Toptal Project Management Expert
Program Manager vs. Product Manager: A Conflict Resolution Strategy
Program managers and product managers often clash. Improving communication at three specific touch points can alleviate tension, develop more positive relationships, and ensure smooth project delivery.
Kamil Imański
Kamil is a program manager, project manager, and Scrum master. He has extensive experience overseeing the delivery of large-scale projects at both national and international companies, including BAE Systems, an FTSE 100 company and the largest defense contractor in Europe. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, PMP, and PMI-ACP.
What Is a Product Owner? A Project Manager’s Guide
It’s not uncommon for project managers to be assigned duties that should belong to a product owner. Find out how you can use this role confusion to your advantage, and increase your skills in both arenas.
Elizabeth A. Anderson
Elizabeth is a Certified Scrum Master and Certified Product Owner with more than a decade of experience in Agile project management. She has built and supported a variety of software products, including a complex IoT yacht security monitoring system with hardware, mobile, and web apps, and a mobile e-commerce platform for industrial metals company O’Neal Steel.
You’ve Landed Your Next Scrum Master Job. Now What?
The first days in a new position can be confusing and lead to avoidable mistakes. These Scrum master best practices will help you become the servant-leader your team needs.
Anna Zakoyan
Anna is an Agile coach, senior Scrum master, trainer, and consultant with 16 years of experience in project and team management. She has helped more than 50 companies, including SGS Digicomply, Krisp, Ucraft, HSBC, Ameriabank, and Joomag, transform how teams collaborate and how work gets done.
SAFe Case Studies: Transformation Notes From the Field
In the final installment of Toptal’s Agile scaling series, the creator of SAFe, Dean Leffingwell, shares his expertise alongside three case studies from Toptal project managers who discuss the challenges and rewards of implementing an Agile scaling framework.
Daniel Carroll
Daniel is a Senior Editor for the Toptal Projects and Product Blogs. He has more than 20 years of experience at publications of the University of Chicago Press, Cambridge University Press, and Elsevier.
Agile Scaling: SAFe Best Practices for Scrum Masters
This article is part of Toptal’s Agile scaling series, designed to guide project managers in their team expansion efforts. In this second installment, Toptal Scrum expert Ammar Raafat discusses how Scrum masters moving into the role of release train engineer can help their teams thrive.
Ammar Raafat Mohamed Bashandy
Ammar is a SAFe release train engineer and Agile program manager at Vodafone Group, where he leads a multidisciplinary agile release train team of 43 engineers, designers, and product managers. He holds 10 current project management certifications—including Advanced Scrum Master, Scrum Product Owner, and SAFe Agilist—and has an MBA from ESLSCA Business School Paris.
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What Is Agile? A Philosophy That Develops Through Practice
Agile’s flexibility is attractive, but its lack of specificity leads teams to misinterpret its applications. Agile expert Umar Ali explains how he helps teams prioritize values over practices.
Umar Ali
Umar is a project manager, Agile coach, and Scrum master who specializes in leading Agile transformations for organizations and teams. He leverages Agile ways of working to improve software quality and push for process and cultural improvements that allow self-organizing teams—remote, on-site, and offshore—to flourish.
Is the Citizen Developer the New Face of Agility?
In an era of talent shortages and fast delivery, the low-code market is taking off. Citizen development on a low-code platform may be the solution your organization needs.
Bryan Bates
Bryan has more than 20 years of experience managing projects in Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid environments. He holds a PMP certification and the Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant credential. Bryan uses his low-code expertise to assist new users in the Microsoft Power Apps Community forum.
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