Here at PMHow, we are dedicated to providing our readers with the most up-to-date, insightful, and useful information on all aspects of project management. From beginner tutorials to advanced strategies, our goal is to help both new and experienced project managers better plan, organize, and manage projects to achieve success. We know that sometimes you…
Mitigating Bias By Understanding Diverse Perspectives Recognizing our own biases As human beings, we all have ingrained biases shaped by our upbringing, life experiences, and social environments. These biases often operate unconsciously, influencing our perceptions and decision-making. As PM-resources seeking to provide objective analysis, it is critical that we strive to recognize our own biases….
Defining User Stories for Testability Well-defined user stories are essential for streamlined testing. Effective user stories should focus on specific user goals and needs. They should break down requirements into small, testable units that lend themselves to developing clear acceptance criteria and test cases. Characteristics of Well-Defined User Stories Focused on primary user goals and…
Allocating Resources for Support Work Setting aside dedicated capacity for incoming support requests is crucial for responsiveness. Teams can allocate certain team members to be primarily responsible for support work during each sprint. This ensures there is availability to promptly assist users and address issues. Another approach is creating a separate support team focused solely…
What is Technical Debt and Why Does it Matter? Technical debt refers to the implied cost of additional work caused by choosing an easy software solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer. It is a metaphorical debt that accrues interest in the form of extra effort needed to maintain and…
Rethinking Estimates in Agile Development As organizations adopt agile practices, they often struggle to break free from detailed upfront planning and estimates in hours. Legacy approaches anchor teams to outdated assumptions and plans, reducing the adaptability essential for agility. This article examines the pitfalls of estimating in hours for agile development and offers techniques to…
In Scrum, all work related to a project must be accounted for and tracked transparently. This includes product backlog items, bugs, technical tasks,assignments, progress reporting, and closures. Comprehensive tracking ensures visibility into the true state of a project and what work remains. Defining Work Items in Scrum Scrum teams track progress by breaking down work…
Understanding Research vs Ship-Ready Code Computer science research aims to push boundaries and make new discoveries, while ship-ready code prioritizes reliability and robustness for end users. These dual goals can sometimes be in conflict during the software development lifecycle. Research code is focused on rapidly testing new ideas, models, and algorithms. This discovery-oriented code prioritizes…
Improving Status Update Efficiency Through Asynchronous Communication The transmission of status updates between systems and services often relies on synchronous communication protocols. However, this can lead to inefficient resource usage and stall message throughput. By shifting to asynchronous update mechanisms, systems can optimize status delivery for lower latency and higher overall update efficiency. The Problem…
Defining the Core Problem Balancing incoming feature requests against fixed delivery timelines poses a common challenge in software development. With business stakeholders continuously demanding new capabilities, development teams must carefully evaluate and prioritize the backlog to deliver the most value by the deadline. However, rigid schedules coupled with ever-growing wishlists cultivate friction between stakeholders seeking…
