The Right Agile Project Manager Delivers
Experienced Project Managers Deliver High-Quality Products, On Time and Within Budget
Companies must successfully deliver products, but scope creep and limitations – personnel and timelines – complicate the process. Written and oral communication provide the transparency for successful, on-time delivery with high quality. To ensure a seamless process, I define the requirements, risks, quality measurements, budgets, resources, and the “definition of done” before the project kickoff.
Ideas are easy.
Execution is everything.
— John Doerr
Exceptional Project Management Leads to Organizational Success
I begin with meticulous planning and ensure collaboration across all teams to create buy-in and alignment. Corporations succeed when they successfully translate goals/OKRs/KPIs into actionable items that the teams then bring to life. Working across departments invites multiple opinions, driving innovation. Eventually, after considering all inputs, I help the team align on the appropriate end goals. Iterating throughout the cycle identifies and addresses requirement changes sooner so that we deliver on schedule.
Planning Involves Collaboration
Accomplishments in the workspace never happen in a vacuum – collaborating with teams across the organization is a must. Once leadership aligns on specific corporate goals, it is up to the project managers to translate these into actionable items. Consistently communicating the shared vision and goals shows individual team members how their efforts contribute to the bottom line and empowers them. My plans consist of:
Defining requirements
Assigning resources, including team roles and decision matrices
Creating quality metrics and performance criteria
Identifying risks
Determining budgets
Establishing timelines across the organization
Delivery Doesn’t End When You Launch
Launching, whether it is a product or an entire company, is an exciting time that teams should celebrate. It’s the culmination of months or years of work – but teams often stop once it’s over. Instead, I take the next step by evaluating how the process went, with retrospectives and formal evaluations of the budgets, timeline, and issues along the way. Doing so allows the team to apply what they’ve learned while it’s still fresh, developing and iterating processes to increase efficiency for the future.
Iterating Encourages Quality
Rigid plans delay projects, so I use agile processes to quickly address issues as they come up. Quality suffers with last-minute implementations, so by identifying problems early in the process, we make strategic adjustments that derisk the project. Regular feedback from team members and stakeholders is crucial to ensure that nothing is done in isolation, rewarding and holding people accountable for their roles.
Time-Tested Experience Makes Accelerated Delivery Seamless
Agility Increases Efficiency and Accommodates Change
As a CSM and PSM-certified professional, I excel at creating processes tailored to specific teams to increase efficiency and quality. Change is inevitable, so one must create an environment that thrives on it so that we consistently delight customers. Sprint cycles with built-in QA plans and regular retrospectives – what went well, what didn’t go well, and what should change – allow for constant improvement and team growth.
Repeatable Success Requires Optimized Processes
Scaling requires tested, repeatable processes. Successful one-offs happen, but they are never a roadmap to long-term success. When I join a team, I get buy-in by first taking the time to understand what the team has tried before – both what worked and what didn’t – before recommending any changes. With that knowledge, I can fine-tune existing processes and develop additional ones to adjust to new information and changed situations.
Overcome Silos With Cross-Functional Teamwork
As an organizational behaviorist, I strive to build bridges across organizations to reduce silos and foster teamwork. Even simple skills like paraphrasing and having a common language, such as by-when do you need that, helps align the team. To alleviate conflict, I facilitate meetings to provide a venue for everyone to hash things out in a supportive environment. People may have to agree to disagree in the end, but they will at least feel heard and understood.
Built-In Quality Is Crucial
Whatever you are building, from mobile apps to medical devices, your foundation must be solid. If it is not, whatever you build on top of it risks failure. Taking the time at the start to plan and build a scalable product with built-in QA processes results in long-term success. I can’t over-emphasize this: do it correctly the first time! My focus has always been on quality from the beginning, and this approach is the most efficient in the long run.
Use Data to Ensure Objective Decisions
If you don’t know what success looks like, you cannot achieve it. At the start of any project, I first determine detailed success criteria. For example, when scoping requirements, I always create a definition of done upfront to provide development teams with clear objectives instead of moving targets. Data analysis is also key to aligning individual, team, and corporate goals/KPIs/OKRs, including tracking budgets.
Communication Assures Transparency
Lack of communication can be a death knell for a corporation. I keep communication lines open by providing unambiguous documentation in a central location. Transparency means a single source of truth that includes up-to-date decisions, timelines, resources, definitions of done, success criteria, risks, budgets, quality metrics, and progress. Supplementing this with in-person verbal presentations allows management and stakeholders to always be close to the process in real-time.
What People Are Saying
“I am amazed by how many large projects you’re handling at a given time. The way you successfully handle these high profile projects with so many strong personalities is truly inspiring.”
— Mission Bio R&D Scientist
“In my 20 years of professional experience, she showed me a new level of what a good project management should be. She perfectly translated the technical challenges to the stakeholders while at the same time mediated the task priorities. More importantly, she has a strong psychological sense which allows her to build relationship[s] with each individual within the team.”
— Mission Bio Executive
“Sam is fantastic. Her profile doesn't do justice to her skill-set flexibility and competence. She is part coach, part task-master, part thought-partner, and a fantastic writer!”
— Executive at a FAANG company