In our previous blogs, we covered what Agile business analysis is and how business analysts add value in an Agile environment. In this final blog, we talk about how to leverage Business Analysis skills in each of the five Scrum Events. On this page: Scrum Events The Sprint Sprint Planning Daily Scrums Sprint Review Sprint …
Dr. Susan Heidorn, PMP, CBAP, HSDP, CSM, BRMP is the Director of Business Solutions for Watermark Learning in Minneapolis. Susan is an experienced consultant, facilitator, speaker, and trainer, with over 25 years of business experience. Susan directs programs in business analysis, business relationship management, and leadership, including developing and delivering courses and providing consulting. She has been a speaker at a number of IIBA® and PMI® conferences as well as local and regional organizations, boards, and private clients. She is a lifelong learner whose passion it is to guide people into achieving excellence in their personal and professional lives and works on creating positive impacts to the organization.
Welcome to the second in a series of three blogs in which we discuss Agile Business Analysis. In our previous blog, we talked about what Agile business analysis is and the Agile mindset. In today’s blog, we will take some time to cover business analysis skills that can be leveraged in an Agile Environment. Adding …
Continue reading Business Analysis – Adding Value in an Agile Environment
Dr. Susan Heidorn, PMP, CBAP, HSDP, CSM, BRMP is the Director of Business Solutions for Watermark Learning in Minneapolis. Susan is an experienced consultant, facilitator, speaker, and trainer, with over 25 years of business experience. Susan directs programs in business analysis, business relationship management, and leadership, including developing and delivering courses and providing consulting. She has been a speaker at a number of IIBA® and PMI® conferences as well as local and regional organizations, boards, and private clients. She is a lifelong learner whose passion it is to guide people into achieving excellence in their personal and professional lives and works on creating positive impacts to the organization.
Influencing skills in today’s work environment is central to getting anything done. Consider what you do day in and day out. How much of your time is spent trying to get someone to think, feel, or do something they aren’t already thinking, feeling, or doing? We often think of the demand for influencing skills as …
Continue reading Three Contributors to the Importance of Influencing Skills
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.
When I first heard the phrase “fail fast, fail often,” I was horrified. It was cited as a mantra by the early adopters of Agile methods. But I didn’t understand what it meant in those relatively early days of Agile. The expression conjured up missed deadlines, broken promises, and an undisciplined approach to software development. …
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.
Three Agile Planning Horizons Agile estimating and planning involves three “horizons” : Release Plan, around 2-6 months Iteration Plan, 2-4 weeks Daily Plan, every day Below is a brief overview of these horizons, as explained in our latest Watermark Learning webinar: Agile Estimating and Planning Best Practices. The webinar is now available on demand and it includes …
Continue reading Webinar Recap: Agile Estimating and Planning Best Practices
Marsha is a senior instructor and consultant for Watermark Learning, and has more than thirty years of experience in the software, technology, telecommunications, and Internet business sectors. She has numerous accomplishments in Agile methods, project management, business analysis, software development, methodology development, process improvement, and courseware development and training. She is a Certified Scrum Master and Professional, a Certified BA Professional, and a Certified PM Professional. She is also a contributor to the IIBA’s Agile Extension to the BABOK, and the agile perspective in version 3.0 of the BABOK.
Why PMI-ACP Training? Today’s businesses are as diverse as the people running them, but they all operate in today’s business environment which is always changing, fast-paced, and customer-driven. In that environment, traditional project management approaches are often too cumbersome to adapt fast-enough to evolving customer needs. For many organizations and project teams, agile offers a …
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.
Agile Daily Standup In my many years of project management training, I often joke that our discussion about project tracking and reporting isn’t going to take long because I don’t like it. Even so, I have always advocated for regular, daily tracking to meet the reporting needs of stakeholders. Students are often put off by …
Continue reading Agile Project Management: Standup and Be Trusted
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.
Key Components of Scrum What do product backlog, story points, and velocity have in common? They are all components of Scrum, an Agile framework, that allow us to estimate how much can be delivered in any given time frame. First, I will outline some basic definitions, and then I will share a real-life practical example …
Vicki develops and maintains Watermark's Business Analysis Training programs and is an instructor for in-person and online classes. James has 15 years’ experience in the public and private sectors as a project manager, business analyst, author, and independent industry consultant and trainer, where her clients included Microsoft Corporation. She also spent time in the public sector successfully delivering projects to support governmental operations. James is co-author of Strategies for Project Sponsorship and contributor to The Complete Project Manager. She is president of the IIBA Seattle Chapter, and past vice president of the PMI Olympia Chapter.
Not exactly. It’s an agile project manager. They may not be superhuman, but they are super popular right now. Anything agile is hot, and although not the right fit for every project or every organization, its popularity is not likely to wane anytime soon. PMI is introducing an agile certification in the third quarter of 2011, and there’s an opportunity …
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.
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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
PMI Risk Management Professional® (PMI-RMP)® Certification Training
The PMI Talent Triangle® Bundle
Visit Project Management Academy®
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