In This Issue:
From the Editor
Let's Get Real by Geof Lory
Featured Templates:
A Pinch of Software, a Dash of Hardware, and BAM!
Everything They Need to Know and Were Afraid to Ask
FrankenProject
Bride of FrankenProject
It's On a Need-to-Know Basis
You'll Take It and You'll Like It
How to Find a Vendor in Ten Reams or Less
…and They All Lived Happily Ever After
Project Practitioners Blog:
Software for All that Ails
Nothing Succeeds Like Staff Development
Why project managers should volunteer
Corporate Subscriptions
From the Editor
You've worried, fussed, and stressed, and now it's time to send them on their way. How can you know they're really ready? No, not the kids; the sooner they're out, the sooner you get that expanded floor plan you've been dreaming about. (We heard you last week during graduation rehearsal!) But shipping your project deliverables out the door to customers, once and for all? Now that's scary. At least the kids can talk and tell you what's missing. If your project could talk, what would it say, and would you be listening?
Testing is the equivalent of that heart-to-heart conversation about the real world you've been meaning to have, and not testing is the project management equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears while singing la-la-la at the top of your lungs. At some point, we all have to face the delta between where our project is and where we need it to be, and the sooner we do, the smaller the course corrections will be. With that in mind, Geof Lory devoted his column this week to dissecting the fear that may be keeping us away from the testing we know we ought to do. On top of that, we've got plenty of templates and guidelines to help you with your end game, from integration and testing to training and release, including a new template from Sinikka Waugh to help you plan the training necessary for a successful project rollout. The hardest part is letting go, but we'll make it a little easier to give that final push out of the nest.
Featured Article
Let's Get Real by Geof Lory
I've been meaning to write an article that focused on testing, but somehow struggled to organize my thoughts enough to actually do it. That is ironically similar to the general approach I see to testing on most projects; it is something we are always going to get around to doing but it never really receives the necessary time and focus. Have you ever been on a project where the testing was given its full, allotted time and attention? It's a rarity.
We all know that testing is an essential part of any project. Many life cycles have a phase called testing, or dedicated to it. But when push comes to shove testing invariably gets shortchanged. While we should be living by the mantra "do less better" we placate ourselves with "doing more poorly," believing that more is better and quality will eventually "be there." Why is this so, and what can we do to get out of this delusion?
We could start by looking at testing from a human perspective, rather than a process perspective. The reasons for insufficient testing are more than just not having enough time in the schedule to test. There is something more primal at work here—FEAR. Read more »
Featured Templates
A Pinch of Software, a Dash of Hardware, and BAM! – Integration Plan – MEMBERTalk about a recipe for disaster. Integration takes more than a big milestone diamond and a helping of faith. It takes heaping helpings of time, planning, and patience. This template provides an outline for documenting how the hardware and/or software in your system will be integrated before running the final system test. A plan like this is great for making sure your team has thought through the integration steps, instead of just marking it on the schedule and hoping for the best.
NEW – Everything They Need to Know and Were Afraid to Ask - Project Training Plan – SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until June 10, 2009
If you let the developers write the only training materials, your users could be left out in the cold. What seems obvious to the people who've worked on the project for the last several months (or years) may be anything but to the users, technicians, and support personnel that are your ultimate customers. A thorough training plan describes the key decisions, tasks, and resources you need to develop a strategy for delivering needed training, whether it's for service technicians and help desk agents, or end users who need to help themselves. Knowing what you need, and how much time will be required to deliver it, is a powerful antidote to customer confusion. (And significantly reduces the risks of unintended percussive maintenance.)
FrankenProject – WBS & Gantt for 802.11b Master Development Project – PREMIUM
You think your project is a monster? Check out this WBS created for a 100-person project to develop a wireless product. This sprawling schedule includes input from software, hardware, mechanical engineering, marketing product management, technical publications, test systems, and many other groups. Dependencies for portions outsourced to an OEM company are also included. It's perfect as a sketch blueprint for your next mad scientist project, so you can get all the nuts and bolts in the right places.
Bride of FrankenProject – Beta Test Plan – PREMIUM
It's not quite as dangerous as the original experiment, but far more emotional. Successfully navigating a product through beta while keeping what's left of your hair requires a solid marriage of organization and targeted feedback from customers and end users. This annotated outline details important, often overlooked planning elements that can drastically affect both the scope and the effectiveness of your tests. A solid plan can be the difference between a smooth beta period and one that leaves you feeling (or looking) like you stuck your finger in a light socket.
It's On a Need-to-Know Basis – Training Needs Assessment Guidelines – SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until June 10, 2009
It's tempting to walk through the user manual table of contents, but the best approach to training is to find out what your trainees need to know in order to use the product, and then help them learn it. This guideline explains some of the basic principles of training needs assessments. Yours could be a full court press involving interviews and tag-alongs, or a simple user survey and review of previous product questions. Either approach is valid if it gets you to the end goal: a training program that tells trainees what they need to know to do their job, not what the trainer needs to know to do theirs.
You'll Take It and You'll Like It – User Acceptance Test Plan – PREMIUM
Handing off a project to a customer isn't exactly like badgering kids into eating their vegetables. If the project isn't to their liking, they'll resist. A lot. And if they still don't like it after delivery, you're going to hear about it frequently for some time to come. (On the other hand, maybe there are some parallels … ) Unless you're planning to treat your customers like recalcitrant toddlers, it makes sense to have a plan for winning approval on their terms. A UAT provides a formal way to measure whether a system (software, product, what-have-you) meets customer requirements—from their perspective. Which means they get to say whether or not the broccoli is steamed right, and cut to the right size, or whether they wanted hollandaise on the side. Don't worry: if you're ready to run these tests, you'd have known a long time ago if they'd really wanted green beans instead.
How to Find a Vendor in Ten Reams or Less – RFP for Training Program Development – PREMIUM
You don't have to kill innocent trees or email inboxes to find a helping hand for your project. This sample request for proposal shows how you can cover all the bases in a comprehensive, concise document that doesn't take more time to read than to reply to. It's all here: background, scope, timing, proposal requirements. There's even a reminder to impose a maximum page limitation on proposal responses, so you don't end up killing more trees than necessary on the return trip. This example is for a training program, which is pertinent to our theme this newsletter, but it could be modified to suit any service-oriented RFP.
…and They All Lived Happily Ever After – Release Decision Process Guidelines – MEMBER
Any software developer knows bug-free releases are a fairy tale. You have to release the code at some point, even if it's not perfect. And software projects aren't the only ones to face these tradeoffs. Do you move occupants into the 8th floor even though the 9th isn't finished? Can the marketing materials skip the last proofreading cycle? This guideline helps your team walk the tightrope between attempting perfection and releasing a reasonable, ready product that won't keep your QA staff awake at night. It includes a full process outline and example checklists, to help you tell the right release story for your project—one that ends with happy customers and developers.
Project Practitioners Blog
Ann Drinkwater has a 6-step process to develop software for all that ails you. Well, maybe not quite that cut-and-dried, but six critical steps any software development team can and should take.Niel Nickolaisen relates a tale of staff development that encourages managers to give staff goals and get out of the way.
Nova Rose makes a case for why project managers should volunteer their time and effort, and how you can start.
Corporate Subscriptions and Licensing
Want your team members to have their own access to templates and how-to resources for their project work? Need to share documents and deliverables beyond your project team? We make it easier with affordable corporate subscriptions and licensing. Detailed information regarding corporate options is available online. Give your whole team, or even the entire organization, cost-effective access to our comprehensive online library of resources. You already know how helpful it's been for you. Now it's time to share with everyone else. Find out more »Not sure if corporate terms apply to you? Check out our licensing terms at the top of our Terms of Service page, in refreshingly ordinary, everyday English.