Articles
On Project Management
These articles are based on decades of experience with project work, as a team member, project manager, and manager of an R&D department. Most projects have concerned product development or product sustaining, either for in‑house products or in cooperation with external product owners. Project sizes have varied from small efforts to multi‑year endeavors involving tens of thousands of hours.
They are written with the intent of sharing experiences for the benefit of others, supporting not only the economic success of projects but, even more importantly, the well‑being of the people involved.
Continuous Project Planning
Continuous Project Planning is a set of ideas and principles designed to address the inherent difficulties of planning and managing projects. It focuses on continuously adapting the plan to reality, managing the uncertainty built into every project, and staying agile while maintaining confidence in how decisions affect your goals.
The Art of Estimating Time
Estimating time for tasks and projects is difficult even for experienced teams. This article explains four problems rooted in human nature and task interaction, and how to avoid them. It also describes how to handle the uncertainty that will always be part of project planning.
When to Plan and when to Scrum?
Scrum has become common even outside pure software development, often adopted in the hope of solving planning challenges. But when is it actually the right choice, and when should you instead focus on improving your predictive planning processes? Understanding the strengths and limits of each approach helps you choose the method that truly addresses your problems. Learn to recognize when Scrum will help you, and when it becomes a distraction.
Why Percent Complete is a Bad Project Metric
Percent Complete is a common metric on standard project report templates. Either for the project as a whole, or for individual milestones. I will explain why this is a bad metric.
RAG- or traffic light status with a red, amber or green color signal is also commonly used on project reports to signal if a project or milestone is on time and budget or not. While simple, this system also has issues. We will discuss how to do better.
Planning Embedded Systems Development Projects
Developing new embedded systems is difficult, and your projects will be facing risks and uncertainty. And yet you still need to commit to budgets and deadlines, coordinate the efforts of your team members, and handle lead times and both unexpected problems and known risks.
Project Portfolio Management for R&D and Product Development
Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is important for R&D teams and product development organizations to find and prioritize projects that create the most value with available resources. It is a discipline for handling project evaluation, resource allocation, and project risks in a continuous flow of projects throughout their lifecycle. Learn about the key aspects of PPM to develop your own process.
Switching from Task Management to The PlanMinder
You are working in projects. You are using some kind of task management tool. You are considering The PlanMinder.
What would change, and why would you switch?
Projektplanering som arbetsmiljöfråga
Arbetsmiljöverket har i AFS 2023:2 utfärdat föreskrifter om organisatorisk och social arbetsmiljö. För många utgör arbete i projektform huvuddelen av allt arbete, vilket gör projektorganisation och projektplanering till en viktig arbetsmiljöfråga. Brister i organisation och planering kan leda till ökad risk för stress och psykisk ohälsa. I denna artikel kommer vi att titta på de problem och risker arbetsmiljöverket tar upp relaterade till projektarbete, hur de vanligen tar sig uttryck och hur man kan motverka dessa.
On Software Development
Application Tutorial using SVG Animations
Serious applications do not have to be dull and boring. This article serves as inspiration by showing how to use SVG animations to create a tutorial overlay for a project planning application. It includes code examples in Delphi FMX and Skia.