In This Issue:
From the Editor
How Much Quality Can We Really Afford? by Alan Koch
ProjectConnections Webinar: It's So NOT About Authority
How-To Course: Putting a Stop to Endless Requirements Gathering
Site Highlights
1 for You, 1 for Me. 2 for You, 1.2 for Me
Did I Say Low-Risk? Um... Surprise!
It's New, of Course It Will Work
We Need a Vat of Soda, Three Lawn Chairs, and a Giant Butterfly Net
I See a Project... It Has a Deadline..
Gestalt: Customers Are Greater Than the Sum of the Project's Parts
Project Practitioners
Corporate Subscriptions and Licensing
From the Editor
When we were little, we loved surprises. Maybe that's because they usually involved ice cream, balloons, or unplanned trips to the park. These days, surprises are more likely to involve unplanned trips to the board room—not quite as much fun. So this week we're out to help you avoid a few surprises. Not all of them, mind you. Ice cream and parks are still as fun today as they were when we were 8. But a little extra planning up front can mitigate project issues, minimize the chance of customer-discovered bugs, and avoid that uncomfy feeling that happens when project deadlines sneak up on us. Still not sure of the value? Columnist Alan Koch has the numbers to prove it.New This Week: Of course, we haven't given up completely on surprises, so we have a lot of new goodies to spring on you this week. Our June mini-course release will help teams put a stop to that endless cycle of requirements gathering, and this week's new template will help them set up a configuration management plan that makes sense. Both are available only to Premium subscribers (if you haven't already tried it, start your subscription here, but everyone can enjoy the new webinar with Cinda Voegtli on becoming a truly influential project manager. You don't even need a fancy title or a corner office to pull it off. (Surprise!) Finally, if you're looking to combine business and pleasure this summer, check out Carl Pritchard's Seminars@Sea for one possibility, at a surprisingly affordable price. (Details below.)
Enjoy! We're going to go hunt up some ice cream.
Featured Article
How Much Quality Can We Really Afford?
by Alan Koch
Sure, it might be nice to build a higher quality product. But how much quality can we really afford? Well, let's break out our Cost of Quality Calculator and try out the numbers. First the basics: Let's say we're going to write a system of 25,000 Lines of Code...
Alan Koch illustrates how the math works out as we add and manipulate hours spent reviewing code and requirements—and provides a spreadsheet you can use for your own calculations.
Learn how to calculate your Cost of Quality »
ProjectConnections Webinar
Want Project Influence? Come and Get It! - It's So NOT About Authority - 23 June 2010, 10 a.m. PDT - 1.5 PDUsSeats are limited and filling fast. Sign up today to guarantee your spot.
Want real clout on your projects? We want to help you get it. Come hear ProjectConnections founder Cinda Voegtli explain how you can start growing project influence right away in It's So NOT About Authority: Critical Influence Skills That Get Project Managers a Powerful Seat at the Table, a 90-minute session to be held Wednesday 23 June 2010 at 10:00 a.m. PDT. This is your chance to hear directly from Cinda about the critical skills project managers need for maximum impact in their project environment, and how you can plan your own influence-building strategy—our usual practical project know-how, in a live online event. Plus, PMPs can earn 1.5 Category-3 PDUs for attending. Registration includes the post-event recording download and related templates and resources, for just $39.95. Seats are filling up fast, so reserve your spot today ».
Monthly Premium How-To Course
Putting a Stop to Endless Requirements Gathering – 1 PDU – PREMIUMWith every project seemingly time- and resource-constrained—especially compared to how much everyone wants to accomplish—it's easy to get trapped in "schedule death by a thousand little requirements questions." It may seem like this is what it takes to be truly responsive to the project's customers, but if endless requirements gathering means nothing gets delivered on time, then clearly the customers' critical needs aren't getting served well after all. The way out of any requirements morass is to stop looking at everything and start looking for what matters most. This 20-minute session by Cinda Voegtli explores how to engage your customers with a few powerful tools and a mutual quest to identify what matters most, to help any project stay out of or get out of a schedule-killing requirements gathering morass. PDU credit available for paid Premium subscribers (exercise required).
Which course would you like to see next month? - PREMIUM
Log in to cast your vote:
- Communicating Up the Chain to Resolve Big Issues - 1 PDU
- Monitoring and Judging True Project Progress - 1 PDU
- Defining What Each Person Owes the Project - 1 PDU
- Dealing with Schedule-Killing Scope Creep - 1 PDU
Site Highlights
NEW – 1 for You, 1 for Me. 2 for You, 1.2 for Me - Configuration Management Plan – PREMIUMConfiguration management is one of those things that every project needs, but no one wants to talk about, in part because the conversation is usually so overwhelming that it feels a lot easier to just trust each other. But loosey-goosey configuration control can have expensive consequences. If the parts don't fit, or the documentation doesn't match the build, Bad Things happen. This new template, requested by Premium subscribers in our May content vote, provides guidelines and a document outline with detailed annotations to walk you through this common and important project plan element. Build a CM plan that's appropriate to your project, regardless of size and scope, and that your team can actually use. Get the template »
Related:Did I Say Low-Risk? Um... Surprise! – Risk Management Plan – SPECIAL
Think it can't happen to you? Check out the mini-case study that won our 2007 Project Horror Story Contest, Which Rev 2 Are We Building? (And it was such a nice project, too...)
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until June 24, 2010
Speaking of Bad Things, are your teams handling project risks the way you expect them to? Inconsistent evaluations of risk severity or impact can result in some nasty boardroom surprises. ("I thought you said that was a low-impact risk!") Give your managers and their team members some guidance with a high-level Risk Management Plan. Documenting expectations and standards at the organizational level will help managers and teams make consistent decisions about how to assess and react to potential issues, which is a Very Good Thing. Get the plan outline »
It's New, of Course It Will Work – Selecting Appropriate Agile Methods – PREMIUM
Agile is popular in project management circles, and for good reason; it's small, it's accessible, and you can carry it almost anywhere. But if you want to avoid buyer's remorse, you need to pick the right version for you, based on how you communicate and what you need to get done. This guideline will help you pick out the right Agile methodology for your project environment, so you can show it off with confidence. Get the guideline »
We Need a Vat of Soda, Three Lawn Chairs, and a Giant Butterfly Net - Software Requirements Capture Guidelines – PREMIUM
There's more to capturing project requirements than trapping the right people in the conference room. You need to know how to ask the right questions, how to record the answers, and how to know when you've got the right level of detail for your project. This guideline by Anita Wotiz, an experienced software development executive with a passion for collecting all the requirements, will help you ensure nothing has been overlooked, so you can feel comfortable releasing everyone back into the wild. Sample sequence diagrams and use cases are included. Get the guideline »
I See a Project... It Has a Deadline... – Powerful Project Visions – MEMBER
You want your team to have a clear idea of what project success will mean. To do that, you need a powerful project vision—one that involves more than a looming deadline. Using real project examples, this paper discusses how to arrive at a vision, what it must contain to deliver a super-urgent project on time, and how to combat the number one reason for project slippage: changing product definitions that force teams to deal with a moving target. Read the paper »
Gestalt: Customers Are Greater Than the Sum of the Project's Parts – System Test Plan – PREMIUM
The pieces all worked by themselves, and your integration tests have been completed successfully. But that's not a guarantee that the system as a whole will work when the customer picks it up. A system test verifies that the full system is functional under end-user conditions, as near as possible in a lab. This annotated document outline helps you develop both a test plan and the resulting test report, documenting the system's reaction to a variety of real-world use conditions (outdated hardware or software, load tests, etc.) and any lingering issues the team must resolve before external customer beta or acceptance testing. Get the plan outline »
Project Practitioners
Jerry Perone covers his take on the first of his Five Fundamentals to Avoid Project Failure, the project charter. His entry this week explains what he thinks should be included in your next project charter.Sinikka Waugh advocates Risk Management for the Faint of Heart this week, by encouraging us to do purposely what we're already doing subconsciously.
Brandon Carlson explains Agile Cumulative Flow Diagrams for plotting WIP and cycle times using an example most people can relate to: that other line in the grocery store that's moving faster than yours.
Brian Irwin is Challenging the Way We Work and Manage, and he wants your thoughts on the technology of modern management. Do we really understand the best ways to motivate people, and the best environment for our team's productivity?
Morley Selver considers some basic rules of safe emailing, designed to protect us from ourselves.
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.