Abayomi Olubiyi, Author at SCILS MANAGEMENT CENTRE

“Project Management” is a term that’s often bandied about today. It first became popular in the early 1960s, driven by businesses which realized that there were benefits to be gained from organizing work into separate, definable units and from coordinating different kinds of skills across departments and professions. One of the first uses of project management was to handle the U.S. space program, and governments, military organizations, and the corporate world of business have all since adopted the discipline.
Although the term is now universally familiar, not many people fully understand exactly what project management involves. We tend to think of it as common sense, and that anyone can manage anything by being calm and well organized. These are qualities that a project manager definitely needs, but other things are essential too. Project management is, in fact, a structured way of working and recording events that can bring order and coherence to any set of tasks with a predetermined goal.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can a “project” be defined in any way?
It can, yes, although it’s one of those words that is defined in various different ways by different bodies. However, all sources seem to agree that a project is:
A task or set of tasks undertaken within specific time frames and cost constraints in order to achieve a particular benefit.

Are there any stages common to all kinds of projects?
Yes; there are three of them, in fact. Think about the following:
⦁ Arranging a vacation
⦁ Decorating a room
⦁ Assembling a garden shed
⦁ Moving to a new house
⦁ Organizing a party
These are all examples of a project, because they all have three things in common. In each case, you:
⦁ Identify a need and benefit first of all;
⦁ Start to produce whatever will satisfy the need
⦁ Use, operate or simply enjoy the fruit of your labors once all the work has been done.
This basic three-stage cycle is common to all projects, large and small, whether you are producing a physical product (such as a bridge or computer system), an event (like a project launch or sporting event), or a change in circumstances (an office move or reorganization, for instance).

REGISTER FOR A PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL CLASS NOW

What other factors have to be taken into account?
As well as the three stages mentioned above, all projects have three key parameters (or factors) which have to be taken into account:
⦁ Time
⦁ Cost
⦁ Quality (also referred to as “performance” or “specification”)
The relationship between these three elements is often shown as triangle, with each different element joined to both of the other. This is because, throughout the life of a project, the three factors are likely to conflict with one another, you will nearly always find that everyone wants high performance within a very short time at minimal cost! However, if any one of these factors are likely to conflict with one another. You will nearly always find that everyone wants high performance within a very short time, at minimum cost! However, if the any of these factors is absolutely essential, the other two will have to give way to a certain extent -its impossible to be in all three corners at once, so you have to set priorities for the project, whatever it is.
Say, for example, your project had been to make all your IT systems 2000-complaint in time for the new millennium. Your priorities would probably have been in the following order:

Time: You would have needed to get everything ready for midnight on 31 December 1999.
Quality: It would have been essential that everything worked properly when the clocks changed.
Cost: You might have had to spend whatever was necessary to make sure the other two parameters were met.
When you are beginning a new project, its a useful exercise to place it in this triangle to indicate how flexible -or not- you could be with any of the three parameters.
So, from a combination of the three stages and the three parameters, We cab see that a project:
⦁ Has a finite and defined life span
⦁ Aims to produce a measurable benefit or product
⦁ Contains a corresponding set of activities designed to achieve that benefit or product.
⦁ Has a defined amount of resources allocated
The final, vital requirement is that the project also has a proper organization structure with defined responsibilities, so that everyone involved knows what they are doing and why, how it must be done, and by when.
One important thing to bear in mind is that projects are finite – they have a definite beginning and end. If these are unclear and others are working away without a proper goal in sight, its not a project.

REGISTER FOR A PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL CLASS NOW

Understand what Project Management is
All projects, large or small, are established to create something new to an organisation, and, as a result, they create an environment which is unstable and risky.
Without change, though, we’d stagnate. Projects help us to develop, but its important to keep them under right control so that they stay focused and achieve what they are supposed to. This is where the project manager comes in!

The whole project management process revolves around three main areas:

Business. Projects must support your organization’s business strategy. If they don’t, they shouldnt be started in the first place. To work out whether a project is a good idea or not, there has to be agreement from everyone involved or affected about
⦁ What the project is
⦁ What its targets are
⦁ The benefits to the business
It’s the project manager’s job to make sure the project has been properly defined and planned from the outset.
People. projects revolve around people, and, if the project manager isnt managing the team doing the work and all the other stakeholders, he or she isnt managing the project. Identifying or appointing certain people is also key, such as the project sponsor (the person who’s requested for the project-usually the one who is paying for it) and “champions” who can support and promote the different areas of the work.
Control. As soon as authorization is recieved to start work, the project manager must plan the route of the project, assess what risks are involved, identify what skills and resources are required, then constantly check progress and adjust its course to make sure the targets are reached successfully.

REGISTER FOR A PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL CLASS NOW

Know What Skills Are Required
The project manager is often seen as a juggler, the person who has to keep all the balls in the air at once-plans, budgets, people, communications, and so on, as well as keeping the balance between the three parameters of time, cost, and quality mentioned above. Project managers therefore need to have a good level of know-how in whatever field their project is in (such as IT or manufacturing expertise, for example), as well as sufficient “clout” to have influence with senior decision makers.

All these requirements can be split into two different areas of skills: business and interpersonal.
Business
⦁ The project manager should be able to:
⦁ Plan all aspects of the project;
⦁ Monitor costs, efficiency, and quality without generating unnecessary extra work for others;
⦁ Use both technical and general management skills to control the project;
⦁ Make sure that the whole team takes part in decision making which boosts trust and productivity;
⦁ Get things done right first time without being a slave driver;
⦁ Get the right people for the right task at the right time;
⦁ See clear-sightedly through tangled issues;
⦁ Keep focused on results;
⦁ Demonstrate excellent problem-solving skills
Interpersonal
He or she also needs to:
⦁ Lead both by example and taking a back seat when appropriate;
⦁ Negotiate any project requirements (such as suitable time frames and budgets) with senior decision makers;
⦁ Motivate with integrity, sensitivity and imagination;
⦁ Build excellent team relationships;
⦁ Communicate clearly and unambiguously with everyone.

Understand The Project Life cycle
Any project has a natural progression, following a series of different stages from when it is first established to when it is finished and the benefits are seen. This is known as the project life-cycle.
Depending on their complexity, some projects will need more stages than others. Having said that, the same steps can generally be applied to any sort of objective.
⦁ Evaluate ideas. This stage evaluates the business need for the project; documents the initial idea(s), assesses the benefits; identifies risks which might threaten the success of the project; and outlines how it is going to be done, how long it will take, what it will cost, and whose authority will be need to proceed.
⦁ Define and design. Now you’re into the detail. How will you run the project? Who will be needed to do it? How will you divide up the responsibilities? What key measures and milestone will you use to monitor progress? To make sure things don’t get missed out, think in terms of what your business/team needs, what customers need, and what your competitors are up to. Do they have any new initiatives that you need to improve on, for example?
⦁ Build and test. With all your plans and designs in place and agreed upon, you find and build all the new processes, places, and people involved in the project. At every stage, you test to make sure that everything works as its meant to.
⦁ Implement, Pilot and launch. Here you pilot the project, evaluate how its gone so far, and refine as necessary. Then you finalize the full-scale launch, prepare the processes and systems that will be required, andd provide any necessary training. This is the last point at which your project sponsor can make a final decision on whether or not to go ahead.
⦁ Evaluate and monitor. Following the launch, you mske sure that the project had delivered the expected benefits. You also record any learning points so that you can manage things more effectively next time-things are bound to go wrong along the way but, if you learn from them, you will start your next project much better equipped.
Bear in mind that this process doesn’t necessarily flow through in one smooth sequence, as you will need to keep evaluating and monitoring plans, budgets, schedules, and so on throughout the life of the project. However it does act as a good “road map”, and none of the stages should be left out even if your project is a small one.

REGISTER FOR A PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL CLASS NOW

Understanding the basics of Project Management Read More »

Reinvention as a word implies a process of deconstruction, a subsequent reconstruction, and a resultant new thing or a new person who exhibits different talents and who pursues different opportunities. The intended payback for reinvention is gaining something that you currently feel is missing in your life, which could be anything from a successful career, to a better financial situation, to a happier work life balance or a complete change of life style. However, reinventing yourself as a reaction to something or a set of circumstances tends to results in a purely cosmetic change as it does not get to the root of why you want your life to be different. In order to reinvent yourself successfully and for the right reasons, you need to do it consciously and deliberately rather than as a knee jerk reaction. This doesn’t mean for a moment that spontaneity and creativity have no role in a life change – indeed, they are valuable forces in this process – but building in reality checks as you go along will do you no harm at all.

Many of us arrive at a decision points in our careers unexpectedly. For most people, the planned career path is a myth and its unusual to find people who decided what they wanted to do with their careers when they were at school and who then followed the recommended route to get there. When people talk about their jobs, it’s much more common to hear how amazed they are at what they’ve ended up doing – listen for how many times you hear the phrase “I just seemed to fall into it!”. It’s not surprising, then, that many of us eventually realize that we’re not doing what rewards us professionally, emotionally, culturally, or spiritually.

Below is a series of steps that may help you through the reinvention process.

Conduct a personal audit
Explore your values and beliefs
Think about your dream scenario
Start making changes
Live the changes
Reinvent your self

Conduct a ‘Personal Audit’
This is the part of the process where you appraise your life from a personal and professional perspective. You could think of it as a “force-field” analysis. Where you write your name in the center of a clean sheet of paper and itemize your life’s pressure and disappointments on the left and the pleasures and delights on the right. Write down everything you think is relevant, including the interests and aspirations that you had early in your career and all the things that have given you happiness since then. From this activity alone, you may be able to see where unacceptable pressures lie but if you cannot, highlight the break points on both sides of the analysis in a highlighter pen so you can easily identify the issues that really need to be addressed. The intention here is to find a way of swinging the balance of your life toward the pleasurable side of the diagram by drawing out the element of your life that characterize you and your preferred role.

Explore Your Values and Beliefs
If something is preventing you from tapping into your natural talents and living your life in line with them, write it down at the bottom of the sheet of paper. These are the barriers that you have to overcome in order to achieve satisfactory reinvention. They usually manifest as fears, for example: “I will lose my income/pension /benefits,” “I have a dependent family and can’t risk letting them down.” “I have hefty financial commitments and won’t be able to meet these if I change my job,” or “ I can’t afford to go back and start something from the beginning at this stage of my career.” All these are fears that you hold without question. So question them. Are they really true? Do they really matter? If you live your life according to these beliefs, how will you feel at the end of your career? Is this acceptable to you?

Think about Your Dream Scenario
Think about what you’d do if you were free from practical or financial limitations and write everything down at the top of your sheet of paper. This is a freeing exercise that may put you in touch with what it is you would prefer to be doing. Don’t reject your ideas because you don’t have enough money or security to achieve them-don’t put more barriers in your way and remember that, with a little imagination and inventiveness, there are ways around the perceived obstacle of money and security.

Start Making Changes
Now that you’ve done the thinking, you can start making changes, small or radical. Working through the process above has allowed you to see your life laid out in front of you and should help you pinpoint the areas that need the most immediate attention. If you have a strong feeling about the need to change something that doesn’t make any sense to you, don’t try to reason your way out of it”; follow your instincts and see what happens. If you curb your impulses by rationalizing them, you’ll end up behaving in the same way time and time again. To others, and indeed to yourself on some levels, your actions may not seem reasonable but see what happens anyway, many people have benefited from taking a risk at points in their life. Taking action first and reflecting later has probably been the pattern of your career to date, so try something new out, see if it works, then adopt or discard your initiative as appropriate.

Live the changes
It’s no good deciding to make changes but then not doing anything about it. Even if the changes seem alien to you to begin with, practice them until they feel normal. Act as if you’re the best artist in your field, the greatest writer, the most successful entrepreneur whatever it is you want to achieve. Once you start behaving like the person you want to be, people will start treating you as if you are that person. You cannot change your life without changing your behavior patterns, and this too hard, try starting with symbolic changes like your clothing or your car.

Reinvent Yourself
You’ll see that reinvention isn’t really what’s going on here. The effect is reinvention; the fact is that you’re bringing to the surface a latent part of your character that seeks full and happy expression. Make the decision to live the way you want to fully and without apology. What’s the worst that can happen?

Reinventing Yourself Read More »

About the PMI – PBA Certification

Business analysis is a topic of growing importance to projects and programs. The marketplace reflects this importance, as practitioners increasingly embrace business analysis as a technique for uncovering business needs, managing requirements, and creating effective solutions to business problems. The PMI-PBA certification recognizes an individual’s expertise in business analysis, and using these tools and techniques to improve the overall success of projects.

In addition, the PMI-PBA certification carries a high level of professional credibility. It requires a combination of business analysis training, experience working on projects, and examination on business analysis principles, practices, tools, and techniques. This global certification also supports individuals in meeting the needs of organizations that rely on business analysis practitioners to play key roles on their teams.

Business Analysis Role Delineation

PMI conducted a Role Delineation Study (RDS) in the development of the certification in alignment with industry best practices. This study determined the level of importance of each of the tasks, tools and techniques, and knowledge and skills required to use business analysis principles and practices in project management. It is the basis for the creation of the examination. The examination for the PMI-PBA certification is a vital part of the activities that lead to earning this certification. Thus, it is imperative that the examination accurately reflect the business analysis practices, tools and techniques being used by practitioners of business analysis.

REGISTER FOR THE PMI – PBA [PROFESSIONAL in BUSINESS ANALYSIS] CERTIFICATION COURSE

The PMI-PBA Role Delineation states that candidates for the PMI-PBA certification

Perform their duties under general supervision and are responsible for working with stakeholders to define an organization’s business requirements in order to shape the output of projects and ensure they deliver the expected business benefit.
Spearhead the discovery, analysis and overall management of the requirements for a project.
Demonstrate sufficient knowledge and experience to appropriately apply business analysis tools and techniques to enable project success.

REGISTER FOR THE PMI – PBA [PROFESSIONAL in BUSINESS ANALYSIS] CERTIFICATION COURSE

To be eligible for the PMI-PBA certification, you must meet the following educational and professional experience requirements.

Educational Background	Business Analysis Experience	Training in Business Analysis
Secondary Degree (High School Diploma, associate degree or global equivalent)	7,500 hours (5 years) working as a practitioner of business analysis. This experience must have been earned in the last 8 years.	35 contact hours. Hours must have been earned in business analysis practices.
Bachelor’s degree or higher degree (or global equivalent).	4,500 hours (3 years) working as a practitioner of business analysis. This experience must have been earned in the last 8 years.	35 contact hours. Hours must have been earned in business analysis practices

REGISTER FOR THE PMI – PBA [PROFESSIONAL in BUSINESS ANALYSIS] CERTIFICATION COURSE

Overview of the PMI-PBA Certification Read More »

Scrum is described as a ‘framework within which you can employ various processes and techniques’, rather than a process, or a technique, for building products. The Scrum framework is primarily team based, and defines associated roles, events, artifacts and rules. The three primary roles within the Scrum framework are:

The product owner who represents the stakeholder,
The scrum master who manages the scrum team and scrum processes,
The team who develops the products

INTERESTED IN THE SCRUM PRODUCT OWNER CERTIFICATION

This article focuses on the product owner and its role in a product development. The key stakeholder of Scrum Projects is the Product Owner. One integral responsibility of the Product Owner is to convey the importance and significance of the Scrum Project to the Scrum Team. This is the key to the success of any Agile Project through the use of Product Backlog. Now let us look at some of the major roles of a Scrum Product Owner.

Creation and Maintenance of the Product Backlog: Scrum Methodology is mostly used in the software environment and new product development field. This is an on-going job and full-time responsibility of the Product Owner. He has to constantly keep grooming it especially before any sprint planning meetings.
Prioritizing of Backlog according to the Business ROI: Product Owner also needs to prioritize and sequence the backlog according to the needs of the business and situations.
He also elaborates the epics, themes, and features into user stories which are feasible enough to be achieved in a single sprint.
The Product Owner does the job of continuously reminding the Team of the Sprint & Release and ensures that the team remains on track in realizing their goals.
The Product Owner does the job of continuously engaging the customer and stakeholders to ensure that the Team is building the right product and delivering the business value expected from it. Also at the end of every Sprint, the Product Owner has the opportunity to steer the team in the direction which will create value for the stakeholders.
The Product Owner also keeps inspecting the work done by the Scrum Team at the end of every Sprint and has the absolute authority to accept or reject their work or to suggest modifications.
Product owner also acts as the voice of the Team to the outside world and should ensure that all the channels of communication remain open and the project get the right kind and type of support needed to succeed.
Has the authority to terminate a Sprint if the Product Owner feels that there is the drastic change in direction needed and the Spent is no longer needed. It may happen in cases where the competitor releases a new product and the client wants a counter response

The responsibilities of a Product Owner is onerous and there are a lot of hats that have to be worn by him hence the choice of a Product Owner must be done wisely as it could lead to success or failure for the entire project which could ultimately mean success or failure of the company

Scrum Product Owner Training

The scrum product owner training with certification from the Scrumstudy is a two weekend (saturdays and sundays) training schedule. You write the exam after the training. Read more about the course here – scrum product owner

INTERESTED IN THE SCRUM PRODUCT OWNER CERTIFICATION

What are the roles of a Scrum Product Owner? Read More »

Business analysis has emerged as a core business practice in the 21st century. As the vital link between a firm’s information technology capabilities and its business objectives, skilled business analysts contribute to the profitability of companies both large and small, in almost all industries.

Therefore, a business analyst is someone who analyzes an organization or business domain (real or hypothetical) and documents its business or processes or systems, assessing the business model or its integration with technology.

The role of a business analyst can also be defined as a bridge between business problems and technology solutions. Here, business problems can be anything about business systems, for example, the model, process, or method. The technology solutions can be the use of technology architecture, tools, or software applications. So business analysts are required to analyze, transform and ultimately resolve the business problems with the help of technology.

There are at least four aspects of business analysis:

Strategic Planning – to identify the organization’s business needs
Business Model Analysis – to define the organization’s policies and market approaches
Process Design – to standardize the organization’s workflows
System Analysis – the interpretation of business rules and requirements for technical systems (generally within IT)

The Business Analyst, sometimes, is part of the business operation and works with Information technology to improve the quality of the services being delivered, sometimes assisting in integration and testing of new solutions.

ENROLL FOR A LIVE VIRTUAL BUSINESS ANALYSIS (CBAP) OR A CLASSROOM-BASED BUSINESS ANALYSIS TRAINING

The role of a business analyst may also be to support the development of training material, participate in the implementation, and provide post-implementation support. This may involve the development of project plans and often requires project management skills.

Alternate job titles include business systems analyst, process analyst, enterprise analyst, business architect and functional analyst.

Business analysts typically take the lead role in:

Assisting with the business case
Planning and monitoring
Eliciting requirements
Requirement of organization
Translating and simplifying requirements
Requirement management and communication
Requirement analysis

The skilled business analysts also use requirements to drive the design or review of test cases, process change requests and manage a project’s scope, acceptance, installation and deployment

Qualification and Training for a Business analyst

The role of a business analyst typically requires a bachelors degree in any discipline, though employers may prefer a degree in a business-, computing-, economics-, or numeracy-related subject. You can get your degree through a full-time university study or through a business analyst degree apprenticeship.

You may also be able to gain a professional qualification with either the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) or Project Management Institute (PMI), either before you start your career or as part of your career development.

ENROLL FOR A LIVE VIRTUAL BUSINESS ANALYSIS (CBAP) OR A CLASSROOM-BASED BUSINESS ANALYSIS TRAINING

Roles and Responsibilities of a Business Analyst Read More »

In the new economy, winning will spring from organizational capabilities such as speed, responsiveness, agility, learning capacity, and employee competence. Successful organizations will be those that are able to quickly turn strategy into action; to manage processes intelligently and efficiently; to maximize employee contribution and commitment; and to create the conditions for seamless change. The need to develop those capabilities brings us back to the mandate for HR set forth at the beginning of this article. Let’s take a closer look at each HR imperative in turn.

Dave Ulrich proposed the core roles of a human resources professional that are grouped into four broad roles that must be carried out professionally. The Human resources professional must be all of these:

Human Resources Professional as a Strategic Partner

As a strategic partner, the HR professional must be able to partner with the organization in developing plans that will align the human resources of the firm with the long term corporate goals and vision of the firm. He should be able to contribute to business strategy development by aligning HR jobs with strategic goals. He should be able to provide tools and create an enabling environment to actualize these goals. He is the eyes of his firm in the outside world and should be a liaison between his firm and the society, environment and government. He should be able to analyze work processes and recommend improvements where necessary. He should develop policies that will benefit the firm, Management and employees alike.

REGISTER AND PREPARE FOR YOUR HR CERTIFICATIONS (APHRi, PHRi and SPHRi)

Human Resources Professional as an Administrative Partner

As an Administrative expert, the HR professional is expected to carry out administrative duties like providing the necessary tools needed for the organization to operate successfully. He should be able to manage the overall labor costs in his organization and plan for administrative budgets. As an administrative expert, the HR person should be an information manager. He should have at all times all data relating to employees and make same available …at all times. The HR person should be able to discover new and evolving trends that will be beneficial to the company and advise Management accordingly. He should always conduct research to find out what is obtainable in other firms that makes them tick and advise management. The HR person should be able to manage HR budgets (recruitment, selection, training and development, etc. He should be a good negotiator in times of salary decisions.

REGISTER AND PREPARE FOR YOUR HR CERTIFICATIONS (APHRi, PHRi and SPHRi)

Human Resources Professional as a Change Agent

As a Change agent, he should be able to find out new ways of doing things that can move the company forward. He should be able to convince Management on the need for the change and address employees about changes. He should coordinate and facilitate the change process. He is to provide the tools and structures needed during change period. As an expert, he should be able to create a new organizational change without disrupting the firms business.

Human Resources Professional as an Employee Champion

REGISTER AND PREPARE FOR YOUR HR CERTIFICATIONS (APHRi, PHRi and SPHRi)

As an Employee Champion, the HR professional should be able to manage the selection, recruitment, training, development, career planning, performance management, succession planning, and Staff retention exercises. He is to determine the long term human resources needs, assess current resources and determine area of changes. He is to determine whether human resources needs can be sourced internally or externally. He is to conduct training needs assessment, to determine the type of training that will benefit the staff and organization. Conduct and arrange for training and determine the training results on the productivity of the firm. The HR professional manages and carries out career management in a way to align the employees’ dreams with the organizational requirements. Also as an employee champion, the HR expert is to carry out performance appraisal exercises to determine staff performances in their present responsibilities a well as determining those that will be rewarded, promoted, demoted and recognized. As an employee champion he should be involved in grievance handling and disciplinary issues in the firm. He is to handle all employee related matters like leave issues, medicals, pension matters, housing and general welfare issues.

REGISTER AND PREPARE FOR YOUR HR CERTIFICATIONS (APHRi, PHRi and SPHRi)

In summary an HR professional should be able to perform the following functions; Manpower planning, recruitment, compensation and salary issues, employee development and administration, Training and career development, labor relations and discipline management, personnel transfer and movement, performance management Human resources information system, payroll, organizational development etc.

The 4 Main Roles of a Human Resources Professional Read More »

Root Cause Analysis provides a methodology for identifying and correcting the sources of problems. It differs from troubleshooting and problem-solving in that these disciplines typically seek solutions to specific difficulties, whereas Root Cause Analysis is directed at understanding wider underlying issues.
This should not simply be seen as a problem-solving method, but rather as a vital component of the executive decision making process and constant monitoring of the efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness of business operations.
Why not use your customer complaints and feedback to drive business improvement? This is exactly what regulators want organizations to do.

The “Five Whys” principle credited to Sakichi Toyoda is a very simple process applicable in root cause analysis that results in very positive outcomes. In the event of a failing, the employee responsible for establishing the cause asks five questions. When using the Five Whys technique it is important that you go back to assess all branches of investigation, in particular if you choose a path of investigation that leads you to things that cannot be changed.
As a simple example, we’ll take an initial complaint of customers not receiving their bank statements.

Before root causes can be investigated and the five whys can be asked – there needs to be a system in place to capture initial information. Root Cause Analysis is not only a regulatory requirement: having a system or function in place to handle complaints is also necessary. If the details of a complaint are not correctly or efficiently recorded at first point of contact, then any investigations into the root causes will be unsuccessful.

Equipping front line staff with the necessary technology to quickly and easily capture important information when speaking directly with a customer will make the process of Root Cause Analysis easier further down the line, and ensuring consistency across the board when categorizing complaints will make it easier to spot trends across products and services.

A process driven workflow should ensure additional information is consistently being captured at the appropriate stage of the case investigation. The end product is a complete picture from which the organization can make fact based decisions. With this, the organization can then follow a structured approach to analyze the information captured, identify and implement a corrective action and then track the progress of new initiatives.

Root Cause Analysis doesn’t just end when a root cause has been identified. The cause must be acted upon. In the example above, the root cause is that the links on the change of address form had not been properly checked before going live. Corrective procedures must now be put in place: the links need to be fixed immediately to make sure this error does not affect more customers, and analysis needs to be carried out find those it already has affected and if the same fix corrects all issues. But these corrective procedures are still not enough. In order to make ensure this issue does not occur again, a process needs to be put in place so that each part of the form will be checked before going live. This could include creating warning screens before the form is published.
Once the corrective action has taken place, the process needs to be documented which is essential in providing compliance statements and creating management information to drive improvements across all areas of the organization.

There are clear and tangible benefits for organizations that embrace Root Cause Analysis as a process of continual improvement. The key to successful Root Cause Analysis is not solely the responsibility of the analyst, but starts at the point where feedback is captured within the organization making sure that the data captured is comprehensive, accurate and consistent. All areas of the business share the responsibility of ensuring that a quality-driven process collects the data that will drive future strategic decisions within the organization.
Companies that implement such a strategy, supported by the right technology, will gain valuable insight to drive organizational improvements. The results will be in service improvements, customer loyalty gains and increased revenues

The Process of Root Cause Analysis Read More »

As the cliche goes, you learn from your mistakes. At least, you should learn from your mistakes. When you mess up and apologize to someone, the most important thing they need to hear from you is that you understand why you’ve done the wrong thing. You need to know what you did wrong and how that came to be, or you’ll repeat your mistakes again and again.

The way we do this in business is by following a process. We note down which stage of the process we’re on so if and when something goes wrong, we know exactly what happened. When you’re running a business, you’re unlikely to know if anything you’re doing is any good until disaster strikes. That is, unless you create, maintain and optimize your process documents. This is why every business need to write their process. A written process contains instruction for getting jobs done.

Process-related disasters span a massive range of areas, from pure human idiocy to legal and technical trouble. If it’s not an issue of ineptitude (a managerial issue) it’ll be an issue with ignorance (a legal / technical oversight).

Whether it’s an IT problem, laziness, ineptitude, or just a lack of proper education, there have been countless mistakes in business over the years that have led to serious consequences, from billions of dollars lost to the total downfall of huge corporations. it’s all because these businesses weren’t following their processes.

The solution, of course, is to develop and follow processes. It’s a simple solution. It doesn’t take up much time or effort. But it isn’t that attractive. It’s not something that rock star hackers think is part of their job, and no one who was hired as any kind of ninja feels too great about it either. It’s time we realized how silly that is, and look back at the catastrophic errors businesses have fallen victim to.

It’s time we started taking stock of our processes — whether that means admitting we don’t have any, admitting they’re not so great, or just cataloging them. Remember, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. It’s time to analyze your processes, create new ones and manage them. Let’s get to the heart of the issue.

How Processes Protect Your Business From Crashing and Burning Read More »

Project management profession is going through a major transformation at this time as a result of the influence of Agile. Up until recently, the only accepted way to do project management has been a traditional, plan-driven project management approach that emphasized planning and control to achieve predictability over project costs and schedules. There have been many situations where a project has met its cost and schedule goals for delivering a defined set of requirements but failed to deliver an appropriate level of business value.

So What is Agile Methodology? Agile is a process that helps teams provide quick and unpredictable responses to the feedback they receive on their project. It creates opportunities to assess a project’s direction during the development cycle. Teams assess the project in regular meetings called sprints or iterations.

An agile is a very empowering process that helps companies design and build the right product. The management process is very beneficial for software companies because it helps them analyze and improve their product throughout its development. This enables companies to produce a highly valuable product so they stay competitive in the market.

REGISTER FOR SCRUM and AGILE TRAININGS AND CERTIFICATIONS

The agile methodology has changed the face of software development and project management, and increased demand for professionals with agile knowledge and experience. The methodology, which emphasizes cross-functional teams collaborating incrementally and iteratively on projects in a flexible and responsive way, is now in practice at a wide array of organizations, and there are a number of available certifications to benchmark and test professionals’ knowledge and competency with the framework.

Of the top agile focused certifications that allows you to take your career to the next level is the PMI – ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner). The PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) formally recognizes your knowledge of agile principles and your skill with agile techniques. It will make you shine even brighter to your employers, stakeholders and peers.

The Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI) is for project management professionals whose organizations currently use or are moving to agile practices. The PMI-ACP provides assurance that the certification holder has real-world experience managing agile projects and is familiar with many subsets of the agile methodology, including Scrum, Kanban, Lean and others. Those who achieve the certification must earn 30 professional development units (PDUs) every three years to maintain their status.

REGISTER FOR SCRUM and AGILE TRAININGS AND CERTIFICATIONS

The PMI-ACP is available to members and non-members and is offered in paper-based and computer-based testing formats, ranging from $385 for paper-based member testing to $495 for computer-based testing of PMI non-members.

AGILE METHODOLOGY AND AGILE CERTIFICATIONS Read More »

Scrum is an agile framework that manages your project and delivers value iteratively at short intervals. It is an agile process that teams use around the world to build things that work. Scrum is intentionally lightweight and simple, but it is difficult to master. It is intended to provide a framework for cross-functional teams to solve complex problems. The responsibilities in scrum have been structured into three scrum roles which are the development team, the scrum master and the scrum product owner. We will be discussing these roles in this article:

The Scrum Product Owner

Agile teams are, by design, flexible and responsive, and it is the responsibility of the product owner to ensure that they are delivering the most value. The business is represented by the product owner who tells the development what is important to deliver. Trust between these two roles is crucial.

The product owner should not only understand the customer, but also have a vision for the value the scrum team is delivering to the customer. The product owner also balances the needs of other stakeholders in the organization.

So the product owner must take all these inputs and prioritize the work. This is probably their most important responsibility because conflicting priorities and unclear directions will not only reduce the effectiveness of the team, but also could break the important trust relationship that the business has with the development team.

TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION | SCRUM PRODUCT OWNER CERTIFICATION

Agile teams are designed to inspect and adapt, that means a change in priority may lead to a massive change to the team structure, work products, as well as the end result. It is therefore crucial, for scrum teams to be successful, that only one person sets priority. That person is the product owner.

The Scrum master

The scrum master is the role responsible for gluing everything together and ensuring that scrum is being done well. In practical terms, that means they help the product owner define value, the development team deliver the value, and the scrum team to get to get better. The scrum master is a servant leader which not only describes a supportive style of leadership but describes what they do on a day-to-day basis.

TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION | SCRUM MASTER CERTIFICATION

They serve the product owner by helping them better understand and communicate value, to manage the backlog, help them plan the work with the team and break down that work to deliver the most effective learning. Serving the development team, the scrum master helps them self-organize, focus on outcomes, get to a “done increment,” and manage blockers. The scrum master also serves the organization at large, helping them understand what scrum is and create an environment that supports scrum.

Scrum Development Team

The development team are the people that do the work. At first glance, you may think the “development team” means engineers. But that’s not always the case. According to the Scrum Guide, the development team can be comprised of all kinds of people including designers, writers, programmers, etc.

TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION | SCRUM TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION

You can think of it in the same way as when you have a house project and you hire a developer. They develop the project and do the work. Yes, this might mean they lay bricks, do plumbing, even dig holes, but the person is known as a developer. So, that means the ‘developer’ role in Scrum means a team member who has the right skills, as part of the team to do the work.

The development team should be able to self-organize so they can make decisions to get work done. Think of a development team as similar to a production support team that is called in during the night because something has gone wrong. The development team, like the production support team, can make decisions and deliver the fix/value for the problem at hand. Self-organization isn’t about disrespecting the organization, but rather about empowering the people closest to the work to do what’s needed to solve the problem.

THE ROLES IN SCRUM Read More »