Toptal Projects Blog

The Toptal Projects Blog is a focal point for learning about the current best practices, tricks of the trade, and state of knowledge in Project Management and Agile leadership. These publications are brought to you by the professional project managers and agile professionals in the Toptal network.

authors are vetted experts in their fields and write on topics in which they have demonstrated experience. All of our content is peer reviewed and validated by Toptal experts in the same field.

World-class articles, delivered weekly.

authors are vetted experts in their fields and write on topics in which they have demonstrated experience. All of our content is peer reviewed and validated by Toptal experts in the same field.

Today’s Project Management Blueprint: A Comparison of Lean, Agile, Scrum, and Kanban

Agile frameworks have shaped project management discourse for decades. This explainer traces the antecedents of Lean, Scrum, and Kanban and compares their approaches to managing software development projects.

13 minute readContinue Reading

Darren Hagman

Darren is a project manager and Scrum master with dedicated experience in both Waterfall and Agile approaches to managing software delivery. He spent 10 years as a developer and lead architect before becoming a project manager and has led successful projects across diverse industries, including transportation, e-commerce, and aerospace.

A Kanban Overview: From 1950s Factory Floor to Today’s Remote Teams

From auto manufacturing in the 1950s to the modern digital workplace, Kanban’s historical development holds valuable lessons for today’s distributed project teams.

6 minute readContinue Reading

Olamide Olanipekun

Olamide is a project manager who specializes in leveraging technology to solve enterprise challenges. He is a former senior Agile project manager and senior IT business analyst for KPMG, and has also worked for Pluralsight and Alteryx.

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Why KPI Management Needs Metrics for Empathy and Fairness

Traditional KPIs fail to capture the quality of workplace experiences. Use these new metrics to increase employee satisfaction and engagement—and therefore productivity and revenue—in your organization.

7 minute readContinue Reading

Tarun Sukhani

Tarun is a project management expert, Certified Scrum Professional, and serial tech entrepreneur with 26 years of experience. Most recently, he founded—and acts as the CTO for—Abundent, an edutech startup focused on upskilling and reskilling knowledge workers, as well as the general public, in Industry 4.0. He holds three bachelor’s degrees, a master’s degree, and an MBA in finance.

How to Use Coaching in Organizational Change Management

Whether it’s introducing a new organizational structure, tool, or process, project managers are often agents of change. Help team members adapt and thrive with these four strategies.

9 minute readContinue Reading

Lir Cowman

Lir is a project management expert and certified coach who helps companies navigate organizational change and transform business processes. She has consulted for a number of global companies, including Google and GlaxoSmithKline (now GSK), and holds an MBA in technology management.

Critical Chain Project Management: Agile’s Missing Link

When an Agile project has too little time and too few resources, an extra planning boost from the critical chain method can keep a project on the path to success.

11 minute readContinue Reading

Costas Voliotis

Costas is a project and product management expert who specializes in sophisticated technology projects for highly competitive markets around the world. Costas holds a doctorate degree from the National Technical University of Athens and has held multiple C-suite positions during his 25-year career.

CapEx 101: Resolving the Agile vs. Waterfall Conflict With Hybrid Methodology

What do Agile, Waterfall, and the former energy corporation Enron have in common? A strange shared history that may shed light on one of the most well-known conflicts in software development.

8 minute readContinue Reading

Adam Zachary Wasserman

Adam is a project manager and IT professional with 30 years of experience in all aspects of enterprise and startup software, from development to operations. He has worked for companies like Lincoln Financial Group, OpenText, and Bell Canada, and is the author of The Chaos Factory, a book on methods for improving and scaling enterprise app development.

Implementing a Project Management Office: 4 Steps to Success

A PMO can deliver huge value, but setting one up can be a challenge—especially if it is an organization’s first time. Ensure a smooth launch with this expert PMO strategy guide.

7 minute readContinue Reading

Ayman Dayekh

Ayman is a project management expert who has consulted for numerous project management offices during his two decades of experience. He is PMP and PMO certified and has been invited to join the prestigious PMO Global Awards Judging Committee on several occasions. He also holds certifications in strategy, leadership, and process improvement and change management from PMI, HEC, and Harvard, respectively.

Toptal Project Management Expert

Marco De Stefano

Marco started out as a software developer but moved on to more suitable roles—scrum master and Agile project manager—which he’s been successfully occupying for over the past decade. His technical background and business-oriented mindset facilitate effective communication with development teams and with different business stakeholders. Recently in his latest projects, he also works as an Agile coach to foster scrum adoption.

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