Using Jira Sub-Tasks for QA Workflows
If you don’t have an official test management tool, Jira offers enough configurations for both manual and automated testing workflows. Check out our guide to using Jira Sub-Tasks for QA workflows.
Ship It: Release Management in Jira and Confluence
Ship it! Planning, managing and communicating releases is often done as an afterthought. You release the functionality that is done at the end of the sprint, or you release whatever is ready when you hit your milestone. As for planning, well that is the result of numerous meetings, scrum board watching, and hand wrenching. Having…
Jira: Using Epics vs Components vs Labels
We’re going to compare Epics, Components, and Labels as they are used in Atlassian’s tool, Jira. To properly use these features in Jira, you must first establish their definition of use and share these with your entire team and/or company. So let’s jump right in. What are these things? Epics are simply containers that are…
Disruptive Technology Management
Headlines scream disruptive technology! Cloud Computing, Smartphones, Blockchain, AI, Internet of Things, the list goes on and on. We are surrounded by a sea of disruptive technologies. There is no escaping it. Sooner or later your customer needs are going to drive your business to move to one or more of these technologies. Disruptive Technology…
The Danger of Unrealistic Expectations in Software
When delivering great software, product and project managers connect many elements. Sometimes the process is like finishing a puzzle; other times it is like fixing broken glass. The pieces may still fit together, but handling them can be dangerous. This is particularly true when handling expectations for software. Years ago, I joined a fast-growing SaaS…
Mastering Swarm Facilitation
Successful swarm facilitation is about building relations and trust with team members. Similar to an agile scrum team, a swarm is a lean kanban team focused on delivering software. Being a good swarm facilitator is more about enabling a team to realize its greatest potential and less about your personal status or title. Facilitators need…
Managing Chaos: Swarming in Lean Kanban
Anyone who has worked on any Agile project knows that it can be challenging to implement Agile. Pressures upstream, reluctant individuals, and organizational maturity can all play a role in derailing a smooth process. In most instances, we can overcome this through education, collaboration, inspection, and adaptation. But not always. In some projects and organizations,…
Agile Development Teams: Size Matters
Can I make my project move faster if I simply add more team members? This question has plagued project managers since the beginning of our profession. For many manufacturing-like projects, the answer to this fits into the project management pyramid. If I keep the scope constant and I want to reduce my timeline, I need…
Hiring The Right Candidate: Why Personality Matters
Articles and books teach us as job seekers how to find the perfect job. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, talks about the hedgehog principle and his 3 intersecting circles: What are you deeply passionate about? What can you be the best in the world at? What best drives your economic or resource engine?…
Deadlines, Changing Requirements and Agile Teams, oh my!
There are not a lot of guarantees in life, but change is definitely one of them. Therefore, it is no surprise that while building products, requirements regularly change. Whether the changes are based on new discoveries from users or the market, opinions of product owners and stakeholders, or due to something entirely different, most projects…
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