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Stakeholders

Increasing Chances for Sponsorship Success
Communicating, Project Management

Increasing Chances for Sponsorship Success

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 […]

Are You My Sponsor?
Business Analysis, Communicating, Project Management

Are You My Sponsor?

In 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

What to do with Meeting Saboteurs
Communicating, Facilitation, Watermark Learning

What to do with Meeting Saboteurs?

In 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

Culture and Communications
Communicating, Virtual Teams, Watermark Learning

Culture and Communications

Projects cross cultural boundaries probably as often as not anymore.  How many people either go to other countries to work on projects, find themselves working with team member from other countries here in the US, or work with virtual teams that include people from other places?  Of course, you don’t have to cross an ocean

Two ingredients To Spice Up Meeting Effectiveness
Business Analysis, Communicating, Facilitation, Project Management, Watermark Learning

Two ingredients To Spice Up Meeting Effectiveness

As project managers and business analysts, you are undoubtedly familiar with the misery of poorly planned and poorly run meetings.  It’s a long list of things that drive meeting madness: unclear purpose, wrong people in attendance, lack of ground rules, inadequate preparation, poor time management, etc. Thought given to key elements of the meeting ahead of time can make for a

Five Tips for Estimating Requirements
Business Analysis, Communicating, Estimating and Planning, Project Management, Requirements Analysis, Stakeholders, Watermark Learning

Five Tips for Estimating Requirements

Years ago I worked on a large effort to reengineer a distribution center for a large retailer. We provided an estimate for both the business analysis work and for the entire project, which would involve the organization’s first use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), new business processes, many software changes, and the purchase of new barcode

Top Fundamentals for Successful Virtual Meetings
Business Analysis, Communicating, Elicitation, Facilitation, Project Management, Virtual Teams, Watermark Learning

Top Fundamentals for Successful Virtual Meetings

If you’re a project manager or business analyst and have ever facilitated or participated in a virtual meeting, you know they can be highly productive. And, highly frustrating if not run well. Here is a list of 5 things I think all virtual meetings should have to be successful: 1)      Test your technology. If you have

Three Tips for Project Tracking Made Easy
Communicating, Project Management, Watermark Learning

Three Tips for Project Tracking Made Easy

What do your team members do when you ask them the question, “Where are you at on the project?”  Ignore you?  Stare blankly?  Look confused?  Cower?  What makes tracking and reporting so difficult?  After all, “Where are you at?” is a completely reasonable and fair question.  In fact, without answers to that question, we have