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Roblox unveiled a new immersive video advertising format on its platform and announced a strategic partnership with Google to expand its advertising business reach. Google will roll out these ads across AdMob and Ad Manager, creating significant new revenue opportunities for publishers while giving advertisers contextually relevant ways to reach engaged audiences. Big picture. The gaming giant is introducing rewarded video ads up to 30 seconds long that offer in-game benefits, marking a significant evolution of its business model beyond traditional gaming revenue. These ad formats are designed to blend seamlessly into virtual environments – appearing as billboards in digital cities or on screens during virtual sporting events – creating less disruptive advertising experiences that maintain user engagement. By the numbers: 85.3 million: Daily active users on Roblox. Majority: Users aged 13+. 30 seconds: Maximum length of new video ad format. Between the lines. This move addresses a key challenge in gaming advertising: maintaining user engagement without disrupting gameplay experiences. As Google executive Scott Sheffer noted, “traditional ad formats haven’t always been the right choice” in gaming environments. The Roblox partnership also represents a strategic pivot for Google’s advertising business toward emerging virtual spaces where younger audiences spend significant time, positioning them ahead of industry shifts toward more immersive digital experiences. What Google is saying. Google announced it’s extending Immersive Ads capabilities to more publishers following successful testing, with Roblox becoming a cornerstone partner for the technology. Why we care. This partnership opens access to 85.3 million daily active users, predominantly Gen Z—a notoriously difficult audience to reach effectively. The rewarded video format offers a non-disruptive way to engage with these highly attentive users, creating authentic brand interactions rather than intrusive interruptions. Additionally, integration with Google’s ad platform dramatically simplifies campaign management, allowing advertisers to incorporate Roblox into their broader digital strategies without learning new systems. What’s next. Brands will soon be able to purchase ads directly or through Google Ad Manager, with additional formats like billboards due in the coming months. Partnerships with measurement firms Cint, DoubleVerify, and Nielsen will help track campaign performance View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I recently interviewed for a new job that I was really excited: it’s exactly what I want to be doing next in my career, at a company I’ve heard good things about, and with a salary range that would be a significant boost from what I earn currently. After the second interview, the hiring manager asked me for my references. I sent her contact info for my manager from the two previous jobs before my current one, as well as a senior colleague who I’ve worked closely with. I didn’t offer my current manager since she does not know that I’m looking, and I would rather she not know until I’m ready to move on. I don’t think she would be angry, exactly, and we have a good relationship, but I’ve always heard it’s not wise to tip off your boss that you’re actively working on leaving until you’re ready to actually give notice. If this job doesn’t pan out for some reason, I don’t want her to worry that I have one foot out the door, since I could imagine that could affect what kinds of projects I’m put on and what opportunities she considers me for. However, after I sent my reference list, the hiring manager at this other job came back and asked if she could contact my current boss as well. I explained that my boss doesn’t know I’m interviewing and that I didn’t feel comfortable alerting her until I’d accepted another offer. The hiring manager said that because I’ve been at my current company for the last seven years, she would want to talk with them before making me a formal offer; I guess she felt the references I did provide were not recent enough. I asked if there were any alternatives I could provide instead, like a coworker from my current job (but not my boss) or even a copy of my recent performance evaluation. She said no, and that their policy is always to speak to someone who has managed the candidate in the last three years. I wasn’t comfortable doing this, so I ended up withdrawing from their hiring process. I’ve never encountered this before and always thought it was normal not to use your current boss as a reference. Am I being too cautious or was this an unfair requirement on their part? If I run into this again, is there a better way to navigate it? You can read my answer to this letter at New York Magazine today. Head over there to read it. View the full article

Policymakers in Beijing believe they will benefit from the destruction of America’s global credibilityView the full article

Sir Keir Starmer may have to make concessions on Britain’s digital services tax and agricultureView the full article

The profession is gearing up despite the perceived threats of artificial intelligence and outsourcing. By Hitendra Patil Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Hitendra Patil. View the full article

The profession is gearing up despite the perceived threats of artificial intelligence and outsourcing. By Hitendra Patil Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Hitendra Patil. View the full article

The average website seems to have more ads than content. There's the banner at the top, the square in the sidebar, and in most cases, a few auto-playing video ads thrown in for good measure. Ad blockers can help clean things up, but experts say that installing an ad blocker does more than make the internet less cluttered: They can also help you stay safe online. Ad blockers can protect you from scamsIn a perfect world, outright scammers and cybercriminals would not be able to buy ads from massively profitable search engines. However, we do not live in a perfect world. "Criminals have started buying ad space," said Kim Key, senior security analyst for our sister site PCMag who has written an extensively researched list of the best ad blockers. "That means that some ads may infect your device with malware when you interact with them, or may contain links to malicious websites." A version of this is ads designed to mimic legitimate companies in search results, a problem common enough that in 2022, the FBI put out a statement recommending the use of ad blockers. "Cyber criminals purchase advertisements that appear within internet search results using a domain that is similar to an actual business or service," the statement said. "When a user searches for that business or service, these advertisements appear at the very top of search results with minimum distinction between an advertisement and an actual search result." The report mentions that not all ads are scams (good?) but that installing an ad blocker is one way to protect yourself from being sucked into these scams in the first place. (Some) ad blockers can protect your privacyI don't think I need to tell you that online advertising is invasive—we've all noticed ads following us around the internet. Spend time researching shoes on Amazon and ads about the shoes you've looked at will pop up everywhere you go. It can feel creepy. Ad blockers can protect you from this, but there's a caveat: Some ad blockers prevent you from seeing ads without blocking the tracking. "If your ad blocker doesn't block trackers, but just blocks ads, it doesn't protect your privacy," said William Budington, a senior staff technologist on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) Public Interest Team. Janet Vertesi, associate professor of sociology at Princeton University who publishes extensive work on human computer interaction, told me this is a reason she herself doesn't use an ad blocker. "Some ad blockers make you think you have privacy because you're not seeing ads, but you don't know if the sites are taking your data," she said. Having said that, there are options out there specifically built to block tracking. Privacy Badger, built by the EFF, wasn't made to block ads—only tracking—but Budington told me it ends up blocking most ads anyway. "The reason why there's such conflation of ad blockers and tracker blockers is that the vast majority of ads online are also trackers," he said. Vertesi told me that this distinction—blocking tracking versus blocking ads—might be behind Google's recent ad blocker changes in Chrome. "What made uBlock Origin such a great ad blocker is it was blocking both coming out and going in," she said. "Chrome is a Google Product. Google is in the data-gathering business. Of course they don't want you to use uBlock Origin." Which is all to say: Ad blockers can protect your privacy, but only if you're using the right one. Drawbacks to using ad blockersHaving said all that, there are reasons you might not want to use an ad blocker. Supporting the things you read, for one thing. "Some content creators rely on ads for revenue, so as a supporter, you may not always want to block all of the ads," Key said. "I recommend trying an extension like Adblock Plus in this instance, because it allows you to allow some ads while blocking others." And some ad blockers themselves introduce privacy problems. "I recommend reading the ad-blocking extension's privacy policy before installing it," Key said. "Make sure you know what types of data the ad blocker collects from your browser, and how the company plans to store and use your personal information." There's also an argument to be made that using an ad blocker makes it hard to notice when you're being tracked. "I don't use an ad blocker because I am monitoring what they think they know about me," Vertesi said. "They're like the canary in the coal mine. I want to see those shoes following me around the internet—I need to know if my guard was let down." View the full article

The climate activist group Just Stop Oil (JSO) has announced the end of its campaign of direct action. Many will read the group’s legacy through the lens of public hostility: the frustration caused, the angry headlines, the outrage at its tactics. Not only have JSO activists been spat at, physically assaulted and run over by angry car drivers, but 15 members are also currently serving jail sentences following arrests and charges. But the intense backlash directed at JSO is not evidence that its campaign faltered. It is a sign that these activists succeeded in emotionally charging the public debate about climate change. They gave the public something to argue about, react to, even mock—and in doing so, made the climate crisis impossible to ignore. The alternative, an apathetic consensus, would entail passively accepting the dominant approach to address the climate crisis. That means market-based solutions, a faith in technological innovation, and incremental policy reforms within existing political and economic systems. These have arguably to date failed, as global temperatures continue to skyrocket. Through my own research on climate activism, I have studied how environmental protest influences policy, corporate behaviour and financial markets. Activists can stimulate change, but not through rational arguments alone. Change happens by making an emotional splash. It creates antagonism, dissent and tension, which are all needed to enliven public debate. Emotions including anger, fear and guilt play a key role in the ability of activists to create moral urgency and force issues into the spotlight. JSO harnessed this emotional logic not only from supporters, but from critics. Those who dragged protesters off roads, raged in comment sections and professed their hate towards the group were reacting because the group had emotionally triggered them. Like a person who gets under your skin, JSO became very hard to ignore. As business scholars Thomas Davenport and John Beck argue in their book The Attention Economy, in a saturated information landscape, being memorable—even disruptively—is a strategic advantage. In this sense, JSO “hacked” this logic by demanding emotional and cognitive attention, whether through support or outrage. Disruptive protests may be unpopular, but they are effective at attracting media attention and public awareness. As many studies suggest, the more illogical or disruptive a protest, the more media coverage it receives—despite coverage not necessarily translating into more donations and support. Of course, disruption risks alienating some people—but that can actually strengthen a movement’s overall influence. The “radical flank effect” shows that when radical activists push boundaries, they often make moderate voices in the same movement appear more reasonable. Recent research on JSO found that even when the group provoked public anger, support for moderate organisations such as Friends of the Earth increased. This dynamic reflects what sociologist Thomas Roulet calls The Power of Being Divisive. Being controversial can actually benefit a cause by amplifying its message and deepening support from those already aligned. Polarisation, in this view, is not always harmful—it can be strategically useful. In the case of JSO activists, controversy did not dilute their message. Rather, it intensified its resonance with those already primed to act. Turning emotion into action JSO has also uniquely been able to provide direction for many struggling to navigate climate change’s volatile emotional context. As philosopher Glenn A. Albrecht describes in his book Earth Emotions, events such as climate change, mass species extinction and environmental degradation are creating a global emotional crisis, marked by a mix of grief, anxiety and powerlessness. JSO has effectively tapped into this emotional turbulence, turning despair into urgency and action. Its actions can be seen as emotional interventions for a society struggling to process ecological loss. Left undirected, emotions related to conditions such as climate change-related “eco-anxiety” can lead to paralysis—a state of emotional overwhelm that prevents people from taking meaningful action or engaging with the climate problem. But research shows that when movements channel emotions—especially by transforming fear into shared action—they build momentum. One study of climate organisers found that protest participation gave people a way to manage despair by reclaiming a sense of purpose and solidarity. A frequent refrain is that the objectives are valid, but the strategies are too extreme. But history shows that disruptive tactics have long played a role in forcing attention to urgent issues. From the suffragettes chaining themselves to railings, to civil rights sit-ins, to ACT UP’s dramatic interventions during the Aids crisis — disruption has often preceded progress. Movements that are easy to ignore tend to be forgotten. JSO made itself, and its cause, impossible to ignore. JSO’s campaign may be over, but the emotional legacy it leaves behind—frustration, urgency and debate—will outlast its tactics. The group exposed a society uneasy with the scale of change climate action demands, and showed that public anger is not a threat to activism, but a measure of its impact. If you were angry at them, that’s understandable—disruption is inconvenient. But the real question now is where we direct that energy: towards those resisting climate action, or those demanding we seriously do something about it. George Ferns is a senior lecturer in business and society at the University of Bath. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

The global asset manager wanted access to the smaller company's residential mortgage credit strategies, which will become available to a larger investor base. View the full article

Inventories rise to highest level since 2022 as producers stockpile goods View the full article

Watchdog acts after finding 15 manufacturers co-ordinated their positions on vehicle recyclingView the full article

When you use the internet on your laptop, tablet, or phone, your browser stores information about the sites you visit and how you engage with them to improve loading speed and personalize your browsing. Caching is one of these processes. Here's how it works and why you should consider clearing it regularly. What exactly is a browser cache?Your browser cache is a temporary storage area for elements of websites you visit, like images, fonts, and code. When you first visit a website, your browser downloads and stores that data locally to load the next time you navigate back to that site. When you come back, your browser first checks the cache for an existing page version, but if the website has been updated since your last visit, it will download and cache whatever new information it discovers as missing or outdated. Websites can also set expiration dates for cached files, forcing your browser to download the latest version and update the cache. The primary benefit of caching is faster loading, as your browser won't have to wait for page data to be found and re-downloaded each time you open it. Caching differs from cookies, which are small bits of information created by sites you visit that your browser saves to personalize your experience, such as your logins, site preferences, or shopping cart items. The cache is also different from your browser history, which is simply a record of all the sites you've visited and when you visited them. All of this data is stored locally on your device, though. Why you should clear your browser cache (and when to do it)Caching enhances your overall browsing experience, as you don't have to wait for every page element to be retrieved and downloaded each time you open a site you visit often. That said, occasionally clearing your cache can be useful for fixing loading or formatting errors that occur when old files remain stored. Of course, browsing speed may slow down temporarily, though, as your cache has to save new information for each site. Browser caching also comes with a handful of privacy and security considerations. Hackers can use cached data to spread malware or direct users to fake websites—attacks known as cache poisoning and DNS spoofing. Your cache can also expose your browsing information to anyone accessing your device, whether a household member or someone who steals or confiscates your computer or phone. Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, recommends that users concerned about keeping their browsing data private should use device encryption so anyone with physical access to their device can't get in. You can also clear cache if you've been browsing sensitive material or utilize Incognito Mode, which prevents your browser from saving information (including cookies and history) in the first place, at least on your device. "Deleting browsing data only affects what's on your device," Hoffman-Andrews says. "Your ISP or government may be keeping records of what sites you visit. The sites themselves may be keeping records of which specific pages you visited." Most browsers let you clear cache, cookies, and browser history altogether. Still, if you want a more private browser that protects against snoops tracking your data and internet history, your best place to start is by reevaluating what browser you use. View the full article

From the southwestern U.S. to Minnesota, Iowa and even parts of New Jersey, it seemed that winter never materialized. Many communities marked their driest winters on record, snowpack was nearly nonexistent in some spots, and vegetation remains tinder dry—all ingredients for elevated wildfire risks. More than 1,000 firefighters and fire managers recently participated in an annual wildfire academy in Arizona, where training covered everything from air operations to cutting back brush with chain saws and building fire lines. Academy officials say there’s consensus that crews will be busy as forecasts call for more warm and dry weather, particularly for the Southwest. The lack of moisture and warm temperatures can combine to increase the rate of spread and intensity of fire, said Roy Hall, the prescribed fire officer for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. He says it’s been dry in his state for months. “We would be remiss to not acknowledge that changes how we might see fire behavior come out of the blocks at the beginning and through fire season,” he said. How dry has it been? Experts with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information reported in early March that total winter precipitation in the U.S. was just shy of 6 inches (15.24 centimeters)—or nearly an inch (2.54 centimeters) below average. The period of December through the end of February—what forecasters consider the meteorological winter—ranked the third driest on record. Flagstaff, nestled in the mountains south of the Grand Canyon, has long been on the list of quick escapes for desert dwellers looking to build snowmen or go sledding. The northern Arizona city finished the winter period with a 50-inch (1.27 meter) snowfall deficit. A major storm hit the area in mid-March, forcing the closure of Interstate 40 and stranding motorists for hours. It wasn’t enough to erase the shortfall. In New Mexico, there were at least 17 sites that marked either their driest winters on record or tied previous records. Albuquerque set a new low by logging just 0.12 inches (0.30 centimeters) of precipitation over a three-month period. “The tap just turned off and the drought conditions have been proceeding,” Andrew Mangham, a senior hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, said during a recent call with state and federal drought experts. What does that mean for wildfire conditions? Arizona, New Mexico and parts the Midwest already have had their share this spring of red flag warnings—when low humidity couples with windy, warm weather to heighten wildfire risks. Those threats materialized in mid-March in Oklahoma, where fires destroyed hundreds of homes. Crews in New Jersey and the Carolinas also battled flames amid dry conditions. In the West, land managers and firefighting forces are concerned that without adequate snowpack in many mountain ranges, there’s less moisture to keep fires from ballooning into fast-moving conflagrations. April 1 typically marks the peak of the snowpack, but forecasters say many areas already are melting out. Strong spring winds that deposit dust onto the snowpack help to speed up the process. Even southern Alaska is experiencing a snow drought at lower elevations, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. The Anchorage airport recorded its driest February on record, while large areas in southwest Alaska and low elevations in the south-central part were nearly snow-free as of March 1. Recent storms brought some moisture to California, pushing snowpack levels there to just shy of average. But most of the southern region is dealing with moderate to extreme drought. A new wildfire outlook will be released Tuesday. While California isn’t among those areas facing significant potential for wildfires at the moment, deadly fires in January torched more urban area than any other fire in that state since at least the mid-1980s. How are communities dealing with the threat? Seeing flames race through Los Angeles earlier this year prompted municipal leaders throughout the West to host community meetings to raise awareness, including in New Mexico’s San Juan County. The Four Corners region—where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet—is among those on the radar for high fire potential given the unfavorable conditions. Firefighters in San Juan County responded to 25 bushfires in the first 27 days of March and two more were reported on Friday, said county spokesperson Devin Neeley. In Arizona, the Phoenix Fire Department have warned the mayor and city councilors about increasing risks. They have a plan for surging department resources to help contain fires before they escalate, particularly in areas where urban development intersects with wildland environments. In neighboring Scottsdale, Mayor Lisa Borowsky recently floated the idea of creating a volunteer brigade to bolster wildfire prevention, pointing to invasive species and overgrown vegetation within the McDowell Sonoran Preserve that could pose risks. A fire department crew has been clearing and trimming brush along roadways. Christopher Reed, a fire prevention captain with the Arizona forestry department, said some people think of wildfire as a “macro problem” that involves vast landscapes beyond their suburban borders. He said people should prepare on a micro level, ensuring their own homes are defensible before it’s too late. “We always say Day 1 of firefighting is now,” Reed said. —Ty O’Neil and Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press View the full article

People who most frequently encounter everyday discrimination—those subtle snubs and slights of everyday life—are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. What’s more, that finding remains true no matter the person’s race, gender, age, education, income, weight, language, immigration status or where they live. These are the key takeaways from our recent study, published in JAMA Network Open. Everyday discrimination refers to the routine ways people are treated unfairly because of characteristics such as skin color, perceived background or general appearance. Generally, it means disrespectful treatment: waiting longer than others for help at a store, having your ideas dismissed without consideration at work, or hearing rude comments about your identity. Although marginalized groups endure everyday discrimination most often, our study indicates that this is a widespread issue affecting people of all races and backgrounds. I’m a professor who specializes in community health. My team and I analyzed data from the 2023 National Health Interview Survey, which included a weighted sample of nearly 30,000 U.S. adults, adjusted to accurately reflect more than 258 million people – approximately 75% of the country. Along with reporting frequency of everyday discrimination, participants completed clinical screenings for depression and anxiety. The results were striking: Nearly 56% of participants experienced at least occasional everyday discrimination, with 3.6% having “high levels,” meaning they faced discrimination most frequently – at least monthly and often weekly. High levels were most prevalent among Black adults, at 8.6%. Multiracial respondents were next with 6.4%. Hispanics and white participants were at about 3%, Asians just over 2%. Women and immigrants, people with disabilities and those who are overweight, obese or struggling with food insecurity also reported higher levels. When compared with those reporting no discrimination, participants with high levels had five times the odds of screening positive for either depression or anxiety, and nearly nine times the odds of screening positive for both. As discrimination increased, the increase in screening positive for depression, anxiety or both varied by race, with a more noticeable rise among groups that are often overlooked in these discussions—white, Asian and multiracial adults. This doesn’t mean discrimination is less harmful for Black, Hispanic/Latino or other racial and ethnic groups. One possible reason for our study’s findings may be that groups that have long endured structural discrimination may have developed more ways over time to cope with it. Why it matters At some point, all of us experience unfair treatment due to our personal traits. But this type of discrimination isn’t just unpleasant. Our study shows it has real consequences for health. Along with depression and anxiety, discrimination creates chronic stress, leading to increased risk for hypertension, heart disease, impaired brain functioning, accelerated aging and premature death. For some, everyday discrimination may emerge at different times in life. This can happen to people as they get older or when they become ill. But for others, it is a constant. This includes people living in marginalized communities, people of color, those socioeconomically disadvantaged or with disabilities, or those who identify as LGBTQ+. What other research is being done Multiracial people are uniquely challenged because they navigate multiple racial identities. This often leads to feelings of isolation, which increases mental health risks. White adults, though less frequently exposed to racial discrimination, still face mistreatment, particularly if they have lower incomes, limited education or working-class backgrounds. In recent years, white people have perceived rising levels of discrimination against their own group. People of Asian descent are vulnerable to societal pressures and harmful stereotypes, which spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. When factors are combined – for example, adding financial insecurity or immigration status to racism – compounded health challenges arise. What’s next Understanding how discrimination affects health for all can lead to policies and programs targeting root causes of mental health disparities and the rising rates of depression and anxiety. Discrimination isn’t just a Black versus white issue. It’s a public health crisis affecting all Americans. Acknowledging its harmful health effects is a first step. Monica Wang is an associate professor of public health at Boston University. This article is republished from The Conversation, as a Research Brief (a short take on interesting academic work), under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

Sales of graphic novels have doubled over the past five years, to some parents’ dismay. But data shows these books can have a positive lifelong impact on young readers. View the full article

While scientists haven’t figured out how to un-plastic ourselves yet, you can dodge some of these sneaky invaders. View the full article

Policy uncertainty fuels surge in use of approved facilities that temporarily exempt businesses from paying leviesView the full article

As companies pull back on their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, will their commitments to equal pay also waver? View the full article

Businesses go through a lot. Managers must always be aware of the internal and external factors that can impact their business growth such as economic fluctuations, new competitors, new market trends and more. One of the most common threats to any company is called business disruption. Business disruption happens whenever a radical change occurs and affects how companies compete in a given industry. An example of business disruption could be the development of a new technology that renders the current methods useless. In this case, what can business managers do? Execute a business impact analysis (BIA). Business impact analysis is an important tool to help plan for the inevitability of consequences and their cost. BIA is a versatile process that’s used for risk assessment, business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning. Risk is always on the horizon and the better-equipped businesses are to prepare for risk management, the more likely they’ll be able to continue doing business in the future. What Is Business Impact Analysis (BIA)? Business impact analysis (BIA) is a method to predict the consequences of disruptions to a business, its processes and systems by collecting relevant data. This data can be used to develop strategies for the business to recover in the case of an emergency. ProjectManager is project management software that’s equipped with planning tools for business impact analysis, business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning. Our project reports and real-time cost and workload dashboards allow managers to plan more efficiently and communicate key information to clients and stakeholders in minutes. Get started for free. /wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Light-mode-reporting-CTA-e1711992940366.pngLearn more! Scenarios that could potentially cause losses to the business are identified. These can include suppliers not delivering, delays in service, etc. The list of possibilities is long, but it’s key to explore them thoroughly in order to best assess risk. It’s by identifying and evaluating these potential risk scenarios that a business can determine a plan of investment for recovery and mitigation strategies, along with outright prevention. What Does Business Impact Analysis Address? The business impact analysis analyzes the operational and financial impacts of a business disruption. These impacts include lost sales and income, delayed sales or income, increased expenses, regulatory fines, contractual penalties, a loss of customers and a delay of new business plans. Another factor to take into account is timing. The timing of a disruptive event can have a major impact on the loss suffered by a business. If your store is damaged by a natural disaster before a big sale or large seasonal holiday, the impact is greater than during a slower period. The business impact analysis operates under two assumptions: Every part of the business is dependent on the continued operations of the other parts of the business. Some parts of the business are more important than others, requiring more allocations when disruptions occur. BIA vs. Risk Assessment BIA and a business risk assessment are similar, but the main difference is that a BIA is more specific as it focuses on the business continuity requirements, resource availability and the impact of a business disruption. On the other hand, risk assessment focuses on the severity and likelihood of potential business risks. This is done to prioritize the risks and create mitigation strategies to solve them. BIA vs. Business Continuity Planning Business impact analysis is a component of business continuity planning because a BIA is meant to provide important data for a business continuity plan. How does this work? A BIA is conducted to determine the most critical business processes, the impact of business disruption in those processes and the resources needed to restore them. These are all fundamental variables to factor in when creating a business continuity plan, which will act as the course of action that’s taken to ensure that a business will be able to recover from a business disruption. BIA vs. Disaster Recovery Planning Similar to the relation between BIA and business continuity planning, BIA is also a useful tool when creating a disaster recovery plan. The BIA identifies failure modes and the costs associated with them. The information obtained from the BIA report is then used as input to create a fully-fledged disaster recovery plan. /wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Risk-Matrix-Template-for-Excel.png Get your free Risk Matrix Template Use this free Risk Matrix Template for Excel to manage your projects better. Download Excel File Who Should Be Involved in a Business Impact Analysis? The BIA is a collaborative process that requires input from different stakeholders in the organization. The specific roles involved depend on the business’ size and complexity, but generally speaking, here’s who to include. Senior management and executives offer overall direction and support for the business impact analysis. They help authorize the resources and ensure the BIA aligns with the company’s strategic goals. Also involved are functional or department managers. They help assess the impact of disruptions on their specific functions and offer detailed information on their departments’ operations. IT managers may also be involved due to their technical expertise. They can offer input on IT systems, data dependencies and infrastructure. Other potentially involved roles include finance managers, human resources department managers, subject matter experts or customers. How to Conduct a Business Impact Analysis in 4 Steps While there’s no set way to conduct a business impact analysis, the process follows the general path outlined below. 1. Get Approval for the BIA The first step is to initiate the process by getting approval from senior management for the project. To begin, define the objectives, goals and scope of the business impact analysis. It should be clear what the business is seeking to achieve. Then, it’s important to form a project team to execute the business impact analysis. This can be existing staff as long as they know how to conduct a business impact analysis, but this team can be outsourced to a team that’s skilled in this process if the business doesn’t have people for this task. 2. Collect Information The next step is collecting the information needed to make the analysis. This data can be gathered in several ways, from interviews to a business impact analysis questionnaire, which is the most common tool. The questionnaire is a detailed survey that’s been developed by the business impact analysis team and has targeted questions that are designed to get answers that assess the potential effect of a disruption to the business. People who should be interviewed or given the questionnaire include managers, team members, supervisors and others who are knowledgeable about the business processes. It can also include business partners and those working outside of the organization as long as they have sufficient insight. In other words, consider who your stakeholders are. The information that you collect for your BIA report should include the following: The name of the process A detailed description of where the process is performed All the inputs and outputs in the process Resources and tools that are used in the process The users of the process The timing The financial and operational impacts Any regulatory, legal or compliance impacts Historical data 3. Review the Information All of this collected data must be documented and reviewed before the information is analyzed. This can be automated by computer or done manually, depending on which is easier, more reliable and practical in terms of formulating a conclusion. This review accomplishes multiple objectives: it creates a prioritized list of business functions or processes, it identifies the human and technology resources needed to maintain an optimal level of operations and it establishes a recovery timeframe in which to recover the process or function and return it to normal. 4. Create the BIA Report After this, you’ll want to document the findings. This is when the business impact analysis report is prepared. While the format is not regulated, it often follows the following structure: Executive summary Objectives and scope Methodologies used to gather data and evaluation Summary of findings A detailed finding on each department of the business (including their most crucial processes, the impact of disruption, acceptable duration of the disruption, tolerable level of losses, cost of recovery, etc.) Supporting documents and Recommendations for recovery This document is then presented to management. The decision on how to proceed is in the hands of senior management, so they’re the ones who receive the report. Note that the business impact analysis is not set in stone. Technology, tools and processes change, and the business impact analysis must evolve with them. /wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PPM-ebook-banner-ad-evergreen.jpg Business Impact Analysis Examples To better illustrate a business impact analysis, let’s delve into some examples across industries. It helps identify critical processes, assess potential disruptions and determine the financial and operational impact. Cybersecurity BIA: Let’s start with cybersecurity as an example. If there’s a ransomware attack on customer and order data, this would stop all online sales. The business could lose customer trust and have potential legal ramifications. The BIA could identify the need for data backups and recovery procedures, resulting in more offline backups and a data recovery plan. Manufacturing BIA: If a critical machine fails during production, production would halt, impacting order fulfillment. This impacts metrics such as daily revenue and the number of delayed customer orders. The outcome would be a contingency plan that identifies backup supplies or communicates effectively with impacted customers. Construction BIA: If a severe storm impacts a construction project, it could damage a partially completed house. This would result in a significant timeline delay, potential safety hazards and potential contract disputes with the homeowner. As a result, project costs would increase. A contingency plan can help establish weather monitoring protocols and establish relationships with backup suppliers for materials. Why Business Impact Analysis Is Important The reason that every business should include a business impact analysis is that it’s a part of any thorough plan to minimize risk. All businesses can be disrupted by accidents and emergencies including a failure of suppliers, labor disputes, utility failures, cyber-attacks and not to mention natural or man-made disasters. Plan Ahead It’s not ideal to produce a response when one is in the midst of a crisis; a smart business has already prepared for these risks. A response created in dire straits will likely be arbitrary or random, and it will almost certainly be less effective. With the due diligence of a business impact analysis in hand, a business has a well-thought-out plan of action to recover from adversity. It gives management more confidence in their decisions and judgments when responding to these events. Prioritize Accordingly The business impact analysis with allocation instructions prioritizes which operations need immediate recovery and which can wait. It also provides a set of criteria to test the recovery plans. Furthermore, it should identify lost income from the disruption, higher costs the business is likely to accrue if there will be any expenditure on fines and penalties, and the erosion of the business’s reputation and customer base. All of this information is critical to a business’s success. Problems are part of the business landscape, and ignoring the possibility of some disruption to the process threatens solvency and long-term survival. Business Management Templates ProjectManager is project and work management software that’s great for businesses and we offer dozens of tutorial videos and blogs, templates and guides for your business management needs. SWOT Analysis Template A situational analysis or SWOT analysis is a great tool to assess the current state of any business. It allows managers to understand the internal and external factors that make up their company’s business environment. Business Case Template Our business case template is a versatile document that helps business managers, project managers and entrepreneurs to communicate their business ideas to stakeholders and clients. Executive Summary Template Our executive summary template is a great tool to summarize your business plans and project proposals so that you can quickly show project stakeholders and clients the value of your projects. Turn BIA into Action with ProjectManager Now that you’ve done the impact analysis, what’s next? The plan is the foundation of any successful project, but a plan needs tools to organize all of its different parts into a working whole. ProjectManager is an online work management software that’s built exactly for this purpose. Once you have approval, you need to break down the project into tasks. Those tasks will each need a deadline, and they should be assigned to a team member to execute them. ProjectManager gives you multiple ways to initiate your project plan, from the more structured Gantt chart for long-term planning to the visual workflow tool of a kanban board. But how do you get your spreadsheet into a project? With ProjectManager, that’s easy. You can upload your tasks and it opens as a new project. From the Gantt view, your tasks are plotted on a project timeline to give you the big picture and allow you to link dependent tasks while breaking the project into phases or milestones. /wp-content/uploads/2022/03/pm-gantt-screenshot.png You can assign tasks from any project view and teams can work how they want to work. Team members like kanban boards because they have the necessary context and resources to work on what matters. Managers like the transparency kanban boards provide, showing them who is working on what. /wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Kanban_Marketing_Wide_Zoom-150_Moving-task-to-different-status.jpg Business impact analysis gives the project life, but ProjectManager gives that life a means to success. Practical and easy to use, projects are productive, making the work that you put into the analysis pay off. A business impact analysis is a great tool to assess risk and set up a plan of recovery if and when it occurs. That sounds like a project. ProjectManager is project management software that helps you plan your business impact analysis and monitor and report on it when you need to execute it. There’s no risk to taking this free 30-day trial. The post What Is Business Impact Analysis? How to Conduct One with Examples appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

When venturing out into the wilds of the modern web, many people now make use of a VPN, or a Virtual Private Network. These software packages have been around for decades as ways of securely connecting to private networks remotely, but the term is now more commonly used to refer to third-party VPN services that act as intermediaries between your devices and the internet at large. The idea behind VPNs is they keep you and your data safer while you're browsing, with a trade-off in terms of speed (though the best VPNs will aim to minimize the hit on download and upload transfer rates). If you're wondering what exactly a VPN is, how these services work, and whether or not you should be signed up for one, you'll find all of these questions and more answered below. Why use a VPN?Using a VPN is beneficial in terms of both security and privacy. VPNs create an encrypted tunnel between you and dedicated servers run by the VPN company. Your traffic is then sent down that tunnel, and your VPN service of choice then sends it on to websites or other servers. Traffic going in the other direction travels back in the same way. This tunnel offers several protections. It means it's a lot harder for people on the same wifi network as you at the local coffee shop or the hotel you're staying in to see what you're up to—so VPNs are often deployed by users when they're traveling and connecting to numerous public wifi networks. VPNs can let you pretend you're in places you're not. Credit: Lifehacker Connecting to a VPN also means your traffic is hidden from your internet service provider, or ISP. Your ISP can see you're connecting to the VPN, but nothing beyond that—so it's impossible for your ISP or any of its staff to snoop on you or keep logs. It also means ISPs are more limited in terms of what they can tell government agencies and law enforcement. Another reason for using VPNs is to conceal or spoof your location: Websites can only see the location of the VPN server you're using, not your actual location. That means they can't track your whereabouts as easily, and in the case of streaming services, might serve up different libraries of content depending on where your VPN server is (though streaming services are pretty wise to VPNs now, so this doesn't always work). How VPNs work—and their limitationsThat idea of an encrypted tunnel covers the basics of how VPNs work: You connect to a VPN server, then it connects to the web for you. When data comes back, it first goes to the VPN server, and then to your device. VPN providers will tell you how many servers they have and in how many countries—each time you connect to the VPN, you can typically choose which server to connect to, or have one assigned automatically. If you want to stay safe on a public wifi network, it's best to connect to a server in your country—it'll be faster. If you want to pretend you're in another country, or would like to stop websites and apps from knowing where you are, you can pick a server somewhere else. Some VPNs let you double-up servers for extra security. If you connect to a lot of wifi networks, VPNs can help keep you safe. Credit: Lifehacker It's important to recognize the limitations of how VPNs work, too. Your location aside, they aren't going to stop a lot of the tracking tech you'll find on the web, such as cookies—and of course if you log into your Amazon account, Amazon will know it's you. VPNs don't offer anonymity cloaks. In addition, you're essentially transferring your trust from your ISP to a VPN provider: Your ISP provider can't see your traffic, but your VPN service potentially can. What's more, VPNs are under the same legal obligations as ISPs when it comes to giving data to government and law enforcement agencies. With that in mind, it's important to pick a VPN you trust. How to choose a VPNAs noted above, VPNs aren't above the law, and can see the traffic they're ferrying for you. With that in mind, it's important to look for a VPN with an independently audited "no logs" policy—meaning none of your data is kept permanently. That means there's less information that can be exposed or handed over to the authorities, if they come knocking. It's a crucial part of choosing a VPN, so VPN providers will usually promote "no logs" policies quite prominently. Read the policies for ExpressVPN and NordVPN, for example: You'll see mention of independent auditors, technologies that scrub data automatically, and operations that are based in countries where data retention laws are less strict (which means VPNs aren't legally obliged to keep records on their users). See what VPN providers say about their data retention policies. Credit: Lifehacker There are lots of other criteria to use when weighing which VPN provider to go for. As previously mentioned, you can look for how many servers a provider offers, and where they're based. You can also check up on the promised speeds, as well as the basics of how much you're going to have to pay and what else you get included (maybe dark-web monitoring for data breaches, for example, or a bundled password manager). Make sure you check how many devices you can connect to the VPN service at any one time, as this will vary—and some VPNs may not even have apps for every platform. You can also look at what you get in terms of customer service and support if something goes wrong. And don't forget to consult reviews from trustworthy tech publications, too. How much VPNs costAs with most digital subscription decisions, cost is likely to be a big factor in your choice. Free VPNs are available, though they'll usually be cut-down versions of paid-for packages, with limitations on how many connections you can make and the speeds you're going to get in terms of uploads and downloads. Considering how important VPNs are, in terms of trusting them with your data, it's a good idea to avoid free ones if you can—at least if it's not clear how they're making their money. There are trustworthy free VPN packages around, and we've listed some of them here, but make sure you go for a well-known name with a long history. Check the deal length and bundled features when comparing VPN prices. Credit: Lifehacker If you are able to pay for a VPN, make sure you weigh everything you get with your subscription: the number of available servers, the number of compatible devices, the length of the deal you have to sign up for, the customer support on offer, the bonus software included. Comparing prices is tricky because each VPN provider offers different packages for your money. While subscription tiers and pricing are changing all the time—look out for introductory deals if you're just signing up—here are a few offers available at the time of writing to give you a general idea: ExpressVPN is $12.95 a month, NordVPN is $12.99 a month, ProtonVPN is $9.99 a month, and TunnelBear is $9.99 a month. As usual, you can get lower monthly pricing by signing up for a year or two, and varying tiers with varying features are available on these services. Should you use a VPN?There's no doubt that using a VPN on your phone or your laptop means your data is more secure and more private: The question is whether it's worth paying for another subscription. It certainly gives you extra peace of mind if you're on the go a lot, and often bouncing between different public wifi networks. For secure travel, and accessing services from abroad, VPNs are definitely appealing. Then there's the ISP issue: These big internet companies keep much more detailed records than most VPNs do. If you'd rather as little of your browsing activity was logged as possible, then a VPN might be the way to go (though again, this applies to activity logged by ISPs, and not necessarily advertising companies or websites). VPNs can offer extra peace of mind. Credit: Lifehacker You've also got the built-in protection for your location—your IP address—and the ability to spoof locations to some extent, which can be helpful if you're in a place with tightly regulated internet, or where your usual streaming services aren't available. Bear in mind, though, that as soon as you log into Google or Netflix, they know who you are and which country you live in anyway. VPN providers are usually falling over themselves to offer free trials or introductory offers, so there's no harm in signing up for a package and seeing how it suits you—and how much you actually use it. You could even sign up for a couple at a time and compare them in terms of online speeds and the quality of their apps. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I want your help in understanding what, if anything, I can/should do about the way my boss talks about herself. I like my boss, but it’s exhausting! My organization recently went through huge layoffs, so everyone feels overworked and off-balance. As part of that I got a new boss. I get the feeling she’s nervous about doing a good job, and wants us all to like her. I do like her! But during 1-1s and team meetings, she tends to monologue — and it’s all overly personal, self-deprecating, or sad. Too-intimate details about her personal health, negative comments about her body, “funny” stories about being mistreated as a child, general self-deprecation (“stupid” “failure”). The tone is always light, but these stories are sometimes all strung together, and I find it emotionally tiring! I’ve struggled with self-esteem in the past (I’m doing much better today) but hearing someone constantly self-deprecate themselves, especially someone who has power over me, brings me back to … less fun times. Every meeting where she does this, it takes a lot out of me. It’s as if she thinks these things are normal, or a way of putting herself lower down so that we’ll like her more — but the more it drains me, the more I’m starting to brace myself to be around her. Approaching her directly: I think she would be horrified to know this affects me, but sometimes people react unexpectedly to things like this and get weird/cold — if she doesn’t have the emotional awareness that this is not good, could this rebound on me in some way? She might stop if I asked her, but I think she would feel really bad … and can I even ask her to stop, if it’s only me having a problem with it? What if she feels uncomfortable around me forever? Or if it affects her treatment of me? What if she tries and fails, and then is apologizing to me on top of the self-deprecation? Talking to my skip-level is another option. But would it make my boss feel even more paranoid that an unknown “someone” doesn’t like her, as if I were leaving a negative note on her chair? My skip-level is in all these meetings and doesn’t try to correct it — he’s a bit oblivious to social cues, I think. I know my skip-level well and he’s a supportive boss who advocates for his staff and would take this seriously — both for my sake and for my boss’s — but he also has a tendency to interrupt people and publicly correct them in meetings in ways that he really shouldn’t. “You shouldn’t have made this mistake…” “We talked about you not doing that, why did you do it?” What if he starts correcting her about this in front of all of us? Horror… But I do not dream of labor, much less emotional labor on top of labor! Should I start with her privately, then continue to my skip-level if that doesn’t work? Talking to HR is the nuclear option, so I would want to leave it for last. I think I’m overthinking all this, and possibly thinking about my boss as too fragile, but this situation is definitely bringing up old feelings / maladaptive instincts from my distant past that served me once but no longer do. Oh, this sounds really uncomfortable. And when I imagine what it might be stemming from in your boss — ugh, it’s just bad all around. I’m curious about whether you might get some traction by changing the responses you’re giving in the moment when it’s happening. For example, when she tells a “funny” story about being mistreated as a child, what if you said, “That’s really sad, I’m so sorry that happened”? When she calls herself “stupid” or a “failure,” could you say, “It makes me feel terrible to hear you say that”? if she makes a negative comment about her body, what if you said, “I don’t think any of us should talk about bodies that way”? Basically, let your natural reaction show. Look stricken! Respond accordingly. It might make her realize that these stories and comments aren’t landing the way she wants them to. I’m also curious about whether your coworkers are picking up on the same things, and whether there might be room for the group of you to collaborate on how to respond when it happens. Depending on the dynamics you have with her, you could even say, as a group, “Hey, we don’t like the way you talk about yourself, please don’t do that.” If that doesn’t work, I do think the next step is to talk to your skip-level, especially since it sounds like you have a good rapport with him. Yes, that might mean that he corrects her publicly … but that might be what it takes to get this to stop. It would be better if he had the skill to handle it privately (and maybe it’ll turn out that he does) but I’m more concerned that your boss hears that she needs to stop doing this, even if it’s not delivered with perfect delicacy from above. View the full article

Time is a constraint that applies to any project, particularly to dynamic, agile projects. While some industries are more time-sensitive than others, all industries have projects that incur many changes along the way. A burndown chart helps agile project management teams keep track of what’s been done, what needs to be done and how much time is left in the project. While a burndown chart is traditionally a visual tool, it can also act as a list that outlines the work to be done and what percentage of it is complete. What Is a Burndown Chart? A burndown chart is a project management chart that shows how quickly a team is working through a customer’s user stories. This agile tool captures the description of a feature from an end-user perspective and shows the total effort against the amount of work for each iteration or agile sprint. The quantity of work remaining appears on a vertical axis while the time that’s passed since the beginning of the project is placed horizontally on the chart, showing the past and the future. The burndown chart is displayed so everyone on the agile project management team can see it and updated regularly for accuracy. Types of Burndown Chart There are two burndown chart variants: a sprint burndown and a product burndown. A sprint burndown is used for work remaining in the iteration, while a product burndown illustrates the work remaining for the entire project plan. Sprint Burndown Chart Sprint burndown charts usually track progress within a single sprint, usually 1-4 weeks. It shows the remaining work for that specific sprint to help the team monitor progress and ensure they’re on track. The horizontal axis represents the days within the sprint and the vertical axis represents the remaining work, such as story points or hours. Product Burndown Chart Product burndown charts offer a broader view of the project’s overall progress. It tracks the remaining work for the entire product or a specific release that covers multiple sprints. The horizontal can represent sprints or iterations, while the vertical axis represents the remaining work in the product backlog. /wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Agile-Sprint-Plan-Template.png Get your free Sprint planner template Use this free Sprint planner template to manage your projects better. Get the template Components of a Burndown Chart Although the specifics can vary, it’s common to see the below sections of a burndown chart. Axes A burndown chart has two axes, x and y. The horizontal axis represents time while the vertical axis displays user story points. The rightmost point of the chart indicates the start of a project or agile sprint while the leftmost point shows its end. Ideal Work Remaining Line As its name suggests, the ideal work remaining line indicates the remaining work that a team has at a specific point of the project or sprint under ideal conditions. Project managers use past data to estimate this baseline and draft a straight line across the burndown chart. The ideal work remaining line should always have a negative slope. Actual Work Remaining Line The actual work remaining line indicates the remaining work a team has at any point of the project timeline. Unlike the ideal work remaining line, this is not an estimate, but rather a realistic depiction of the team’s performance. The line is drawn as the team progresses and completes user stories. Actual work remaining lines are usually not straight as teams work at different paces as projects are completed. ProjectManager is online software that offers multiple project views to help you collect and track your burndown chart. Our list view captures your tasks and shows how much work is left before tasks are complete. This real-time data access allows team members to comment and share files as needed. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. /wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Project-list-light-mode-CTA-1600x882.pngLearn more Burndown Chart vs. Burnup Chart A burndown chart and a burnup chart are very similar—they have the same components, achieve the same purpose and are used for agile project management. But there’s one major difference. On one hand, the burndown chart keeps track of the remaining work by removing user stories from the vertical axis as they’re completed while the burnup chart adds user stories to the vertical axis as they get done. How to Read a Burndown Chart The burndown chart has several points. There’s an x-axis, which is the project or sprint timeline. The y-axis is the work that needs to be completed in the project. The story point estimates for the work that remains are represented by this axis. The project starting point is the farthest point to the left of the chart and occurs on day zero of the project or iteration. The project endpoint is farthest to the right and marks the final day of the project or iteration. Ideal Work Remaining Line There is an ideal work remaining line which is a straight line connecting the starting and ending points. This line represents the sum of estimates for all tasks that need to be completed, or in other words, the scope of the project. At the endpoint, the ideal line crosses the x-axis and shows there is no work left to be done. This line is based on estimates and therefore is not always accurate. Actual Work Remaining Line The actual work remaining line shows the actual work that remains in the project or iteration. At the beginning of the project execution phase, the actual work remaining and the ideal work remaining are the same, but as the project or iteration progresses, the actual work line fluctuates above and below the ideal work line. Each day, a new point is added to this line until the project or iteration is completed to make sure it’s as accurate as possible. If the actual work line is above the ideal work line, it means there’s more work left than originally thought. In other words, the project is behind schedule. However, if the actual work line is below the ideal work line, there is less work left than originally predicted and the project is ahead of schedule. Burndown Chart Examples A visual depiction of a burndown chart can help bring the concept to life. Below are two more examples to better illustrate a burndown chart. Burndown Chart Example with Actual vs Ideal In this burndown chart example, the blue ideal line shows how the project would progress if all things went perfectly. It marks the pace at which tasks should be completed to finish the project on time. The purple line is the actual line that represents the team’s progress. It shows if the team is ahead, behind or on schedule at various weeks throughout the project. /wp-content/uploads/2022/04/burndown-chart-example-1-600x334.png Burndown Chart Example with Estimated Line This burndown chart example has the work that’s left to do on the horizontal axis, while time is on the vertical axis. There are three lines, each representing different types of progress. The green estimated line shows the estimated progress calculated using the due date and estimated hours. /wp-content/uploads/2022/04/burndown-chart-example-2-600x360.png The ideal line is the blue straight line that averages the number of tasks by the number of days. As time progresses, the volume of tasks decreases. The red line represents the actual progress and any outstanding tasks. As tasks are completed, the estimated hours decrease. Who Uses a Burndown Chart? Agile teams, including project managers and scrum masters, often use a burndown chart to track and manage projects. These charts help monitor the project’s progress against the planned schedule, allowing these roles to identify delays before they cause a major impact. Scrum masters may also use a burndown chart to communicate the project status to stakeholders. Development teams also use burndown charts to visualize how much work remains and if they are on schedule to complete it. It fosters transparency and accountability, helping the development team to self-manage. Other roles that may use this tool include product owners or stakeholders. How to Use a Burndown Chart in Agile & Scrum Agile project management relies on agile sprints to plan and execute projects. These sprints are short iterations of work where a team accomplishes specific goals that are initially set during a sprint planning meeting. Burndown charts are ideal for agile project managers as they allow them to keep track of the work remaining, compare performance against a baseline and quickly determine whether they’re behind schedule. Here are some examples of how to use a burndown chart to help you manage an agile or scrum project. Create a work management baseline to compare planned vs. actual work Complete a gap analysis based on discrepancies Get information for future sprint planning meetings Reallocate resources and manage tasks to complete sprints on time What Are the Benefits of a Burndown Chart? The obvious benefit of a burndown chart is that it provides an updated status report on the progress of the project. Having a visual representation of this key data keeps everyone on the same page. Displaying a burndown chart prominently for all to see keeps everyone involved and encourages the team to deal with issues before they evolve into problems. It should be the focal point of the workspace so that it helps direct conversation toward the project and its progress. The simplicity of the burndown chart is also extremely helpful as it outlines the velocity history of the project. Velocity is an agile term that means the total effort estimates associated with user stories that were completed during an iteration. What Are the Limitations of a Burndown Chart? The burndown chart doesn’t reveal everything. For example, it only shows the number of story points that have been completed. The burndown chart doesn’t show any changes, for example, in the scope of work as measured by the total points in the backlog. As a result, it can be hard to tell if changes in the burndown chart are due to completed backlog items or because of an increase or decrease in story points. Having a burnup chart resolves this problem by having a separate line in the graph for the overall backlog size. However, neither a burndown nor a burnup chart offers any indication of which product backlog items have been completed. While a burndown chart might show progress, it may not represent whether the team is working on the right tasks. These charts are often a way to show trends rather than represent whether the team is delivering the right product backlog items. If you’d like to prioritize project tasks, you may use an Eisenhower matrix instead. It Relies on Good Estimates Another issue with burndown charts revolves around the accuracy of the ideal work line. Whether the actual work line is above or below the ideal work line depends on the accuracy of the original time estimates for the tasks. If a team is overestimating time requirements, progress appears on track or ahead of schedule. But if the team is underestimating the time requirements, it will appear that they’re behind schedule. There’s a way to respond to this issue—incorporating an efficiency factor into the burndown chart. After the first iteration of a project, the efficiency factor is recalculated to allow for more accuracy. How ProjectManager Helps With Sprint Management A burnout chart is important but it’s not the only guide that scrum teams can reference. There are many other reports and tools that can improve the probability of success. ProjectManager is an online collaborative software with the features scrum teams need to manage their sprints better. Real-Time Dashboards If you need a high-level view of your project, ProjectManager has a real-time dashboard that tracks your sprint as it happens. Data automatically populates for the most accurate view of your project. Teams can make decisions based on current project data as opposed to referencing old data. /wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Dashboard_Construction_Wide_Zoom-150.jpg Robust Kanban Boards Reporting on progress is only one part of what a scrum team needs. They also require tools that allow them to manage product backlogs and sprints. ProjectManager has this portion of the sprint covered too, with kanban boards that visualize workflows, collect user stories and prioritize tasks. Scrum teams will always know what to work on and when. The kanban boards feed directly into ProjectManager’s reporting features for total project visibility. /wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Kanban_Marketing_Wide_Zoom-175_Moving-task-to-different-status.jpg Product owners and scrum masters will also appreciate the kanban for its transparency in the sprint. When going through a sprint retrospectively, the kanban is an archive of what went right and what went wrong, allowing for future improvements. Managers must keep their eye on the progress of a project. If they don’t, then they’re risking the successful completion of the project. A burndown chart is just one of the many tools that lead to project success. ProjectManager is a cloud-based project management software that any manager will want to have in their toolbox. It has features such as a real-time dashboard to monitor and report on progress, and an online Gantt chart to streamline scheduling and help with collaboration. Try it today for free with this 30-day trial. The post Burndown Chart: What Is It, Examples & How to Use One for Agile appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

Take a moment to list all the digital accounts you've signed up for, and it's probably more than you realized: email, social media, banking, streaming services, cloud storage, music, gaming, and fitness...it adds up. But using the same login credentials for every service is a bad idea, and if you reuse passwords across accounts, let me summarize the simplest advice you should take away from this article: You shouldn't. But, of course, it's nearly impossible to remember as many unique usernames and secure passwords as you need for your various accounts. That's where password managers come in. Password managers hide your various login credentials behind one main username and password so that logging into the password manager gives you access to everything else. It's a secure alternative to writing your passwords down or saving them in a spreadsheet, and more reliable than your memory. They can often store other data, too—think credit card numbers, PIN codes, and authenticator keys—and may also give you extra features like scanning data breaches for your credentials. If you've yet to switch to a password manager, consider this a sign to get started. It can be intimidating at first, but getting started may be easier than you think. Some of the most important password manager featuresPassword managers are all slightly different, but you'll find many of the same features across brands. First and foremost, they store your passwords—often popping up inside web browsers and on phones whenever you need to log into an account—and provide you with your login credentials with one click or tap. As sign-in technologies have evolved, though, so have password managers. Many can now also help with two-factor authentication codes and passkeys for websites or apps that need more than just a username and password. At the same time, these password managers are secured with a main username and password you need to remember—and often with biometric authentication, too. The best password managers work seamlessly across devices. Credit: NordPass Most password managers will also suggest strong passwords for new accounts: Passwords that mix up random special characters, letters, and numbers, so they're extremely difficult to hack. With a password manager, you don't actually need to know what your passwords are—the program handles everything. You'll often see password managers offer additional security features as well, ranging from notifying you of duplicate passwords, to dark web monitoring for your email addresses, usernames, or passwords. If your login details appear in a data breach, you get an alert about it, and you can change them. How password managers secure your dataYou might wonder how password managers make sure your passwords are securely and privately locked away. Details vary between software packages, but they'll invariably use end-to-end encryption, with your main password as the decryption key, meaning that means no one else—from hackers to password manager developers to government agencies—can access your details without that password. Additional security measures are often implemented as well. Take 1Password as an example: It uses PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2) key strengthening, which, in simple terms, means that passwords are obscure enough that it would take decades to crack. It also gives users a secret key, known only to them, that works as an extra security layer on top of your password. A host of encryption and other security layers are applied to your password vault. Credit: LastPass In other words, you can't just use your pet's name as your password manager password. Extra security layers, including two-factor authentication and biometric scans, are often added too. Where your credentials need to be synced across multiple devices, strong encryption protocols are again deployed. Without your password, the data is useless, and only you know your password. Most password managers now combine local and cloud storage options, because we all need our passwords on so many devices. However, it's worth bearing in mind that the fewer places you have your password manager installed, the less chance there is of someone else gaining access to it—so some users just keep their password manager on their phone. Why you should use a password managerSimply put, using a password manager is a whole lot more secure than other options, like listing them in a Google Doc. Say, for example, that you left your laptop unlocked and someone sat down at it. With a Google Doc, that person would be more likely to access your password document than they would a password manager where they would need extra security clearance. Apple and Google have their own password manager options. Credit: Lifehacker The free offerings from Google and Apple have improved significantly in recent years, but they still don't quite offer the level of protection, breadth of features, and cross-platform support of the best dedicated password managers. One example: In the case of Google Password Manager, on-device encryption (meaning that you manage the decryption key locally, as with a password manager, rather than Google managing it) remains an optional extra that you have to enable, rather than enabled by default. Given the protection and features that come with dedicated password managers, it's typically worth most people investing in one. Some software packages offer a free tier, but they may be limited in terms of the features you get and the number of devices you can use them on. You can expect to pay a few bucks per month for most apps, but you can also look for bundled deals that include VPNs and adblockers, for instance. Whatever brand or package you choose, though, you should begin using a password manager. You get a private password vault, a host of protections to keep it safe, and added features like data breach monitoring and strong password generators. Plus, the best password managers sync seamlessly across all of your devices, ready when you need them. View the full article

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