Project Management

How I Track 10+ Projects at Once as a Program Manager at Amazon It’s a question I get a lot: How do you stay on top of everything without letting something slip? Different teams. Different timelines. Different deliverables. And a lot of noise. Here’s how I keep it all moving…and still make it home for dinner: 1/ I use one central tracking system for everything ↳ One doc, one view. ↳ If it’s not in the tracker, it doesn’t exist. ↳ I update it daily and keep it brutally simple. 2/ I start every week with a 15-minute self check-in ↳ What’s behind? What’s on track? What’s at risk? ↳ If I don’t do this Monday morning, the week runs me instead of the other way around. 3/ I color-code by priority and risk ↳ Green means I don’t need to touch it. ↳ Yellow means it needs a check-in. ↳ Red means I need to escalate or unblock. 4/ I follow up with context, not just reminders ↳ “Just checking in” turns into “We need this by Friday to keep X on track.” ↳ People respond to clarity, not pressure. 5/ I keep a running weekly update for leadership ↳ 3 bullets: what moved, what’s stuck, and what I need help with. ↳ It keeps everyone informed without another meeting. Managing 10+ projects isn’t about multitasking. It’s about systems, focus, and momentum. You don’t need to know everything. You just need to know where to look…and what to move next. How do you track your priorities without getting overwhelmed?

Most projects fail. But there’s a simple technique to give yours a fighting chance. It’s not a to-do list. It’s not a fancy tool. It’s not a 12-step system. It’s a single question that flips the way you think. Here’s how it works: It’s called a “premortem.” You’ve heard of a postmortem what went wrong after a project dies. A premortem asks: What if we ran that analysis now? Before anything dies. Before the first misstep. Before failure sets in. The premortem comes from psychologist Gary Klein. Here’s how to run one: → Gather your team. → Imagine it’s 2 years in the future. → The project has completely failed. → Ask: What went wrong? No sugarcoating. No happy talk. Start listing the causes of failure. Budget misfire? Wrong team? Lack of buy-in? Scope creep? Missed deadlines? You’ll be shocked how quickly people identify risks—once they feel safe predicting failure. Why this works: It defeats irrational optimism. • It turns hindsight into foresight. • It makes risk visible. • It aligns the team before chaos hits. Because the best time to fix a problem… is before it happens. Pre-mortems don’t require special skills. Just a shift in mindset: Don’t assume success. Assume failure—and reverse-engineer your way out. Ask: What will future-you wish you had done? Then… do that now. I run a premortem for every big project I take on. Writing a book? Premortem. Launching a podcast? Premortem. Planning an event? Premortem. It never guarantees success—but it always makes success more likely. Summary: The Premortem Playbook → Imagine future failure. → List the causes. → Turn those risks into action steps. → Adjust your plan today. It’s one of the most underrated tools in your productivity toolkit. Try it before your next project. You won’t regret it.

My S.C.O.P.E. Framework Your essential project management approach. 🌟 S - Specify Requirements • Define project requirements. • Document expectations. • Set a solid foundation. • Understand stakeholder needs. • Establish clear goals. C - Clarify Objectives • Set measurable objectives. • Align with project goals. • Use SMART criteria. • Ensure clarity and relevance. • Achieve project alignment. O - Outline Boundaries • Define project scope. • Specify inclusions and exclusions. • Manage expectations. • Prevent scope creep. • Establish clear limits. P - Plan for Changes • Prepare for changes. • Set up change processes. • Assess change requests. • Approve and implement changes. • Adapt to evolving needs. E - Evaluate Progress • Regularly review progress. • Measure against scope. • Ensure project stays on track. • Address deviations promptly. • Maintain project integrity. Download and save this framework. Use it to enhance your project planning and execution. 🌟 Thank you for reading!

Scope Clarity for managing complex projects Your project is delayed after the scope blew up again, misalignments revealed themselves late on and people can't agree on what matters. To avoid this from happening it's important to clarify the scope early and often during projects. 1. Define what success looks like Kick off the project by asking key decision-makers: • What do you expect from the project? • What is the ideal outcome? • What does success look like? This will help set a target that you can measure against throughout the project. 2. Seek out disagreement Write down the scope - everything you think is needed to fulfil the goals. Pass your notes around in a brief, readable format and directly ask your stakeholders: • Did I get anything wrong? • Is there anything missing? This way you’ll bring up important details or adjustments that would otherwise be missed. 3. Ship small and check in often When you start delivering, divide your work up into small packages and get feedback regularly before moving too far ahead. Ask explicitly: “Does this help us reach the goal we talked about?” Get this feedback weekly, minimum.

Career Friday: business requirements gathering. I had the opportunity to chat with Kristen Kehrer on the Maven Analytics "Mavens of Data" podcast. I received a question to share questions to use for business requirements gathering as a data professional. I was asked for 5 questions but I put together 10, so let's nerdy party. What would you add to this list? 1. What are the core business goals and strategic objectives this initiative aims to support or achieve? 2. What specific business problems or opportunities is this initiative intended to address or capitalize on? 3. Who are the key stakeholders involved or impacted by this initiative, and what are their primary needs and expectations? 4. What are the desired business outcomes or measurable results that would indicate the success of this initiative? 5. What are the current processes, systems, or workflows that this initiative will interact with or potentially change? 6. What are the essential functionalities, features, or capabilities required to achieve the desired business outcomes? 7. What are the key constraints or limitations (e.g., budget, timeline, resources, technology) that need to be considered during the planning and execution of this initiative? 8. What are the non-functional requirements or quality attributes that are important for this initiative (e.g., usability, performance, security, scalability)? 9. What are the potential risks and dependencies associated with this initiative, and what mitigation strategies should be considered? 10. What are the priorities for the different aspects of this initiative? Are there any phases or a specific order in which requirements should be addressed? Stay nerdy, my friends.

TUTORIAL: Avoiding Scope Creep Q. I liked your response to an acquaintance who asks me to perform services for free. What about a client who adds a whole new project on top of the original project and doesn’t offer compensation for that additional work? A. You can avoid a lot of those situations (though not all) by clarifying expectations upfront. Once you and your client agree on the services to be performed, the fee and any other important issues, you’ll send your client a contract to sign. You will schedule a kick-off meeting for the project. At that meeting, walk through the contract with your client. This won’t take long, but it’s important. Handle it like this: ”Let’s walk through the consulting agreement and then get into timeline, next steps and any other issues you’d like to address today. ”On page one of our agreement, I lay out the scope of the project. In this project I will create copy for a recruiting brochure for your plastics division. “I will interview six staff members, review your existing recruiting materials and share my observations and recommendations with you in a written report and Zoom meeting. “Once I have your approval on the plan I will develop the recruiting brochure copy. The project scope includes one revision of the brochure copy; there’s a charge for additional revisions. ”The assumptions I relied on in creating this agreement are laid out in the contract, and they are: 1) that staff members are available to talk to me within two weeks from today 2) that I can get your feedback within two weeks of providing my recommended plan, and 3) that the goals and parameters laid out in the agreement serve as our framework for the project. “The project fee in the contract rests on these assumptions, so it’s good for us to review them. “I recommend that you let the six interview subjects, your colleagues in Talent Acquisition and the executive sponsors for this project know about these elements because if we should change or expand the project, I am happy to complete it but there will be an additional fee for that. “Does that all sound good?” If your client later reports that the senior VP of HR wants to take the recruiting brochure project in a different direction, you will let the client know that you’ll develop an estimate for the additional work. Scope creep is very common and it’s not a big problem as long as you address it forthrightly. You do not want to get into a habit of simply absorbing additional requirements and add-on projects at no charge. If you do that you will be exhausted, underpaid, undervalued and bitter before long. Remember: The response, “Sure, I’ll completely rework the recruiting brochure I already finished and interview five more people in line with your new direction,” will not get you the respect, compensation or visibility you need to be successful in consulting. You are growing your muscles - the best thing any of us can do. Here’s to you!

Project managers, stop playing defense Early in my career, I thought being a good PM meant keeping everything under control. → Tracking EVERY task → Mitigating EVERY risk → Making sure the team stayed ON schedule Here's the problem: playing defense doesn't win the game. Chasing down updates. Firefighting issues. Trying to keep things afloat. It's not leadership, it's survival mode. So don't get stuck reacting to problems instead of driving outcomes. Proactively lead your projects. Here's how: ✅ Own the narrative Set the direction. Drive conversations rather than waiting for updates. Anticipate concerns, provide insights before being asked, and position yourself as the GO-TO leader you are. ✅ Spot + mitigate issues before they become problems Playing offense means being two steps ahead. Don't wait for risks to show up and explode your timeline. Look for patterns, listen actively in meetings, have tough conversations early. Solve AND prevent problems. ✅ Make decisions PMs coordinate, but that doesn't mean they should sit back and wait for others to decide. If you see a path forward, recommend it. If no one is taking ownership, step in and facilitate. PMs should be DECISIVE leaders who drive impact and get things done. Managing a project is one thing. Leading it is another. Do you know the difference? One reacts. The other drives. Be the wheelman, take control of the offense, and start attacking those priorities. 🤙

I've spent over 4,000 hours in stakeholder requirement-gathering meetings! Save hours of your life by asking these questions: 1. What do they plan to use the data for? 1. What initiative are they working on? 2. How will this initiative impact the business? 3. Is this for reporting or optimizing existing workflows? Understanding the purpose of the data helps you define its impact. 2. How do they plan to use the data? Will they access it via SQL, BI tools, APIs, or another method? 1. Do they have a workflow to pull data from your dataset? 2. Do they just do a `SELECT *` from your dataset? 3. Do they perform further computations on your dataset? This determines the schema, partitions, and data accessibility needs. 3. Is this data already present in another report/UI? 1. Is this data already available in another location? 2. Do they have parts of this data (e.g., a few required columns) elsewhere? Ensuring you're not recreating work saves time and avoids redundancy. 4. How frequently do they need this data? 1. How frequently does the data actually need to be refreshed? 2. Can it be monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly? 3. Is the upstream data changing fast enough to justify the required latency? Understanding frequency helps you determine the pipeline schedule. 5. What are the key metrics they monitor in this dataset? 1. Define variance checks for these metrics. 2. Do these metrics need to be 100% accurate (e.g., revenue) or directionally correct (e.g., impressions)? 3. How do these metrics tie into company-level KPIs? Memorize average values for these metrics; they’re invaluable during debugging and discussions. 6. What will each row in the dataset represent? 1. What should each row represent in the dataset? 2. Ensure one consistent grain per dataset, as applicable. 7. How much historical data will they need? 1. Does the stakeholder need data for the last few years? 2. Is the historical data available somewhere? Ask these questions upfront, and you'll save countless hours while delivering exactly what stakeholders need. - Like this post? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and follow me for more actionable insights on data engineering and system design. #data #dataengineering #datastakeholder

📣 Calling All Project Managers and Enthusiasts! 🌟 Topic of the Day: Mastering Budget Estimation for IT Projects 🌟 As we embark on new IT projects, one of the most pivotal stages is the budget estimation. It's an art and a science, balancing precision and pragmatism. 1️⃣ **Understand the Scope Thoroughly:** Before diving into numbers, ensure you have a crystal-clear understanding of the project scope. Ambiguities can lead to costly adjustments later. 2️⃣**Break It Down:** Segment your project into smaller components. This breakdown makes it easier to assign costs to specific tasks or phases, leading to a more accurate overall estimate. 3️⃣**Past Projects as a Beacon:** Utilize data from past projects as a benchmark. This historical insight is invaluable, especially when dealing with similar technologies or domains. 4️⃣**Factor in the Unknowns:** Always allocate a portion of your budget for contingencies. IT projects are prone to unforeseen challenges, and it's wise to be prepared. 5️⃣**Regular Review and Adjustment:** Budgeting isn’t a one-time task. Regularly review and adjust your estimates as the project evolves. Flexibility is key. 6️⃣**Communication is Crucial:** Ensure there's a clear line of communication with all stakeholders about the budget. Transparency helps manage expectations and facilitates smoother project execution. 7️⃣**Quality over Cost-Cutting:** While it's tempting to opt for lower costs, never compromise on quality. Short-term savings might lead to long-term expenses. 8️⃣**Utilize Technology:** Leverage project management tools for more accurate estimates. These tools can offer insights based on data analytics and help keep track of spending in real-time. 9️⃣**Training and Development:** Don’t forget to allocate budget for team training. Up-to-date skills can increase efficiency and reduce project duration, indirectly affecting the budget. 🔟**Legal and Administrative Costs:** These are often overlooked. Ensure you factor in legal, administrative, and other indirect costs into your budget. Remember, the goal is not just to stay within budget but to deliver value. A well-estimated budget is a roadmap to a successful project. 💡 I'd love to hear your experiences and strategies on budget estimation. Share your stories and let's learn together! #ProjectManagement #Budgeting #ITProjects #CostEstimation #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork 🔗 Feel free to connect for more insights and discussions on IT project management. Let's build a community of knowledge-sharing! 🌐

One thing I’ve learned in my first 10 months at Meta… when you get a new project, communicate your career goals for that project ASAP. That way you’re aligned with your TL on how this project can help you get to the next level. For example, in order to advance from my level (new grad IC3) to IC4, I need to demonstrate that I can own a project end to end, rather than just complete broken down tasks that are assigned to me. Recently I was out on a large project with my team’s tech lead to build a new infra service that will power several new product applications. While we discussed the project proposal doc, my tech lead mentioned he would add a section to breakdown the milestones and tasks. I immediately asked if he would feel comfortable delegating that responsibility to me and shared with him the ways I hoped to demonstrate IC4 level performance in this project. He was supportive and worked with me to define a clear end to end project scope that I could own. I’m now at the tail-end of the project and am amazed by how much I’ve been able to learn from taking ownership of not only the implementation, but also the tech design, task breakdown, experimentation strategy, and more. It’s also relieving to know that when it comes time for performance review, my tech lead and I are aligned on the scope of work I had ownership over. This might not have been the case if I was not candid about my career goals from the start. What do others think? Is this a good best practice? Any tips on how to best align on career goals at the start of a new project? #SoftwareEngineer #coding