Why millennials choose PRINCE2

Here at ILX we’ve been delving into our stats and have discovered that millennials are choosing PRINCE2!

Over the past financial year, millennials – also known as Gen Y – have made up our biggest customer segment with 36% of PRINCE2 web sales coming from this age group. So why are millennials choosing PRINCE2? And what does this spell for the project profession? Read on to find out.

Millennial career choices

Millennials (Generation Y) are those born between 1981 and 1996, meaning they are – at time of writing – between 25 and 40 years old. In career terms, this age group is young enough to have years of progression ahead of them, whilst also old enough to be educated and have experience. With the world at their feet, it is clear to see why millennials are opting to      in order to advance on their journey of continued learning.

Beyond the cohort of age, this generation has a unique skillset. They are tech-savvy, having grown up in the digital era. And the socio-economic environment they grew up in means they display great communication and team working skills, are empathetic and have patience. Millennials’ open-mindedness allows them to problem-solve and tackle complex issues with innovative approaches. They are motivated by challenges. Such skills distinguish millennials from others in the field, and mean this generation are perfectly suited to careers in project management.

Millennials are attracted to PRINCE2 methods for its reputation of effectively delivering project success. Speaking a common language with a shared approach delivers a standardised way of working and brings clarity to the project. Millennials are recognising the value of PRINCE2 both for their daily roles and their career prospects. After all, PRINCE2 Practitioners are respected worldwide.

The changing face of the project profession

The project profession can benefit greatly from millennials’ skills and ambition. Not only does this younger generation bring new talents, ideas and perspectives to the table, but they can also be a catalyst for organisational change.

Deloitte reports that over 70% of millennials expect their employers to focus on societal or mission-driven problems. This generation wants to work at a company with authentic purpose, and this presents a great opportunity for organisations. Millennials place huge value on the “full package”. Employment should offer a shared vision, perks such as flexible working and learning opportunities, and also open doors for advancement, both in status and financial terms. Millennials thrive in strong workplace cultures, where they are supported, engaged and happy.

Organisations who are committed to evolving through continued change and fresh approaches will often shift towards agile practices, which is where PRINCE2 Agile training comes in, combining the framework of PRINCE2 with the flexibility of agile. Furthermore, they may look to upskill their entire team. Our dive into demographics interestingly showed that 7.72% of PRINCE2 customers are aged 65+, suggesting that it is never too late to upgrade your knowledge.

After millennials, the second most popular sales age profile for PRINCE2 was found to be Gen Z, making up 20% of sales. Generation Z are those born 1997 to 2012/15, and so represent the 18-24 age category. When combined with millennials that is a huge 56% of our customers that are under the age of 40.

These generations are upskilling with PRINCE2 in order to progress in their career, and further develop their skills and offerings to their companies. To do the same, take a look at our PRINCE2 courses here.

Source: prince2.com

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A for Agile: The New ABC's in the Industry

Hold a marker in your hand and close your eyes for a moment.

Done?

Now, we want you to travel back to the time when you are sitting on your mother’s lap. See that pictured wordbook in her hand from which you have learned the alphabets and the words being form by them? 

Take the pictured wordbook from your younger self for a while. Cross the word Apple being formed by A with a stroke of the marker, and write Agile.

This makes sense. Isn’t it? 

At your workplace, the projects being handed over to you are getting crazier with the passing days. We know that you badly wish to make a time machine, travel back to the day you were born and start learning about the better ways of project management.

Well, when agile has got your back, you don’t have to do that anymore! 

Want to know how? 

In this blog, we are going to tell you all about Agile, its concepts, and its benefits in business. If you have any queries about the same, don’t forget to drop a comment below!

Let’s start with what Agile exactly is.

Concept of Agile:

The world started to witness the early rays of Agile during the year of 1990 itself. 

In the year 1990, a number of lightweight software development methods evolved in reaction to the prevailing heavyweight methods that critics described as overly regulated, planned, and micro-managed. These included Rapid Application Development (RAD), from 1991; the Unified Process (UP) and Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), both from 1994; Scrum, from 1995; Crystal Clear and Extreme Programming (XP), both from 1996; and feature-driven development, from 1997. Although these all originated before the publication of the Agile Manifesto, they are now collectively referred to as agile software development methods. At the same time, similar changes were underway in manufacturing and aerospace.

Maybe you are all curious about the Agile Manifesto by now. Isn’t it?

Let us tell you all about it from the beginning then. In 2001, on one sunny day at Utah, 17 bright software developers met at a resort to discuss the lightweight methods which are the main core of Agile Methodology. Kent Beck, Ward Cunningham, Dave Thomas, Jeff Sutherland, Ken Schwaber, Jim Highsmith, Alistair Cockburn, Robert C. Martin, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Martin Fowler, James Grenning, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, and Steve Mellor published the Manifesto for Agile Software Development afterwards.

From that time till the year of 2011, the world of Agile has seen so many milestones. After crossing all of them, in 2011, the Agile Alliance created the Guide to Agile Practices (renamed the Agile Glossary in 2016), an evolving open-source compendium of the working definitions of agile practices, terms, and elements, along with interpretations and experience guidelines from the worldwide community of agile practitioners.

Let’s move to the part where Agile has brought a revolution in the world of software development.

Agile in Software Development:

Agile Software Development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Through applying Agile methodology in Software Development, you can achieve a more precise and well-built structure of project management that will involve frequent inspection of the entire process and adoption of new technologies.  Also, Agile Software Development demands a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, team organization, and accountability. It involves a set of engineering best practices that are intended to allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software 

Want to explore the different Agile methodologies? Here it comes!

Different Agile Methodologies:

There are so many Agile methodologies that can be used for project management. Although, if we talk about the most broadly used methodologies, then they would be:

Agile Scrum Methodology: Scrum is a lightweight agile project management framework that can be used to manage iterative and incremental projects of all types.

Lean Software Development: Lean Software Development is an iterative Agile methodology that focuses the team on delivering value to the customer through effective value stream mapping. 

Kanban: Kanban is a highly visual workflow management method that focuses on continuous collaboration and encourages ongoing active learning and improvement by defining the best possible team workflow.

Extreme Programming: Extreme programming promotes high customer involvement, rapid feedback loops, continuous testing, continuous planning, and close teamwork to deliver working software at very frequent intervals, typically every 1-3 weeks.

Crystal: Crystal focuses primarily on people and the interaction among them while they work on an agile software development project. 

Dynamic System Development Method: DSDM methodology has evolved to provide a comprehensive foundation for planning, managing, executing, and scaling the Agile process and iterative software development projects.

Feature Driven Development: Feature Driven Development is a model-driven, short-iteration process that was built around software engineering best practices such as domain object modeling, developing by feature, and code ownership.

Agile Tools:

Tools that are used for project management and uses any of the agile methodologies above are called agile tools.

A good Agile Tool should be able to master at-

1. Task management – Kanban or Scrum boards with projects, task lists and everything else that goes with it – from files and discussions to time records and expenses.

2. Team collaboration – Communicate updates with local and distributed teams, and share task lists, feedback, and assignments

3. Agile metrics, reporting & analytics – Time tracking and projection, easy-to-understand progress reports for stakeholders, quality assurance, and progress with tools to identify and remedy project obstacles, evaluate performance, and appraise financials.

The few best Agile Tools available in the market are Clarizan, monday.com, ProjectManager.com, Zoho Sprints, etc.

Agile practices:

Agile is broadly used in today’s world for project management. But what are the best practices which made this methodology the most lovable across the globe? Well, we listed a few out for you:

1. Iterations

2. Customer-oriented approach

3. Product backlog

4. User Stories

5. Value stream analysis

6. The importance of timeboxing

7. Scrum meetings

8. Speed demo meetings

9. Retrospective meetings

10. Integration

11. Test-driven development

12. Burndown charts

13. Automated test

14. Requirement Prioritization

15. In-pairs programming

16. Release planning

Benefits of Agile Methodology In Business:

When we talk about Agile Methodology in general, the iterative and incremental method of management focuses on helping teams in an evolving landscape and rapid delivery of business value. Agile methodologies address the customer needs perfectly. Let’s see what else they can do.

High Product quality: With the continuous integration and daily testing process, Agile Methodology keeps the quality of your product high.

High Customer Satisfaction: Agile gives you the opportunity of demonstrating working functionalities to the customer in every sprint view. Hence, you feel more involved with the customer which leads to higher customer satisfaction.

Reduced Risk: Agile uses user stories with business-focused acceptance criteria to define product features. It focuses on features depending on the needs of real customers. Hence, each feature incrementally delivers value and not just an IT component. Agile also provides the opportunity to beta test software after each iteration, gaining valuable feedback early in the project and providing the ability to make changes as needed.

Faster ROI:

Since agile development is iterative, the features are delivered incrementally. Which is why benefits are delivered early while the product is in the development process.

Jobs For Agile Professionals:

The demand for Agile Professionals is getting increased in the IT world every day. If you check naukri.com right now, you will see a total of 29445 openings for Agile professionals.

In US, an Agile project manager is earning $ 112,786 per year.

There are various certification courses available for you according to your job profile if you want to be a master in the field of Agile. They are as follows:

Certified Scrum Developer: This certification is ideal for IT professionals who support software development projects. It will also benefit - architects, business analysts, developers, QA testers and engineers, and project or product managers who are interested in learning more about Scrum and leading Agile projects. CSM credential holders can undergo the 3-day training to achieve this credential.

Certified Scrum Master: This certification is ideal for team members or team leads, software developers, software testers, architects, product managers, product owners.

Certified Scrum Product Owner: This certification is specifically designed for Project managers, product managers, product owners, software development managers, and product owners.

So let’s do that and stay one step ahead from other project managers of your field. Shall we?

Source: novelvista.com

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4 Tips To Make Yourself Prince2 Certification Ready

You have been hearing about it, you want to go for it, but you are not sure about the roadmap to be there.

You might be wondering about what is the “It” here? Don’t worry, it’s not a horror movie featuring a creepy joker we are talking about. It is a Prince2 certification! 

When it comes to Project management, there is no better way other than Prince2 methodology which can make your days swift when you are dealing with a huge team and a particular deadline. Prince2 emphasizes in dividing projects into manageable and controllable storage. Also, unlike the other project management courses, Prince2 produces a set of project management principles and is not just an instructional manual.

In our previous blogs, we have mentioned the reasons for which Prince2 has been the apple of all the project managers’ eyes so far. But some doubts are still keeping you from going for it. There are loads of questions in your mind like-

“Is the Prince2 exam difficult?”

“How long does it take to prepare for Prince2 examination?”

“How do I prepare for Prince2 Foundation exam?”

Have you ever gone for a hitchhiking? It seems scary when you don’t have a plan or a roadmap. Once you study the entire map properly and become aware of the places, you can decide a few stopping points and then it turns into an interesting adventure which you will never forget. Am I right?

Well, opting for a Prince2 certification, too, is kind of like hitchhiking you can say. You might get a little confused in the starting and it might seem a little complicated too, but with proper guidelines and a roadmap, you can easily fulfill your quest! And you should definitely remember to thank us later because we have already prepared a 4 step guideline for you! Let’s check out what they are, shall we?

Choosing The Right Certification:

Once you decide that you should go for a certification, you already know what you want to have out of it. 

If you check any certification portal thoroughly to find out about the types of Prince2 certifications, you will get to see two kinds of certifications over there- Prince2 Foundation and Prince2 Practitioner. Prince2 Foundation is a basic level course for the project management field which is appropriate for new and aspiring project managers. Prince2 practitioner course is for project managers with few years of experience and the ones who have already covered the Prince2 foundation course. 

We suggest you go through the course offerings first before applying for any certification. In this way, you will get to know which course will be much beneficial for you and your work profile, and choose the right course accordingly.

Making A Proper Preparation Plan:

Prince2 certification can get a little complicated. Sometime, you might feel that you are not getting enough time for the preparation. So, what’s the plan you are thinking of applying to cover the entire course? 

Making a Proper preparation plan, of course!

While you create a proper study plan for your Prince2 certification, you need to take care of two things first, your study material and choosing your priorities. If you don’t like going through thick books, you might consider watching videos on Prince2 which are available online and start learning from them. Now, set up your priorities, make a list of what all you need to cover and there you go!

Also, do not forget to check the pre-requisites for the certification required. And try to brush up those lessons before you kick start with your Prince2 preparations.

Finding Out Sources To Research:

Remember your college days? While you used to be assigned to some projects? 1st few days used to go in a lot of online researches and by asking your friends about how they are working on it.

Well, for Prince2 certification too, you need to depend on both online and offline research. Including quora, there are a lot of online forums where professionals discuss about their Prince2 certification exam’s experience. 

Offline research could be interacting with people at your workplace. It sounds a little old school, but Prince2 exam preparation tips highly recommend it. If you are working with project managers at your workplace who have already completed the Prince2 certification, you can gain some piece of knowledge from them in order to crack it!

Getting Trained:

Even after you follow all the above pointers, still you will have one question stuck in mind- 

“How to clear the Prince2 Foundation in the first attempt?”

Well, there is a pretty simple solution for that also. Take training on Prince2 Foundation or Prince2 Practitioner and learn from the experts itself! 

Studying in a group is always much more fun than learning alone, don’t you think? In the training sessions, you will get a chance to indulge in group discussions and self-analysis. Not only that, when you will be studying alone, you won’t be able to find out when or where you are going wrong. When you are taking a training session, you will be able to find that out exactly!

Source: novelvista.com

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How to Calculate ITIL Network Availability

Here is my Question

◉ What will be network availability value formula if the VPN tunnel is down, but not the Internet connection?

◉ Will this availability value calculation formula change if the Internet connection goes down?

Solution

We discussed this, brainstormed and got amazing answers… Here is summary of discussion

In normal situation we will calculate network availability based on the uptime of the Internet connection, because if the Internet goes down, it will affect both internal and external applications. But on other side in reality - a failure of the VPN tunnel would still impact the access to internal applications but not external applications (partial outage).

◉ Both VPN and Internet will have its own availability measures different technology even if they are network related. Best would be to divide and measure them.

◉ E2E business KPI's is what customers are looking at.. as we have business processes.. we have to link infrastructure and software components associated and measure business KPI's rather than SLA.

◉ One of approach to calculate network availability can be weighted average between the availability of the Internet connection and the availability of the VPN tunnel: “Network Network Availability = Weight external_apps x Network Availability Internet + Weight Internal_apps x Network Availability VPN"

◉ The two weights values should be set and discussed with the business architect considering business criticalness.

◉ For example, let’s assume that 80% of the business applications used by the users are external (Internet) and that the remaining 20% are internal (VPN). If in one-year time interval, the Internet connection never failed, while the VPN tunnel was unavailable for 1 day, then the value of the overall network availability for that location is:

◉ Network Availability = 80% * 100% + 20% * (99.726%) = 99.945%

Source: novelvista.com

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How leaders can communicate in a way which resonates

The role of a leader entails communicating with a variety of people from different roles, on different levels, with different interests on a daily basis. With this in mind, should managers just accept that they are never going to please everyone? Or is people-pleasing communication achievable? Read on to discover our top tips for communicating effectively and in a way which resonates.

Know your audience

First up, it is key that you tailor your communication to the people you are talking to. Knowing your audience will take time. Start with assumptions such as identifying types of people you are talking to. For example, ‘big picture people’ who don’t want lots of detail. Or conversely, those in process-driven roles who need the nitty-gritty details. As you learn more about your audiences you can build on this and tweak your communication style accordingly.

Build relationships

Hand in hand with knowing your audience is building relationships with them. Within PRINCE2 Agile training the value of building relationships is highlighted. The Agile Manifesto values individuals and interactions ahead of processes and tools. It highlights the importance of collaborative practices, and how getting to know others has a direct impact on outcomes. Building relationships with your teams will help you to communicate with them far more effectively.

Back to school

Use of a whiteboard may feel a bit like being in a classroom, but 65% of the population are visual learners, and so something as simple as notes on a whiteboard can ensure what you’re saying resonates. Even just having keywords, key stats, or a simple diagram on the board can help. It sparks ‘information pairing’, whereby those visual learners will be able to recall information better by seeing the visual of the board in their mind.

A picture tells a thousand words

Likewise, whilst sourcing images for a Powerpoint may be a time-consuming undertaking, it can really help. Consider using a presentation or some on-screen slides when videoconferencing to compliment what it is you are talking about. Creating these visual memories can really prevent problems further down the line as it helps your message stick.

Back it up with data

It’s hard to argue with hard facts, so when possible, back up what you are saying with data. That’s not to say that your every communication should be statistics heavy. It’s more a matter of sharing insights, particularly when the facts are influencing your actions. What’s more shared insight will instill trust, and help you to craft an open culture where your team understands the thought-process behind your decisions.

Don’t be afraid to show emotion

Whilst some audiences (we’re looking at you CEOs) may prefer the facts laid bare, for others it is important that you communicate with feelings. Knowing that you are emotionally invested is important for your teams, colleagues, customers, clients and even your direct manager. This comes back to knowing your audience. Strike the right balance when it comes to showing emotion in your communication in order to be effectively heard.

Make them think

Getting your audience thinking is the perfect way to ensure your communication resonates. Ever notice blank faces staring back at you whilst you give a presentation? It is inevitable that minds are going to wander, we are only human. Never underestimate the power of a rhetorical question for bringing your audience back into the room.

Put it in writing

Meetings, whether formal or informal, can be an information overload for your audience. When shooting to communicate in a way which resonates, it can be a good idea to highlight top level information in a follow up email in order to boost knowledge absorption. Keep it snappy, as it is essentially just there to jog the memory of the points you talked about.

Mindful delegation

As a leader your time is a precious commodity, and so it is necessary to remove non-essential communication from your daily schedule. However, you must be mindful of where you delegate, as messages can become diluted. Communicating directly with your audiences can prevent frustration and misunderstanding.

The challenge

Effective communication is a challenge which many leaders face everyday. Will your messages resonate and be acted upon in a way which achieves results? By following our top tips above you will be able to speak, write and present in a way which means your message is heard. Successful communication is pivotal to reaching your career potential, so boost your skills and become an elite communicator!

Source: prince2.com

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