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.

Excavating the Work Breakdown Structure: Your Waterfall Project’s Rosetta Stone

Despite Agile’s popularity, Waterfall remains prevalent across industries. Rediscover one of its foundational tools, the WBS, and align your team with a common language to improve project delivery.

10 minute readContinue Reading

Jim Stewart

Jim is a project expert and certified Agile coach with more than 25 years of experience consulting on and managing projects for companies including JPMorgan Chase and Fidelity Investments. He is a PMP and CAPM instructor and co-author of Great Meetings Build Great Teams: A Guide for Project Leaders and Agilists.

Using AI in Project Management: Key Applications and Benefits

When it comes to improving project outcomes, AI holds vast potential, but it can be difficult to know which tools to use and how to apply them effectively. This guide details what you need to know.

7 minute readContinue Reading

Dimiter Shalvardjiev

Dimiter is a project manager and senior business consultant. He has helped teams at global organizations such as Philips and Hewlett Packard Enterprise solve complex problems using state-of-the-art technology.

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Agile’s Next Frontier: A Guide to Navigating the AI Project Life Cycle

The dynamism of AI-driven software development requires a specialized project management approach. This overview of the AI project life cycle details the key adaptations needed for success.

11 minute readContinue Reading

Alvaro Villena

Alvaro is an experienced technical project manager and consultant. He has rolled out many SaaS implementation projects and delivered complex cloud and AI-driven projects at numerous companies worldwide.

Traversing Hybrid Project Management: The Bridge Between Agile and Waterfall

A hybrid approach that bridges Agile’s adaptability and Waterfall’s predictability can be challenging to implement but beneficial for some projects. Toptal project experts share their notes from the field.

7 minute readContinue Reading

Monica Zaleski

Monica is Lead Editor, Product and Projects, at Toptal and a former editor at the Project Management Institute. She worked in academic and business publishing for more than 15 years on book projects for the University of California Press, as well as on marketing communications projects for Microsoft, SAP, and Synnex. Monica also holds a doctorate in English.

Mastering SaaS Implementation: 4 Tips for Success

In today’s competitive business landscape, SaaS products are indispensable. Find out how to spearhead the introduction of these tools and navigate the intricacies of implementation.

11 minute readContinue Reading

Alvaro Villena

Alvaro is a seasoned technical project manager and consultant. He has rolled out numerous SaaS implementation projects and delivered complex cloud and AI-driven projects at numerous companies worldwide.

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.

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

From auto manufacturing in the 1950s to the modern digital workplace, Kanban’s evolution 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.

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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