Achieve Project Success with Sponsorship and Clear Vision
Elizabeth Larson and Richard Larson’s Strategies column identifies five major factors attributing to project success.

Business Process Management
Elizabeth Larson and Richard Larson advise business owners on how they can improve corporate efficiency by better managing and streamlining business processes.

Business Integration Journal

Minnesota Business

CBAP Certification:From What is It …to I Did It!
The Business Analyst (BA) role has become essential in today’s workplace as a vital component of a successful project. The business analysis field has been accelerating at a rapid pace, and this acceleration has caused some understandable
“growing pains.” Among the challenges are a lack of standardization, inconsistent terminology across organizations, and difficulty in assessing knowledge and skills of BAs. This article briefly summarizes the CBAP program, and why Business Analysts should become certified. The majority of the article covers the steps and several tips to help you become certified.

BA Times

Creating a Project Plan
How to Create a Clear Project Plan
This six step approach provides a roadmap for project managers to follow in order to create a clear project plan.

10 Steps to Creating A Project Plan
One of the critical factors for project success is having a well-developed project plan. This article provides a 10-step approach to creating the project plan, not only showing how it provides a roadmap for project managers to follow, but also exploring why it is the project manager’s premier communications and control tool throughout the project.

It Toolbox

IT Project Management Readings, by Dr. Gary Richardson, University of Houston

PMI® Phoenix Chapter

Gathering Requirements: Go Away Please!
Requirements elicitation requires building relationships and trust among project stakeholders.  When trust is absent, the requirements elicitation process will take longer, be incomplete, and lead to lower morale. Although building relationships takes time and effort, it can actually shorten project time and result in improved project performance. This article was originally published as part of the PMI® Global Congress North America Proceedings, Toronto, Canada.

I Don’t Have Time To Manage Requirements—My Project is Late Already!
The lack of a well-managed requirements process leads to common project issues, such as scope creep, cost overruns, and products that are not used. Yet many projects skim over this important part of the project and teams rush to design and build the end product. After all, some of our sponsors think that “we’re not productive unless we’re building the product.”

This article addresses these concerns and provides an overview of the essential skills that are needed today to manage customer requirements, emphasizing the relationship between requirements management and project management. It focuses on a core set of processes for ensuring that the entire requirements process is managed, that requirements are gathered and documented, and that customers get a business solution that really works for them. This article was originally published as part of the PMI® Global Congress Europe-Middle East-Africa Proceedings, St. Julians, Malta.

It’s not Like Selling Pots or Pans…or is It? A New Way of Selling Project Management to Senior Management
Project management professionals often find themselves in situations where they have to sell things to decision makers. It might be selling a project, or a new function such as Project Management Office. By understanding critical success factors, sales “knowledge areas,” and a repeatable process, we increase our chances of success.  This article was originally published as part of the PMI® Global Congress Asia Pacific Proceedings, Bangkok, Thailand.

Managing Small Projects
If you think that executing a small project does not require advance planning, think again. This article endorses the planning process and outlines five important steps for successfully managing small projects.

Managing Small Projects – Five Critical Steps to Tech Success
The authors describe a simple but effective process for effectively managing small projects. This process was developed specifically for small technology projects (e.g., software development), but can be applied to virtually any small project. Included in the article are some startling statistics on the frequency and cost of small project failure, characteristics of failed small projects and a description of the steps you can take to avoid these failures.

Oh No, You Gave Me What I Asked For!”: Part 1
Common Pitfalls to Uncovering Expectations
Project professionals – specifically project managers and business analysts - realize that no matter how well projects are executed, projects still fail when customer requirements are not clearly defined and customer expectations are not met.

Oh No, You Gave Me What I Asked For!”: Part 2
Using Consulting Skills to Uncover Expectations
Overcoming the many pitfalls described in Part 1 requires a consultative approach. Why is that? Being a consultant to the business helps ensure that expectations are met. The background of a situation is assessed by understanding the business problem, analyzing the current state, understanding the limitations, and gathering supporting statistics that detail the exact impact of the current situation. The project professional is then in an excellent position to recommend a solution that will solve the business problem at hand.

Oh No, You Gave Me What I Asked For!”: Part 3
Recommending Solutions That Address Expectations
Project professionals – specifically project managers and business analysts - realize that no matter how well projects are executed, projects still fail when customer requirements are not clearly defined and customer expectations are not met.

Practicing What We Preach
Watermark Principals Featured in February issue of PM Network Magazine. Elizabeth Larson and Richard Larson explain the value that Watermark Learning found itself in applying project management techniques internally.

Projects Without Borders: Gathering Requirements on a Multicultural Project
One of the most difficult tasks project managers and business analysts face is obtaining customer requirements.  When the project includes multi-cultural stakeholders, particularly if they comprise a virtual team working in geographically dispersed areas, the job becomes much harder. As the world gets "flatter" and the need for collaboration beyond political borders becomes the norm, the ability for Project Managers to bridge cultural gaps will become a necessary skill set.  This article provides tips and techniques for Project Managers to do just that. 

ComputerWorld

BA Times

Project Times

5 Steps to Business Process Management (BPM) - Effective Processes Improve Overall Corporate Efficiency
Once we have asked business, project, and product context questions, we should have an understanding of the business problem we’re trying to solve, as well as an idea of the project’s product or service that will result from successfully implementing the project. Before we can recommend a solution, however, we must analyze the problem, which requires the ability to break the large problem into smaller pieces and to get to its root cause.