Communicating Posts

Facilitation Top 5

Posted: January 30th, 2012 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »

Top FiveAs any instructor will tell you, one of the best things about teaching is learning from your students.  It happens in some way, big or small, every time you get in front of people who are expecting to hear how to do it “right.” 

Of course, there is no “right” a lot of the time.  In my classes, for example, I instruct and inform, but I also facilitate discussions about the options, and the students decide what’s going to work for them.

This brings me to the recent Facilitation Skills Workshop class I taught.  In this class, we learn about different facilitation techniques and then the students do the work; they actually facilitate each of the 12 sessions throughout the class.

Grapevines and Rumor Mills – Assets or Liabilities?

Posted: November 30th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »

SecretCommunications is, of course, the single biggest indicator of project success or failure.  As project managers, we have to think about all aspects of communications, including how much, to whom, in what format, etc.  We also get pretty savvy at knowing which communication channels to use.

A lot of project work gets done through informal, undocumented communication channels.  This is not only OK, it’s actually necessary.  Imagine if every conversation or information gathering effort we conducted required a documented plan.  The fact is a lot of good data can be mined from the water cooler and coffee klatch gatherings.

Who Owns Project Success or Failure?

Posted: October 18th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »

TeamRecently, a project management colleague was expressing frustration with her inability to get a project moving in a constructive direction. She commented that she knew the success of the project was her responsibility, but she felt hamstrung in her ability to get what she needed from people.  Even simple requests for information from external stakeholders went unanswered and resulted in project inertia.

I hear this from project managers on a regular basis and it always brings me back to one of the truisms in project management: The project manager is responsible for project success. 

Turning Requirements Trash into Stakeholder Treasure – Part 2

Posted: August 23rd, 2011 by Bob Prentiss. Comments »

Treasure_ChestHello all – BobtheBA here and when we last left off we were exploring how innovation can be key to turning requirements trash into stakeholder treasure. The scenario we were exploring was a difficult stakeholder that was not forthcoming with their requirements. Your job (should you choose to accept it) was to improve your 1:1 interview process through innovation by looking at it through different eyes like those of a hostage negotiator. It may yield a different result or help you to be more prepared than what you thought possible.

On day 1, we look great. It’s day 2 that kills us!

Posted: March 22nd, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »

In_a_hurry!I heard this from a project team member in a training class recently.  He was referring to the schedules for the projects he works on.  What he was getting at was that the team really doesn’t have a chance from the get-go.  They are behind on projects before they even begin, and it doesn’t take long for that to be evident.

Why do we do this to ourselves? 

Project managers know they should be getting input from the team on planning and the estimates for their work.  And they often do.  It’s what happens after that that’s problematic – namely, the input is ignored.

Body Language: Social Skill and Powerful Tool for Success

Posted: September 10th, 2010 by Bob Prentiss. Comments »

Hello – BobtheBA here!  Have you ever wondered why someone would be looking you directly in the eye one minute and then suddenly turn away?  Did they lose interest in what you were saying?  Had they made up their mind already?  Perhaps and perhaps not…  It may be that culturally they believe it is a sign of disrespect to look you in the eye.  Then again, they may be getting ready to tell you a whopper of a lie!  Perhaps they are just naturally submissive to authority figures.  Body language – it does a body good to know how to read it and use it.

Increasing Chances for Sponsorship Success

Posted: September 2nd, 2010 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »

Of all the things that threaten project success, poor or non-existent sponsorship is at or near the top of the list.  No sponsor?  No project. 

Below are three keys for increasing chances for sponsorship success in your organization:

1. Show small successes.  You’d probably like to see huge, sweeping change in this area, but let’s be realistic.  Our organizations and sponsor-level folks simply don’t have the bandwidth for that.  Our best bet may be to think small.  In fact, create an experiment that you can use to slowly, organically grow the idea of sponsorship in your organization.  

Are You My Sponsor?

Posted: June 28th, 2010 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »

iStock_000006230006XSmallIn the popular children’s book A Mother for Choco, a baby bird goes looking for its mother.  He stops and asks Mrs. Giraffe, Mrs. Walrus, and others “Are you my mommy?”  But to no avail.  None of these potential mommies looks like Choco and so he is left alone and very sad and begins to cry, “Mommy, mommy, I need a mommy!” 

What to do with Meeting Saboteurs?

Posted: April 14th, 2010 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »

FistIn a recent project management class, we were discussing meeting effectiveness, and a student asked if it was ever appropriate to flat out excuse someone from a meeting for being rude or obnoxious?

Fortunately, I have not been in a situation in which I wondered if I should do that. Unfortunately, I think this student had a specific situation in mind. It’s a tough question, especially if the person who is being difficult is a peer or more senior than you.

Should Business Analysts Model Requirements?

Posted: April 8th, 2010 by ElizabethLarson. Comments »

During a recent client visit I encouraged the use of modeling as a way to uncover hidden requirements and expectations. One of my clients expressed her rather strong opinion that modeling requirements was not and should not be a part of business analysis work. Oh, she could accept the fact that uncovering gaps between the “as-is” and “to-be” using process models made some sense, but she was adamant that this gap analysis should be done by a business Subject Matter Expert (SME), not by a business analyst (BA). As to data modeling, well that was technical in nature and if done at all, she said, it should be done by the technical IT staff. Use cases were helpful to the testing staff, but were clearly technical and were not to be done by BAs. Prototyping? This should be done by developers—no question about that one!