Project management *

Hi all! I lead antispam team and several machine learning teams at Mail.ru Group. The subject of this article is self-development for team leads/managers. But in reality many techniques and recipes do not depend on the role at all. This really concerns me because machine learning is developing extremely fast, and it takes a lot of time to stay up to date. So the question about what should be done for development and how is quite topical.

Of course, the content of this article is not the ultimate truth but just a description of the results of my continuing quest. It tells about approaches based on books and workshops, trials and errors, which have worked for me. It'll be good to have a discussion with you in comments.

The increasingly competitive job market demonstrates that performing only based on hard skills alone is no longer sufficient. In project management reality, hard skills contain creating work breakdown structures, managing a project budget, earned value assessments and critical path charts. All these skills require technical background and applying professional knowledge and tools to perform well. What are the soft skills of leadership and how they help to uncover project managers' facilities?

Books with the word «Agile» in their titles began to appear on the shelves of IT experts and other industries' professionals after 2001. The term was used during the declaration of the Agile Software Development Manifesto. Agile describes a software development methodology that is characterized by short life cycles leading to frequent product releases.

Today this iterative or incremental method affects various aspects of development and business including project management. What are the best sources to learn Agile? This post covers 10 powerful books that may enhance the skills of project managers and their teams.

The main objective of any product manager is to ensure the process of product management runs smoothly and flawlessly: from the concept to release. However, it's all about the ideal world.

In order to present a brilliant product to the world, it is important to learn how to use convenient and multifunctional online tools that facilitate management and open up new opportunities for managers, expanding their professional horizons. In this article, you will find 15 smart tools that contribute to the professional success of product managers in 2019.

Young product managers aim to rapidly learn the fundamentals of their role and master the craft. However, there are no magic power, specific book or a class that can give you 100% of professional mastery.

You want it all, you want it now. But it will surely take some time to make you a product management guru. This post contains a set of relevant resources about product management for those who prefer to read, listen and watch.

Is it always easy for you to prioritize the tasks of the huge project? What if five or more tasks have the main priority and urgency?

Experienced project managers and product owners know that intuition is not enough in such cases. In order to avoid missing deadlines, today, managers are able to apply useful methodologies for determining priorities, as well as modern tools that help to visualize data and not miss anything in their workflows.

5 tips to help you achieve your desired goal. Of course, it is not necessary to carry them all out and in the order indicated. However, it is important not only to read them and forget, but try to apply them in your life.

Originally article was posted here — 7 tips & tricks on how to deal with remote teams

A number of both large corporations and small companies having almost no staff is increasing. This is the impulse of new times that many call “uberization”. The phenomenon was named after Uber — one of the largest public-transportation companies whose drivers all are independent entrepreneurs aka freelancers. Such a structure allows Uber to work all over the planet through operating remote teams of drivers in dozens of cities simultaneously.

Accumulating technical debt may lead your company to a crisis. But it may also become a powerful driver of massive process changes and help with engineering practices adoptions. I'll tell you about it on my own example.

What do you get when you cross an IT department, a faulty Sprint review, determination, and pizza? Greatness, that's what.

How’s your work week going? I took some time off publishing new articles and consulting clients to look at «The Hero and the Outlaw» by Carol Pearson and Margaret Mark. It’s a guide to leveraging the power of archetypes for your brand, and I think there’s much to learn from it.

Archetypes are properly defined as «universal constructs of the human psyche». In layman’s terms, these are images we all recognise because they’re built into our subconscious mind. One such example is the archetype of the hero  —  a good guy who triumphs over evil and saves the day.

Good luck getting people to read your branded tech story. Now, before you get mad, I’m sure you’ve got something great to share. I’m sure you found an exciting new solution to some sort of problem. All you want is for others to be as excited about it as you are. Sadly, the odds are not in your favour.

IT technologies evolution allowed to control huge data flows. Business has a lot of IT solutions: CRM, ERP, BPM, accounting systems or at least just Excel and Word. Companies are different too. Some of companies are composed of plenty branches. Let’s name such as “Pyramid”. Pyramids have data synchronization issue for pile of IT systems. Software vendors and versions differ for branches significantly. In addition management company continuously modify reporting requirements that causes frustration assaults in the branches. This is a story about the project I happened to encounter chaos that needed to be systematized and automated. Low budget and tight deadlines limited the use of most existing industrial solutions but opened up scope for creativity.

Иногда молодые команды разработки охватывает неразбериха.

Это случается в тот момент, когда они ещё не до конца разобрались, что такое эджайл; проджект и продакт спорят, кто из них кто, а задачи каждый ведёт сам по себе. Или все уже всё знают, но планировать спринты не получается — задачи не прорабатываются, демо и ретро проходят нерегулярно.

У нас тоже была похожая история, но мы нашли свой путь.

Это рассказ от команды личного кабинета Яндекс.Кассы, и подробнейшая инструкция для тех, кто хочет улучшить своё планирование.

Как всё было