# Introduction

A lot has changed since we published our first ebook on Project Management. We grew as a company, faced new challenges, delivered projects for a diverse set of clients - and all of that amidst the rapid growth of the Agile software development industry. It’s time to revisit the lessons we have shared so far and supplement them with new insights.

Project Managers expect the unexpected. Adapting to change is the underlying principle of everything we do. As we strive to achieve that, we encounter new problems to solve or come across old ones in a completely new context. This ebook is the result of our efforts to address these issues.

Much of this material is specific to our organisation’s transformation from a software house into a consulting agency. Other sections focus on the remote aspect of our work, which has always been our key value, but which demands further improvement as both our and our clients’ needs and expectations grow more complex.

As we become better at what we do, we also want to help others improve. We’re part of a worldwide community of people dedicated to creating beautiful software, and we wish to contribute to shaping the industry standards.

We hope that by doing so, we can make our work and its effects more enjoyable - both for us, our customers, and the end users of the software we help create.

# Table of contents

# Chapter 1

1. The superpowers each Project Manager should have
2. What it means to be a PM
3. Rules for effective time management, part I: unclutter your calendar and inbox
4. Rules for effective time management, part II: Slack
5. Rules for effective time management, part III: general tips
6. Standards for high-quality communication

# Chapter 2

1. Questions to ask yourself in the first weeks of the project
2. Sprint 0
3. Estimations
4. How to conduct a remote Sprint planning meeting
5. Risk identification – using the pre-mortem approach as part of the consulting mindset
6. Definition of Ready – how to save a lot of time by solving the problem of poorly described tickets
7. Iteration review
8. Retrospectives: how to inspect and adapt your project
9. Types of project handovers

# Chapter 3

1. Self-organising teams
2. How to give constructive feedback
3. Developing your team through education
4. Agile and Scrum in remote environments
5. Challenges and tricks for working with big Agile teams
6. Valuable communication with the client
7. Educating clients
8. Building partnerships - how to make sure that the client is a part of the team

If you have any feedback that could help us keep the Guide up to date, feel free to drop us a line at pm@netguru.com.

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