-page formula guide that helps you solve all mathematical questions.

Access to PMI Certified Trainers: Having support after the training is essential as you might have further questions later on after the course that you did not think of at the time. Having trainers that PMI certified. Also, get access to the online PMP forum to ask and get expert advice from moderators and instructors

As Cornelius highlights that The PM Prepcast PMP course is divided into five sessions and answered all question syou might have in the above recorded live stream video.

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Creating a High-Performing Team

During Lesson 1 you look at how to work with and engage others in a project environment by building a fantastic team to deliver the work.

Starting the Project

During Lesson 2 they cover the tricky aspects of starting a project effectively. You’ll cover everything you need to know about how to plan the work for the best possible kick-off.

Doing the Work

In Lesson 3 they move into talking about how to get the work done efficiently, effectively and with input from all relevant stakeholders.

Keeping the Team on Track

The work has started and the team is busy. But are they working on the right things? In Lesson 4 you’ll learn how to keep the team focused and on track. This is a really important topic for project managers.

Keeping the Business in Mind

Projects are initiated to deliver something useful to the business, so it’s important that you stay aware of the business context for the project. That context frames your project decisions every day.

Included in the training PM PrepCast offers an online video training package that includes One-on-One coaching with the instructor. Which includes 50 hours of content that can be accessed and stored easily on any of your devices and can refer wherever you are.

PM Prepcast PMP Reviews

PM PrepCast training package comes with 90 days money-back guarantee, subject to terms and conditions. If you are not satisfied with the product for any reason, you can opt for a refund with multiple options available. 

Join Waiting List for PMP Exam Prep Course 2021

PMP Exam Simulator

The PM PrepCast exam simulator is a MUST HAVE product that increases the chances of success in the exam. It is a web-based PMP Exam preparation environment. A PMP aspirant can increase his chances of passing the exam by practising with a PMP Exam simulator. Rated at an average of 5.0 (which is very much considerable), the PM Exam Simulator is the only simulator on the market that offers a Live Feedback service!

You get access 2,100 PMP Exam Questions

5 PMP Exams in the Simulator

200 of which are clones of the PMP 2021 exam – that the PMI provided to PM Prepcast

Why is this important? The PMP exam old pattern was based on the traditional phase-based approach but now, it is modified to domain-based approach. The new exam has seen the inclusion of Agile methodology. There were 200 objective/multiple-choice questions in the older version of the PMP exam. Now, PMI has included multi-pattern questions and the number of questions is reduced to 180 which all will be evaluated. You have 230 minutes to answer all the questions. PMI has included:

Drag and Drop Questions – Candidates may be requested to match the processes with respective process groups.

Hot Spot Questions– Candidates will be required to interact with a digital graphic and use their calculations to estimate specific data points.

Scenario Based Questions – These questions are case-based, wherein candidates will be required to pick the right option from the scenario given. 

Multiple choice Questions –   In this section, questions carry more than one right answer; you have to pick all the correct answers.

The PM Prepcast PMP Exam Simulator Demo

PM Prepcast PMP Exam Simulator provides a realistic online experience that assists you prepare for exam success, any time, anywhere, any device. This simulator offers five features for your success:

Target Score – Statistics from successful students: Students with 70%-90% correct in simulated exam reported 96%-99% exam pass rate.

Quality Questions – Containing 2100 High quality and realistic PMP exam questions created by PMP certified professionals with detailed explanations, complying latest PMI exam policies.

Get Help – Click on the Live Feed Back button to get assistance on any query answered by highly experienced mentors. 

Realistic Simulation – Created to provide a live/real exam environment with all loaded features like a time clock, mark-up, strikeout, and status overview.

Gap Focus – Practice test reports help you to focus on weak domain’s

The simulator makes you feel confident of passing the PMP exam as we practice the mock test in the real exam environment. The more you practice better are the chances of getting success. To achieve that confidence, you need to choose the best exam simulator. The best exam simulator is the one that has quality questions that are close to the real exam questions and comply with the latest PMI ECO.

Sign-up to PMP Exam Simulator Now

PM Prepcast PMP Coupon Code

PM Prepcast typically offers coupon codes and rotates various course offerings monthly at a discount price.  As a PM Prepcast affiliate, I am aware of the latest and sometimes even upcoming PM Prepcast coupon code, which I will share below. Please keep in mind that the coupon code will only work during the date of the sale as indicated. 

April

Coupon Code: Apr21

Sales Date: 01 April 2021 to 30 April 2021

PM Prepcast Free Options

Not only do you get free 7-day access to the Exam Simulator you also PM Prepcast has released a redacted version of The PMP® Formula Study Guide. Redacted means that some formulas, acronyms, questions and definitions are visible in clear text, but most of them have been obscured (“grayed out”).

Claim Free Formula Study Guide Here

Get a well-rounded approach to studying PMP® Exam formulas. See for yourself, how much valuable content you receive with the Formula Guide. You get:

47 Essential PMP® Formulas – Did you know that there were that many formulas you have to master? We list them all. And you can be sure that they are correct.

The Formula Concept – Every formula has a reason it exists. We explain this reason in everyday English. Knowing and understanding this concept makes it easier for you to use the formula.

Formula Variations – Many formulas have variations. For instance, the estimate to complete (ETC) can be determined in 4 ways. We demonstrate these ways and explain the differences and tell you when to use each variation.

Formula Keywords – Certain formulas are only applicable in specific situations. The PMP® Exam questions use certain keywords to indicate which formula to use. You learn all the keywords. Promise.

Result Interpretations – Some PMP® Exam questions ask you to interpret the result of a formula. So we teach you how to interpret them.

19 Important Values to remember – You can be sure that your PMP® Exam contains questions that require you to remember these values. Some of them you have to know to 2 decimal points. You learn the ones you need to know.

27 Formula Related Acronyms – Do you know what EAC, VAC, CPI, CBR, or ROI mean? Your Formula Guide explains them all.

PMP Exam Formula Study Guide (Unredacted Version)

Why choose PM Prepcast?

PM-Prepcast’s (OSP International LLC) live virtual course is priced higher than Velociteach PMP Course and others. However, PM-PrepCast has a bundle of perks in the package, so it may not be fair to decide just by looking at the price alone.

The PMP Exam simulator is a useful tool for practice, and it is very close to the system you will use in the real exam, in terms of features and visuals. The Prepcast simulator exam gives the user the real exam experience. Additionally, the questions are similar to the real PMP exam and lets you practice thousands of real-like questions. That is why everyone needs the exam simulator:

Finally, so much flexibility in accessing the training material, its composition, students review/rating pricing, and ease in scheduling your sessions at your convenience based on the instructor’s availability makes this a perfect choice for PMP aspirants.

Other PMP Training Options

PM PrepCast PMP Review: 5-Day Official PMI Course | Exam Simulator

Shane Drumm No Comments

PPM Prepcast has a Premium PMP Exam Prep Course 2021 which is an 5-Day Official PMI Course and an Exam Simulator with over 2,100 Questions…

Read More

Velociteach PMP Review: Bootcamp + Self-Study Bundle

Shane Drumm No Comments

Velociteach PMP offers an Exam Prep Bundle and 4-Day Bootcamp which they white-label to other PMP trainers

Read More

Brain Sensei PMP Review: Exam Prep Course

Shane Drumm No Comments

Becoming a PMP is a stressful but exciting time that you are going to love! We are going to review Brain Senseis PMP offering to…

Read More

Review of the Best PMP Course on Udemy 2020

Shane Drumm No Comments

When choosing a PMP course on Udemy you should realize it’s not a one size fits all. Let’s take a look at some of the…

Read More

Online Exclusive How to Pass PMP Exam On First Try PDF

Shane Drumm No Comments

I found an online version of Andy Crowes how to pass pmp exam on first try pdf and I quickly realized it was a fantastic…

Read More

Passing With PMP with Head First PMP 2021

Shane Drumm No Comments

I created this Head First PMP review so you can easily see the benefits of the book and figure out if its suitable for you.…

Read More

Concept map templates are a great way to communicate effectively complex tasks, idea or system. Concept maps are used to highlight relationships in a hierarchical structure. Unlike a mind map which is centred around one topic, a concept map can have multiple topics and branches. You should look at using a concept map when you want to identify relationships.

Concept maps are great for:

Structure Views – Visually communicate the hierarchy of components or tasks using a concept diagram.

Ideation – You have a starting point and want to expand the possibilities or dependencies

Fill in Blanks – The medical industry use concept maps just for nursing, where the sections are already determined just to fill in the details.

Choosing the Right Concept Map Option

WhenWhoStyleHowCollaborative WorkshopFacilitatorsBubbleMiroNeed Map in working DocumentAnalystsBoxedGoogle DocComplex SystemSolution ArchitectsUMLLucid ChartCreating Collection of MapsNon-TechiesVariousMindomoBusiness PresentationBusiness ManagersGraphicalCanvaHandout for WorkshopTeachersSimplePDF

Choosing the Right Concept Map Template, Style & Software

Examples of Different Lucidchart Concept Map Templates

When looking for templates or ideas around concept maps you have a variety of different styles and approaches to choose from. You can find concept map templates from charts, tables, flowcharts, graphical, Venn diagrams, or even timelines. We have tried layout all the different options for you so you can easily choose what suits your needs.

Concept maps are a graphical tool that is used to visualize meaningful relationships among concepts. They can take the form of It’s basically used to represent the knowledge structure that we humans store in our minds about a particular topic. You create a concept map by writing keywords (in shapes such as circles, boxes, triangles, etc.) and then drawing arrows between the ideas that are related.

The following were created using LucidChart which is a great tool for visual diagrams. It has some advanced features such as coding UML diagrams and array of add-ons for all diagram needs.

Blank Concept Map Template

Simple Concept Map Template

Bubble Concept Map Template

Brand Concept Map Template

Vocabulary Concept Map Template

Nursing Concept Map Template

Water Concept Map Template

Math Concept Map Template

Chemical Bonds Concept Map Template

Protein Synthesis Concept Map Template

Biology Concept Map Template

Digestive System Concept Map Template

Nervous System Concept Map Template

Pneumonia Concept Map Template

Hypertension Concept Map Template

Check out all the above concept map options and how to create them using LucidChart here.

Creating Concept Maps on Zoom

If you are looking for a more collaborative option in a team setting there is really only one choice. Miro has excellent out of the box drag and drop mapping tool. Miro is an online whiteboard that has been very popular as teams move to working remotely.

At work we are using these for planning sessions but for ideation it comes into a ;league of its own. You can see each persons mouse so you can follow them as they go through the board. You can have up to 3 boards for free so its not jus for big corporates either.

Concept Map Google Docs

Open Google Document

Menu > Insert > Drawing.

Add shapes

Add lines icon to connect them. 

Double-click the shape to add text.

Click “Save & Close.”

Double-click your drawing to return to the editor and make changes. 

Access our Concept Map Template in Google Sheets

Concept Map Template Online Software / Tools

If you are looking for dedicated mapping software Mindomo is the go to place. They have created software for non-techies to create great charts and graphs. The software comes with exactly what you need. Unlike LucidChart which would be more suited to a Solution Architect,

Concept Map Word Templates

Go to the Insert tab, then clcik smart art – choose an out of the box example. Here are our top 2 favourites:

TemplateLab 40+ templates you can download that are in word format

EducationWorld (direct download)

Graphical Concept Map Templates Canva

Putting in the extra effort and taking your simple graphics created in Word or Google Docs can easily be elevated using a graphic design tool such as Canva. Canva makes it simple as drag and drop, easy update, and click and type interface to make fantastic map diagrams without any graphic design background.

Blue And Green Concept Map Chart

Peach And Pastel Concept Map Chart

Burnt Sienna And Cream Concept Map

Cream Animals Concept Map Chart

Red And Blue Concept Map Chart

Aqua Concept Map

Olive Green Concept Map Chart

Green Concept Map Chart

If you are looking at wowing at a business presentation and don’t have graphic design experience check out Canva to create something like above.

Concept Maps FAQs

What are the different types of concept maps?

There is a range of concept map types to choose from such as flow charts, UML diagrams, Venn Diagrams, Timelines, Tables and even graphical diagrams. You should choose the type of concept map depending on the problem or you are trying to solve. When choosing a concept map you need to ask yourse;f; Are you looking for something quick and easy for idea generation vs communicating a complex system vs wanting a fill in the blank template?

What are the elements of concept map?

The main element of a concept map is having clearly defined levels that will determine the hierarchical structure of the concept map. You can group different branches as concepts or sub-systems. Then you would use cross-links between sub-systems to highlight dependencies.

What should a concept map include?

A concept map is a visual organization and representation of knowledge. It shows concepts and ideas and the relationships among them. You create a concept map by writing key words (sometimes enclosed in shapes such as circles, boxes, triangles, etc.) and then drawing arrows between the ideas that are related.

Make a list of related ideas, and rank them from the general to the specific. This list, also known as a parking lot because you’re waiting to move these ideas to your map, should consist of around 15-25 key concepts. Describe each concept as briefly as possible; usually one or two words per idea will suffice.

What is the purpose of concept map?

Concept maps begin with the main idea (or concept) and then branch out to show how that main idea can be broken down into specific topics. They effectively help you communicate relationships between branches.

Concept Map Template in PDF

If you are looking for some fill in the blank templates that you can print off straight away here are some options:

Reading Rockets Concept Map 1 & Reading Rockets Concept Map 2 – Both one layer simple concept map with no instructions.

ReadWriteThink Concept Map – This concept map is a way for you to show relationships between words and concepts. An arrow connecting two words shows that those words are related in some way. When you’re done, you can group words that go together with a circle or box.

Tweet

Share

Share

Pin

Other Project Management Templates

Top 10 Concept Map Template with Download Links

Shane Drumm No Comments

Use the right concept map format, style, and tool to get your point across effectively. From collaborative online workshops to complex systems we have examples…

Read More

Top 10 Free Fishbone Diagram Templates with Download Links

Shane Drumm No Comments

Virtual brainstorming is hard. It relies on people working together in sync. The team needs to be able to contribute an collaborate at the same…

Read More

I first discovered Velociteach PMP after purchasing Pass PMP Exam on First Try by Andy Crowe which is his company. I used his book as my bible for practising to pass the PMP exam, ironically on my second try. It wasn’t till writing this article I realized the online courses and classes they also have available. You have 3 real options:

Self Study with Book (1 Sample Exam) $139+

Self Paced PMP Exam Prep Bundle (4 Sample Exams) $388+

4 Day Bootcamp via Virtual Classes (Live Instructor + Guarantee to Pass) $2,447+

I will try layout all the training options for you so you can make the best decision to help you get your PMP certificate. There are lots of factors to sway your decision based on budget, time, experience and end goals.

Velociteach PMP Self-Study Options

Firstly, I can’t recommend The PMP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try enough. One of the most comprehensive straight the point exam-focused books on the market selling 250,000 times

If you are like me and get distracted easily especially on a computer then having a study book is a great alternative or even addition to your PMP study plan.

Having a PMP study book complimented the way of learning of reading, writing it down, and then reviewing.

Andy’s book had an epic 200 question practice exam which was the foundation for me passing the exam. The book also had questions after each chapter too in the PMP exam format so always preparing you for the exam. Other self-study tools such as a PMP Exam Reference Guide & Exam Flashcards are available.

There is no need to buy brand new as people pass the exam and sell on the book (well that’s what I did). I personally bought the book a second-hand version on amazon and passed it after. Just make sure you buy the 6th+ version which includes agile for the 2021 changes.

As an extra you can always buy sample exams from the Velociteach store here to compliment your self study learning plan so you get the best of both worlds.

Addressing the PMP 2021 Exam Changes

PMI Launched New PMP Exam in 2021 with a strong focus on Agile methodologies

From January 2, 2021, the PMP exam outline and the content will change to adapt to the current times. The biggest changes are:

The PMP Exam is 180 questions vs 200 and has an extra break.

Agile is going to MUST and will feature heavily in the exam (PMBOK 6th Edition doesn’t address this)

Questions will be a combination of multiple-choice, multiple responses, matching, hotspot, and limited fill-in-the-blank

New Authorized Training Partner (ATP) to reduce low-quality trainers online such as on Udemy

Velociteach is an approved PMI ATP. They only use the new, PMI-developed PMP exam prep training materials to help students prepare for the “new” exam.

PMP Exam Unknowns

Is PMP exam really that hard?

The exam has 80% fail rate on first try giving the perception that the exam is really hard. It is really hard if you don’t prepare for the type of exam questions you will be asked as they use double negative and are designed to trick exam takers.

What does the designation PMP mean?

Project Management Professional is what PMP designation stands for and is recognized by the PMI which is the Project Management Institute.

What is on the PMP certification test?

The exam recently updated to have 50% adaptive type questions geared towards agile and 50% of traditional project management also know n as waterfall

Velociteach PMP Training Bundle Overview + Agile Modules

Self Paced PMP Exam Prep Bundle

The self-paced PMP exam prep bundle is pretty much everything Velociteach has available on PMP without providing you access to the virtual PMP Bootcamp. Its excellent value for money when you consider the book costs $140+ to buy new and only has one exam. With the bundle, you get 3 practise exams with questions difficulty at PMP’s level.

35 hours of audio & video training, exercises, formula sheets, and more

1100 practice questions and explanatory answers

Project Plan Stack Exercise

Earned Value Practice Exercises

3 mocking full PMP exams ($39 each x 3 = $118)

Reference guides ($18)

Complementary worksheets, flashcards, and matrixes ($25)

Velociteach provides you complementary sources like the “The Savvy PM” blog and “Manage This” podcasts to help you develop more understanding and the “PMI mindset”. All coming from a solid team of PMP subject matter experts with more aconronyms that you can handle.

Velociteach guarantee for PMP Training

When you complete the training you will also receive a Certificate of Completion after completing 35 Contact Hours (required for earning PDUs) and most importantly Money-back guarantee if you do not pass the exam after 3 attempts within 1 year.

In that sense, Velociteach provides an interesting approach: The Complete PMP® 6th Edition Exam Prep Bundle; this 4 in 1 package includes several resources aiming to complement your study plan including more than 1100 practice questions and online training.

Mobile learning app sold separated: To get a better training experience on a mobile device you must buy the “InSite” app separated from the bundle, specially designed for that purpose; however, you can survive without the app and get to your training material with a little bit of commitment and patience from your side.

All the course material is still accessible from mobile or tablet devices so for me this is not a blocker. Its a nice extra just like getting flash cards but won’t be fundamental to you passing – that is practice exams.

The cost for “The Complete PMP® 6th Edition Exam Prep Bundle” pack varies depending on the length of the access period: $388 for 1 month, $580 for 3 months, and $660 for 6-month; therefore, depending on your study plan or PMP exam schedule date you could choose the option more suitable for you.

Claim a 20% discounted rate for the PMP Prep bundle please click this link.

Velociteach Virtual Recorded PMP Classes

The last option is the most expensive option but worth it if you can afford it. If you have an exam coming up and left it last minute this is the best option for you.Its a 4-day virtual boot camp held every 2 weeks taught by some of the great PMI leaders of that Velociteach has on hand including:

Bob Mahler, PMP, M.B.A., PMI-RMP, Instructor

Greg Stevens, MA, MS, Ph.D, PMP, PMI-ACP, Instructor

Harold Samson, PMP, PMI-ACP, MA, AAMS, Instructor

Jason Breitfeller, PMP, MBA, PMI-ACP, BEE, CSM, Instructor

Johnny Webb, MS, MBA, ITIL Expert, Instructor

Frank Polack, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, SA, Instructor

Margo Love, PMP, Six Sigma Black Belt, BS, FMLI, Instructor

Alan Zucker, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, SA, ITIL, MA, Instructor

The 4-days covers everything you need to pass the exam and removes all stress of self-studying on your own. You get to join a group of peers who are serious about PMP and ready to get qualified. You can book a spot here.

Personalized PMP Study Plan by Velociteach

If you fail the PMP exam Velociteach will review your exam analysis report and create a unique PMP study plan based on your results. If you fail 3 times they will with no questions asked refund 100% of your money.

Velociteach – Live, Virtual Classes for PMP® Exam Preparation

Velociteach PMP Bootcamp Testimonials

Student Testimonials from Velociteach Website

Conclusion on Velociteach PMP Options

As mentioned I have laid out the 3 main options you have with Velociteach and they have something for everybody’s situation and budget.

The 4 day bootcamp stands on its own two feet. You get trained by experts who have the goal of making sure you are ready to pass the exam. If you have the funds, bite the bullet and go with the 4-day PMP Bootcamp option.

The book is fantastic with a great sample exam. You could always buy extra exams in the store. What this option doesn’t get you are 35 contact hours a requirement to apply for the PMP exam. If you don’t need the contact hours and in no rush studying this is a great option. Get the book today on Amazon.

Finally, the PMP Bundle is the best option for those who are serious about passing PMP and no under time pressure. You get all material from the book, extra exams and 35 contact hours + extra 12 contact hours for completing the exams. It really sets you up for success with great value for money so my final recommendation is the PMP Bundle by Veloicteach.

The post Why consider Velociteach PMP Review for the new PMP Exam appeared first on PM-Training.

This is my second attempt at creating a PMP Sample Exam where I combined the old PMP exam and the PMI-ACP exam with 50% questions from each. Questions have also be reframed to be situational and more informative answers.

This sample exam is hosted on Google forms which you can access directly here 200 Question PMP free Sample Exam has been created on Google Forms. All I ask in return is to share this page with others on social media so we can help each other.

I hope it helps your studies and best of luck in the exam. Make sure to leave feedback so I can improve the exam.

Loading…

PMP Actual Exam Length

The online exam is consisting of 180 questions. During the exam, you will be able to take a 10-minutes mandatory break. However, once you decide to take a break, you won’t be allowed to review your answers from part 1.

PMP Exam Difficulty:

Because from Jan. 2, 2021, and onwards the PMP exam will have more content to cover, which is more challenging than the current outline.

However, what you need to do is to occupy in developing the competencies rather than be preoccupied with how difficult the exam could be; for instance, on the document “2020 PMP® Exam Content Crossover Map v1”, you will figure out which tasks or subjects have been newly added.

These new content principles that we as PM; are currently applying to deliver our projects successfully, increase organization business value, and achieve or exceed customer satisfaction. So in that sense, you will be just confirming how good you are at doing what you do

PMP Mock Exams:

A benefit from the new PMI “Authorized Training Partners” program is that all ATPs get access to official PMP Exam questions from PMI; hence the updated simulators will be providing a better sense of the type of questions you will be facing.

According to PMI, the new PMI “Authorized Training Partner Program” aimed to ensure that you will use high-quality training programs for your preparations and establish a homogenous set of high standards.

As you must probably know, one of the drivers for succeeding in the PMP exam is the use of exam simulators to build and polish your strategies and mindset. It is especially crucial for the 2021 PMP exam because of the upgraded type of questions.

We encourage you to consider selecting an exam simulator developed by an ATP organization to get proper training.

Take as Many Free Practice PMP exams as Possible

Type of Questions in new PMP Exam:

The new 2021 PMP exam will incorporate new types of questions designed to confirm our proficiency in any task or domain. 

With these new types of questions, we believed that it would provide new possibilities to cover subjects that otherwise will not be possible properly through a simple-choice format.

Some of the types of questions you would find range from: i) drag and drop questions, where you will link concepts to specific domains for a match-up, ii) hot spot questions, identifying the current answer regarding a chart according to your calculations, or rearranging an item register.

These are some sample questions that you might find on the 2021 PMP Exam:

Hot spot question

Multiple choice questions regarding adaptive methodologies

Multiple choice questions regarding adaptive methodologies

Calculation questions (Expected Monetary Value – EVM)

PMP Exam Content Outline (ECO):

It is foremost to mention that the PMP exam is NOT based on “A Guide to The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)” However, this is the main source of reference and study for the exam. 

Nonetheless, the PMBOK 6th edition remains a valid reference and source of knowledge for the 2021 exam prep. However, you must focus on developing your competencies based on the “Exam Content Outline” for the 2021 Exam, officially created in June 2019.

Unfortunately, the official date is still unknown when the new “A Guide to The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) 7th edition” will be available. Although according to previous publications, that might be happening between Q2 to Q4 2021, depending on ANSI approval. 

The new PMBOK had been structured not around Knowledge Areas and ITTOs but Project Performance Domains, and in summary, the main change is the change of focus from a process-based to a principle-based standpoint. 

The post [Updated] PMP Sample Exam | 200 Free PMP Practice Exam Questions appeared first on PM-Training.