Friday, June 26, 2009

ProjectWorld: Day 1, Afternoon Recap

As Kathleen Barret said in her seminar on Business Analysis, “We are the lucky few who are allowed to get out of our businesses. The conference is much smaller this year.” In the opening remarks yesterday morning, IIR also commented that most people attending ProjectWorld are wearing both their Project Management hats and their Business Analyst hats. Today is the time to be a jack of all trades. The seminars were definitely more sparsely attended then previous years (only a 110 registrants as opposed to 300-400 in previous years), but the content was still strong and practical.

More snippets from the afternoon’s sessions:

Business Analysis: Helping Business Do Business Better, Kathleen Barret

  • Times like these are okay, because the deadwood falls off the tree. There are organizations that have lost their way, and they need to restructure.
  • When your customer don’t know what to think of you, it’s hard to pull yourself up.
  • Business analysis – identifying and articulating the need for change and facility that change. If you don’t need change in your org, you don’t need BA.
  • There’s not one kind of Business Analyst: Project, Enterprise and Transition.
  • Elicitation: The Art of BA. How you get people to think very clearly about the issues and what they need to solve the problem.

How Agile Reduces Requirements Risks, Ellen Gottesdiener

  • Building software is like a knot—a big sticky, knotty problem.
  • 28% to 42.5% of software development costs go to fixing faulty requirements.
  • Top risks: scope creep, lack of customer involvement, unrealistic customer expectations, poor impact analysis, changing and practice tools.
  • Scope creep is normal. Not having changing requirements is a symptom of poor communication. The issue is, how to we manage and contain it?

If you’d like more about the seminar, you can find some Agile goodies here.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

ProjectWorld: Day 1, Keynote Sound Bites

This is a post from guest blogger, Jen Girdish, Editor of PM Boulevard. You can also follow her here.

Some sound bites from the two keynote speakers that kicked off the conference this morning.

Evolving Role of the CIO: Asif Ahmad, VP Diagnostic Services & CIO, Duke University Health Systems

  • Building high performance teams in this economy is getting more and more difficult.
    Information and data is an enterprise asset, just like buildings.
  • CIO as process leader – Embrace what the institution is driving, rather than what the technology is driving.
  • Communication is critical to empowering and organization – you can never over communicate in large organization.
  • Technology on a bad process just makes the bad process happen faster.

Improve and Achieve Greater Business Value: Pete Gibson, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Wyndham Hotel Group
  • Project managers probably know it better than executives know it.
  • It is rough out there—how do you add value? If you don’t add value your gone.
  • 75% of the workforce is not engaged.
  • Change is happening greater outside the organization than inside the organization. We have to keep up with the outside.
  • How can you improve and achieve greater business value in these uncertain times? There is no silver bullet—it comes down to individual and team performances.
  • People that understand the business and craft the solution are going to be the future.
  • We’re the most un-automated group in the world.

Peter thinks that we're in the most exciting field there is right now. Do you agree?

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Project Management Status Reports

At the PM Earth blog, they recently listed the five types of Project Management Status Reports:

1. Detailed Project Status Report.
2. Project Status Summary.
3. Program Status Summary.
4. Portfolio Status Summary.
5. External Project Status Summary.

For an in-depth look at all five of these reports click here.

Monday, June 22, 2009

PW&WCBA June Event

In just a few short days, we'll be in Baltimore at the June PW&WCBA 2009 event. This year, we're thrilled to welcome Peter Gibson of Wyndham Hotels, Asif Ahmad of Duke University
and Linda Jacobs Washington of USDOT among others.

Full Conference Details Now Available Download Now!

For more information on Project World & WCBA, please take the time to review some helpful resources that we've created just for you.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Join Us Next Week in Baltimore!

We hope that you've registered to join us next week in Baltimore for the June PW&WCBA Event! This program is for PMs or BAs on the road to an advanced career path. We’ve added more content to address these current needs and for 2009 we will be providing the topics, skills and techniques you require for development within your profession. Including a full track on Knowledge Management.

As a special "Thank You" for your readership on our blog, We are offering you an exclusive one-day rate to attend ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts taking place June 24-26 in Baltimore. We know that it's difficult for you to take time out of the office so we've created a one-day package for your specific needs. Pick the single day you are most interested in attending for only $995. Plus earn 8 PDUs in only one day. View the final conference agenda for more details.

This offer is only available by calling 888.670.8200 and
mentioning priority code: PW1DAY

We'll be live-blogging at the event next week, so check back here often for great news, insights and information from the PW&WCBA Event.

Hope to see you in Baltimore!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Is project management too complicated?

I recently found this video at A Girl's Guide to Project Management. What do you think? Do we overcomplicate project management?

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Meetings Drive Business

This is why companies need to continue to invest in business meetings. Not only will those who attend gain new and fresh perspectives from other attendees, but they'll hear from top companies who have lived by the same philosophy. Investment in yourself and innovation are the key to your business. What have you done recently to invest in your business?

Are you thinking of attending PW&WCBA this year? What would you expect to gain from the experience?

Meetings Drive Business

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Earn up to 25 PDUs in only Three Days.

If you are interested in earning maximum PDU credit with less time out of the office then the June ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts is a perfect place to do so. Also, BAs working towards CBAP® certification you can use this event to gain Professional Development hours (PD) and previously certified CBAP® recipients can track their hours of education to earn CDUs for IIBA certification renewal.
You can find program and credit details here:

http://www.iirusa.com/projectworldjune/at-a-glance.xml

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Project Management: Getting Your Team On Board

Not sure how to start the "buzz" about a new project for your team? Baseline.com offers some ideas on their recent article, "Project Management: Getting Your Team On Board."