Planning

By Michael Seese • April 21st, 2009

When teaching “InfoSec 101,” I reflect back on my early career as a reporter, and focus on answering the standard questions: who, what, why, where, when, and how. Since this is a Scrappy Book, let’s throw caution to the wind and take them out of order…

There is a set of SW practices that I consider non-negotiable, and they begin with 2 that are requirements-related:
1. Written, reviewed, approved requirements
2. A requirements baseline, implemented with a requirements management (RM) tool
In my last company, getting these done in a way that was accepted by engineers and management alike did require a pinch of “writing the [...]

Sitting through a debate session at the European Commission’s conference on creativity and innovation, I wondered how this very conservative and structured assembly would harness creative ideas. Glancing at the serious faces surrounding me, I wondered if I had arrived at the right event. One of the panel speakers must have read my mind as [...]

Despite all of the doom and gloom of the global economy, there is still a ray of light that reminds us of the possibilities ahead. See this moment as an opportunity to create and innovate across cultures. Yes, we still need to manage our projects and organizations with thrift and efficiency. However, that’s not going [...]

So, you’ve met your stakeholders and gotten their support. Everyone agrees on the size of the breadbox. Details are needed, but those will be identified during requirements gathering. How do you plan to pursue the project? Should you draft a plan on your own since your team is brand new and they don’t know any [...]

As we discussed yesterday, there are many project decelerators, among them lack of stakeholder support. Whether the stakeholders support your project or not, if they are important to your project, you must secure their support. How do you do that?
First, you must identify who your stakeholders are. Just because they are important in the organization [...]

You are excited. A newly minted project manager, you have just received your first assignment: develop the new version of your company’s external web site. You have great ideas, a great team, and you are ready to go. “Oh,” says your manager, “before you get started you need to check with VP Jane Doe on [...]

When we think about creativity, we tend to think about Research and Development and new product/service innovation.
But, why not consider the creative ways in which you can do the ordinary daily work?  Why not create an environment in which employees at all levels can offer suggestions for improvement?
Not merely suggestion boxes, but quality circles in [...]

One of my CEOs recently mentioned that the recession is forcing him to rethink all aspects of his business, including how many employees it takes to do a job.  (Six people to change a light bulb?)
He remarked that he is in the business of clearing out the deadwood and is glad for the excuse to [...]

Image by hockadilly via Flickr
We discussed how to set SMART goals and define where we are today. Now we can focus on how we get from where we are now to where we want to be. I don’t know about you, but I have way more interests than time available to pursue them. My biggest [...]

Image via Wikipedia
To take Wikipedia’s definition, a gap analysis is a business assessment tool enabling a company to compare its actual performance with its potential performance. At its core are two questions:

Where are we?

Where do we want to be?

As we know from our projects, the gap analysis process involves determining, documenting and approving the [...]

This may sound blasphemous to a professional project manager, but it is possible to over-plan. I have seen it happen countless times. It begins with a project manager with moderate analytical tendencies (e.g., an engineer) who has access to that ubiquitous project scheduling program, Microsoft Project. Actually, it does not have to be Microsoft Project–any [...]

Properly managed project documentation is critical for all types and sizes of projects. After all, the project documentation is the only real output from most projects. It is not the prototype that matters. It is the production documentation that includes things such as material lists, part drawings, assembly instructions, diagnostics, and source code [...]

One of the most useful things I have learned leading teams is that pictures are a very effective way to help people understand complex ideas. I am sure you have all heard that there are auditory learners and visual learners, but in my experience, a good visual is much better than audio for most people. [...]

By Jerry Manas
How many times have we seen PMOs create intricate processes and templates, only to find that there are more exceptions than rules?
We create forms, templates, and stage gates, in an attempt to gain control. But in doing so, we also create such barriers to implementation that it becomes like the Twelve Trials of [...]

As a project manager, you must understand these four budget items. If you do not recognize and understand them it is possible (even likely) that you will not properly understand your budget status and you may make wrong decisions based on these misunderstanding.

By Josh Nankivel
Fellow blogger Craig Brown over at Better Projects asked “Why reverse engineer requirements?” in a recent post.Interesting question: Craig asked what value there is in trying to derive requirements based on an existing system. There are two points that came to mind on this.

Technorati Tags: business-analyst, project-management, requirements, reverse-engineer, use-case

To someone else. Why?
Some project managers accidentally stumble into the profession. Others enter the field on purpose. Both groups tend to settle into a particular way of managing projects, and over time it seems most form specific ideas about what works and what doesn’t from their experience.
Projects in general have some similarities.

Technorati [...]

If you are like most project managers, you wish you had a better real-time handle on the progress of your project so you could predict when you will finish or when a change is needed in order to stay on track. I have used a simple yet powerful method that is applicable to most projects [...]

I’m sure you have had a chance to write a vision or mission statement at one time or another in your career. In my 25 years in high-tech corporate life, I’ve seen hundreds. Unfortunately, most of them were poorly written because the authors failed to capture the true goal of a vision statement, and missed [...]

Leading organizations is like leading a swarm of bees. You can’t directly control what’s going on, and the statistics indicate that most organizational leaders aren’t doing a very good job of it. A Harris Poll found that only 15% of people knew their orgs most important goals, over half of employees don’t know [...]