10 Project Management Best Practices

Project management is not easy for any projects. It can be chaotic and stressful trying to manage employees, deadlines, and unforseen obstacles. Best practices help when trying to complete these as a PM or PMP. 

Read our below infographic on 10 Project Management Best Practices brought to you by Wrike freelance project management software:

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Finding Your Next Equipment Recruiter

Starting a project that involves the use of equipment and machinery such as CNC machinery, construction machinery, power, and hydraulic equipment, metalworking and plastic working machines, etc. is always demanding. Apart from having to manage all the departments that will handle each specific task of the project, you still need to get the equipment that will be used. 

In most cases, the machinery and devices required need to be gotten from an equipment recruiting agency to ensure ease of operations. This is always the case except you have purchased the required equipment, and this only occurs if your organization makes use of these items frequently. 

Therefore, there is always a need to find an equipment recruiter for each project. Hence, in this article, we will discuss the steps you should take to hire a competent recruiter who specializes in equipment recruiting. 

Let’s begin discussing equipment recruitment, shall we? 

1. Determine The Scope Of Your Project 

Your project determines the kind of equipment you will require. For example, if you are carrying out a plastic work project, then you need plastic working machines. Hence, getting CNC machinery would be ridiculous, to say the least. When carrying out this step, determine all the machinery you will need. Ensure that you know which machinery will be used for each task. When you effectively determine the scope of your project, it will allow you to know the kind of recruiter to hire as not all equipment recruiters provide the same services. In such a case, instead of going for different kinds of recruiters to meet up all the machinery demand, you can just pick one who can provide all the services you need. 

2. Look For Potential Recruiters 

After you have fully determined the scope of your project, the next thing is to look for potential recruiters. There are so many ways to find these agencies and professionals. 

A search on Google for equipment recruiters close to you is a great way to start. You can also check on https://www.linkedin.com/ for qualified candidates. We highly recommend LinkedIn because it will allow you to meet serious-minded professionals instead of fly-by-night agencies. Making use of a local directory might also yield positive results. 

If your organization is large enough, you can put up ads. The ads can be placed on your website as well as social media platforms. This method allows the agencies to reach out to you instead of the other way round. 

3. Screen Potential Recruiter Candidates 

Once you have gotten a handful of these agencies / professionals, you have to screen them thoroughly to ensure that they can meet up to the task at hand. The following are some attributes they must possess: 

• Credibility 

How credible and reliable are they? You should find out more about them through their websites, social media platforms, online reviews, and personal interviews. You don’t want to hire a fraudulent firm now, would you? 

• Adaptability And Flexibility 

Are they able to adapt to new demands and requests as the project might demand as it progresses? You don’t want to hire a recruiter who isn’t able to make quick adjustments. 

4. Reach Out To The Recruiting Prospects 

The step above will have you thinning out the potential candidates until you have just a handful. You then have to schedule an appointment with these candidates. 

Invite them over for an interview informing them of the project you intend to carry out. This will take you a step further to determining which equipment recruiter suits your current project. 

5. Interview Recruiters

Yes, you need to conduct a thorough interview at this point. Click here to learn how to conduct an interview. Ask them how their recruitment process is done. Find out how long it will take to get the necessary supplied equipment. Also, you should ask for other firms and organizations they partner with. The idea of the interview is to ensure that you have every angle covered; therefore, ensure that you ask questions until you are satisfied. 

6. Choose A Recruiter 

At this point, you just have to pick one of them. Or if the project demands, two of them might be required. The answers they supplied during the interview will determine who best fits your new project. 

Recruit Right 

This article has discussed the steps you should take to hire a competent recruiter who specializes in equipment recruiting. If you have any questions or would like to share your experience, please let us know on social media and make sure to share this article link!

3 Tips to Maximize Team Performance for Software Development

Did you know 85% of employees are not engaged in their work? 

If your software development team is disengaged, they probably aren't performing at a high level. If that's the case, you should probably address the issue, or else your company might begin to lose money. 

Read on, and you'll discover three tips that'll help you improve engagement and, therefore, team performance. If your software team is running a little slow, these tips will help bring about some changes. 

Let's begin building better business team performance! 

1. Create Clear Specifications 

Poorly defined specifications can have a negative impact on team performance. 

This is often because bad specifications result in the wrong kind of work being produced. This then means that people will need to revisit the project to fix the errors caused by the poor specifications. 

As a result, you should closely review the specifications of a potential software project before you go ahead with it. You might even want to get some feedback from your team to determine how you can make the specifications better. 

2. Keep Projects Moving 

If you're going to develop a piece of software, you will likely need to go through several phases. 

So, to increase SaaS project productivity you will need to: 

• Create a plan for the project 

• Write the code 

• Get other team members to review the code 

• Test the code for bugs 

• Launch the project 

• Review the project for issues once it has gone live 

Often, when a development team experiences low performance, it's because a certain piece of work gets stuck in one of these phases. 

Due to this, you need to set up systems to ensure this kind of issue doesn't affect your projects. One way you might do this is by introducing deadlines for each phase of the development process. 

3. Bring in Help 

In some cases, a project might take a long time because it is very complicated. 

If that's the case, you might want to hire an external project management team. These individuals will have lots of experience with big development projects, and so they'll know how to move your project forward. 

When working with these individuals, you may want to ask them to host a 'workshop.' This workshop could explain how large projects should be approached, and this knowledge can then be used by your team in the future. 

If you go down that route, make sure you get some documentation from the company providing the workshop. This will then give your software development team something they can refer to later on. 

Will You Improve Team Performance? 

You should now understand how to increase team performance amongst your software developers. 

When it comes to increasing performance, there is always something you can do better. Following this, you should conduct a review every quarter to figure out how you can better improve performance. 

If you conduct these regular reviews, you should end up with a high-performance team in no time at all. 

Would you like to read an additional piece of content on maximizing your business team performance and productivity? Read more management articles in the Career and HR sections of our Frugal Finance Blog! Remember, teamwork makes the dream work!

The Most Common Business Administration Jobs

Studying business administration will arm you with several core business skills and fundamental knowledge to pursue various career paths. 

You'll gain confidence in key principles of business such as finance, accounting, and project management, which can give you workplace flexibility in the future. And possessing this type of flexibility is crucial in a now ever-changing employment market. 

Here are some of the most common business administration jobs you can aim for if you choose to dedicate your time to the subject. And the best part is, studying business administration can lead to direct employment! 

Digital Sales and Marketing 

With the monumental expanse of companies selling their products and services on the internet, there's plenty of demand for digital sales and marketing professionals in the job market. 

The number of specific job roles within sales and marketing is too many to count. Yet, with so many job roles out there, it means one could fit your wants and needs perfectly. 

By getting a business administration degree, you demonstrate that you have the dedication and ability to comprehend a range of practical concepts. Plus, you'll have solid foundations in a subject that many sales and marketing departments or companies will appreciate. 

Human Resources 

Human resources management and behavior are typically aspects that are studied within a business administration course. 

When you have the theoretical and practical knowledge of how to handle HR in a company, you suddenly become more employable. Every established company needs HR specialists, and jobs in this field can be gratifying if you are well organized and enjoy working with people. 

Business Consultant 

Studying a 60-week AAS degree, for instance, could set you on a pathway towards business or management consultancy. 

When equipped with a wide range of business knowledge and skills, they can be used to analyze real-life scenarios in business. After studying such things as quantitative methods and business decision-making, you could be in a position to advise companies on the best course of action. 

You may advise on how to increase revenue by recommending structural changes or systems within an organization, for example. 

Event Planning 

Whether it's planning meetings, conventions, or other events, an event planner must be on the top of their game in their job role. 

Event planners need multiple skillsets, and many of these are provided within the study of business administrations. 

For example, studying business administration will teach you about accomplishing goals, planning effectively, organizing, directing, and controlling many aspects of a business. Event planners need many of these skills to manage large teams, coordinate logistics, and meet deadlines on time. 

Business Administration Jobs 

Business administration is one of those subjects with a good balance of theory and applicable skills that can serve you well in the job market. 

The business administration jobs we've looked at are just some examples of the direction you could choose to take in your business administration career. 

Ultimately, studying business administration should be seen as a stepping stone that projects you upwards, potentially much quicker than other pathways. Plus, you'll likely benefit so much more from a leaner, meaner, and more strategic mindset when you complete your course. 

Visit the Career or HR sections of the Frugal Finance Business Blog to learn more about top business admin jobs available for job growth potential.

How Do You Pass SAFe SPC Certification With A High Score (Implementing SAFE) - Download Questions For Free

Project management is referred to as the work of a leading team to achieve the desired goals and objectives of the project and meet success within the given constraints. Project management is also known as the backbone of every project as it increases its success rate. As the market is growing rapidly, all organizations need to deliver quality projects, and this is the reason why project management and the agile process are becoming more and more important each day. 

5 Stages Of Project Management 

• The first stage of project management is called project initiation; in this stage, the project goal is defined at a broad level. 

• The second stage is called project planning; this stage focuses on developing a roadmap so that everybody can follow it. 

• The third stage is called project execution, and this is the stage where deliverables are developed and completed. 

• The fourth stage is called project monitoring. In this stage, the progression of the project is measured, and it is a pain if everything is working as planned. 

• The 5th stage is called project closure, and the project is finally completed here. 

An SAFe certified agile professional helps to make sure each of these 5 project management steps goes smoothly.

SAFe SPC Certification 

The SPC is a SAFe program that is probably the highest level of certification SAFe has undoubtedly highly valued in the software industry. For all the individuals who just want to add the certification to their profile, Then it is not worth going for it; if you usually want to become an agile coach or want to implement or support SAFe, then this is the perfect choice for you. The "LEADING SAFE AGILIST CERTIFICATION" is also a very popular certification. And "LEADING SAFE AGILIST TRAINING" is proven to be very beneficial for individuals to earn the above certification. 

8 Tips To Pass And Score High Marks 

1. The first thing is you should read the material given by SAFe at least two times. And if any of the concepts are not clear to you, then you should refer to the official website of SAFe how to clear your doubts. The explanation get on that website is far better than any other place. 

2. The next thing is to click on the big picture and understand every item carefully. The better way to do this is to click on the item and read it about it so that all your concepts are clear. 

3. There are many specific links that are given in exam preparation materials; you should go through all the links at least twice for better understanding. Try to create notes for high-level titles which will help you to connect with questions in the exam. 

4. You should go for the practice test again and again if you score less than 80%. Because scoring low means you need more preparation for the examination. 

5. The exam guy eat clearly states the most important chapters from the syllabus, and the way you determine is based on the number of questions that appear from those respective chapters only. Anything above 10% is very important to study, and every concept should be well understood by you so that you don't face any problems during the exam. 

6. The most important thing is you should avoid searching for answers to the questions on the internet during the exam. It is easy to find the question, but the answer available may not be correct. You should study well and go by what you think is right. All the questions are prepared with variable thought processes, and if all your concepts are clear, then you won't find any difficulty in them. 

7. Reading the SAFe now book is highly recommended for the individuals before you go for the training or reading materials from SAFe. This book is for beginners, And it explains the concept in layman language. 

8. On the final day of the exam, make sure that you had eight hours of good sleep the last night. When you get the question paper, write the answers which you are the most confident about. Try to answer all of the questions and do not leave any blank. Review all your answers and Give your best effort in the SAFe SPC exam and try to score in the top percentile. 

Certification Conclusion

The above-mentioned tips are very necessary to pass and score high marks in the SAFe SPC Certification Exam to earn this certification. Keep them in min as you read the coursework, study, and take the test. Good luck on exam excellence to become an agile project management professional!

How Pixar, Google, And Facebook Fight Bad Meetings

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A-Z Glossary Of Online Marketing Terms

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How To Create Your Perfect Remote Work Environment

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7 Benefits You Will Get If You Implement Business Systems

A business system is a collection of processes or building blocks that link the workflow within a company. 

They are known to many as the departments of Finance, Procurement, or Inventory Management, to name a few. Their benefits, however, only come when the systems and processes are properly designed and applied. 

In the world of business, several systems reap the most benefits. They cover the management of the enterprise as a whole, as well as its finances, facilities, equipment, and workers. 

These systems also assist in information management, as well as customer, product, supplier, and service management. In most cases, these involve software specializing in operations and improvement management. 

Whether you're a new, small-time entrepreneur or the head of a big enterprise, you need to know how business systems can benefit your company: 

Effective Business Systems Allow You To Meet And Exceed The Customer Expectations 

Business systems and processes allow you to create a marketing strategy with its own subsystem that monitors your customers' expectations. 

With this subsystem, your organization can learn, analyze, calculate, and differentiate what your clients want so that you can meet them all throughout the years. After all, you need to make your clients happy, as this is the best way to retain them as patrons. 

With such a process, you get a steady stream of information that can improve your service, so your customer keeps on coming back for more. 

Business Processes Enable You To Recreate The Same Or Even Better Results Every Single Time 

Having consistent results is only possible if you have business systems in place. That's because they outline each activity and task that your employees should perform. 

Without these, your employee may work on things that don't exactly give the best results. This leads to a waste of resources and precious time. 

With a business system installed, you can recreate the same information and improve them along the way. 

Effective Business Systems Result In An Improvement In Employee Performance 

Business systems provide education and additional opportunities for employees so that they may do their work more efficiently. These can benefit your workers' productivity, as they can do the same job at a faster pace. 

Remember, the more productive your workers become, the better the yield is for you. Add to that, this enhanced productivity can enhance your workers' performance. 

Business Systems Can Reduce Operational Cost 

Apart from providing impeccable service, the goal of most companies is to reduce overhead costs. This, of course, is one of the best results you can enjoy with business systems. 

That's because these can help your company eliminate redundant activities that can lead to possible mistakes. No need to worry about two workers dwelling on the same thing. 

With your business accomplishing its goals with little time needed, you no longer have to spend much on the cost of operations. 

A Business System Can Build A Better Organization 

Every company seeks to be organized. 

After all, this can help streamline the information and process needed by the people. If each office or worker is dispersed haphazardly, there is no way for the business to perform effectively. 

By creating a good business system, any organization can order and arrange itself well. After all, this allows businesses to streamline their operations so that their many employees function better. 

Business Systems Can Assist A Company In Solving Its Problems 

When you make or create business systems, the enterprise receives a continuous stream of feedback from people. 

This allows the company to determine the problems affecting its staff and customers. With this process of identification, businesses become better at solving issues in a short time. 

Business systems that enable problem-solving are important for the company. After all, it brings about the change that leads to continuous improvement activities. 

That said, these processes go more than just tackling issues. They ensure and enhance the quality of your business as well. 

Business Systems Boost Profits 

All businesses want to get and grow their profits. Fortunately, having such operating systems in place can allow your enterprise to experience just that. 

For one, it enables you to meet and exceed the expectations of each customer. And when you make your client happy, he/she will become an avid patron of your business. 

The right systems also promote order and problem-solving, thereby allowing your workers to focus on the more important things. There's less room for error or redundancy. 

With such processes, they can create a quality experience for the benefit of the customer. 

As mentioned, when you start a business system, you can gradually reduce overhead costs. By saving more money, your enterprise can meet its target profits easily. 

Now that you know how business systems can benefit your company, it's time to use them. With a process in place, you can quickly meet the needs of every customer.

Anatomy Of A Tech Startup Team - By Wrike Project Management Software

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Top 10 Reasons Startups Fail

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The Cure For Project Failure - By Wrike Project Management Tools

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Startup Launch Checklist: 22 Steps To Success

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Everyone’s A Project Manager, But Not Everyone Can Manage Projects

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Should We Have This Meeting? - By Wrike Project Management Tools

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11 “Internet of Things” Startups to Watch

There is a growing number of influential IoT startups expanding in our increasingly digital economy. But what Internet Of Things startup companies are worth watching, buying from, or investing in? 

This new infographic on 11 top IoT startups to watch is brought to you by Wrike best project management online. 

Click the IoT startups infographic below for full size image or click here if it isn't loading within a few seconds.

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Top 15 Productivity Roadblocks Hindering Your Team

Want to improve your company productivity to boost ROI? Luckily there are many business tips to boost workplace efficiency. 

The infographic on the top 15 productivity roadblocks hindering your business team on projects is brought to you by Wrike Project Management Web Software.

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Frugal ERP Management: How to Plan Projects on a Budget

Did you know that ERP management for projects doesn't have to be costly? If you're planning a project with a small budget, this excellent news. 

Figuring out how to plan projects on a budget doesn't have to be complicated. There are plenty of ways that can keep you on track that are frugal. Keep reading to find out more about ERP management. 


What is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)?

Experts say we should think of an ERP system that binds different computer systems that a company uses together. Otherwise, each department in your organization would have independent systems running disconnected mainly from everyone else. However, with ERP, they still have a separate system, but it works together with all the others and is accessed from one interface. 

ERP keeps everything all connected and everyone on the same page. 


What to Look For in ERP Management

Before you start window shopping for ERP management or ERP lead generation, take input from your departments to understand everyone's goals. Look for options that can grow with you. 

Most solutions are web-based applications that you can download and install on your server, however, if you and your staff don't have the skills to maintain this type of system, check if there is a vendor-hosted version available. 

Lastly, be sure the software has plenty of documentation, excellent support, a thriving online community, and a knowledge base. As you work through the process of setting it up, you will need these types of resources. 


Tips To Keep Your Projects on a Budget

When managing a project, while ERP management can help there are many things to consider. From the cost to the scope, there is a lot to keep on track. It takes planning down to the last detail and some times a bit more. Here are a few things to include that can help:


Plan your Project Before you Start

One of the best ways to keep a project on budget is to plan everything out before you start. Make sure your estimates are as specific as possible and include a bit of cushion room. Consider every likely scenario by including interviews, adding historical data, and experience into the mix.

When everything is complete and detailed, get the stakeholders to sign off on it so that everyone is on the same sheet of music. 

Other things to consider include:

• Know your vendors and suppliers, so you understand what they do
• Stick to the scope of the project so that the project doesn't mushroom
• Use an online application to track all the details
• Stay in communication with all stakeholders
• By monitoring your progress continually, it will be easy to meet your targets
• Reassigning resources will keep efficiency at a high level

Running over your budget for a project can happen if you allow the project to go beyond its agreed scope and is something to remain vigilant to ensure it's on track. Enterprise Resource Planning and ERP management can help your business on a budget!


What's Next for ERP Management?

If you're ready to plan a project, ERP management can help. We hope this brief look at different parts of the puzzle was helpful. Come back to check the other excellent business and project management articles on this site. 

Project Management Then & Now

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10 Essential Elements For The Perfect Project Plan - By Wrike Project Management Software

Projects planning and project management are never easy. Learn more by reading our infographic on 10 essential elements for the perfect project plan brought to you by Wrike project resource management software. 

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