A Project Managers Guide to Use Cases Part 3

A PM’s Guide to Use Cases Part 3: Use Case Narratives

Originally published in PM Times on December 8, 2015. As promised, this is the fifth article in our modeling series and the third on use cases. We’ll start with a short summary of the main concepts covered previously. SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS ARTICLES Here are the highlights of the requirements modeling articles written to date: To get …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

A Project Managers Guide to Use Cases Part 2

A PM’s Guide to Use Cases Part 2: Use Case Diagrams Explained

Originally published in PM Times on November 10, 2015. This is the third article in our requirements modeling series and the second article in our use cases series. We had promised that in future articles we would show examples of use case diagrams, explain how to build them, and describe why we should create use case …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

A Project Managers Guide to Requirements Modeling Part 2

A PM’s Guide to Requirements Modeling Part 2: Concurrent Requirements Modeling

Originally published in PM Times on March 30, 2015. This article is the second in a series on requirements modeling with the emphasis on why PMs should care about modeling requirements. In our first article, we spoke generally about models, the benefits of modeling requirements, and introduced the relationship between the iterative nature of eliciting requirements …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

A Project Managers Guide to Requirements Modeling Part 1

A Project Manager’s Guide to Requirements Modeling – Part 1

Originally published in PM Times on March 17, 2015. We often get asked how project managers (PMs) justify allowing enough time to model requirements on their projects. These PMs complain that although they agree that requirements modeling has huge benefits, they have a hard time justifying the amount of time it takes. This article opens a …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

Business Analysis Toolkit Models Part 2

BA Toolkit: Top Models for Complete Requirements Analysis Webinar Q&A – Part 2

Thank you to everyone who attended the “BA Toolkit: Top Models for Complete Requirements” webinar, hosted by Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM, PMI-PBA. If you missed it or would like to review, check out the recording. There were so many really wonderful, thought-provoking questions on the BA Toolkit: Top Models for Complete Requirements webinar that I decided there was too …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

BA Toolkit Part 1

BA Toolkit: Top Models for Complete Requirements Analysis Webinar Q&A – Part 1

Thank you to everyone who attended the “BA Toolkit: Top Models for Complete Requirements” webinar, hosted by Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM, PMI-PBA. If you missed it or would like to review, check out the recording. In the webinar, our expert host covered the top models business analysis practitioners can use in their “toolkit” for complete requirements analysis. Each …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

3 Take Aways from PMI’s Pulse of the Profession Requirements Management

3 Take Aways from PMI’s Pulse of the Profession: Requirements Management

A planned requirements approach is essential to a successful and smooth-running project.  Just like the project itself needs a project plan, the requirements process needs a requirements plan.  This necessity has been recognized most recently in PMI’s 2014 Pulse of the Profession: Requirements Management – A Core Competency for Project and Program Success. According to …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

Top 6 Business Intelligence Skills

Top 6 Business Intelligence Skills

Are Big Data, Business Intelligence, and Data Analytics buzzwords in your workplace? Or are you already working on a BI project and need to ramp up your skills? If so, you’re not alone. Business Intelligence skills have become increasingly valuable in recent years, as businesses in every industry have shifted from static reporting to interactive, predictive …

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, was the founder of and is now a consultant for Watermark Learning. He is a successful entrepreneur with over 35 years of experience in product development, business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. As an internal entrepreneur, Rich led the development of several Watermark Learning online products as a business analyst and product owner. Rich is a frequent speaker at Business Analysis and Project Management national conferences and IIBA® and PMI® chapters around the world. He has contributed as a lead author to the BA Body of Knowledge version 2.0 and 3.0 and was a lead author on PMI’s Business Analysis Practice Guide. He and his wife Elizabeth Larson have co-authored five books on business analysis.

7 Ways to Build Trust for Successful Requirements Elicitation Q&A, Part 2

7 Ways to Build Trust for Successful Requirements Elicitation Q&A, Part 2

Thanks to all of you who attended Watermark Learning’s webinar Seven Ways to Build Trust for Successful Requirements Elicitation. This is Part 2 of a three-part series of questions and answers that were not addressed during the webinar. Question 1: Do you have a specific time limit when conducting requirements workshops? Mine is 1-1/2 hours. …

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM is a consultant and advisor for Watermark Learning/PMA. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored four books and chapters published in five additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth also enjoys giving presentations, and her speaking history includes repeat keynotes and presentations for national and international conferences on five continents. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, theater, and spending time with her 7 grandkids.

Requirements Writer's Block

Requirements Writer’s Block

Requirements writer’s block – it happens to all of us at some point.  Writer’s block is a condition where an author loses the ability to produce new work.  Requirements writer’s block may happen for several reasons including: a lack of concentration, a feeling that our work is inferior, general feelings of anxiety, lack of inspiration, …

Watermark Learning

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