Manage It!

Table of contents

1. Manage It!
   1. Copyright
   2. For the Best Reading Experience...
   3. ​
   4. Table of Contents
   5. What readers are saying about Manage It!
   6. Foreword
   7. Preface
   8. Chapter 1: Starting a Project
      1. Define Projects and Project Managers
      2. Manage Your Drivers, Constraints, and Floats
   9. With Too Many Constraints, You Decide
      1. Discuss Your Project Constraints with Your Client or Sponsor
      2. Decide on a Driver for Your Project
      3. Manage Sponsors Who Want to Overconstrain Your Project
      4. Write a Project Charter to Share These Decisions
      5. Know What Quality Means for Your Project
   10. Chapter 2: Planning the Project
       1. Start the Wheels Turning
       2. Plan Just Enough to Start
   11. Make Your Planning Empirical, Not Predictive
   12. Start with the End in Mind ( Principle-Centered Leadership  [Cov91 ] )
       1. Develop a Project Plan Template
   13. The Less You Know…
   14. Beware of Early Detailed Schedules
       1. Define Release Criteria
       2. Use Release Criteria
   15. Chapter 3: Using Life Cycles to Design Your Project
       1. Understanding Project Life Cycles
       2. Overview of Life Cycles
   16. Code and Fix Is Never a Useful Life Cycle
       1. Seeing Feedback in the Project
       2. Larger Projects Might Have Multiple Combinations of Life Cycles
       3. Managing Architectural Risk
       4. Paddling Your Way Out of a Waterfall
       5. My Favorite Life Cycles
   17. Chapter 4: Scheduling the Project
       1. Pragmatic Approaches to Project Scheduling
   18. Projects Require Both Plans and Schedules
   19. Timebox Initial Planning
       1. Select from These Scheduling Techniques
       2. Start Scheduling with a Low-Tech Tool
   20. Late Projects Don’t Make Up Time; They Get Later
   21. Chapter 5: Estimating the Work
       1. Pragmatic Approaches to Project Estimation
   22. The Schedule Is the One Way the Project Will Not Proceed
   23. Estimates Need Accuracy, Not Precision
       1. Milestones Define Your Project’s Chunks
   24. Use Deliverable-Based Planning for Tasks
   25. Schedule Milestones (or Iterations) Midweek
       1. How Little Can You Do?
       2. Estimating with Multitasking
       3. Scheduling People to Multitask by Design
       4. Using Rolling-Wave Scheduling
       5. Deciding on an Iteration Duration
       6. Estimating Using Inch-Pebbles Wherever Possible
   26. Avoid Micromanaging with Inch-Pebbles
   27. Chapter 6: Recognizing and Avoiding Schedule Games
       1. Bring Me a Rock
       2. Hope Is Our Most Important Strategy
       3. Queen of Denial
       4. Sweep Under the Rug
       5. Happy Date
       6. Pants on Fire
       7. Split Focus
       8. Schedule Equals Commitment
       9. We’ll Know Where We Are When We Get There
       10. The Schedule Tool Is Always Right, or Schedule Dream Time
       11. We Gotta Have It; We’re Toast Without It
       12. We Can’t Say No
       13. Schedule Chicken
       14. 90% Done
       15. We’ll Go Faster Now
       16. Schedule Trance
   28. Chapter 7: Creating a Great Project Team
       1. Recruit the People You Need
   29. Beware of PowerPoint Architects
       1. Help the Team Jell
       2. Make Your Organization Work for You
       3. Know How Large a Team You Need
       4. Know When to Add More People
       5. Become a Great Project Manager
       6. Know When It’s Time to Leave
   30. Chapter 8: Steering the Project
       1. Steer the Project with Rhythm
       2. Conduct Interim Retrospectives
       3. Rank the Requirements
       4. Timebox Requirements Work
       5. Timebox Iterations to Four or Fewer Weeks
   31. Use the Divide-by-Two Approach to Reduce Iteration Size
       1. Use Rolling-Wave Planning and Scheduling
   32. Build Replanning into the Project Schedule
       1. Create a Cross-Functional Project Team
       2. Select a Life Cycle Based on Your Project’s Risks
       3. Keep Reasonable Work Hours
       4. Use Inch-Pebbles
   33. Help Project Team Members Avoid Student Syndrome
       1. Manage Interruptions
       2. Manage Defects Starting at the Beginning of the Project
   34. Chapter 9: Maintaining Project Rhythm
       1. Adopt or Adapt Continuous Integration for Your Project
       2. Create Automated Smoke Tests for the Build
       3. Implement by Feature, Not by Architecture
       4. Get Multiple Sets of Eyes on Work Products
       5. Plan to Refactor
       6. Utilize Use Cases, User Stories, Personas, and Scenarios to Define Requirements
       7. Separate GUI Design from Requirements
       8. Use Low-Fidelity Prototyping as Long as Possible
   35. Chapter 10: Managing Meetings
   36. Seek and Destroy Time-Wasting Meetings
       1. Cancel These Meetings
       2. Conduct These Types of Meetings
       3. Project Kickoff Meetings
       4. Release Planning Meetings
       5. Status Meetings
       6. Reporting Status to Management
       7. Project Team Meetings
       8. Iteration Review Meetings
       9. Troubleshooting Meetings
       10. Manage Conference Calls with Remote Teams
   37. Chapter 11: Creating and Using a Project Dashboard
       1. Measurements Can Be Dangerous
   38. Use Multidimensional Measurements to Assess Project Progress
       1. Measure Progress Toward Project Completion
   39. Velocity Charts Are the Single-Best Chart
       1. Develop a Project Dashboard for Sponsors
       2. Use a Project Weather Report
   40. Chapter 12: Managing Multisite Projects
       1. What Does a Question Cost You?
       2. Identify Your Project’s Cultural Differences
       3. Build Trust Among the Teams
       4. Use Complementary Practices on a Team-by-Team Basis
   41. Manage for Results
       1. Look for Potential Multisite Project and Multicultural Problems
       2. Avoid These Mistakes When Outsourcing
   42. Chapter 13: Integrating Testing into the Project
       1. Start People with a Mind-Set Toward Reducing Technical Debt
       2. Reduce Risks with Small Tests
       3. TDD Is the Easiest Way to Integrate Testing into Your Project
       4. Use a Wide Variety of Testing Techniques
       5. Define Every Team Member’s Testing Role
       6. What’s the Right Developer-to-Tester Ratio?
       7. Make the Testing Concurrent with Development
       8. Define a Test Strategy for Your Project
       9. System Test Strategy Template
       10. There’s a Difference Between QA and Test
   43. Chapter 14: Managing Programs
       1. When Your Project Is a Program
       2. Organizing Multiple Related Projects into One Release
       3. Organizing Multiple Related Projects Over Time
       4. Managing Project Managers
   44. Manage Cross-Program Schedule Changes with Stickies
       1. Creating a Program Dashboard
   45. Chapter 15: Completing a Project
       1. Managing Requests for Early Release
       2. Managing Beta Releases
       3. When You Know You Can’t Meet the Release Date
       4. Shepherding the Project to Completion
       5. Canceling a Project
   46. Chapter 16: Managing the Project Portfolio
       1. Build the Portfolio of All Projects
       2. Evaluate the Projects
       3. Decide Which Projects to Fund Now
       4. Rank-Order the Portfolio
       5. Start Projects Faster
       6. Manage the Demand for New Features with a Product Backlog
       7. Troubleshoot Portfolio Management
   47. Appendix 1: More Detailed Information About Life Cycles
       1. Serial Life Cycle: Waterfall or Phase-Gate
       2. Iterative Life Cycle: Spiral, Evolutionary Prototyping, Unified Process
       3. Incremental Life Cycle: Staged Delivery, Design to Schedule
       4. Agile Life Cycles
   48. Appendix 2: Glossary of Terms
   49. Bibliography
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