Live Webinar October 28th, 2014 – 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EDT
By: The Corporate Education Group (REP 1011)
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 Category A PDU – Free PDU

Personas and user stories are a simple, yet highly effective method for capturing better requirements of different types of users.

User stories are a brief description of functionality that a user needs from a solution to meet a business objective.

Personas bring a fictitious user to life based on either assumptions or data collected through research, and can represent different types of uses within a single social group.

Personas provide business analysts with a tool to really understand users. Coupled with user stories, business analysts have the ability to understand what different types of users expect from a solution and how to segment its scope.

In this webinar you will learn how to:

• Describe requirements from the user’s perspective with light-weight user stories
• Understand users better and more thoroughly through personas
• Write user stories using a narrative template
• Develop personas using one or more perspectives
• Understand requirements through personas and user stories

About the Presenter: Dr. Martin Schedlbauer (LinkedIn profile) has been leading and authoring seminars and workshops in business analysis, software engineering, and project management for over twenty years. Martin, an accomplished BA subject matter expert, is a recognized leader in software development practices, a practicing scrum master, experienced software architect, and also serves as an advisor for several industry conferences.

Click to register for Agile Business Analysis: Using Personas and User Stories to Improve Quality of Requirements!

Live Webinar October 31st, 2014 – 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Duration: 1 hour webinar Credits: 1 PDU Category A  – Free PDU
Sponsored by: PMI LEAD CoP (REP #S004)

Organizations everywhere face the same perplexing challenge:

• How do I maximize the use of my limited staff toward work that matters?

In other words, in an era of rapid-fire change and constrained costs, how do you do more with less and not destroy your people in the process?

Many organizations take on new demand the way a broken dam takes in water. They lack the visibility to know who they have available to do what and when.  They lack the ability to prioritize across competing initiatives.

They fail to optimize the resources they do have, and know little about what it takes to boost productivity and morale. And lastly, they lack the planning and governance models needed to manage a complex mix of people, projects, products, and services in any kind of integrated fashion.

The inevitable result is delayed projects, overworked resources, missed market windows, and decreased productivity.

The Resource Management and Capacity Planning Handbook is the first book to tackle this issue head on—demystifying the complexities of resource capacity and demand management, and offering a clear path to maximizing your limited resources.

Included is:

• The latest benchmark data from a comprehensive study on resource management
• Case studies from organizations who have made the leap from chaos to control
• Tools for overcoming common barriers and making decisions around time capture, resource assignments, and competing priorities
• Recommendations on ownership of the resource management and capacity planning functions
• Considerations for addressing the people side of resource management and capacity planning

The book also offers a simple structure for managing capacity and demand in your organization—The Capacity Quadrant Framework, a tool for successfully navigating what for years has been difficult and nearly unmanageable terrain.

Presenter: Jerry Manas (LinkedIn profile) is a bestselling author of The Resource Management and Capacity Planning Handbook: A Guide to Maximizing the Value of Your Limited People Resources and is a recognized leader in organizational project and resource management. He is also Senior Editor and Research Consultant for market leading portfolio management firm, Planview.

Note: You do have to be a PMI® member to register for this opportunity.

Click to register for Resource Management And Capacity Planning Handbook

Live Webinar October 29th, 2014 – 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm EDT
Offered by IAG Consulting (REP 2858)
Duration 1 hour 1 PDU or 1 CDU 1 Category A – Free PDU

• Are you a Business Analyst trying to find your role in an Agile project?
• Are you looking for ways to ramp up your Agile team’s productivity?

There are a lot of misconceptions about Business Analysis in an Agile development environment, and sometimes Business Analysts find it hard to adapt to the short iterations, just-in-time planning and minimalist documentation that characterizes Agile development.

This webinar is a frank discussion about what Agile demands from a Business Analyst and how Business Analysts can succeed and ensure their team succeeds.

Learning Objectives:

1. Dispel common myths about Agile, including the belief that Business Analysts aren’t welcome in Agile
2. Explain why every development team needs excellent business analysis to be successful
3. Guide analysts in how to deliver the most value in Agile settings

Note:  A recorded version of this session is available.

Click to register for Three Ways Business Analysts Enable Agile Success

Live Webinar October 30th, 2014 – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Duration: 1 hour webinar Credits: 1 PDU Category A – Free PDU
Sponsored by: PMI INPD CoP (REP #S011)

What if I told you that if you have a list of projects, you have everything needed for successful project prioritization?

In this interactive demo, you will learn a simple, proven method to quickly and easily prioritize your lists of projects, even when ranking criteria doesn’t exist.

With this prioritization technique you can prioritize a large list of projects in short period of time.

Learning Objectives:

1. How to conduct a prioritization exercise using pair-wise
2. How to prioritize without any ranking criteria
3. How to reduce a list of any size and focus on the most important outcome

Presenters:

Fred Newman, Strategist, Hennepin County – Prior to Hennepin County, Fred worked as a business strategist for National Car Rental and Target Corporation. In his current position, he provides coaching, workplace planning and financial analysis.

Reine Kassulker (LinkedIn profile) Business Alignment Manager, Hennepin County, is an IT specialist and trained facilitator who has provided coaching and facilitation services for hundreds of executives and project teams, in both public and private sectors. He is also the Host of Meeting Tips Radio.

Note: You do have to be a PMI® member to register for this opportunity.

Click to register for How To Prioritize ANY List Without Criteria