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 …
Continue reading A Project Manager’s Guide to Requirements Modeling – Part 1
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.
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 …
Continue reading BA Toolkit: Top Models for Complete Requirements Analysis Webinar Q&A – Part 2
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.
Watermark Learning is happy to feature our student and guest blogger Jonathan Brandt, PMP, PMI-ACP, who is looking for feedback on a decision-making model he is developing. Project Waterloo: Gantt McGreen, Project Manager Extraordinaire, is having a bad day. Project Waterloo is a career-maker. It’s catchy motto, “Liberate the Customer”, belies its complexity. It is a …
This is the corporate source for Watermark Learning posts. Watermark delivers engaging and practical training and coaching in Business Analysis, Project Management, Agile & Scrum, Business Process Management, and Influencing Skills since 1992.
The sixth edition of PMI®’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) is currently in draft mode and undergoing review. The expected publication date is sometime in Q3 of 2017. Updated versions of related exams, including the PMP and CAPM, are planned to go into effect in Q1 of 2018. Anyone with …
Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-PBA, BRMP is the Director of Project Management for Watermark Learning. Andrea is an experienced trainer, facilitator, speaker, and project manager, with over 25 years of business experience. Andrea oversees certification and skills development curriculum in project management, business analysis, and leadership. She has been a speaker at IIBA® and PMI® conferences and is an active volunteer. She enjoys practicing what she teaches and has a steady stream of projects that she manages. Andrea is highly committed to partnering with her clients through projects, consulting, and training, and seeks to make every engagement enjoyable as well as valuable.
Originally published in PM Times on May 22, 2015. Use case models have been around for decades. Long after Information Engineering was all the rage and through object-oriented analysis and design they hung around. They threatened to disappear when Agile methods gained popularity, but here they are–discussed, dissected, and the subject of many blogs. Aren’t they …
Continue reading A PM’s Guide to Use Cases Part 1: What is a Use Case and Why Should PMs Care?
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.
Originally published in BA Times on January 25, 2016. In past articles in this series, we covered topics such as the similarity between business analysis practitioners and entrepreneurs and the types and stages of entrepreneurialism. In part 4, we focused on innovation and entrepreneurship and suggested that we could contribute to innovation in our organizations …
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.
For years, we’ve gotten questions from Agile seminar participants about how to apply Scrum to “real life,” as though these methods are “good in theory, but not at my company!” Some organizations may not be ready to adopt Agile methods completely, so we encourage people to take a short, Agile organizational readiness self-assessment to see …
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.
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 …
Continue reading BA Toolkit: Top Models for Complete Requirements Analysis Webinar Q&A – Part 1
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.
Originally published in BA Times on January 18, 2016. Each year, since 2009, we have enjoyed reflecting on what’s happened the previous year in the areas of business analysis and project management (including Agile), and making predictions for the upcoming year. To summarize the trends we saw in 2015: Focus on entrepreneurship and innovation, including distributed leadership …
Continue reading Seven Trends in Business Analysis, Project Management, and Agile for 2016
Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-PBA, BRMP is the Director of Project Management for Watermark Learning. Andrea is an experienced trainer, facilitator, speaker, and project manager, with over 25 years of business experience. Andrea oversees certification and skills development curriculum in project management, business analysis, and leadership. She has been a speaker at IIBA® and PMI® conferences and is an active volunteer. She enjoys practicing what she teaches and has a steady stream of projects that she manages. Andrea is highly committed to partnering with her clients through projects, consulting, and training, and seeks to make every engagement enjoyable as well as valuable.
During PMI’s 2015 Global Congress, Elizabeth Larson, CBAP, PMP, CSM, PMI-PBA was asked to do an interview to discuss her paper and presentation “I Don’t Have Time to Innovate: I’m Too Busy Doing Business Analysis” (co-written with Richard Larson). Cornelius Fichtner of PM Podcast and Elizabeth Larson of Watermark Learning Everyone seems to be talking about the importance of organizational …
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.
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Project Management Professional® (PMP)® Certification Training
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner® (PMI-ACP)® Certification Training
PMI Scheduling Professional® (PMI-SP)® Certification Training
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The PMI Talent Triangle® Bundle
Visit Project Management Academy®
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