Live Webinar Jan 23rd, 2014 – 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Duration: 1 hour webinar Credits: 1 PDU Category A – Free PDU
Sponsored by: PMI Requirements Management CoP (REP #S055)

Most Problems With
Project Requirements
Are Result Of Human Errors

Why are good and experienced project managers making bad choices that can dramatically affect the project?

The answers lie in human psychology. Often managers are making their choices not by logical and comprehensive analysis of the problem, but based on their own gut feelings.

This presentation includes a number of examples of how misjudgement can lead to major project failures.

Understanding a few basic concepts, such as how human mental machinery works, helps to improve project manager’s decision-making skills. Often manager’s decisions are affected by illusions, such as the illusion of the project being under control.

But what is the alternative to such intuitive decision-making process?

This presentation includes an overview of the project requirements management process. If a project manager and an organization follow such process, it usually leads to better decisions.

The presentation includes a number of case studies, illustrating how organizations significantly improved their performance through implementing requirements management process: Keystone Oil pipeline from Canada to US, Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea, NASA’s Constellation space program, destruction of major power station in Russia, and others.

The presentation also includes recommendations on how requirements management can be implemented in an organization. Requirements management is not only a sophisticated quantitative analysis. First of all, it is a collection of basic principles, which help project managers think their way to project success.

The presentation is based on the books “Project Decisions: The Art and Sciences”, published my Management Concepts, 2007, and “ProjectThink – Why Good Project Managers Are Making Bad Choices!” to be published by Gower in 2013.

Presenter: Lev Virine PhD, (LinkedIn profile) has more than 25 years of experience as a software engineer and project manager. In the past 15 years, he has been involved in a number of major projects performed by Fortune 500 companies and government agencies to establish effective decision analysis and risk management processes. He is the author of Project Decisions & ProjectThink and over 50 scholarly papers.

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

Click to register for Why Good Project Managers Are Making Bad Choices

Live Webinar Jan 22nd, 2014 11:00 am – 12:00 pm EST
Duration: 1 hour Credits: 1 PDU Category B – Free PDU
Presented By: PROJECTinsight (Metafuse Inc)
In Cooperation With: Core Performance Concepts (Rep #1399)

Note: Please record this as a Category B Presentation – You will receive a Category B certificate from PROJECTInsight

Waiting until the project is delivered to the customer is not the time to confirm, or not confirm, that objectives of the project are met.

Project managers and business analysts must understand how to analyze the various risks of the project objectives and develop ways to intermittently validate the attainment of those objectives. Learn the roles and responsibilities of the project manager, business analyst and quality assurance teams in successful project delivery.

Objectives:

• Define what Validation means as it relates to project delivery
• Define team roles and responsibilities as it relates to validation
• Identify the types of validation necessary for your project
• Develop action plans to validate key components of the project

Who should attend:

• Project managers, Portfolio managers,
• Project team members, Project Leads,
• Project sponsors & function/business unit managers,
• Subject Matter Experts, Business Analysts, Scheduling Specialists and ….
• Other business stakeholders.

Click to register for Validating Requirements

Live Webinar – January 16th, 2014 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Presented by: Enfocus Solutions
Duration: 1 hour 1 PDUs Credits: 1 Category C PDU- Free PDU

In this webinar, John Parker (LinkedIn profile) will discuss how program and project managers can use business analysis techniques to deliver more successful projects.

The following topics will be addressed:

• How to deliver better business outcomes on-time and on-budget
• Understanding and managing business analysis risks
• Using Business Analysis techniques to create needed project inputs
  • Solution Scope (Statement of Work)
  • Business Case
• Defining clear business objectives and aligning the project with business need
• Applying lean principles to project management to eliminate waste and scope creep
• Integrating BA stakeholder collaboration and PM stakeholder management methods
• Defining the WBS as Features, Bundles, and Releases
• Understanding the PMBOK requirement types

PDU Category C (PMBOK 5) documentation details:

Process Groups: Executing
Knowledge Areas: 4- Integration 5 – Scope

• 4.1 Develop Project Charter
• 4.2 Develop Project Management Plan
• 4.3 Direct and Monitor Project Execution
• 5.2 Define Scope

As a Category C ‘Self Directed Learning Activity’ remember to document your learning experience and its relationship to project management for your ‘PDU Audit Trail Folder’

Click to register for Business Analysis for Project and Program Managers

Live Webinar January 9th, 2014 11:00 pm – 12:00 pm EST
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 PDU/CDU Category B – Free PDU/CDU
Presented by: IIBA

To help accomplish its mission of facilitating lawful international trade and ensuring dangerous and illegal cargo doesn’t enter the country, one of the government’s largest and most complex organizations initiated a multi-year project to modernize the business processes essential to securing U.S. borders.

A large part of the renovation was the use of customized Agile methodology to help deliver functionality to its end-users quicker and meet evolving business needs.

With the creation of Scrum teams and the addition of Business Analysts on those teams, this is the story of one Agile development team’s ability to push high-priority requirements through to convert product backlog into reality while the business stakeholders retain the capability to continuously refine and reprioritize that backlog.

What does Agile mean for the role of the business requirements analysts?

The case study offer perspective into the role of the Agile BA:

• Fully embrace the role of Product Owners Representative
• Structure the tool by sprints, not product
• Be flexible because of shifting product owner priorities
• Begin working with the capability owner and product owner early in the process
• Help think about velocity tied to use stories and picking the right work for the sprint

Click to register for IIBA: BAs join Agile Team to Help Secure U.S. Borders: A Case Study

Live Webinar – January 8th, 2014 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST
Presented by: Enfocus Solutions
Duration: 1 hour 1 PDUs Credits: 1 Category C PDU- Free PDU

Agile development is here to stay. It has definitely been proven to deliver higher quality products and shorter cycle times.

However, it is not perfect.

All too often, teams have long and frustrating Sprint planning sessions because backlog items are poorly defined and not well understood.

This results in slow velocity as well as poor design because details are still being worked out during the Sprint. The end result is waste and rework because backlog items were not adequately validated.

Product managers must find a better way to identify and validate ideas instead of the current practice of validating and building an idea during development.

In this webinar, John Parker (LinkedIn profile) will address how product managers can use a dual track of Discovery and Delivery.

Discovery is about identifying and validating ideas in the form of features with key stakeholders. Delivery is about quickly generating a releasable product with minimal waste and rework.

PDU Category C (PMBOK 5) documentation details:

Process Groups: Planning

Knowledge Areas: 4 – Integration 5 – Scope

• 4.1 Develop Project Charter
• 4.2 Develop Project Management Plan
• 4.3 Direct and Manage Project Work
• 5.1 Plan Scope Management
• 5.2 Collect Requirements
• 5.3 Define Scope

As a Category C ‘Self Directed Learning Activity’ remember to document your learning experience and its relationship to project management for your ‘PDU Audit Trail Folder’

Click to register for Product Design in an Agile Development Environment: A Guide for Product Managers

Live Webinar Dec 18th, 2013 – 11:00 am to 12:00 pm EST
Presented by the Corporate Education Group (REP 1011) Course ID: BAW1305
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 Category A PDU – Free PDU

Requirements are at the core of any project, and therefore, must be carefully managed.

In this webinar, you will learn the essential requirements management practices, including the requirements lifecycle from inception to implementation, requirements management planning, and requirements management tools.

In addition, you will learn how to write SMART requirements statements that are useful and actionable.

Finally, we will contrast and compare the traditional requirements management approach with agile requirements management.

Learning objectives include:

• Learn how to write good requirements
• Appreciate the value of a requirements management plan
• Contrast plan-driven and change-driven requirements management approaches

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 business analysis subject matter expert, is a recognized leader in software development practices, a practicing scrum master, experienced software architect.

Click to register for Getting it Right: Best Practices for Requirements Management