• How do we ensure that we develop and deliver successful products by the end of our projects?

• Does our methodology allow us to accurately capture requirements and effectively manage the project against those requirements?

• How can we deploy projects more quickly, avoiding overruns and poor performance, and for better value, lower cost and better functionality?

• Where can we build greater flexibility in our policies and procedures? What kind of project thresholds may add value in our environment (example: if the project is under $250,000 it is not subject to the same rules and restrictions as a $1 million project)?

To get to a good user story, the following template was suggested:

AS A ___________ (leads you to think from a user perspective, identify multiple user profiles, etc.)
I WANT TO ___________ (leads to the required functionality)
SO THAT __________ (leads to the business value, desired outcome)

NEXT, layer this user story with specific ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA (the acronym SMART or INVEST may ring a bell). The acceptance criteria guide development, unit testing and writing of detailed use cases as well as test cases.

Illustrating this point with a simplified example from an actual project -
AS A story editor
I WANT TO be able to quickly search through multiple stories and filter them based on whether they are published, in-progress, internal documents, part of my contents or part of my workgroups
SO THAT I can focus more time on editing and reviewing the story rather than locating it

AC-1: Search results should load within 5 seconds
AC-2: Should be able to select multiple filters, example – published and my contents
AC-3: Search and Filters should be easily accessible as options from any screen on the application
AC-4…etc…

This approach communicates the big picture and acceptance criteria which may prove useful when working with virtual teams. However, writing these stories is only the starting point in requirements capture, and can be fairly time consuming depending on the needs of a project. It is even more helpful if you start assigning story points but talking about that would take this blog entry on a tangent, hence shutting up now…

Training Offered By: Danube Technologies (now CollabNet, Inc.)
Instructor: Lyssa Adkins

Scrum Training Review - February 2010

Click here for a more detailed review of this training course with Lyssa Adkins

In April 2010, I attended the full two day training. This training was better than the one I attended in February, but I still have open questions on how to effectively implement scrum in certain environments. The detailed review here lists few open questions.

Training Offered By: Danube Technologies (now CollabNet, Inc.)
Instructor: Tamara Sulaiman

Scrum Training Review - April 2010

Click here for a more detailed review of this training course with Tamara Sulaiman

If you are looking for more than basic framework knowledge, take a course with one of the pioneers of scrum instead of going through software vendors that provide training services. I haven’t attended a course with other trainers, but based on discussions with several scrum masters, some good trainers to consider are: Jeff Sutherland, Sanjiv Augustine, Alistair Cockburn, Ken Schwaber, Mike Cohn, Esther Derby, Michele Sliger.

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

When I first attended the scrum master course in February 2010, I could not attend the second day because of a snow storm. So I re-attended the two day training in April 2010. Overall, this training session was better than the one I attended in February. The instructor’s approach made a big difference (although the breakfast was a huge disappointment). The instructor started with a quick pulse on the attendees’ familiarity with scrum, effectively tying that to expectations one should have from the course (i.e. the course’s focus is on the basics of everything scrum, so don’t expect to get a solution to your complex scenarios).

The instructor did not spend time on evangelizing scrum or belittling waterfall and other methodologies. I particularly liked the instructor’s approach of using scrum to teach scrum. The instructor had prepared a product backlog of items that the team needed to get through in two days of training. She had assigned story points to each item, and moved stories from In-Progress to Done as we went through them. She even tracked work done and work left on a burn-down chart. For those who had never used scrum, this mode of teaching made it easier to see scrum in application. For those who had used scrum, it helped to see scrum functioning in a different setting.

The instructor had also set up a group exercise in which each team had to build a game using the fundamentals of scrum. This exercise was effective in experiencing firsthand the responsibilities of the product owner and scrum master. It also helped to create user stories, assign story points, play planning poker, assign priorities, track work on burn down charts, conduct product demos – all in actual time boxes as part of the game creation exercise. However, as beneficial as this exercise was, it also detracted attention from more pressing discussions. It would have helped to de-scope this exercise and simplify the goal so teams could see the same benefits in less time.

In conclusion, while I left more satisfied with the tips and tools picked up in these two days of training, I still had the same outstanding concerns as earlier – how to make scrum implementations work productively in matrix organizations where shared resources and distributed teams are the norm? How to get scrum masters to efficiently lead multiple scrum teams? How to measure effectiveness of scrum methods and performance of scrum masters?

Related Posts

• A detailed review of a scrum master course (Through CollabNet with Lyssa Adkins in February 2010)
• A summarized review of two scrum master courses: (1) With Lyssa Adkins in February 2010 and (2) With Tamara Sulaiman in April 2010

Summarizing Observations

Scrum Training Review - April 2010

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

In February 2010 I attended a scrum training class as I was keen to learn some new tricks and get the scrum master certification. While I certainly picked up at least two valuable exercises to use in my client engagements in just one day, a fair portion of the training was below satisfactory. I have been a scrum practitioner for almost five years, so maybe some of the material and insights were very rudimentary. Regardless of my level of familiarity with scrum, the training felt lacking in actionable insights that one could take back to the work place.

At times, it seemed as if some attendees were perceiving scrum to be less adaptive as the instructor often stressed the need to implement all of scrum’s rules for it to be effective. Many people were in this course because they believed in scrum’s merits and wanted to understand how to make it work in their environment. If the instructor did not spend so much energy on evangelizing scrum over alternate methodologies, but more energy on sharing lessons learned and actionable insights from implementing scrum in various organizations, the training would have been much more valuable.

For instance, the instructor mentioned that scrum is highly effective (optimal) only when fully functional teams are face-to-face. She highlighted that anything else is a coping strategy that will lead to minor benefits. Instead, it would have helped if she dived into some of the challenges of implementing scrum on a globally diversified team. With the increase in outsourcing and globalization, it’s not always viable to collocate one’s entire team. Even if scrum implementations will be sub-optimal for such teams, what can they do to get maximum value from scrum?

Another statement the instructor made was “A good scrum master can be the leader of three teams; a great scrum master can be the leader of one team”. In today’s lean and mean economy very few companies, if any, can afford the luxury of having one person dedicated to leading one project. Leading several projects, juggling multiple priorities and wearing many hats is a given. So instead of rejecting this view, it would have helped to understand what are some strategies scrum masters can build into their approach to be super stars even while managing multiple teams.

Because of a snow storm, I only attended day one of the two day training. While attending both days may have led to more advanced insights, my day-1 experience was below expectations.

Related Posts

• A detailed review of a scrum master course (Through CollabNet with Tamara Sulaiman in April 2010)
• A summarized review of two scrum master courses: (1) With Lyssa Adkins in February 2010 and (2) With Tamara Sulaiman in April 2010

Summarizing Observations

Scrum Training Review - February 2010

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

Have you ever been in meetings that you came out of and said “That was total BS”? Ever wondered why you couldn’t say that during those meetings instead of after?

Think about your team and organization’s culture. Try to promote an environment of openness and collaboration. It is important that the project manager be the agent that fosters strong team spirit across departments, functional units and geographies. While you may not always have the authority to influence an enterprise wide culture shift, you could start with your project team…

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

She said that good, experienced PMs soon develop a knack for realizing which aspects of a project plan are important or relevant to the project at hand. For example, not all projects need detailed communication plans, stakeholder registers or extremely detailed project schedules. To manage one’s workload efficiently it is important for the PM to realize what applies and adds value to the project, and produce those components of the plan accordingly.

It is a simple thought but often overlooked. Click here to read a related post on what we identified as core things to look for in a basic project schedule

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

Use Microblogging to Increase Productivity by Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd at Harvard Business Review Blogs

Redefining Project Success by Kailash Awati at Eight to Late

The Absolute Worst Way To Plan A Project by Glen B. Alleman at Herding Cats

ITIL®: A Project Manager’s Perspective by Erika Flora at pmstudent

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

1. Have adequate coverage of all activities and milestones critical to the project (see note below regarding what level to track at)
2. For each activity, clearly capture estimated duration and effort. In this organization getting an accurate indication of effort was quite challenging, so duration was used more often. While this presents some resource management challenges, it was an acceptable approach given the realities of the organization.
3. It is also important to indicate the dependencies / predecessors so all activities and milestones are clearly linked to each other. This not only makes it easier to administer changes to the plan but also to assess impact of any slippage very quickly.
4. For all activities identify the resource accountable for the activity’s completion. Dependent on how you do this, and how you set up other linkages in the MS Project file, assigning resources can also help you in estimating costs, in preparing budgets and in resource leveling.

One can do a lot more with MS Project, but we identified these as the most basic requirements given the organization’s and the project team’s needs.

Another important point underlying all this was the level at which to track activities in the project schedule. This depends on the needs of the project – some projects warrant detailed task level tracking, while for others, tracking by deliverables/milestones works just as well. The level at which you track is also a function of which methodology your organization is using as the rules of the game may differ. Although, the gist of it stays the same – what needs to be done, how long will it take, what are the dependencies, who is accountable.

Related posts that you might want to browse through -

• Managing Projects – by tasks or by deliverables and milestones

• Relevance as a skill for PMs

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

If anyone’s attended any of L2′s (Luxury Lab) events before, please share your thoughts.

Click here for more info on the conference

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

Have you ever thought that things would improve if only you could change something in your organization but you did not know where or how to get started? Here’s the tip: Think, if you were to get fired, what would your replacement do? Would he or she run things the same way, or would they immediately change something and how would they go about it?

Perhaps this simple question will give you the drive you need to actually execute the change. Go for it – be the change agent your organization needs!

Also, I am planning to attend another exciting event soon! Click here to read more about it…!

Click the image to read about some of the speakers at this upcoming event -

The complete list of speakers at the event -

• DOUG AKIN Chief Engagement Officer, Mr Youth
• KRYSTAL BALL Congressional Candidate
• MATTHEW BISHOP New York Bureau Chief, The Economist
• JANE BUCKINGHAM Founder, Trendera
• JARED COHEN U.S. State Department, Project Lead: ‘Text Haiti to 90999′
• CINDY GALLOP Founder & CEO, IfWeRanTheWorld
• SCOTT GALLOWAY Founder, L2
• BEN KAUFMAN Entreprenuer-in-Chief, Quirky.com
• STERLING LANIER President, Chatter
• LAURA McEWEN Publisher, TeenVogue
• DR. JAY PARKINSON Founder, HelloHealth
• ERIN SCHRODE Founder, Teens Turning Green
• GREG SHOVE CEO, Halogen Network
• ADAM WALDEN General Manager, Noise Marketing
• ANDREW WAGNER Editor in Chief, ReadyMade
• MARK ZANDI Chief Economist, Moody’s Analytics

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

There are many vendors and consultants who are anxious to get your money in return for PDUs! During one of the chapter meetings, I got impressed by one consultant’s speech, and agreed to pay him $25 for 12 PDUs worth of webinars during the year 2009. Needless to say, I got my money’s worth – the webinars were sporadic and the content well below the mark. I didn’t hear much from the consultant throughout 2009 once I paid the fee, but as 2010 started, he reached out again to promote a new round of webinars for 2010 touting the success of last year’s webinars. These claims were baseless as I had firsthand experience of the areas where the consultant had seriously fallen short. At $25 to $200 per person, such efforts to impart knowledge in exchange for PDUs are an unfortunate attempt to take advantage of the naive. Often the goal is to rake in cash from anxious PDU-hungry candidates.

It is understandable that newly certified project managers or those nearing the end of their certification cycle might feel pressurized to collect PDUs, especially given the ever-expanding suite of certifications and PDU requirements. As you commence your search for avenues to collect PDUs, don’t fret – three years is more than enough time and there are plenty of options. There are many credible sources out there – most of which offer very valuable insight on various aspects of project management and give PDUs for no fees or are worthy of the fees they charge. In this post I’ll highlight a few cost-free avenues to pursue and also simplify some of PMI’s PDU reporting category codes. Please chime in with your experiences.

The International Institute of Learning, Inc. (IIL) posts quite a few webinars for free at  http://www2.iil.com/iilwebinars.net/ Dr. Harold Kerzner (Ph.D., MS, Engineering and MBA) is the Senior Executive Director at IIL and a globally recognized expert on project, program and portfolio management. Some of his speeches are not just educational but also very inspirational. Check out your options on the IIL site before you hand over your money to a consultant or another vendor.

Also look into PMI’s available resources. Some useful links are the PMI Career Development Center http://www.pmi.org/CareerDevelopment/Pages/Training-Intro.aspx or the list of local chapters  http://www.pmi.org/GetInvolved/Pages/PMI-Chapters.aspx. Did you know you can get up to 15 PDUs as author or co-author for every article/white paper that gets accepted in a non-referred journal? There are word limits and other qualitative requirements, but if you have good ideas that you want to share with the world, publish a white paper or collaborate with another writer. If you enjoy public speaking, reach out to the local PMI chapters or other organizations to find out if you can present on something that interests them. You can get PDUs for speaking engagements under categories 2C, 2D and 2E.

Some of the easiest ways to earn PDUs often get buried in PMI’s verbiage. If you are an active full-time project manager, you should be able to claim 15 PDUs per certification cycle just for your work without doing anything extra. You can claim 5 PDUs for 6 months of service under the 2H category. Another often neglected category is self-directed learning. You can claim up to 15 PDUs under the category 2-SDL for the time you spend researching, reading and discussing about project management. These two categories alone can get you to the halfway mark without you having to spend an extra dime or do anything out of the ordinary.

You can claim even more PDUs if you are a committee member or an officer of a PMO (categories 5A, 5B) or if you have helped institute best practices or learning programs at your work place (category 2G). Let’s say you download a project management podcast from a source that isn’t a PMI registered education provider (REP) – you can still claim PDUs for time spent listening to that podcast under category 4 (Other Provider). So stop before you pay others for PDUs only because you think it is economical and easier to do so.

However, in conclusion, if you do decide to pay independent consultants or vendors for PDUs, at least seek out the good reputable ones. To that end, do your homework. Ask around to see if others have had a positive experience with this person or company. Linked-In is a great place to post a question and get feedback. Check out the person or company’s web-site to see if it is easy to navigate and professional or a haphazard effort to just throw something together. If there is a blog linked to the site, read some of the blog’s content to assess the quality of the instructional material so you know what to expect. Ask such service providers to give you a sneak peek into their services for no cost so you can gauge if the material interests you. In short, pay for content, not just for PDUs.

Rest assured, collecting PDUs is easier than you think. Otherwise I would not have collected 60 PDUs in a little over a year without even realizing when I got to 60. In recent weeks, I noticed many posts asking people to pay for webinars and collect PDUs, so just wanted to share my experience and highlight some resources available to us as project managers.

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

The three posts are -

• A detailed review of a scrum master course (Through CollabNet with Tamara Sulaiman in April 2010)
• A detailed review of a scrum master course (Through CollabNet with Lyssa Adkins in February 2010)
• A summarized review of two scrum master courses: (1) With Lyssa Adkins in February 2010 and (2) With Tamara Sulaiman in April 2010

In February 2010 I attended a Scrum training course in NYC. Because of a snow storm, I only attended the first day of the two day training. While attending both days may have led to more advanced insights, my day-1 experience was below my expectations.

Training Offered By: Danube Technologies (now CollabNet, Inc.)
Instructor: Lyssa Adkins

Scrum Training Review - February 2010

Click here for a more detailed review of this training course with Lyssa Adkins

In April 2010, I attended the full two day training. While the training was better than the one I attended in February, I still have open questions on how to effectively implement scrum in certain environments.

Training Offered By: Danube Technologies (now CollabNet, Inc.)
Instructor: Tamara Sulaiman

Scrum Training Review - April 2010

Click here for a more detailed review of this training course with Tamara Sulaiman

In conclusion, if you are looking for more than basic framework knowledge, try to attend a scrum master course with thought leaders on the subject instead of software vendors that provide training services. Some trainers to consider are: Jeff Sutherland, Sanjiv Augustine, Alistair Cockburn, Ken Schwaber, Mike Cohn, Esther Derby, Michele Sliger.

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

So, why mention version 1.0 software releases and how they relate to a project manager or to a project management organization (PMO)?

Well, version 1.0 releases generally require the project manager to tweak their normal project management approach and build more flexibility in almost all facets of the project. They require the project manager to wear multiple hats – often taking part in requirements capture, user interface design, market studies, application testing, training and other duties that might otherwise be deemed to be beyond day-to-day project management activities.

From a PMO’s perspective, the PMO leader should guide project managers in these areas as necessary. The PMO leader should also realize that the needs of such projects are different, and ensure that the PMO’s own processes do not stifle progress on the project.  Some areas to be conscious of in this regard are -

• a PMO that establishes a hard stance on no scope changes – requirements will shift constantly on 1.0 releases, so at times, scope will change too. The key is to re-prioritize what can be delivered in the software’s first release given all project constraints, and embrace the highest priority must-have changes.
• a PMO that has rigid processes around how and when code updates move through various environments (such as development, integration, quality assurance / testing, staging, production, disaster recovery) – it is understandable for organizations to have strict controls on what gets implemented in their staging, production or disaster recovery environments. However, IMO, it helps maintain momentum if code is allowed to move quickly from development to integration to quality assurance environments. This could be set up as an exception to the norm, only applicable for certain such projects.
• a PMO leader may need to provide additional coaching – for reasons mentioned earlier in this post a PMO leader may need to spend more time with project managers coaching them in areas outside their domain. Simple endeavors such as value stream mapping, building flowcharts and workflows, using dashboards with critical metrics to measure and communicate progress, and various other techniques mentioned in several project management publications can be very effective in building team morale, creating a common vision and balancing expectations, especially when uncertainty runs high prior to a software application’s first release!

In fact, balancing expectations is so crucial that its worth highlighting a few points on it. Depending on the nature of the project, you might have a sponsor that constantly micro manages every aspect of the project, or one that just wanted the finished goods yesterday.  In 9 out of 10 cases, I have observed that software applications in their first release or initial rounds of major cutting edge technological upgrades tend to be pretty close to a sponsor’s heart. It is important for the project manager to realize these situations, as they demand extra facilitation and frequent expectation reseting, whether it be in terms of budget, timeline or resources.

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)

• SDLC Project MGMT background
• At least 5 years of experience
• Excellent communication skills
• Business Analysis
• Plus would be Insurance or Reinsurance knowledge

This is a 9 month contract and for immediate consideration.

Notes (+ next steps):
- Send an email with your resume to varunpoddar@poddarco.com
- This is not a job posting to work with PoddarCo; it has been posted on behalf of a recruiting company.  So please save job-related questions for the recruiter. A member of our team will forward your email to the recruiting company that owns the job posting. You will be copied on the email forwarded to the recruiter.
- To ensure the most recent and perhaps active job postings get prompt attention, only responses within 30 days of the posting date will be forwarded.

(On the homepage, click speech bubble next to the title to leave comments. On the post page, scroll down.)