IT PM School

In this week's first email, we discussed an imminent problem that many project managers will face in 2024. It was about upcoming layoffs and performance optimization. In the second email, I've summarized the top three reasons project managers need to level up their efficiency as soon as possible. In this email, you'll learn the following: How to dramatically increase your understanding of project management as a system. How to generate additional value for the company where you work so that...

Martha's heart rate abruptly jumps up when she takes her phone in the morning. There's a meeting invite from HR with an obscured title, "Important Update." Her boss is also invited and has already accepted the meeting. She starts to feel uneasy. Her gut feeling tells her it's not good. Martha immediately logs in on her laptop. Is there a complaint from the customer? Have they found a critical defect? But there are no urgent emails or messages. Typically, she spends the first 30 minutes in the...

The running total of layoffs for 2023 based on full months to date is 224,503. This is super bad for project managers. I'll explain why in just a second. What's more important, layoffs will continue. But in addition to that, companies will start firing people because of performance. Let me share what I see happening in the IT industry right now. The fact is companies laid off workers in 2023 to adjust for slower growth predicted for 2023-2024. That's because here's how a company works: A...

In practice, you should use an integrated risk management approach. This means that you should talk through possible risks for each and every activity during the project. For example, when you collect requirements and write specifications, you and your team should always be on the lookout for risks: Track all the assumptions you make. Check if the requirements are ambiguous, i.e., do people understand the exact same requirements differently? Don't hide uncertainties. Instead, transform them...