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MANAGEMENT STYLES

MANAGEMENT STYLES

Key management styles Each manager independently determines the style of communication with employees. Some of them are strict with their staff and like to keep everything under control, while others are more democratic and allow workers

freely manage your own life. Whatever approach is applied manager, it will be vital to business success. Organization as good as the person managing it. Different ways work with subordinates in the workplace is called the management style.

There are three main categories of management styles:

 autocratic;  paternalistic;  democratic.

Autocratic management style With this style of work, superiors do not take into account ideas and proposals of subordinates. Executives, managers and superiors carry responsibility for decision-making without involving subordinates in the process decision making. Employees are completely dependent on managers and do not have the freedom to make decisions on your own. Subordinates in this style the works simply adhere to the principles and policies formulated leadership. They do not have voting rights in management decisions. To employees lack of motivation with an autocratic style of work. Managers do not trust workers and simply carry out one-way communication, give orders and orders that are expected to be respected. This the approach has limitations, but it can be effective in certain situations.

For example:

 when it is necessary to make quick decisions in the company (for example, during crises)  to control a large number of low-skilled workers.

Paternalistic management style Under paternalistic style, managers decide what is best for employees as well as for the organization. Company policy is being developed in the interests of employees and organizations. Suggestions and reviews of subordinates

taken into account before making a decision. With this style Work employees feel affection and loyal to their organization. Managers pay more attention to social needs and attitudes. their employees. They advise employees on various issues and listen to their reviews or opinions. However managers accept actual decisions (in the best interests of the workers) as they consider that the staff still needs guidance.

Democratic management style With this management style, managers will trust employees, and encourage them to make decisions. They delegate part of their authority to them. (empowerment) and listen to their advice. For this good two-way communication is required, and often organized discussion groups that can offer useful suggestions and ideas. A democratic work style ensures effective and healthy communication between management and employees. Managers must be prepared to encourage leadership skills of subordinates.

A democratic system arises when decisions based on view of most of all workers. However, this is not possible. for most business decisions. One criticism of this style is that a decision may require more time.

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ASSESSMENT OF PROJECT TERMS

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This leads us to the probabilistic nature of estimating project timelines. You can hardly express the estimated duration of the project in one figure and be at the same time honest, precise and accurate at the same time.

Estimation of the project implementation period is a probabilistic value. An honest, precise and accurate way of presenting project evaluations sounds something like this: “The project will take 6 weeks with a 95% success rate. Or it will take 4 weeks with a probability of meeting the deadline of 65%. ” Can I have some more present a project estimate as a range of values ​​taking into account 95% probability of success: “Most likely, the project will take from 4 to 6 weeks.” Unit of measurement Before moving on, let's determine the units of measurement for the terms project. Quite often used man-day, that is, how many days one man will do the task. Beta distribution To get the likelihood of a successful project on time I used beta distribution. It looks something like this.

Conclusion Evaluation of projects in the IT world is far from an exact science. And so it will continue long. Methodology for using the triple beta distribution method not perfect. But it can give you more confidence in your ratings.

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WORK WITH PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

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Work with requirements and project evaluation Project Evaluation Requirements

3 main qualities of a good project evaluation:  honesty;  precision;  accuracy.

Honesty How can honesty be measured? Honesty - what does it even mean? Honesty is first of all in front of oneself. The most common definition of a fair assessment: this is such a project assessment, which you yourself would have taken if you were a little sick. Imagine that you have a seasonal cold, and you need to implement this project in the estimated you deadline. If you take it, the assessment is honest. Precision Precision means that if you rated 3 similar projects, then you should get 3 similar ratings. Make sure that your numbers do not contradict each other and are not in doubt in your professionalism and common sense. Accuracy and terms of project evaluation Estimation of project deadlines should be accurate. That means the difference between the predicted and the actual project deadline should be minimal. If you say that the project will take 3 months, then it’s extremely it is advisable that it be 3 months. Not half a year. Or a year. And the accuracy of the assessment is a very tough nut to crack.

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PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT

adrenaline-studios.com Project quality management includes processes necessary for ensuring compliance of the project results with the requirements.

1. Quality planning - determines which quality standards apply to the project, what are the requirements for the quality of work, and what must be done to achieve them. 2. Quality Assurance - evaluates the overall progress of the project on a regular basis basis for gaining confidence that the project will comply with established requirements. 3. Quality control - identifying the causes of quality mismatch completed work, established standards, analysis of identified causes and finding ways to address the causes of poor performance.

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Monitoring and analysis of project implementation.

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Project Monitoring

For the successful implementation of the project, the manager must have a complete and accurate information on the progress of the project, on the work performed, Delivered supplies, possible risks. Report format should be the same for all participants. project team. In this case, the report data should be comparable with the plan. The methods that will be used in the control process should be established. determine the level of detail of the data. For example, during monitoring actual performance of individual work may apply the following methods: Method 0-100. Two degrees of completion are evaluated: work done - 100%, and the work is not completed - 0%. When using this method, work, 99% complete is an outstanding job. In this method, in addition to the state of completion of a separate work (completed - not performed), intermediate estimates of the degree of completion are used. For example, 25%, 50% and others. Milestone Method. One of the most commonly used methods for tracking the implementation of lengthy work. The work is divided into parts (not necessarily equal), milestones that characterize the implementation of individual stages of work. In the future, the achievements of the designated milestones are tracked.

Excessive detail, the complexity of evaluating indicators can lead to large loss of time for reporting and distracting project participants from direct work on the project. At the same time, the absence of significant indicators during monitoring may lead to a distorted understanding project implementation progress. MODIFICATION OF THE PROJECT

Change the timing of the project. This group of decisions is advisable in cases where there are rigid project cost limits.

Change the content of the project. In this case, the scope of work performed is subject to revision. Development of an alternative solution. The decisions of this group exclude changing the main parameters of the project: cost, timing, quality, content - and therefore are the most optimal.

Termination of the project. After making the necessary adjustments, the stages of the project cycle start over. Planning, execution of works, control, analysis and adjustments are made throughout the implementation phase project.

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CONFLUENCE

adrenaline-studios.com Confluence is also a very popular software product designed to help. teams to collaborate and share information effectively. Confluence lets you create pages and blogs that you can Comment and edit to all members of the team who have access.

Here you can also attach files and display them on the page for more convenience. Many people need to design, view, edit, Comment and publish content as part of a collaboration. Confluence was designed to integrate with JIRA, and they have many common ground.

Jira

Key features of JIRA  Project control.  Agile, Scrum, Kanban.

 Project planning.  Issue Tracking.  Ability to integrate with code.  Technical support service.  Availability from mobile devices.  Ability to customize the workflow.  Reporting.  Authentication through LDAP and Active Directory.  Bug Tracking System.  Integration with Git.  1000+ various additions, extensions, plugins.  Email notifications.  Ability to independently determine and modify computational needs (On Demand).  Free for Open source projects.

JIRA at a Glance Thousands of teams chose JIRA to organize the process, distribute work and track team activities. Using landline or mobile interface, JIRA helps the team do the work.

Error tracking is achieved largely through deep integration with source code and development environment.

Project Tracking: JIRA allows you to centrally manage all projects, without losing sight of the big picture.

Software development After the JIRA version control system - the most important application for the team developers, because it allows you to easily adapt to using scrum and Kanban.

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MS PROJECT

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Microsoft Project (or MSP) is a project management program developed by and sold by Microsoft.

MS Project tool designed to save time and effort leader. This tool is rich in features that include both simple and complex functions - but they are all necessary in the process project management. The problem with this tool is that, like many other rich tools, it’s very difficult to get used to them. Excessive feature set in MS Project can turn the study of this tool in a very time-consuming process, taking precious time that It would be worth spending on project management. The following tips will help you avoid this loss of time, while the tool will still work for your benefit. Do not try to embed too many tasks into the tool. More than tasks you can track, the more you have to apply effort to their change, and you have to change them. The optimal number of tasks is several hundred, and 600 tasks can just be considered the golden mean, although you may need less. If you are working on a very voluminous project, then you should divide it into subprojects. Even if you don’t have managers who will report to you, your work will become easier if you will divide the project into several MS Project files and each will processed individually. Microsoft Project is one of many tools used. Experienced project managers for accurate and efficient management. Microsoft Project helps build a work plan, define tasks, and how they will be executed at the most detailed level, helping to fit into deadlines and budget. This tool is considered the standard in the project management industry. The integration of this software with Office Suite is a big plus. Many organizations work on unique projects where deadlines range from two to three weeks. The most difficult part in project management is the content and management of the initial project plan. Many project requirements vary by the course of its implementation. As a result, schedules and deadlines change - for the better

either for the worse. Microsoft Project automatically sets deadlines for Based on the exact time and available resources of each job.

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PROJECT MANAGER TOOLS:

adrenaline-studios.com MS PROJECT, CONFLUENCE AND JIRA Project manager tools

Project management is a complicated thing. The project is at the epicenter works: reassures the client, invigorates the team, convinces the team leader in veracity phrases "the impossible is possible" and generally a jack of all trades. Job interesting, and if you build the processes correctly - it’s also nice! To make your life easier, below are the popular tools that project managers and product managers and with whom you use exactly come across at work.

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Assessment and risk management of IT project

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Risk assessment is a collection of regular risk analysis procedures, identify sources of risk, identify possible

the magnitude of the consequences of the manifestation of risk factors and determining the role each source in the overall risk profile of the project. Risk management includes development and implementation economically sound recommendations and measures for this project, aimed at reducing the level of risk to an acceptable level.

Risk reduction (risk avoidance methods) Risk reduction is possible by eliminating them, reducing the likelihood occurrence and reduction of possible damage.

Risk diversification (risk sharing methods) Risk sharing methods are more flexible tools. management. One of the main methods is to distribute the total risk by combining (with varying degrees of integration) with others participants interested in the success of a common cause. Market diversification, i.e. work simultaneously on several commodity markets when failure in one of them can be offset by success on others.

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KEY PARTICIPANTS OF IT PROJECT AND THEIR FUNCTIONS

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Initiator - the party that is the author of the main idea of ​​the project, its preliminary substantiation and proposals for the implementation of the project. AT practically any of the future can act as an initiator project participants. The customer is the main party interested in the implementation of the project and achieving its results. Future owner and user of results project. The customer determines the basic requirements and scope of the project, provides financing of the project at the expense of its funds or funds attracted investors, concludes contracts with key executors the project, is responsible for these contracts, manages the process interactions between all project participants. Responsible for the project as a whole before society and the law. Investor (s) - the party (s) investing in a project, for example, through loans. The goal of investors is to maximize profits on their investments from the implementation of the project. If the investor and customer are not one and the same person, then usually banks act as investors, investment funds and other organizations. Investors come into contractual relations with the customer, control the execution of contracts and Settle with other parties as the project progresses. Investors are full partners of the project and owners all property that is acquired through their investments until they all funds will be paid under a contract with a customer or credit agreement. Project Manager - legal entity to which the customer and investor delegate authority to manage the project: planning, control and coordination of work of all project participants. The composition of the functions and powers of the project manager is determined contract with the customer. Project Team - Organizational structure led by project manager and created for the duration of the project. The task of the project team is to carry out project management functions until effective achievement of project goals.

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STAGES OF IT PROJECT

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Project stages Although there are many types of projects, each of them is implemented by specific pattern. In general, the design process goes like this:  The idea is analyzed, the project plan is developed.  A project manager is selected.  Design goals are clearly stated, taking into account all kinds of restrictions.  Design participants are identified.  The date of commencement of work and the planned volume of the project are determined.  Possible risks and consequences are determined.  Work is underway on the goal.  The problems arising in the course of work are eliminated.  The final result of the project is analyzed.  The result is presented to management.  The final result and the work of the participants are evaluated. Depending on the type of design, this plan can be adjusted to specific goals. New stages of work on the project may be introduced or eliminate existing ones if they are not needed.

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PLANNING GAME - SCRUM

adrenaline-studios.com PLANNING POKER

Poker planning (Planning Poker, Scrum poker) - evaluation technique, based on agreement, mainly used for assessment of the complexity of the upcoming work or the relative volume of solved tasks in software development.

Poker Planning is based on the following principles:

 collective discussion;  Collective consent;  Involvement of experts;  Grouping and Relativity of sizes;  The accumulation and use of the experience of previous assessments.

Poker planning encourages the team to discuss Backlog's elements for reaching agreement on estimates of the scope of work on the Backlog elements. At This is sure to involve experts in the team in the discussion.

Grading scale Before starting poker planning, the team must decide which use a scale or series of numbers to evaluate. Remember that in evaluating the most the main thing is correctness, not accuracy. Poker Planning most often uses the rating scale proposed by Mike Cohn and based on a modified series of Fibonacci numbers: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.13, 20, 40 and 100.

The alternative scale that teams use is based on a number of numbers in the power of 2: 1, 2, 4, 8.16, 32, 64 ... .... The order of poker planning.

The entire Scrum team takes part in poker planning. During this game The owner of the product presents and explains the elements of Backlog, and the Scrum-master facilitates holding poker planning. Also, the scrum master should closely monitor participants who are in the language of their gestures or silently disagree with the assessments, helping them get involved in the current the game. The task of the development team is to collectively evaluate the product backlog. Each member of the development team is given a deck of cards for Poker planning.

Poker Card Values Map Description

0This map indicates an item that is already completed or so small that it makes no sense to assign size 1/2 Used to indicate the size of tiny elements 1, 2, 3 Used to indicate the size of small elements 5, 8, 13 Used to indicate the size of the middle elements. For of many teams, an element of size 13 is the most major of those planned in the sprint. Therefore they break an element larger than 13 into a number of smaller ones

elements

20, 40

Used to indicate the size of large elements (e.g. feature stories or themes)

100

Serves to indicate the size of a very large feature or Epica

∞ (infinity)

Designates an element so large size that it doesn’t even make sense to assign a number

? (interrogative th sign)

This card asks the Product Owner for additional clarifications. Some team members use this card to refuse to evaluate the current element as rule because they are so distant from him that they don’t even know how to evaluate it.

This card is used to indicate the need for a team member’s opinion, take a break for tea or coffee (possibly with a sandwich).

Poker Planning brings together different people who have to work together, allowing them to reach agreement on the correctness of the estimates. And for often such collective assessment achieves better results than individual.

The rules of the game of poker planning. 1. The product owner selects the item to be valued from the product backlog and reads his description to the team. 2. Members of the Development Team discuss the item and ask clarifying questions to the owner of the product that answers them. 3. Each evaluator secretly selects a card corresponding to his assessment. 4. As soon as each evaluator selects the secretly needed card, all evaluators at the same time show their cards denoting them personal ratings.

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Boards in Kanban and Scrum

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The board is the heart of kanban - and scrum - development, the only visual attribute of methodologies. Boards are first hung on the wall when they want show that work by Kanban or Scrum.

The board is drawn into columns. Each column is a task state. ("Development", "Testing", "Release"). The number of columns depends on project, but the fewer the better.

Cards are tasks. On each description, weight and priority. When the task passes the next stage, it is re-glued into the corresponding column. At a simple look at the board understands how things are with the project as a whole and with each challenge.

Boards are physical and electronic.

Physical board. Often a board is really a board with cells from masking tape. Tasks - sticky notes that are convenient to move around the board.

Electronic board. If you have employees who work remotely, electronic board is the only way out. Best option for this online TRELLO.com service

What are the restrictions?

In Scrum, the number of tasks that are simultaneously in work is limited to total weight. If it’s known that the team sprints 26 conventional units, that means the total weight of tasks for the next sprint cannot exceed 26.

In Kanban, the number of active tasks is limited by their weight for each status. separately. It doesn’t matter what the total weight of the tasks on the board is.

What indicators measure

Scrum measures the total weight of tasks performed during a sprint. Dividing the total weight all the tasks of the project on productivity for the sprint, we get an approximate project completion date. Scrum Team Challenge - Promotion performance. Kanban measures the average time taken to complete a task on the board. This time - team performance indicator. The indicator gives an interesting effect: the team does not focus on specific tasks. She just ensures that the average execution time is minimal. How to implement

Going to Agile is easier through Kanban. This methodology has fewer restrictions, you can not form cross-functional teams, but still share to departments. Scrum can be tried when you feel the essence of flexible methodology.

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How to work on a project in Agile

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When work begins, Scrum makes it clear why it's called much more directive methodology.

Scrum-team splits project work time into equal segments - sprints. Sprint can last a day or a month, and in recent years Sprint in 2 weeks became the standard.

Since all sprints are the same in duration, the team appears in the work rhythm. Rhythm is an important aspect of methodology.

Sprint consists of four successive stages.

 Planning. The team checks the tasks in the backlog and selects the most priority. Sprint takes as many tasks as they can do.  Implementation. In an ideal team, specialists work in parallel: while the programmer creates the code, the tester writes tests to it, and the technical writer - documentation.  Release. The team presents the results of its work to the world. To the moment each release the product must be workable, useful for the user and more perfect than before the sprint. More about these I wrote the requirements in an article about Agile.  Retrospective. The team discusses sprint and problems encountered. Together They’re thinking how to improve their work and do more in the next sprint. Scrum categorically cannot add tasks to the current sprint, so Scrum less flexible. Even if an urgent and important task appears, it will go to work. only from the next sprint.

At the end of the sprint, unfinished tasks go back to the backlog. Do I need them finish and when, determine at the planning stage of the next sprint.

Compared to Scrum directives, Kanban is a bastion of liberalism and chaos.

There are no sprints as such. The project is usually divided into iterations, but they can be any length. The rhythm of Kanban is not prescribed.

Recall the steps of a scrum sprint:

 Planning.  Implementation.  Release.  Retrospective. In Kanban, one stage is not tied to another. They come when they decide team. For example, release - on Tuesdays, planning - when it ended tasks, retrospectives - every last Thursday of the month, and against the backdrop of everything this is continuously being developed.

Since there are no pronounced sprints, features appear:

 New tasks are added at any time. If you need to urgently do something, the team is not waiting for the next sprint;  the task remains in work as long as desired until the team finishes it or will not cancel.

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How to list tasks in Agile

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To begin with, the team takes the project and divides it into dozens or even hundreds of tasks slightly less. This is part of Agile's philosophy, which is why both Kanban and Scrum do it. All the tasks of the project to be completed are added to the general list - backlog. Backlog is a project task bank. Each task should be relevant. If necessary, they can be added to the backlog or removed from it on the fly. Each task has weight - usually this is the time it takes to solve. The team itself estimates the weight of all tasks, so if the project is not completed on time, the team is to blame. Each task also has a priority. Kanban prioritizes the team at Scrum is the owner of the product. Priorities are possible and even necessary to review during the project is one of the advantages of flexible methodologies.

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Scrum and Kanban as the most

adrenaline-studios.com Common Agile Methodologies software development.

Scrum and Kanban are flexible product creation methodologies. You can use them work in any industry, but they are especially good for IT. At the heart of Both methodologies are based on Agile principles.

Clean Scrum - A More Directive Methodology - More Prescriptions. Kanban is more affordable, so it’s easier to implement.

Both technologies are close, because their tools can be combined.

Teams in Kanban and Scrum

Both methodologies are based on Agile, so both Scrum and Kanban work small autonomous teams of 5-9 people. In teams there is no formal leader, and no one from outside dictates how to organize work on product. Since the team is autonomous and self-organizing, for success or failure it answers as a whole. Both methodologies imply that the team is located in a single space. The main principle is free communication between specialists and general discussions. But further on, differences begin in Kanban and Scrum. Kanban. Several narrow-profile teams can work on a task. TO For example, at first analysts work, then designers draw a prototype, and on The third stage includes developers. At the same time, universal commands are not prohibited. There is no team inside Kanban roles.

Scrum. One universal team is working on the project. There are so many diverse specialists, how much is needed to solve any project task.

Since the team organizes itself, the scrum team does not have formal competence. When necessary, the tester helps the designer, and the analyst to the developer.

In the scrum team, in addition to the specialists themselves, there are two roles.

Scrum master is the person who organizes the work. This is not management position, and he does not give instructions. His tasks:

 lead meetings;  remove obstacles in the work (if the punch prevents the team from nearby office, the master is looking for a way out);  notice and bring to the surface hidden problems;  be responsible for complying with the methodology;  monitor the status of tasks. In his spare time from these tasks, the scrum master works just like other members teams.

The owner of the product - product owner - determines the progress of the project, he can represent an external customer. The owner knows everything about the market and the target. audience. He prioritizes tasks. Team work result represents the product owner.

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WATERFAL METHODOLOGY

adrenaline-studios.com “Waterfall Model” (cascade model or “waterfall”)

One of the oldest, involves the sequential passage of stages, each of which should be completed before the next one begins. AT Waterfall models are easy to manage. Due to its rigidity, development passes quickly, cost and deadline are predetermined. But this is a stick about two ends. The cascade model will give excellent results only in projects with clearly and pre-defined requirements and methods for their implementation. Not opportunities to take a step back, testing begins only after development completed or nearly completed. Change Cost high, because to initialize it you have to wait for the completion of everything project. However, a fixed cost often outweighs the downsides. approach. Using the cascade model, many projects are created “from scratch”.

When to use cascading methodology?  Only when the requirements are known, understandable and fixed. There are no conflicting requirements.  There are no problems with the availability of programmers of the required qualifications.  In relatively small projects.