On this page: What is a Model? Benefits of Modeling Types of Models The Iterative Nature of Elicitation and Modeling Modeling and the Project Professional Modeling is one of the most important practices for any project professional. As the adage states, “A picture is worth 1000 words.” Models allow us to better understand the stakeholder needs and provide …
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.
There is no grass growing under the feet of folks at PMI. And that’s going to have most of us hopping this summer and into fall as we work to make sense of what’s happening in the PMI certification world and the implications for each of us. First, PMI recently completed the first Role Delineation …
Continue reading PMI Certification Changes: What You Need to Know
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.
What’s wrong with lessons learned sessions done at the end of a project? If the sentiments of my project management training students are any indication, plenty. The complaints are many and varied: “They take too long and we don’t have time.” “At that point, the project is over so people don’t really care anymore.” “By …
Continue reading What’s Wrong with Lessons Learned Sessions?
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.
Fall is coming up quickly, and that means it’s national conference season! We find national conferences to be a great way to improve your skills and to grow you network. These are valuable to both individual practitioners and organizations. Admittedly, getting approval and funding to attend can be a bit tricky. Hopefully we can help …
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.
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 …
Continue reading 3 Take Aways from PMI’s Pulse of the Profession: Requirements Management
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.
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.
IIBA Slovenia Business Analysis Conference – June 2014 Elizabeth and I were fortunate to be in Slovenia on vacation this summer when the IIBA Slovenia chapter was holding a business analysis conference on Synergies – The Future of Business. We previously met and became friends with the IIBA Slovenia chapter president, Aleš Štempihar, at the 2013 BBC conference in …
Continue reading Business Analysis & Project Management in Collaboration in Slovenia
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.
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.
Share your Experience with us from classes in Business Analysis Training, Project Management, Agile Training and more! We love hearing comments from students! We receive most through email but did you know you can leave a testimonial or other comment using our Training Management System? It involves a few steps, but they are quick and easy. …
As a project manager, are you more of a giver or a taker? I would guess that most PMs see themselves as givers more than takers. After all, stakeholders don’t come to us bearing gifts; they come to us bearing requests. Much of our job is about providing stakeholders with things they need. We engage in …
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.
Project Management Professional® (PMP)® Certification Training
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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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