For those of my PMP friends and colleagues who are firmly immersed in the waterfall way of doing things but who are hearing more and more about agile and scrum and wondering what all the fuss is about, I thought it might be a good idea to write a series of articles comparing and contrasting the two approaches. I’d like to start by stating that I am very much a fan of agile and scrum and believe that the traditional PMI methodology, when practiced in a sensible manner and the agile scrum approach have more in common than you would think. At the end of the day the purpose of both is the same – to get work done well. › Continue reading…
Tags: Agile, Product owner, Scrum, Scrum master, Waterfall
Let’s start with a definition of social media. According to Wikipedia (and that’s an obvious place to go for information about this topic) “Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues.” The last part of that explanation is really powerful for project managers, as we strive to turn monologues into dialogues. › Continue reading…
In my final article on requirements development, I want to discuss the processes involves in eliciting requirements from business stakeholders. There are several commonly held techniques that are used for gathering requirements from business customers. Some of these methods are specific to software systems or systems with some type of user interface, and some are applicable to › Continue reading…
I am on vacation in Taos, New Mexico this week with my husband and 15-year-old nephew, Evan, who spends every summer with us. We are staying in a very nice condominium and having lots of adventures: a llama trek, river rafting trip, horseback ride, visits to the Taos Pueblo and various art galleries, restaurants, historic markers and other areas of interest. Like any good project manager, I spent a considerable amount of time planning for this trip. I did a lot of research on places to stay and restaurants to visit. I researched different vendors to determine who to book our activities with, and I reserved in advance. I also have a “standard packing list” of additional items that I bring whenever we stay in a condo: a good cutting knife, two good cooking pans, coffee, tea, extra kitchen towels, etc. My planning efforts paid off enough that › Continue reading…
In previous articles we’ve discussed requirements from several viewpoints. We’ve examined the characteristics and attributes of good requirements and differentiated them from business rules. We’ve discussed the merits of developing requirements in a cascading fashion from business goals through related objectives to enable prioritization. We’ve also looked at techniques and templates to aid in remembering categories of requirements to explore. Requirements are so important a topic I could probably discuss them for weeks, and who knows maybe I just will. Requirement documents can take on many fashions and styles and this week’s focus will be common formats for their expression and capture. › Continue reading…
Since we are on the topic of troubled projects, I started thinking about what has now been branded the Deepwater Horizon Response Project. This situation has similarities to many project calamities one might encounter in the course of dealing with internal or external customer organizations. A customer organization messes up, BIG TIME, and you have to step in and turn it around.
In this case, the project manager is retired U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is in charge of the federal government’s response to the oil spill resulting from the April 20th explosion at one of British Petroleum’s (BP) offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. › Continue reading…
In last week’s article, Susan discussed the emotions involved when a project is terminated, “back burnered” to death, or mercifully euthanized. But what about those projects that don’t or can’t get cancelled when they should? Whether due to mandatory regulatory requirements, or being beyond the point of no return some projects simply leave us no choice – they must be finished. Managing a troubled project to prevent it from becoming a failed project, and then turning it around and steering it back to a successful project requires super star skills. Typically project specialists at the highest end of the project management spectrum are brought in as an outsider for these jobs to function as a special recovery project manager. › Continue reading…
It’s the end of the 2nd Quarter and the first half of the year, and for many organizations, it’s a time when projects and programs are reviewed and analyzed. Some will ultimately be nurtured: more money, resources, attention, whatever the scare resource is. Other projects and programs will not fare so well and will be terminated outright or “back-burnered” to death. › Continue reading…
In our previous 2 articles, we’ve discussed how business requirements should originate in a cascading manner from goals and objectives, to assist in assigning their relative priorities. We also reviewed tools that can be leveraged to help us remember the different areas or categories of requirements to capture. But now let’s step back and consider, just what is a requirement anyway, and what is it not? › Continue reading…
In her blog last week , Cindy Vandersleen talked about the challenges of gathering requirements and how the devil is always in the details. I think many people would agree with this assessment; I know I do. My best practice for gathering a comprehensive set of project requirements is to build a Requirements Template, and this week I’d like to share with you some tips for creating a model that your organization can use again and again to collect a comprehensive set of requirements and manage scope creep from the word “GO”. › Continue reading…