15
votes
Resource is refusing to do a handover before leaving
There are consequences to his behavior. For one thing, (assuming he as an at-will employee and your live in an at-will area) there is nothing stopping your company from cutting string with this ...
- 37.1k
12
votes
Accepted
What's the ideal senior/medior/junior ratio in a Scrum Development Team?
I have seen highly effective teams full of junior developers and disastrous teams full of senior developers.
Rather than focusing on seniority and experience, I recommend:
Hiring highly ...
- 19.5k
9
votes
Accepted
Management wants to start doing "1 on 1"s as "2 on 1"s. Good or bad idea?
Group Discussions Don't Replace One-on-One Communications
While there's a place for more leadership involvement, I certainly wouldn't replace one-on-ones with larger meetings. Especially in IT, this ...
- 50.1k
9
votes
Are there best practices with time tracking?
Are there any best practices for this?
Personally, I know of only three:
Figuring out what exactly you want to measure.
Accepting a certain degree of measurement error.
Trust
You say that your ...
- 15k
8
votes
In scrum, does it ever make sense to hire a product owner?
Summary
Does it make sense to hire a product owner from outside the company? If I do what skills should they have?
Maybe. A better question is whether someone from inside the company or outside ...
- 50.1k
7
votes
Accepted
Resource is refusing to do a handover before leaving
TL;DR
The loss or malfeasance of key personnel is always a project risk. You can often mitigate such risks through technical or administrative controls, separation of duties, and cross-training, but ...
- 50.1k
7
votes
Management wants to start doing "1 on 1"s as "2 on 1"s. Good or bad idea?
I have no academic backing on what I am going to write as my answer here but am drawing on my experience plus my own predicted reaction if I were a subordinate meeting with my boss and his/her boss.
I ...
- 37.1k
7
votes
Are there best practices with time tracking?
What are the best practices for tracking time for developers?
Don't do it, unless you can explain why you need it and what you do with the results.
Negative example:
Our company has recently ...
- 8,456
6
votes
In scrum, does it ever make sense to hire a product owner?
TL;DR: Probably not, unless they bring some key expertise you did not already have in your company.
It depends, most product owners I have seen on teams are what I would call a proxy product owner. ...
- 5,543
6
votes
Accepted
How a newcomer PO could own the product if he does not have enough field knowledge yet?
There are three key things that a PO should have to be successful: Authority, Time, and Knowledge. So, to your point, without having domain knowledge, the Product Owner's job becomes very difficult.
...
- 16.9k
6
votes
Emotional Intelligence vs Conflict Resolution
EI and conflict management goes hand in hand.
EI will be useful in all areas -
Negotiations with client during inconvenient situations
Motivation to resources who may not be happy with
their role/...
- 507
6
votes
What can I do when I can't adjust scope, resources, or schedule and a team member wants a raise?
TL;DR
Your job as a Product Owner (PO) or Project Manager (PM) is not to have all the answers. Your job is to have a vision, and to communicate options to stakeholders and business decision-makers.
...
- 50.1k
5
votes
Accepted
RACI Matrix - Accountability
No, it can't. In the RACI format, the Accountable person is the one ultimately answerable for the correct completion of the task.
It is also the one who delegates the work to those marked as "...
- 1,011
4
votes
Accepted
How to properly point out fault in others ideas?
Here are some simple practices I use:
ask questions, don't point out problems. "Hm, what will happen if X and Y, tho?" rather than "Yeah, but if X and Y, it will all come crashing down."
use the ...
- 3,535
4
votes
What's the ideal senior/medior/junior ratio in a Scrum Development Team?
Let me qualify my answer a little bit with this: I do not know if there are any theoretical constructs with Scrum that dictates team make-up so I am answering in a more general way around teams.
I ...
- 37.1k
3
votes
In scrum, does it ever make sense to hire a product owner?
TL;DR: Sure, where else would you hire one?
Does it make sense to hire a product owner from outside the company?
Sure, why not. You hire all your other staff from outside the company, product ...
- 8,456
3
votes
Accepted
How do you manage resources in an agile approach with PMI
Generally speaking, there is always something for people to do. They can help a colleague with their tasks, learn a new trick, write some documentation, clean up some code, talk with some other team, ...
- 1,299
3
votes
What can I do when I can't adjust scope, resources, or schedule and a team member wants a raise?
Let's simplify your question down. Feature A is expected to cost $X to deliver and in reality costs $1.2X to deliver. This can be because of a raise, inflation, change in needs, or a ton of other ...
- 16.9k
3
votes
How do I measure employee (software developer) performance based on bugs analyzed and fixed?
TL;DR
Successful leaders measure project outcomes rather than individual productivity. Measuring individual productivity is generally an anti-pattern that obfuscates deeper structural problems.
Do you ...
- 50.1k
3
votes
Are there best practices with time tracking?
How do I do this in a way that doesn't punish people for being human
at work?
Tracking time implies a lack of trust. This may be more acceptable in some areas than others. Considering the intrinsic ...
- 8,625
2
votes
Who is responsible for people resourcing in a project?
The project manager is responsible for delivering the project and therefore making sure that the necessary amount of man power (with proper knowledge) is working - will work - on the project. Ideally, ...
- 11.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Who is responsible for people resourcing in a project?
Since the PM knows what it takes to deliver the project, they have the best sense of what resources they need. So, in a typical scenario, the project managers ask for resourcing based on their own ...
- 414
2
votes
Predicting software errors
Wrong approach!
You can't predict software errors, the same way you can't predict car accidents.
As programmers gain experience they learn from their previous mistakes, but make more sophisticated ...
- 4,562
2
votes
Employee Being Disrespectful by not following HR Policy
I don't think this is a project management question - you haven't described anything in the context of a project - the situation seems more line/operations management. That said, Mr. Espina has ...
- 8,728
2
votes
Employee Being Disrespectful by not following HR Policy
How have you tried to set up the meeting? Did you just say 'We should meet' or 'Please set up a meeting' and then wait? What might work better is to instead set up a meeting, yourself, and then simply ...
- 14.8k
2
votes
Accepted
Ensuring project progress with non-performance from 3rd party
The PM owns the schedule, and evaluates all events through impact on schedule, cost, and quality. (events include both issues such as this and risks - if you suspect that the contractor won't ...
- 8,728
2
votes
Global project without a charter, manager nor dedicated resources
David Espina's answer covers most of what I wanted to say. I just wanted to add:
Keep a paper trail.
You not that you're afraid that the project's failure will ham you. So, whenever you bring these ...
- 14.8k
2
votes
Accepted
Global project without a charter, manager nor dedicated resources
It sounds like your company understands the need for project and operations excellence as it relates to what they manufacture but seems to have a blind spot for other non-core projects. As we all ...
- 37.1k
2
votes
Accepted
Resources management and a cumbersome situation
The course of action depends on which role you are in. Reading between the lines, I believe you're interested in how C should engage / escalate in this situation.
Depending on the relationship ...
- 36
2
votes
How to manage employees leaving the company?
When this happened - over 2 decades ago - at a company I worked for, I was given the title of Morale Officer! (Besides for my regular job.)
I was given a small budget and was charged with ensuring ...
- 4,562
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible