Daily Scrums eliminate long elaborate meetings in favor of shorter productive ones. The objective is to provide laser focus to identify issues quickly and productively.

Kim Payne, Senior Project Manager at RSA Corp, shares how custom applications can help a business with their branding in addition to its various other benefits.

Backlogs are used to make projects more efficient and ultimately more successful; meaning more likely to be on-time, on-budget, and exceeding client expectationsThere are two types of Backlogs, Product Backlog and Sprint Backlog. Both have a specific purpose directed toward eliminating waste and maximizing value.

Kim Payne, Senior Project Manager at RSA Corp, explains how using custom applications gives businesses a competitive advantage over those businesses that still use “off-the-shelf” software packages.

In the previous segment, we discussed iteration cycles and how that they can be used to eliminate waste in the software development process. Standish reports that 64% of software functionality is never or rarely used. By eliminating wasted functionality we can spend 64% more time and money on functionality that adds value and creates ROI. Why waste money and time on functionality that will never be used?

We have been talking about how Agile eliminates waste and adds value to the project process.  Remember the 7W’s (wasters) of lean manufacturing practices: defects, over-production, wait, transportation, movement, inappropriate processing, and excessive stored inventory.
In the previous segment, “How Agile Eliminates Waste (Part 1 of 5)”, we learned how collocated Team Environments eliminates wait time, [...]

Over the next coming weeks I will be discussing five ways that the Agile methodology can be applied to the software development process to eliminate waste. We use Agile here at RSA Corp as part of our custom application development methodology.
Waste is defined as anything that does not add value to the final product or service, [...]

Too often, projects start without clearly knowing the work required. Even high-level requirements are not enough to gauge the depth and complexities of most projects. Low-level requirements bring more clarity, but experience has shown that it is often not enough. Also, the longer the project, the more likely requirements will change to match changing business needs. So, how do you ensure projects are completed on time and within budget?

From project initiation to delivery, expectations should be monitored and managed to ensure success. What are expectations, and who owns them? Expectations are a two-way street between the client and project team, brought together through clear and constant communication. Project expectations are the client’s vision of the results of the service or action provided. This can be stated or unstated. Either way, expectations are critical to project success.

The Standish group reported in 2009 that only 32% of IT projects were considered successful, leaving 24% to be cancelled before completion and 44% considered challenged. For many troubled projects, the source of the problems can be directly linked to a failure in implementing basic project management processes. Let’s get back to the basics. Here are the five basic processes for project management.