7 Essential Strategies to Create Quality Projects Under Tight Deadlines

Successful project management require you to manage numerous moving parts. Add to the mix strict deadlines and you’ll have little room to make mistakes. With a detailed project plan and smart project management tools however, you can achieve your project goals and fulfil the required quality standards.

1. Communicate goals and individual responsibilities

When working to urgent deadlines, ensure quality by making sure everyone in the team understands their responsibility as well as the overarching goal. Communication is crucial because it helps you coordinate and steer your team towards defined goals.

Using feedback loops is an essential element of effective team communication. With feedback, you can check that team members understand what they’re doing and what’s expected of them. Encourage team members to ask questions and let them know any question, no matter how obvious the answer might be, is a welcome question.

2. Manage risk

Proactively manage risk by identifying potential risks, determine probability, and determine possible impact. Use a risk register to log and track risks, and identify possible countermeasures so you can act quickly and mobilise your team in a new direction if required.

A proactive risk management strategy allows you to minimise potential problems that can interrupt your ability to deliver the project on time. It could even help you avert disaster and non-delivery. Sources of risk include any events that affect your resources, team and individuals, processes, and technology.

3. Learn how to prioritise tasks

Shifting and competing priorities come with any project. Without effective prioritisation, you can end up falling behind, failing to achieve targets within budget, and creating a defeatist team morale.

One easy way to prioritise team tasks is to display a detailed project schedule, whether on a physical board or a virtual one (or both). When changes to task assignments are updated, communicate it to team members. Use a workflow management or project management tool to manage multiple tasks and project elements.

Distinguish between urgent and important tasks. Track project backlogs with your workflow management tool so you can assign them to individual team members in order of priority. Always include a completion date for every task.

4. Stick to your detailed project plan

Work to your detailed project plan so you fulfil all necessary project management elements. Your project plan should have specific details relating to identifying and meeting with appropriate stakeholders. For example, you’ll need to meet with project sponsors and major stakeholders to define things like budget, timeline, and scope.

Your project plan should outline the goals of your project, list goals in order of priority, and define the deliverables you need to have at completion. The plan should reflect your business case and quality requirements. Milestones and deadlines need to be clearly stated. Finally, your project should outline risks and your risk management plan.

5. Document all details of the project

Track multiple moving parts by accurately documenting all project details, so you can check up on things or refer back to your stated goals quickly. You can use your project management software to do this, or you can create your own templates and documents to record what’s happening.

Vital elements you’ll want to track include the business case of your project, a statement of work, the project charter, and your project management plan. Other elements include an action log, a risk register, status reports, and budget. Essentially these are  control mechanisms that let every project manager needs to monitor and correct the project as it moves along.

6. Learn to work to your team’s skillset

Take stock of your team’s individual and collective skillsets and design your project to reflect these strengths. For example, you should set roles and assign tasks to leverage their skill set and maximise project outcomes. Working to your team’s skill set lets you guide your team so they make the most of their skills. It can drive a more successful project outcome and ensure you hit the quality targets you’re looking for.

7. Plan productive project update meetings with your team

The dreaded weekly team meetings don’t have to be time-wasters if planned right. You have three core objectives with any project update meeting: make sure team members are in sync with each other, ensure the project is on track, and check milestones are being met.

Use an agenda to structure your meetings, and send out the agenda the day before so everyone knows what’s happening in the meeting. Invite team members to add to the agenda. Include time for individual updates so people are held accountable for their goals. Ensure there’s a meeting administrator who keeps things moving so the agenda items are covered. End with action steps that need to be taken to keep the project on track.

Effective project management requires you, the project leader, to take charge by assigning individual responsibilities and manage potential risks. Working to a detailed project plan and prioritising tasks is also vital, along with tracking progress, conducting productive meetings, and leveraging your team’s skillset.

ALC Training is an accredited provider of  PRINCE2 training courses. Whether you’re an experienced project manager or starting out in the field, our courses can help you direct successful, complex projects. Contact us today for a discussion about our PRINCE2 courses.

6 Reasons Why Teams Are Using Agile Project Management

Agile Project Management is currently in vogue throughout the tech sector, but it’s more than a passing trend. Agile forms a framework that allows iterative, substantive collaborations to be made in an efficient manner for an entire workforce.

It’s a step up in speed, quality control, and customer satisfaction from waterfall management; the increases in speed are checked by increased collaboration, increased focus on small systems, and review/feedback cycles, allowing for a more robust and speedy end product.

If you haven’t already made the switch, you’re missing out on a lot of simple, effective changes. Here are six of them.

1. Small focus makes light work

One of the key differences of the Agile framework is that development is compounded into small “sprints”, which focus on one small part of a product within small teams and strive to make that part completely functional before moving onto the next one.

This gives a definite advantage of fully completing each system in a line, like a factory floor. By splitting up work this way, teams never have to wait around for others in the line to finish up parts to give to their team or experience the nightmare of complex interlocking parts (none of which are fully completed).

2. Product stability is massively increased

As Agile is so focused towards workable parts, the core systems of a product will always be functional well ahead of time and are designed to function independently of each other to allow changes further down the track.

During a sprint, you’ll be easily able to see how robust each system is, whether its functionality won’t work in the current iteration, and be able to easily pinpoint faults and impossibilities early on in the timeline. Even in a situation where the product is found to be unstable and scuttled, you’ll have numerous completed projects that can slot into another model.

Testing is an inherent part of iterative design, which saves time, energy, and money; quality assessments are done during the design period rather than bundled into the end.

3. Iterative betas = market-leading

Agile development means shaping a product while it evolves. Oftentimes, this can mean shipping a product that lacks all of its 1.0 functionality but is instead in a purchasable beta form that is continually added to over time.

Statistics show that roughly 80% of market leaders launched their product before any competitors in the field. There are examples where an inefficient product is overtaken by a savvy competitor, but this only account for 20% of overall success stories.

Putting out a product in an agile framework means getting eyes on it immediately and continually through its lifecycle. From a marketing perspective, it’s invaluable to have the ability to continually pump out content, updates, and generate positive press. This means that a quality product will not only speak for itself but that it’ll keep talking every new release.

Want to become qualified in the world’s leading framework and certification for Agile Project Management? Sign up to our AgilePM® Foundation / Practitioner Combined course

4. Flexibility

Agile management systems know that briefs, context, situations, and even a client’s mind can change on a whim or due to external factors.

Due to this, prioritisation of core concepts, and the emergence of new higher priorities doesn’t shake the core of the development cycle as it would in a waterfall solution. As circumstances change, the focus is merely diverted towards the emergent systems and away from systems that will invariably be shipped at a later date.

Of course, this requires strong top-down management; luckily, this is easier to achieve than in a waterfall system.

5. Visibility is easy in Agile

Regular checks, testing, and small bite-sized chunks mean that progress and insight are amazingly simple to achieve. All employees, managers, and stakeholders have easily digestible reports into the current standing of the project.

Metrics are simplified, reports are easy to create and translate from the tech floor to boardroom, and leadership can easily see precisely what needs to flow into what.

You’ll need leaders who are comfortable working in this environment (which is why qualification courses exist in the first place), but the benefits far outweigh the initial startup cost.

6. Better forward projections

It all comes down to data, and having access to so many iterative reports allows you to have a perfect understanding of precisely how far along with development you currently are; this is true both in the sense of having a fixed development endpoint and in the sheer ease of visibility as a project lead.

Both of these translate into a better understanding and projection for the future. Having a concise end of development stops the endless pushbacks, and therefore uncertainty, of Development Hell. Anything not ready to go at the exact moment of project completion merely shifts focus towards the highest priority for subsequent iterations. Oftentimes, the gap between project end and shipping will allow for additional progress to be made on these core systems regardless.

What is Scrum Certification and Why Should It be Done?

In the Agile software development world, Scrum represents the most commonly used and currently most efficient standard for software development. It’s a driving tool in creating fast, efficient and robust products, with a special focus within new market sectors and timely product launches.

ALC Training, in association with Scrum.org, offers Professional Scrum Master (PSM), the premium certification for anyone wanting to master Scrum. Successful completion of the course will afford takers the qualifications and know-how to operate as a Scrum Master (essentially, the management and reporting structure directly beneath the Product Owner).

What is Scrum?

Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. 

Scrum is not a methodology. Scrum implements the scientific method of empiricism. Scrum replaces a programmed algorithmic approach with a heuristic one, with respect for people and self-organisation to deal with unpredictability and solving complex problems.

A typical Scrum workflow functions like this:

Together, this achieves an environment where everybody achieves some level of control. Product leads and stakeholders can both shape the product as it requires, while workers don’t get bogged down in an endless code cycle and can have their voice heard in the review cycle. It promotes a faster, easier, and more transparent workflow that achieves great results in less time.

Why be certified in Scrum?

Scrum is a very fine-tuned and specific process, dependant on many small “rituals” and checkpoints designed to create a cohesive whole. While one of the key checkpoints of Scrum is that organisation ends up more collaborative than it would in a traditional waterfall style, the meta-structure of the organisation needs to be rock solid.

There’s a term within Scrum named “Flaccid Scrum”, which refers to an Agile system in name only. Merely having standup meetings or compartmentalising tasks isn’t a true expression of an Agile system, but merely taking small parts of it into an existing structure.

The role of the Scrum Master is to facilitate this environment. They are responsible for maintaining the integrity of the management system and translating it into reviews and ongoing sprint tasks to be assigned by the product lead.

Essentially, they’ll be taking on the burden of the sprint beginning-to-end, having their own mini-sprints between each session.

This is a complex managerial task to continually achieve, and training is necessary to complete it. We’ve seen too many uncertified attempts devolve into “Flaccid Scrum” when this hasn’t been correctly done; a poor understanding of the role of Scrum Master throws the integral components of visibility and reporting into chaos for both the Product Owner and the Teams.

The Scrum certification process

Our PSM course is a two-day intensive focusing upon management of a development team for efficiency and effectiveness.

As a part of it, you’ll also be learning ways to adjust employees into new ways of thinking and adapting to the new way of business, all facilitated through the co-creator of Scrum, Ken Schwaber and our own Professional Scrum Trainers (PST).

Book now to get certified or make a course enquiry

We recognise that there’s an inherent destabilisation period when adjusting, and so a significant portion of the class will develop the skills needed to understand all roles within Scrum, anticipate any issues that might arise during a switchover, and common human errors and breakpoints that may be a barrier to implementing it initially.

You’ll learn a multitude of organisational tasks and groupings, such as formulating scrum teams, adapting to new styles of reporting, risk assessment, and predictability, scaling upwards or downwards with Scrum, as well as an overview of typical Scrum planning, goals, and completion dates.

At the end of it, you’ll take a short Certification Exam for either PSM I or II, which upon successful completion you will awarded industry recognised PSM I or PSM II certification.  

3 reasons why your IT department is not delivering true business value

Over the past few decades, technology has become a critical component to business success.

No company can survive, let alone thrive, without making good use of the technology solutions and tools available to them. Despite this, many organisations are still struggling to achieve maximum business value from their IT specialists.

With that in mind, here are three reasons why your organisation is failing to maximise the performance of its IT department. 

Insufficient training and support 

The information technology sector is constantly evolving, with new challenges and opportunities arising every day. In order to keep up with these changes, your IT department requires sufficient training and ongoing support. 

Providing your IT department with opportunities to participate in specialised training courses in critical areas such as information security can ensure that they are constantly on the forefront of breaking industry developments and delivering true value to your enterprise.  

Underfunding and poor integration

According to a Gartner survey released earlier this year, Chief Information Officers in the Asia Pacific and Japan region are planning on growing their IT budgets by 0.9 per cent this year. However, even with this increase, many IT departments will still be significantly short of the funding they need to operate efficiently.

That same Gartner survey found that modern IT departments are only receiving 65 per cent of their funding from within the conventional IT budget. The rest is coming from other business areas, such as marketing, sales, operations and R&D.

Gartner Vice President Andy Rowsell-Jones has warned that this "high level of unconventional funding from outside IT" could potentially lead to integration issues and governance problems in the long term, suggesting that many organisations need to rethink their approach to this critical area of business. 

Lack of leadership

In order to deliver to its fullest potential, your IT department needs to be helmed by a strong leader or leadership team which has a thorough understanding of your business and strategic goals.

It's also important that businesses pay proper attention to IT leadership, bringing them into the fold on important decisions and keeping them informed on strategic decisions and planning. This will ensure that your IT department is optimising internal strategies in line with the wider direction of the organisation.

The Productivity Potion

Hello and welcome to the ALC School of IT Service Wizardry and this specific module, The Dark Arts of Financial Management.

Today we are going to describe how to create a productivity potion.

Productivity Potion Ingredients

Five special ingredients are needed to create this potion.

Ingredients:

Recipe:

Calculate the effect of price inflation on the previous year’s budget.  This is done by calculating the uplift that changed prices have on the previous year’s budget.  Increased prices mean more money is required to deliver the same output.

In a similar fashion calculate the effect of business volume growth on the previous year’s budget.  After all if you are selling more products you need more finance to deliver increased output.

Then calculate the increased operational spend approved as part of the justification for each new or improved service delivered through the year.

Now add each of these results together and this indicates the amount of increased spend required to deliver services in the next budget year.  This gives you the required spend without productivity.

Independent to the above activities, calculate the amount of money that you believe is necessary to deliver the services as agreed.  This gives you the required spend including roductivity.

Report the difference between the two numbers as your productivity gain.

Worked example:

 Previous year’s budget 50,000  wizard tokens
 Price change increase assuming 4% inflation  2,000  wizard tokens
 Business volume growth of 10%  5,000  wizard tokens
 New Services increased operational cost  10,000  wizard tokens
 Forecast spend for next budget  60,000  wizard tokens
 Required spend without productivity  67,000  wizard tokens
 Productivity savings (67,000 – 60,000)  7,000  wizard tokens
 Productivity as a percentage (7,000/67,000)  10.44%

Conclusion:

In this worked example a productivity improvement of 10.44% cam be claimed even though the annual spend has increased from 50,000 to 60,000 wizard tokens.

The lost art of incident classification

Do you have a cluttered-up incident management tool?

Are your incident reports meaningless?

Does the Problem Manager constantly complain about an inability to decide what to investigate?

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes” then you could have lost that art form known as incident classification.

Classification of incidents is easy, right?  Wrong!

If you get incident classification wrong it will have a damaging effect on your business. You can’t manage what you can’t define!

Why you need an organised incident classification tool

To manage and understand you need to have the capability to classify incidents, effectively and efficiently. Without this you can get the wrong impact, wrong urgency and wrong resources.  In other words you can get it very very very WRONG. Get this right and you will see the benefits ripple through your delivery of service.

I hope that you are getting the drift of why we need to classify incidents.

But if you are still not sure consider the following: Classification starts at the Service Desk and is determined by the analyst.

By the way don’t forget that an incident is the unplanned disruption to or reduction in quality of the service.

This is different to a problem which is delving into “unknown causes” and is a different topic. The assumption is that the Service desk will “know” and “understand” the incident and classify it accordingly.

Once the incident has been correctly classified the knowledge base can be interrogated to identify a potential service restoration technique “work around”. That is of course assuming that they have knowledge tools to assist with first-call resolution.

If such a restoration technique cannot be found then the correct classification will result in appropriate routing to the correct team for resolution. Sadly it is still very common to see organisations defining a classification code of “other or miscellaneous”. 

This is sometimes known as a bucket, bin or put simply in the too hard basket. In other words a rubbish receptacle even though that is not the conscious intention. Poorly classified incidents often enter the sporting arena and departments start playing different games known as “incident Ping-Pong or basketball (bouncing around)” along with many other terms. Sadly this sporting prowess does very little to address customer and user dissatisfaction.

The benefits of good incident classification 

Good classification helps us to understand what is impacted, who is affected and get the appropriate scripts, knowledge and tools to restore the service as soon as possible. Good scripts are kept as simple as possible and are one of the many ingredients in our recipe. The caller is not loaded with endless questions to determine the cause. Yes, scripts are extremely important and need to be done correctly. 

Another ingredient is the Configuration Item (CI). Symptoms are often associated with a CI and linking this is critical to avoid being thrown off the track. But beware – symptoms are logged and communicated in different ways and in some cases not even remotely similar but don’t let this fool you. If you can link the incident to a CI, you are one step closer.

So remember, log the symptoms, but in the description and not under the classification.

If you have good maturity in Service Asset and Configuration Management, you can even link the incident to the Service that is impacted as represented in the Service Catalogue. If not at the very least, link the incident to the physical CI. This will help to understand the impact the incident has on the business and lead to improved incident prioritisation.

Once the Service Desk analyst has determined that the call really is an incident, then classification can start. Be specific and categorise and sub-categorise the incident to a deeper level, e.g. Hardware – Printer – Model or Software – Application – Payroll. Don’t go overboard and keep it as simple as you can without losing quality. Three levels are a good limit.

Once the incident has been resolved, check the original classification and have a resolution classification if the original was incorrect.

This is beneficial for a few reasons including:

Good classification will result in:

The Realistic TOR Hack of Mr. Robot

The breakout television show of 2015, Mr. Robot, follows Elliot Alderson, a young and anti-social computer engineer secretly taking part in a vigilante hacking group. The show has received praise for its original and socially relevant subject matter, alongside the realism represented in its hacking scenes.

With the fourth and final season of Mr. Robot recently available through TV on demand, let’s take a look at one of the technological marvels showcased in the first season. Below, we’ll discuss a prominent hacking technique performed by Elliot, the real world comparisons and how this may affect your online activity.

Don’t rely on exit nodes for anonymity

TOR is a system for anonymous communication developed originally for the US Navy.

In the opening scene of the first episode, we are introduced to Elliot and his extraordinary computer abilities. During a conversation with the owner of the cafe he sits inside, we learn that for a number of weeks, Elliot has been monitoring network activity within the business. Our computer hacker explains that he breached the network by taking control of TOR exit nodes and decrypting the anonymous traffic.

TOR, as many of us know, is an evolution of a system for anonymous communication developed originally for the US Navy and further advanced by DARPA in the late 1990s. While TOR is touted as a completely anonymous network – famously known for credit card fraud, money laundering, black market drug trades and the rise of Bitcoin – there are a few areas of weakness that can lead those with limited IT security training into very dangerous territory.

A thin veil of anonymity

There’s some confusion around what the term anonymous actually means. It would be a grave mistake for anyone with only a basic knowledge of network security, proxies, exit nodes and anonymous browsing to download TOR and believe everything they are doing is hidden from others. Despite being touted as the go-to anonymous browser, the level of privacy offered by the software quickly dissolves in inexperienced hands.

Exit nodes within the TOR network work similar to a proxy server – where indirect connections are made between various network services – allowing anyone monitoring the traffic in these nodes to capture and potentially decrypt information being transferred. Of course, it’s incredibly easy to find an entire active list of TOR exit nodes online in seconds, meaning you’re able to choose which node you use as an exit relay. 

Online crime doesn’t pay

Whenever you take the risk of doing something illegal online, there’s a very high chance that someone may be watching.

There are other access points within the TOR network, such as groups of middle relays for information to pass through that allow the data to bypass censorship concerns with little risk to the owner of the relay. Bridges – not officially listed as part of TOR – are crucial for navigation around blocked IP addresses in countries with strict policies on freedom of internet use.

The moral of the story on Mr. Robot is simple – whenever you take the risk of doing something illegal online, even downloading a TV show, there’s a very high chance that someone may be watching.

Anonymous browsing is never truly anonymous, and those who believe they are safe will no doubt find themselves in a similar situation to the nefarious owner of the television coffee shop – visited by a swarm of police officers following an anonymous tip and a horde of collected evidence.

Stay ahead of the curve with ALC Training

The expert team at ALC Training value the importance of knowledge and expertise in the IT industry and offer a range of courses across framework and risk assessment techniques, right through to information security training and higher-level training for executives and decision makers.

To learn more about what our expert training can do for you and your business, reach out today.

Productivity Hacks And Methods That Will Change How You Work

Looking to boost your productivity at work? There are plenty of hacks and methods that can help you do just that. You’ll be able to reduce the time it takes to finish a task, or streamline a complex process.

Is COBIT 5 training the best course for you?

 

Starting a career in IT is easy; deciding which path to follow with so many options is the difficult part. While we at ALC Training offer a number of unique and expertly taught courses, knowing which is best for your skillset and what line of study will benefit you most is crucial before committing to a line of learning.

Our SABSA courses may benefit those wishing to learn more advanced concepts on information security, while project management professionals might find PRINCE2 or Agile better suited to their learning needs.

Below, we’ll look at COBIT and answer some of the more frequent questions to help you decide if our COBIT 5 training courses are for you.

COBIT 5 is approachable enough that it can be applied to organisations of all sizes.

An overview of COBIT 5

Rather than delve into the technical aspects of what COBIT 5 can do – which is covered extensively in our range of courses – let’s talk about the framework in a more general sense. COBIT is designed to assist organisations in optimising their IT processes – achieving this through a balance of benefit realisation and risk level assessment.

As a framework, it allows businesses and individuals to take a more holistic approach to IT-related interests, factoring in the entire end-to-end processes of the business. Used by IT professionals around the globe, COBIT 5 is generic and approachable enough that it can be applied to organisations of all sizes.

COBIT 5 can help organisations achieve their business goals.COBIT 5 can help organisations achieve their business goals.

Better business through IT governance training

As an IT professional, there’s a high chance that, at some point, you’ll be working within a team. Whether you’re part of the team process or responsible for leading and directing the projects within your group, you’ll have a number of core responsibilities.

COBIT 5 is business-focused, making it simple to present as a suitable framework for governing and managing business risk.

One of these is communicating the importance of an effective IT framework to those in executive positions, and since COBIT 5 is business-focused, presenting it as a suitable framework for governing and managing business risk is simple.

Our classes encompass comprehensive COBIT 5 training courses at seven different levels, from foundation through to information security and strategic overview. In the implementation course, you’ll gain a practical understanding of how to apply the framework to business pain points, problems and risk scenarios that you can communicate to others.

Executive courses at a higher level

For those in a senior position within a business, our strategic overview course discusses how COBIT 5 training can benefit your IT department, and covers how the framework establishes itself at every point in the business process.

Designed for CISOs and ISMs, the COBIT 5 for information security training course assists those in understanding how the framework can improve or implement an Information Security Management System (ISMS) within a business. At the culmination of your training, you’ll have a detailed understanding of the framework, including:

Further your career with effective COBIT 5 training

We at ALC Training have a long history in IT governance training, offering COBIT training since 2006. All of our course trainers are ITIL-Expert qualified, allowing them to offer a true understanding of the role COBIT 5 will play in integrating with other frameworks and standards.

If you’d like to learn more about COBIT 5 or to book your next course at one of our many training locations, reach out to ALC Training today.

Establishing a common project management language with PRINCE2

 

Managing projects successfully while incorporating client feedback can be a daunting task, one that PRINCE2 methodology aims to address and mitigate.

For IT professionals who have spent many years researching and studying the best and most up-to-date framework or methodology for managing projects, PRINCE and the more flexible PRINCE2 will already be familiar terms.

We at ALC training offer a number of higher-level IT project management training to assist with the choosing and implementation of PRINCE2, alongside a range of in-depth courses from foundation to expert level.

Over 85 per cent of those holding PRINCE2 certification feel that it has been valuable to their career.

Why PRINCE2 holds the management crown

Chances are, even if you aren’t using PRINCE2 currently, there’s a possibility that you’re managing your projects with something similar. This is because PRINCE2 is a method that doesn’t redesign the process involved, but merely refines it.

By bringing together commonalities such as names and descriptions within a structure that anyone trained in PRINCE2 can understand, your IT teams can experience a much higher flexibility of communication.

The other shining benefit of the methodology is that, in contrast to the first version of PRINCE – designed primarily for the management of IT projects – PRINCE2 can be applied to any project, no matter the nature or size.

Agile consumed the world over

Although your IT team may be perfectly capable of communicating the importance or benefits of this technology to leaders within your business, understanding PRINCE2 at many different levels can be difficult.

According to a report published by AXELOS, employers are potentially missing out on the benefits of incorporating PRINCE2 methodology into their business practices, despite an overwhelming amount of employees seeing the value it can offer.

More than 80 per cent of those surveyed – across a range of industry sectors and positions – feel using agile methods towards project management can benefit a company. More encouraging, 88 per cent of those holding PRINCE2 certification responded that it has been valuable in their career.

PRINCE2 can benefit any number of projects. PRINCE2 can benefit any number of projects.

Relevant information and timely training

Nikos Paxos, head of programme and project management for AXELOS, spoke about the value of PRINCE2 at every level of an organisation.

“It is encouraging to hear that so many people are gaining value by achieving their PRINCE2 certification. It was interesting to learn that senior management, operations and other functions from across the organisation find PRINCE2 valuable, not only to their role, but to their career,” said

We at ALC Training offer a suite of IT project management training courses, COBIT 5 and ITIL training – with learning options available at any level of management, from IT professional to business leader.

For more information, reach out to ALC Training today.

Promoting better project management with Agile

 

Remaining adaptable in the modern business world is crucial to incorporating new processes and ideas while allowing former methods to evolve within the company.

For IT professionals looking at improving their project management efficiency, making the choice between PRINCE2 certification and Agile can be a tough decision. As with any qualification course or study, it’s important to know what will best benefit you and your skill set before making a commitment.

If you want to know if Agile is the key to building better business teams and delivering on time and within budget, take a look at some of our frequently asked questions below.

Firstly, what is Agile?

Agile courses are a unique type of IT project management training. Unlike others – that cover a fixed framework or methodology – Agile is considered more of an all-encompassing, umbrella term, consisting of many different management approaches.

Including DSDM Atern and Scrum, this family of development characteristics makes up the Agile Manifesto – the overarching shared values of Agile Project Management.

Want to become qualified in the world’s leading framework and certification for Agile Project Management? Sign up to our AgilePM® Foundation / Practitioner Combined course

Agile is being used successfully across a range of industries.Agile is being used successfully across a range of industries.

What’s the benefit of Agile?

The nature of business is competitive, leaving those who wish to select While many project management approaches are inherently competitive, Agile aims to be complementary to these. An expert in Agile will have excellent focus in assessing a project through the development lifecycle.

Agile can help deliver improved and enhanced communications to your team, enabling the efficient planning and management of your projects.

This isn’t the only benefit of understanding Agile, however, as the more structured approach to projects will assist you in:

Effective training will always remain the key to understanding a methodology or framework.

But what if I’ve already studied PRINCE2?

We at ALC Training offer a number of IT project management training courses. If you’ve read the above information about Agile and feel it may be right for you, then take a more extensive look at our Foundation and Practitioner certificate course.

For those who have already achieved PRINCE2 Practitioner status, the combined PRINCE2 Agile framework course offers the flexibility of both approaches.

Covering a number of areas including the integration of Agile approaches into PRINCE2 project structure, our professionally led training course will assist you in understanding the basic concepts of Agile right up to preparation for the combined Practitioner exam.

Is Agile effective?

In a study conducted by Software Advice, the most common Agile feature used by those surveyed was workflow tracking, with some 95 per cent noting this. Further to this figure, 90 per cent of respondents claimed workflow tracking was the feature to most increase the efficiency of a project.

And the top projects managed by Agile? While 52 per cent of users find their projects to be focussed on software and IT, Agile still finds an exceptional range of use in marketing (11 per cent), architecture (5 per cent), and finance (4 per cent).

Agile remains an effective solution for those in software development, as having a clear and understood scope of project timelines will ensure delivery success.

Conquering challenges with ALC Training

While Agile project management software can clearly benefit many at the planning, management and delivery stages, effective training will always remain the key to understanding a methodology or framework.

ALC has an extensive history with a proven track record – we’ve helped over 30,000 enhance their career options and reliably pass their exams with our courses.

If you want to find out more about PRINCE2, Agile or our combined project management course, get in touch with ALC Training today.

Is PRINCE2 IT project management the training course for you?

 

While the benefits of implementing a universal framework will allow a common language to be spoken by everyone in your IT department, it’s crucial that you take the time to consider which architecture framework and methodology will fit into your company dynamic.

That’s why ALC offers a diverse range of options for those wishing to enhance their IT career with PRINCE2 training courses.

The first steps with PRINCE2

The PRINCE2 foundation and practitioner certificate is a five-day course designed to comprehensively cover every aspect of the methodology involved in project management.

Designed for aspiring or current project managers, this program is ideal for individuals who wish to gain a career as a PRINCE2 trainer or consultant.

By the end of the course, you should be able to understand all aspects of the methodology, learn how to deliver projects on time and within budget, and receive a globally recognised certification.

This could then be followed by the “Directing a Project with PRINCE2” course – suitably designed for members of the board, project executives and senior users.

The benefits of choosing training with ALC

ALC has a solid background in project management and IT governance training.

When you choose to undertake a certification or foundation roadmap with ALC, you’re not deciding on just another IT project management training course, but selecting a company that provides a number of unique benefits:

The most crucial part of a training course is that it runs when it needs to – all ALC Training courses are guaranteed to run on time, with offices in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

Consisting of a genuine and dedicated team of staff, we’re always happy to answer any of your questions.

ALC has a solid background in project management and IT governance training. We’ve been training IT professionals in PRINCE2 since 1999, COBIT 5 from 2006, and have a consistent record of personal success assisting thousands of individuals in gaining industry qualifications.

Training can often seem like hard work. ALC is here to help. Training can often seem like hard work. ALC is here to help.

Making the right choice with ALC

If you’re set on PRINCE2 certification, or would like to know more about the process of project management that being effectively trained in this framework can provide, there is no better choice than ALC.

Reach out to us today, and find out how our expert qualification courses can help you distinguish yourself amongst the IT crowd.