3.2.2. Common Methods and Techniques: Part 1

💡 First Principle: Methods and techniques are the specific, repeatable actions and procedures used to perform project work, such as analyzing problems, estimating effort, and prioritizing tasks.

Scenario: A project team has a large, unorganized backlog of feature ideas. To bring order to the chaos, the project manager facilitates a session using the 'MoSCoW' prioritization method to categorize items and then uses the 'Planning Poker' estimation technique to size the highest-priority items for the upcoming iteration.

This section outlines various methods and techniques used in project management for analysis, estimation, and prioritization.

• SWOT Analysis: Assesses Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats for strategic planning.
• Root Cause Analysis (5 Whys, Fishbone): Techniques to identify the fundamental cause of a problem.
• Estimation (Planning Poker, Relative Sizing, Affinity, Analogous, Wideband Delphi): Techniques for estimating effort or size, often used in agile.
• Prioritization (MoSCoW, Cost-Benefit): Methods for ranking requirements or backlog items.
• Risk Analysis: Process of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risks.
• EVM (Earned Value Management): Technique for measuring project performance integrating scope, schedule, and cost.
• Spikes: Short, time-boxed tasks to research or explore an approach, reducing uncertainty.
• Retrospectives: Team meetings to reflect on past performance and identify process improvements.
• Stand-ups (Daily Syncs): Brief daily meetings for team members to synchronize status and identify impediments.

⚠️ Common Pitfall: Using a single, familiar method for all situations (e.g., always using analogous estimating even when more detailed data is available for a more accurate estimate).

Key Trade-Offs:

• Accuracy vs. Effort (Estimation): Techniques like Wideband Delphi are highly accurate but require significant time and effort. Techniques like Affinity Estimating are very fast but less precise. The choice depends on the need.

Reflection Question: Why is a 'Retrospective' a critical method for any team that wants to practice continuous improvement?