Starbucks - More than a cup of coffee

As Project Managers and Business Analysts we are all exposed to different cultures working in various industries. ProjectWorld will be hosted in Seattle, Washington this year on the West Coast and many attendees will have the unique pleasure to experience an offsite learning session at Starbucks Corporate Headquarters. Attendees will gain insight into the unique Starbucks experience and culture.

Starbuck’s was originally about the coffee beans; they didn’t make coffee. Howard Schultz had a dream, bought Starbucks and eventually realized his dream. Several years ago Howard Schultz reached a turning point with Starbucks and in his book ”Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing its Soul” he revisits how he turned Starbucks into an experience that would first be cultivated by his leaders (his managers) and then through his employees by (as he put it) “as managers we would put our feet in the shoes of our people.”

Starbucks has a corporate culture that encourages its leaders to create a unique culture for employees and for the employees to create a unique and personal experience for its customers.  

Starbucks has established five principles that employees follow and use in their daily lives at the company: The five core business principles are:

· Make It Your Own
· Everything Matters
· Surprise and Delight
· Embrace Resistance
· Leave Your Mark

It will be interesting to see how this translates to managing projects at Starbucks. If you have signed up for the tour you’ll be one of the lucky attendees to gain insight into how these practices are put into action in how they manage and deliver their projects.

Jan Asbjorsen, Program Manager, Law & Corporate Affairs, Starbucks Coffee Company will lead attendees on A Behind this Scenes Look at the Starbucks Corporate Headquarters. In addition to a private tour of the Starbucks world headquarters, attendees will hear from a cross-departmental panel of project managers (including store development, IT, retail operations, law and more), as well as walk away with a checklist of things to consider when determining how to size your projects, tools, organizations, success factors, etc.

PW&WCBA
September 22-24, 2014
W Hotel
Seattle, Washington

Download the brochure for full details: http://bit.ly/1nwdqM0
- See more at: http://pwwbcablog.iirusa.com/#sthash.gwf2fHBk.dpuf

 References:
Interview with Howard Schultz:
http://www.oprah.com/own-super-soul-sunday/The-Coffee-Culture-Howard-Schultz-Wanted-to-Bring-to-America-Video?playlist_id=47020

The Silver Bullet to Project Success – Sponsor, Project Manager and Business Analyst

Are organizations looking for that silver bullet to avoid another project failure?   Could these roles in your organization be the silver bullet to cure a major prevailing problem?  Let’s look at a snapshot of each role to better understand how the role and key tenets help sets the stage for project success.

Role	Key Tenets
Sponsor: Your role has always been identified as a key role for project success; it’s time to elevate your commitment to provide necessary guidance for the project manager and business analyst.	Support, coach/mentor, communicates with stakeholders, escalates issues to senior management, remove barriers and approves resources for the project
Project Manager:  Your role is shifting from project management to project leadership.  It’s time to step out of your comfort zone to coach sponsors, lead change, effectively manage your projects through the entire lifecycle and lead distributed global teams.	Leadership, coach/mentor, define project scope, communication with project team, stakeholders and sponsor, stakeholder expectation management, soft skills
Business Analyst: Your role is taking a front row seat where you belong alongside your business partner; the project manager.  BAs can really help move the needle forward to align projects for success.	Engagement with business, business analysis tasks i.e.: define solution scope and business requirements for alignment with business and project objectives

Pairing these three leaders together in partnership will help ensure your project will be successful throughout the lifecycle to completion. In a nutshell, the executive sponsor, PM and BA; all play leadership roles;

>The Executive Sponsor owns the project and is responsible for benefits realization to create value for the business case, 

>The PM leads the team and delivers the solution and,

>The BA ensures that the solution meets the business need and aligns with business and project objectives.  

ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014, is taking place in Seattle, Washington September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with courses for all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers attendees 36 PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary to maintain your certification in just one place.

To learn more or register for the event, click here: http://bit.ly/1jtZtxB 

Related References:

Project Managers are From Mars and Project Sponsors are From Venus 

The Project Manager vs. the Business Analyst

Project Manager as a Leader

Project Managers Get Lost with Apple Maps

As of late, Apple has delivered significant updates across virtually every facet of the company. In fact, the tech giant has released 4,000 new APIs to developers; a more aggressive push in cloud services; and changes across its mobile and desktop operating systems.

But, one area of Apple’s business that is seriously lacking in function and updates is Apple Maps. Maps are important to Apple because, just as search has been at the heart of how people find their way around the Internet, maps are the key to how many people use their smartphones.

According to Apple, there is a feature in iOS 8 that will give venue owners the ability to add more indoor positioning data. But from what we understand this was far from what Apple had intended. A source told Apple Insider, “There were multiple improvements that didn’t make it into iOS8,” a source tells us.

After two years of parting ways with Google, Apple is still working on its Maps app. Some key changes included enhanced, more reliable data; more points of interest and better labels to make certain locations like airports, highways and parks easier to find; a cleaner maps interface; and public transit directions.

Further ahead, the report noted plans to integrate augmented reality features to give people images of what was nearby. So, why didn’t they appear?

One source said, “Many developers left the company, no map improvements planned for iOS 8 release were finished in time. Mostly it was failure of project managers and engineering project managers, tasks were very badly planned, developers had to switch multiple times from project to project. I would say that planning, project management and internal politics issues were a much more significant contributor to the failure to complete projects than developers leaving the group.”

Over the years, Maps have been a sensitive area in Apple’s business. It was at the 2012 WWDC that Apple unveiled a new version of its Maps app, but it turned out to be a disastrous move for the company. Unreliable data produced random renderings and bewildered users, and even prompted an apology from CEO Tim Cook with the promise that things would get better.

Apple appears to be taking similar steps to bring search closer to its core business, so there will be two areas to watch to see how the company evolves.

Related articles

• Apple Maps Are Still Lost (techcrunch.com)