This book will help you get started with agile project management using Microsoft's latest releases of its market-leading Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2015, and Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS). The book demonstrates agile concepts and how to implement them using TFS/VSTS. Many organizations are using agile practices today. Agility has become a key enabler for running better projects with more successful end results and high quality output. At the same time, adoption of TFS/VSTS has increased dramatically, from being just a new version control system in the very beginning to becoming the fully-featured market leader it is today. In order to benefit the most from agile practices you need an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) toolset that supports your way of working. With TFS/VSTS, Microsoft has provided a powerful tool that is very customizable. This book shows you how you can use TFS/VSTS to implement many agile practices and how they fit into a well-thought-out ALM implementation.The book also shows how an agile product owner can work with TFS/VSTS to setup an agile project from scratch and how to continue using TFS/VSTS throughout the whole project to track progress, create and refine the backlog, and work with Kanban and Scrum Task boards. Keeping track of progress is important in any project. TFS/VSO includes many tools which will help you to track key metrics in an agile project. Many useful reports are available out of the box, and the TFS extensibility offers several ways to further customize reporting to fit your needs. What You Will Learn: Agile Concepts and Processes How TFS/VSO supports agile processes end to end How you can customize TFS/VSO to better support your processes How to set up an agile project from scratch and manage it over its lifecycle

No organisations, change initiative or stakeholder is ever the same. The way business change management is shaped to work with and get the best out of every different change situation makes a vital contribution to the success of the change. The Shape of Change is the first business change management book to focus solely on the practical challenges of how to plan, implement and embed successful business change initiatives in a wide range of organisations from the business change manager's point of view. It focuses on shaping every different change approach to take into consideration each individual situation including organisational culture, the type and impact of change the initiative, the attitudes and concerns of stakeholders and the potential for resistance within the organisation. Using a series of example change initiatives in private, public and non-profit sectors, it describes the change management journey, highlighting key points where business change management interventions are essential, and exploring how it feels to undertake business change initiatives in a wide range of situations, from communicating the initial change idea to ensuring the change is embedded and working well in business as usual. Accessible and comprehensive, The Shape of Change is relevant to anyone working in or planning organisational change.

The Essentials of Managing Risk for Projects and Programmes is an indispensable, practical guide to the steps that lead to success in managing risk. Risk management is particularly important for projects and programmes, since they all carry varying degrees of risk. The combination of uniqueness, constraints, assumptions, stakeholder expectations, changing environment, and human behaviour all conspire to make projects and programmes risky ventures. Rather than presenting new theories or techniques or tools, John Bartlett offers down-to-earth guidelines and proven methods to respond to risk appropriately. Pick up and use this concise, intensely practical guide to develop a shared understanding, shared language and shared purpose across project managers, programme managers, sponsors, risk managers, project and programme board members and associated stakeholders in all your projects and programmes.

Strategic planning is the starting point for projects and often the primary reason for a project's success or failure. Project leaders and project-orientated organisations need to understand strategic planning to understand their position and environment, and make rational decisions when selecting and defining their projects and programmes. The authors provide the reader with a straightforward, comprehensive understanding of the basics of project management, including the present status of the discipline, its history, and theoretical foundations. With emphasis on the project life cycle, it is designed to support the IPMA D, C, or B level qualifications, and IPMA Competence Baseline 4.0, providing you with all the information needed to pursue certification. Project: Execution is also an ideal introductory textbook to progressive programmes on strategic planning, with a focus on collaborative work, open strategy, and an exploration of open strategic planning on a social level. It provides a wealth of learning tools and case studies to demonstrate best practice. This is the ideal guide to project planning for anyone that wants their planning decisions to be as wise as they are savvy.

Selling and delivering a project to a satisfied client, and making a profit, is a complex task. Project manager and author Robin Hornby believes this has been neglected by current standards and is poorly understood by professionals in the field. Commercial Project Management aims to rectify this deficiency. As a unique 'how-to' guide for project and business managers, it offers practical guidance, and a wealth of explanatory illustrations, useful techniques, proven checklists, real life examples, and case stories. It will give project managers a needed confidence boost and a head start in their demanding role as they go 'on contract'. At the heart of Robin's approach is a vendor sales and delivery lifecycle that provides a framework for business control of projects. Unique elements include the integration of buyer and vendor project lifecycles, the recasting of project management as a cyclic set of functions to lead the work of the project, and the elevation of risk assessment from a project toolkit to a fundamental control process. Beyond project management, the book proposes a comprehensive template for the firm whose business is delivering projects. This is a how-to book for project and business managers working in a commercial environment looking for practical guidance on conducting their projects and organizing their firm.

Learn the nuts and bolts of scrum-its framework, roles, team structures, ceremonies, and artifacts-from the scrum master's perspective. The Art of Scrum details the scum master's responsibilities and core functions in planning and facilitating the ceremonies and artifacts of a scrum team: sprint planning, sprint execution, backlog refinement, daily standups, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives. It analyzes the scrum master's interactions with other scrum roles, including the product owner, development team members, other scrum masters, and the agile coach. Scrum Master Dave McKenna catalogs the three skill sets that you must master to be successful at binding teams and unleashing agility: soft skills, technical skills, and contingency skills. You'll benefit from the author's examination of these skill sets with insights and anecdotes drawn from his own experience as an engineer, agile coach, and scrum master. He illustrates common mistakes scrum masters make, as well as modeling successful strategies, adaptations to changes, and solutions to tricky problems. What You'll Learn: How scrum masters facilitate the agile ceremonies How scrum masters align scrum teams to sprint goals and shield them from interference How scrum masters coach product owners to build a backlog and refine user stories How scrum masters manage contingencies such as intra-team conflicts, organizational impediments, technical debt, emergent architecture, personnel changes, scope creep, and learning from failure. Who This Book Is For: The primary readership is scrum masters, product owners, and dev team members. The secondary readership is scrum stakeholders, including executive sponsors, project managers, functional and line managers, administrative personnel, expert consultants, testers, vendors, and end users. The tertiary readership is anybody who wants to know how build an agile team that consistently delivers value and continuous improvement.

This indispensable handbook details the practical steps that can lead to success in programme management. Accelerating change has demanded that companies and organisations use programme management methods and techniques to effect it. John Bartlett provides the benefit of his deep involvement in managing large-scale change, where his advice and guidance have proved successful for both the private and public sectors of commerce and industry. The book is compatible with several existing frameworks, not least the UK government's Managing Successful Programmes approach. It is arranged without cumbersome theory but presents just the essentials needed for good practice. The Essentials of Managing Programmes is recommended reading in many universities and the Association for Project Management. Pick up and use this concise, intensely practical guide to develop a shared understanding, shared language and shared purpose in all your programmes; across project managers, sponsors, programme board members and all those involved in or affected by organizational transformation.

Unmasking Project Management helps professionals in information technology (IT) and business identify successful approaches to management of information systems (MIS) that will work for their organizations and projects.

The Yearbook on Space Policy is the reference publication analyzing space policy developments. Each year it presents issues and trends in space policy and the space sector as a whole. Its scope is global and its perspective is European. The Yearbook also links space policy with other policy areas. It highlights specific events and issues, and provides useful insights, data and information on space activities. The Yearbook on Space Policy is edited by the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) based in Vienna, Austria. It combines in-house research and contributions of members of the European Space Policy Research and Academic Network (ESPRAN), coordinated by ESPI. The Yearbook is designed for government decision-makers and agencies, industry professionals, as well as the service sectors, researchers and scientists and the interested public.

The book presents the development of the Construction Quality Assessment System (CONQUAS), Singapore's de facto quality performance measurement system, explains the application of the Quality Management System (QMS) to manage CONQUAS and identifies 33 critical success factors (CSFs) for achieving high CONQUAS scores. Through CONQUAS, the reader benefits from understanding how the Singapore government developed and implemented the first objective system for measuring what many building professionals have perceived to be elusive quality standards in the construction industry. The book presents both the theoretical concepts as well as the practical aspects to achieving strategic Project Quality Management that is anchored on the CSFs to building best practices. To realistically reflect the practical aspects and challenging issues faced by stakeholders in the construction industry, questionnaire surveys were conducted with building professionals to distinguish the importance level and extent of adoption of the 33 CSFs (identified from a comprehensive review of the extant literature) in influencing and affecting the achievement of high CONQUAS scores. These were further anchored by in-depth interviews with quality experts in the Singapore construction industry to provide a better understanding of issues relating to strategic Project Quality Management. Collectively, the empirical findings collated from the building professionals suggest that while the CSFs identified are known tenets of quality, these were still not being followed in their totality. A further case study was conducted through a formal set of in-depth interviews with the quality assurance team of a construction company who has direct involvement before, during and after their tremendous improvements in the CONQUAS scores attained. The strength of this book therefore represents a true account and reflections of real-life practices and experiences in the construction industry for contractors, quality managers and policy-makers to learn from. Although the context of this book relates to the Singapore experience, the lessons and recommendations are equally relevant and applicable to the global construction industry in both the developing and developed countries whose stakeholders (in both the public and private sectors) wish to understand how CONQUAS works, and how the CSFs identified can likewise be implemented for strategic Project Quality Management to building best practices. The book is therefore of interests to researchers, academia and practitioners in the construction industry as well as in other sectors of the economy (in Singapore and other countries) where learning points may be used for enhancing project quality management for buildings.

By bringing together various current direc tions, Software Project Management in a Changing World focuses on how people and organizations can make their processes more change-adaptive. The selected chapters closely correspond to the project management knowledge areas introduced by the Project Management Body of Knowledge, including its extension for managing software projects. The contributions are grouped into four parts, preceded by a general introduction. Part I "Fundamentals" provides in-depth insights into fundamental topics including resource allocation, cost estimation and risk management. Part II "Supporting Areas" presents recent experiences and results related to the management of quality systems, knowledge, product portfolios and glob al and virtual software teams. Part III "New Paradigms" details new and evolving software-development practices including agile, distributed and open and inner-source development. Finally, Part IV "Emerging Techniques" introduces search-based tech niques, social media, software process simulation and the efficient use of empirical data and their effects on software-management practices. This book will attract readers from both academia and practice with its excellent balance between new findings and experience of their usage in new contexts. Whenever appropriate, the presentation is based on evidence from empirical evaluation of the proposed approaches. For researchers and graduate students, it presents some of the latest methods and techniques to accommodate new challenges facing the discipline. For professionals, it serves as a source of inspiration for refining their project-management skills in new areas.

Learn step-by-step instructions for managing any project in a clean sequence of five classic phases-initiating, planning, executing, releasing, and closing. This book sets out clearly and engagingly which tasks need to be done and when, how, and why they need to be done. Each chapter on one of the five phases walks you through all the steps in that phase's workflow, which are laid out in a checklist attached to the chapter. The checklists are graphically supplemented by flow charts and swim lane diagrams. The master checklist serves as a map and tool for project managers to use in the real world to run projects and keep them on track. Senior project manager and PM mentor Melanie McBride understands the predicament of beginning and junior project managers: "You're at the edge of a tornado, bombarded by overly excited people offering you a Mission Impossible. Everywhere you look there are cool shiny things swirling around your head-the earnest coworker telling you to go agile, the software package promising a turnkey collaboration solution, the PMO with an arm-long list of required processes. So how do you avoid getting whacked in the head by that airborne Mac truck of a customer commit? Oh, and what exactly do you need to do to get those flying monkeys to shut up?" Project Management Basics slips the spinning project manager into the eye of the storm where things are quiet and it's easy to figure out what to do next using the author's detailed checklists and hard-headed advice. She shows that project management doesn't have to be "a chaotic hot mess, leaving you with an egg-beater hairdo." With McBride's book and checklists in hand, even first-time project managers can pull off controlled, flying-monkey-free projects. What You Will Learn See the essential duties of a project manager Master the project management life cycle in five phases Discover the what, when, how, and why of PM tasks presented in detailed steps Leverage checklists for optimum efficiency and throughput Adapt workflow controls to low-PM organizations Enhance PM with vogue methodologies without obscuring the basics Who This Book Is For Beginning and junior project managers seeking a concise, authoritative guide to the basics of project management, together with checklists, flow charts, and swim lane diagrams for immediate use in real-world projects.

Covers the entire process of risk management by providing methodologies for determining the sources of engineering project risk, and once threats have been identified, managing them through: identification and assessment (probability, relative importance, variables, risk breakdown structure, etc.); implementation of measures for their prevention, reduction or mitigation; evaluation of impacts and quantification of risks and establishment of control measures. It also considers sensitivity analysis to determine the influence of uncertain parameters values on different project results, such as completion time, total costs, etc. Case studies and examples across a wide spectrum of engineering projects discuss such diverse factors as: safety; environmental impacts; societal reactions; time and cost overruns; quality control; legal issues; financial considerations; and political risk, making this suitable for undergraduates and graduates in grasping the fundamentals of risk management.

This book examines the link between change and project management and how creating a closer alignment between these two methodologies can yield greater benefits and mitigate elements of failure of information systems (IS) projects. This study explores the underlying challenges and practicalities of closer integration of the two disciplines and asserts that such a successful change goes beyond the simple training of project managers in the practitioner context. Instead, it requires organizations to conceptualize the necessary challenges to realize the potential benefits of this recommended integrated approach. The integration of both project and change management has been advocated in existing research, but the challenges of moving from a current position of separate methodologies, different standards bodies and in some cases totally separate organizational structures, is a step change for many organizations. Change initiatives where good change management practices are implemented, can increase the probability of successful organizational change. The tasks of leading and sustaining change can be complex and often entail the interplay of multiple factors involving action by people at every level of the business. This book offers a guide that identifies the barriers and major challenges that may arise in the development of the closer integration of change and project management. With a better understanding of these issues, organizations can avoid such pitfalls when establishing their own integrated approach.

Study for the Project Management Professional (PMP (R)) Examination with this essential aid in your study program. It contains over 400 realistic multiple choice practice questions, answers, and explanations. PMP (R) Examination Practice Questions is organized into two useful parts. The first comprises all the questions, organized in chapters by topic, allowing you to simulate the actual test. The second part not only gives the answers, but also comments on the incorrect answers, providing additional insight and helping you formulate your test-taking strategy. What You'll Learn See Q&As to over 400 realistic practice questions and answers Discover all the formulas needed to pass the exam Use the first part to simulate testing Use the second part as a study guide to understand why an answer is correct or not Who This Book Is For Those with project management experience and some IT experience who are ready to study for and take the PMP exam.

There is a much better chance to politically establish a strategy in your company if strategy development is already tactically thought-out and all involved persons are included in an intelligent manner. This book demonstrates how to shape this process to ensure that a sustainable strategy is generated that ensures economic stability, uniquely positions the company and can readily be implemented. After all, strategy for its own sake is worthless - what counts is implementation and results. The centre stage of strategy process is taken by the intelligent use and combination of methodological tools. Numerous case studies from enterprises and medium-sized businesses illustrate strategy work in a vivid and clear manner.

This book attempts to reflect the project reality as closely as possible, covering the ISO 21500:2012 standard that has just been introduced and the benefits from the best contributions worldwide and also providing the concise yet powerful tool box. It shall be easy to use and intuitively supportive of project managers. So far, evidence indicates that these targets are successfully met. One of its key recognitions, and in consequence a distinctive feature of this book, is the impact that the project manager's personality has on the fate of the project. The project manager's successful self-management in work & life and in leadership processes should be considered as important in any endeavor as all other project management processes, covered by the new standards and guidelines.

The Principles of Project Finance reviews the technique of project finance. It explores, step-by-step, the key ingredients of the concept. The book is aimed at a business savvy audience, but one which is not necessarily up to speed on the concept, and has a global reach by covering both OECD countries and the emerging markets. Project finance is positioned at a key point between the global capital markets and the energy and infrastructure industries. To explain and illustrate the ideas behind project finance, the book is made of chapters written by a range of leading players in the market from around the world and is split into four sections: c The first reviews various themes and issues key to the project finance market - views from bankers, lawyers and advisers plus chapters on bank, bond and multilateral finance and a look at environmental, insurance and construction market issues. c The second section looks at how project finance is used in various sectors of the energy and infrastructure market - renewable energy, oil and gas, mining, PPPs and roads and transportation. cThe third then takes an in-depth look at various projects finance markets from around the world - Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Turkey, Russia, Africa, France, USA and Brazil. c Finally, the fourth section presents a series of Top 10 deal cases studies from the pages of Thomson Reuters Project Finance International (PFI), the leading source of global project finance information.

The current, second edition of this book reflects the 15 years of practical experience with the Six Sigma+Lean toolbox. It is a comprehensive collection of all the tools necessary for project work and running workshops when improving processes. All tools have been illustrated in a clear and comprehensible structure with examples and tips for applying the tools included. The chronology corresponds to the procedure of an improvement project comprising the steps D(efine), M(easure), A(nalyze), I(mprove) and C(ontrol). The most important innovation of this edition is the fact that it guides the user to select the appropriate tool using questions. The paradigm change from a Toolset to a Mindset has proven worthwhile in project work and ensures that corporate problems are addressed with the goal of achieving efficient solutions rather than having a large quantity of perfect tools to choose from. The efficiency factor of work in projects and workshops will therefore improve significantly. Through this paradigm change, connected with its unique structure, this book provides an effective tool not only for project and workshop leaders but also for the executives/sponsors involved who will be guided to solve the given task formulation quickly and in a sustainable way.

This book is a practical guide for new agile practitioners and contains everything a new project manager needs to know to get up to speed with agile practices quickly and sort out the hype and dogma of pseudo-agile practices.The author lays out the general guidelines for running an agile project with the assumption that the project team may be working in a traditional environment (using the waterfall model, or something similar). Agile Development in the Real World conveys valuable insights to multiple audiences: For new-to-agile project managers, this book provides a distinctive approach that Alan Cline has used with great success, while showing the decision points and perspectives as the agile project moves forward from one step to the next. This allows new agile project managers or agile coaches to choose between the benefits of agile and the benefits of other methods. For the agile technical team member, this book contains templates and sample project artifacts to assist in learning agile techniques and to be used as exemplars for the new practitioner's own project. For the Project Management Office (PMO), the first three chapters focus on portfolio management. They explain, for the agilists' benefit, how projects are selected and approved, and why projects have an inherent "shelf-life" that results in hard deadlines that may seem arbitrary to traditional technical teams. What You Will Learn: How and why the evolution of project management, from PM-1 (prescriptive) to PM-2 (adaptive) affects modern 21st century project management. How sociology (stakeholder management), psychology (team dynamics), and anthropology (organizational culture) affect the way software is developed today, and why it is far more effective A clear delineation of what must to be accomplished by all the roles (PM, BA, APM, Developer, and Tester), why those roles are needed, and what they must do Step-by-step guide for a successful project based on studies and the author's own experiences. Specific techniques for each role on the development team, both in the pre-iteration and iteration cycles, of product development. The appendices contain templates that the team could use or modify to tailor their own agile processes specific to the team, project, and organization.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the scientific track of the 8th Software Quality Days Conference, SWQD 2016, held in Vienna, Austria, in January 2016. The SWQD conference offers a range of comprehensive and valuable information by presenting new ideas from the latest research papers, keynote speeches by renowned academics and industry leaders, professional lectures, exhibits, and tutorials. The five scientific full papers accepted for SWQD were each peer reviewed by three or more reviewers and selected out of 13 high-quality submissions. Further, nine short papers were also presented and are included in this book. In addition, one keynote paper by Scott Ambler and Mark Lines is also included.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the scientific track of the 7th Software Quality Days Conference, SWQD 2015, held in Vienna, Austria, in January 2015. The SWQD conference offers a range of comprehensive and valuable information by presenting new ideas from the latest research papers, keynote speeches by renowned academics and industry leaders, professional lectures, exhibits, and tutorials. The four scientific full papers accepted for SWQD were each peer reviewed by three or more reviewers and selected out of 13 high-quality submissions. Further, four short papers were also presented and are included in this book. The papers are organized into topical sections on risk management and inspection, change impact analysis and systems testing, and software and systems architectures.

The goals of Management and the Gospel: Luke's Radical Message for the First and Twenty-First Centuries may appear to be simple: it describes what management theory and practice looked like in the first century, uses this as a lens to examine what the Gospel of Luke says about management, and draws out implications for today. However, the book is quite profound in finding that management is a dominant theme in the Gospel, that its message is consistently counter-cultural, and that Luke contains a four-phase 'how to' process model to help readers to implement change. Readers will acquire a new way to understand the Gospel as well as the moral foundations of modern management.

This book provides administrators in public and non-profit organizations with direction and a framework from which to lead their organizations effectively. Taking a global approach to the issues administrators need to examine when managing a group of employees at any level (including budgeting and expenditures, forecasting, policy creation and execution, communication and reporting), this book explores the driving forces in organizational decision making. Author Nick Valcik takes a holistic view on organizational management, beginning with the core aspects of public organizations and the leadership competencies necessary to manage an organization successfully. Designed to be used on undergraduate and graduate courses in public administration and in public affairs programs, the book discusses the basics of organizational structure, delves into risk management issues, and offers a set of tools that can be used by administrators to make informed decisions based on actual data or documented processes. Throughout the book, real world case studies provide students and practitioners with a clear understanding of how exactly the right decision tool may be applied when facing a particular decision in any organization.

The publication of this book "Project Knowledge Management - Systematic Lea- ing with the Project Comparison Technique" by Erwin v. Wasielewski lls me with a special joy. It is a translation of the author's German book "Projektvergleic- technik" which I edited in 2003 in the GPM Deutsche Gesellschaft fur .. Proje- management e.V. series in Germany. I have closely watched the author's work on Project ComparisonTechnique since his rst publicationin 1978, and I have always admired the analytical exactness of his investigations. Unfortunately, as I have to admit in retrospect, v. Wasielewski's ideas were too far advanced. Maybe the fact that parametric analyseswere rarely used in Germanyalso hinderedthe propagation of the method at the time. Duringthe 1970sand early1980s,there was notalk about projectcharacteristics, project benchmarking, or project evaluation. The only exception was an evaluation model presented by Bruce Baker in 1979 during the world congress in Garmisch- Partenkirchen,but this can hardlybe comparedto the approachin this book.Almost nobody re ected on evaluation of project experiences, although in the USA for several years cost data of completed projects were being used to get parametric estimation equations. A chapter "Project Close-out" did not yet exist, and even later was to be found only in advanced technical literature.