Hello there – BobtheBA here wishing you fantastic Holidays in advance. Yes, it really is that time of the year again! Where did the time go? Seems like yesterday when 2011 was full of plans, promise and new projects. Now, with less than 7 weeks to go everyone will be busy cramming (whoops – I meant implementing) projects and of course focused on family and friends during the Holiday(s) of your choice. So whatever you are celebrating be it Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanza, New Years, or something else, I thought I would share my B.A. Holiday Wish List for you. Many of you may not know (my students and some of my colleagues do) that I am actually the Santa Claus of Business Analysis. That’s right, I will know if your requirements have been naughty or nice so here are my top 5 things I wish for you during the Holidays (to remain on the nice list of course).
Posts Tagged ‘Project Management’
My B.A. Holiday Wish List for You
Posted: November 15th, 2011 by Bob Prentiss. 2 Comments »
Training for Project Closure
Posted: November 8th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »
I ran my first triathlon this past summer. My biggest concern going into the race was how I was going to hold up toward the end. Running is the last of the three events, and the one about which I was least confident. I wondered if I would be able to finish that last mile or if I would simply be so exhausted that I would not make it across the finish line. As it turns out, I was so invigorated by the experience and so excited about completing the race that the closer I got, the easier it actually became as I moved toward the finish line.
Who Owns Project Success or Failure?
Posted: October 18th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »
Recently, 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.
Things We Know and Things We Don’t
Posted: September 27th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »
On every project there are things we know and things we don’t know – Knowns and Unknowns. Organizing your thoughts around those concepts can be a constructive approach to understanding a project as shown in the matrix.
The Known Knowns you handle via the plan, but what about those various flavors of Unknowns? How do you normally account for those things in the project? Often it’s with padding – estimates that include unidentified amounts of time and/or money just in case.
Hockey Players and Project Managers: Just Trying to Win
Posted: September 6th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. 1 Comment »
My son’s hockey team won their last tournament of the summer season this past weekend. As the athletes came into the lobby from the locker room, everyone cheered, recognizing each individual contribution. Another mom made a comment out loud that many of us hockey parents think just about every time we see them come out of the locker room: “They’re so little!”
It’s truly amazing to see 9-year-olds play hockey at the level that this team plays. They skate on the ice as though they’re dancing on pavement. They handle a stick with astounding skill. They move the puck up and down the ice with agility that sometimes takes my breath away.
Control Projects or People? It’s All in the Details!
Posted: August 17th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »
Controlling projects is a good thing. Controlling people is not. What does it mean to control projects, not people, and when have you crossed the threshold from controlling the project to micromanaging the people?
When you start telling people how to do their jobs instead of focusing on the results they create is usually an indication that you have stepped beyond the bounds of project control and into the realm of people control.
Some team members are quite adept at complicating this tidy distinction. What about, for example, the team member who tells you they will get the work done on time but sees no need to share details regarding the steps involved or how they’re going to get it done?
Turning Requirements Trash into Stakeholder Treasure – Part 1
Posted: July 12th, 2011 by Bob Prentiss. Comments »
Hello all – BobtheBA here. So have you been assigned to a project where you immediately felt like someone handed you a T-shirt that said “I just started a project and all I got was this lousy business case!” You are not alone. Many of us struggle at the beginning of our projects to wrap our brains around what little we have been given. It becomes worse when we end up several weeks into the project and we still feel like we have nothing to go on. What do you do? I turn to age-old proverbs as both a reminder and motivator. Making something from nothing. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Turning trash into treasure. I could go on and on with these much stated proverbs – I really, really could because I love them. They are constant reminders of what I, as a Business Analyst need to be doing on a daily basis to bring order from chaos. The chaos that I was given. So how does one bring this order and turn requirements trash into stakeholder treasure?
Decompose for Better Risk Identification
Posted: July 5th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. 2 Comments »
My last couple of ProjectBrief posts have pertained to risk management best practices. The first post was about the value of articulating risks as events, and my last blog was about including the consequence of risks in the register. This time, I want to remind people of a PM best practice that lends itself well to identifying risks.
Project Risks? So What?
Posted: June 14th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »
In my last ProjectBrief post, I talked about the importance of clearly identifying risks as events and making sure they aren’t simply stated as facts. Here I’d like to briefly highlight the importance of including the consequence of those identified risks in the risk register.
Risk registers often include risks with little or no indication as to the consequence. Take a look at the register below, for example:
| Risk Event | Prob 1-5 | Impact 1-5 | Risk Score PxI |
| Scheduling classes on new site fails to work with the ISP’s new online scheduling services when going live. | 3 | 5 | 15 |
What is a Risk?
Posted: May 24th, 2011 by Andrea Brockmeier. Comments »
These next few weeks I will be sharing thoughts about Project Risk Management.
In my training experience, I find that most people know what risk management is, but many people struggle with identifying risks. Often, people create a list of risks that includes things like “The infrastructure is outdated,” or “We aren’t sure how much Sam will be available for the project.”
These are certainly concerns that we should be thinking about, but are they risks? I would suggest that no, they aren’t. The first one is simply a statement of fact; the second one is an uncertainty. Risks may derive from circumstances or uncertainties like these, but the most effective way to articulate a risk is to express it as an event. It’s something that could happen.
