BRILLIANT IDEA's COLLECTION

MECE - Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive

2012-01-12T21:04:00.000+04:00

Published at: http://www.caseinterview.com/mece

MECE (pronounced "me see") is principle often used by management consulting firms such as McKinsey to describe a way of organizing information that is "Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive".

When considering solving any business problem, such as "What are this company's options for growth?", "How can we cut costs?" or "How can we increase units sold?", the MECE principle suggests that all the possible causes or options to be considered in solving these problems be grouped and categorized in a particular way. Specifically, all the information should be grouped into categories where there is no overlap between categories (mutually exclusive) and all the categories added together covers all possible options (collectively exhaustive).

Here's an example of a grouping structure that is not MECE.

Grouping customers by their hobbies. (It's not MECE because a single individual customer may appear under more than one hobby category).

An alternative that is MECE is to group customers by age group. This is MECE because no one individual can appear in more than one category (hence it is mutually exclusive) and the age groupings taken as a whole cover the entire population (so they are collective exhaustive).

The reason MECE is popular in consulting is it allows consultants to communicate complex information to clients in a way that eliminates confusion and ensures thoroughness.

The MECE principle can be applied to groups of related items (like customers of different age brackets). MECE can also be applied to explain a particular mechanism.

For example, [ Profits = Revenues - Costs ] is a MECE framework. It very simply communicates that to increase profits one of two things must happen. Revenues must increase or costs must decrease. The components of revenues (typically, unit pricing and units sold) do NOT appear in the cost category (and vice versa). This passes the "mutually exclusive" (the ME part of MECE) portion of the test. In addition, if you combine all the factors (both revenues and costs), the combination of all categories full explains the cause of a change in profits. No other factor is missing. Thus this categorization structured is considered "collectively exhaustive" (the CE part of MECE).

You can break down Revenues into its own MECE components with the formula [ Revenues = Price x Units Sold ]. This too is simple enough for most people to understand. By using this approach to break down a financial metric into intuitively easy to grasp components that are also MECE makes it easy to see what operating "levers" you can use to influence the financial metrics you're trying to improve.

The MECE principal can also be applied to conceptual data, not just numerical data.

For example, if a client were to ask, should I enter the XYZ market?

You might say there are two possible factors to consider in analyzing this decision:
1) Financial factors
2) Non-Financial factors

Every possible reason for or against this decision can be grouped into either "financial factors" or "non-financial factors". Largely speaking items that are financial in nature can not appear in the non-financial category (and vice versa). Thus the categorization structure is mutually exclusive. In addition, if you combine ALL the financial AND non-financial factors together, there can be no other reason why entering XYZ market is a good or bad idea. Because all the categories in aggregate cover ALL the possible factors to be considered, it's considered a collectively exhaustive structure. Because this structure is both mutually exclusive, and collectively exhaustive, it's considered MECE.

When you learn to think in a MECE way, you can apply to every decision in your personal life.

For example, how would you structure the following personal decisions in a MECE way?

Should you get married now?
Should you go to Hawaii on your vacation?
Should you attend Harvard or Stanford business schools?

All of the factors to be considered in these decision can be grouped into a MECE structure

The definitive book on this subject is the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto(Disclosure: this is an affiliate link). It's a book that describes an approach to communicating complex ideas in easy to understand ways. It is based on the MECE Principles and was a book often referred to and used by many while I was at McKinsey. (Note: it's a pricey book at $150/copy.)

While I never actually read the book, it was used by everyone every single day that I ended up picking up the principle through my colleagues and later read summary materials used during internal firm trainings.

Here is another example of applying the MECE during case interview practicesessions, see the following article on How to Structure a Case Interview.

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Manage Risk - Techniques

2012-01-05T11:14:00.000+04:00

www.TenStep.com

Understand the Risk Tolerance Level in Your Organization

All projects have risks and the risks have the potential for negatively impacting the project. (I am not referring to opportunity (positive) risk.) You use risk management to determine the risks that are important enough to manage. During the risk identification process, you may encounter many risks that have some likelihood to occur and have a marginal impact to the project. The question to ask is whether the risk has enough impact on the project to worry about (this same question occurs for both qualitative and quantitative approaches). The answer says something about your risk tolerance.

For example, let’s say you identify a risk that is very likely to occur, but has an impact of $100 and one-half day duration. You may choose not to manage it. You cannot list this as an assumption since there is a good chance the risk will occur. However, the impact is small enough that you are willing to absorb the cost if it occurs, rather than deal with managing the risk (which would probably be more costly). Therefore you would choose a risk management strategy of leaving the risk.

In the prior example, the numbers were fairly trivial and the risk was easier to ignore. But, ratchet the impact up a little higher. Let’s say the risk now was $500 and one day duration. What about $100,000 and three months duration? Of course, the answers are all relative based on the size of the project. If your project had a $20,000 budget, a $1,000 risk impact might be worth managing. If your project budget is one million dollars, the risk impact of $1,000 would just be marginal.

When you are performing risk identification, you need to determine your tolerance level for risks. This will help you focus on the risks that are important and above your tolerance level, while ignoring risks where the impact falls below the tolerance level. Risk tolerance is also cultural in your organization. Some organizations are bigger risk-takers and will accept a higher level of risk on projects. They will also tend to have a higher threshold before they chose to manage a risk.

On the other hand, some organizations are more risk-averse. They will tend to accept less risky projects and they will also tend to have a lower threshold to manage risks. For example, let’s say you have a similar project in both organizations. The project managers in these risk-averse organizations will tend to manage risks that a project manager in the other organization might choose to leave.

News from Max Wideman (www.maxwideman.com)

January 2012. We wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas season and let's all hope for a prosperous New Year!

Do your projects suffer from too much information? Then read Michael Feuer's Guest paper Cut the Noise and Cut to the Chase – Seven tips for streamlining communication in your project organization. Are all those "unsuccessfully" projects really failures? How about adopting Tom Mochal's suggestion for Defining Project Success within a Range, as reported in our Musings, with our comments added.

An Overview Of Jobs For Business Analysts

2012-01-05T11:05:00.001+04:00

http://www.business-analysts.org/index.html

The role of business analysts is not restricted to technical aspects; they often play vital roles in marketing and finance as well. There are two ways in which you can work as business analysts, you could either be employed with an organization or you could choose to be an independent contractor. The sector can be divided into four distinct tiers that include:

Strategic planning: Analyzing and providing for the organization's strategic business requirements
Operational Analysis: Defining and analyzing the operational policies and market strategies and approach of an organization.
Process analysis: Modeling of the business process through process design
IT/ Business Systems analysis: Defining the functional requirements of an application and proposing changes to client business processes

What Do Business Analysts Do?

An analyst in a business is expected to analyze and critique the various business functions including finance, marketing, IT etc to improve the productivity and efficiency of an establishment. A professional in this position also helps the company to optimize its day to day operations and evaluate the structure of its business.

Business analysts are generally hired by companies to solve business problems, to streamline their business practices and to gain an edge over their competitors. It is the analyst's job to scrutinize the various operational procedures of the company and find solutions, which will help the company to function efficiently.

In some companies analysts are also expected to focus on the issues concerning the major stakeholders of an organization; they have to routinely write reports with specific recommendations.

Educational Qualifications
and Other Skills Required

You will need a bachelor's degree to get business analysts jobs with a major in industrial engineering, business management, finance or computer science. You should also consider becoming certified. One such certification is the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis from IIBA. Other organizations offer certification, however just make sure that you go to a respected and accredited establishment to earn your credential.

Apart from this, you will also need to have an in depth understanding of organizational skills and superlative interpersonal skills. It would also help to study UML (Unified Modeling Language) which is commonly used in IT.

A Business Analyst's Workday

The workday of business analysts includes the following tasks:

Scheduling clients: Whether you hold a job in an organization or work as an independent contractor, you will need to spend a lot of time talking to the business and IT operations teams. Also, you will need to frequently schedule projects for different clients.

Observation: An analyst spends the majority of his time observing the day to day operations of the various departments. He will spend a lot of time each day observing the requirements of the organization, business process flow, the various systems available to the staff and how these are being used to optimize the workings of a department. Additionally, you may also have to spend a significant amount of time studying the client procedures and policies.

Review and Analysis: The data procured through observation, meetings and discussions is then compiled and analyzed. Also, the analyst will have to review previous reports that help to understand the issues afflicting the day to day operations of the company.

The analysis phase will finally lead to the solution phase wherein the analyst will be expected to provide solutions to streamline the business process.

Preparing Reports: Once the problems have been analyzed and solutions have been devised, an analyst has to put it all down in black and white, in the form of a report. Business analysts will have to provide detailed reports on the various solutions proposed by him and how each of these help to solve a specific problem. Financial estimates will also be part of such reports

Client meetings: Business analysts will also need to spend a considerable amount of time interacting with the internal or external clients.

Listen Without Reacting

2011-12-30T15:31:00.003+04:00

Listening is harder than speaking. Even the best listeners sometimes have to bite their tongues to stop from reacting, interrupting, or trying to console the person talking. Here are three ways you can truly listen:

Avoid distractions. This doesn't just mean putting down the Blackberry or closing your web browser. Try not to think about what you're going to say next. Simply focus on what the other person says.

Repeat back. This sometimes feels silly, but repeating back what you heard shows the other person that you're listening.

Ask thoughtful questions. Ask open-ended questions that help you see the issue more clearly and allow your conversation partner to go deeper into what he cares about.

HBS Management Tip was adapted from "How to Really Listen" by Peter Bregman.

Don't Worry About Your First Job

2011-12-29T20:31:00.000+04:00

Graduates, take note: Few people start their work life in the right place. So don't stress about your first job out of college. Chances are it's not going to predict your future field, income, or career path. Instead of looking for the perfect job, look for these three things:

Opportunities to learn. Whatever job you take, you should acquire new skills and experience.
Enough money. You don't have to be a banker. Waiting tables is perfectly respectable if it affords you the time and flexibility to do what you care about.
Chances to contribute. Everyone wants to feel a sense of purpose. Find a position that allows you to be a force for good. If you can't find a job that fits the bill, volunteer on the side.

Management Tip was adapted from "Your First Job Doesn't (Really) Matter" by Jodi Glickman.

4 Steps to Delivering Helpful Feedback

2011-12-29T13:19:00.001+04:00

Feedback is problematic. Managers often dislike giving it and direct reports rarely get enough to change their behaviors. But feedback, both positive and negative, is an important tool for learning and career growth. Next time you have to talk with someone about their performance, follow these four steps:

Be specific. Feedback needs to be actionable. Use concrete examples to back up your conclusions. Avoid generalized character attacks. Instead, describe the behavior.

State the impact. Tell the person how his behavior is affecting you, the team, or the organization.

Prescribe. Be specific about what needs to change. Often employees won't know what to change unless you tell them.

Do it often. Get in the habit of praising good performance and identifying troublesome behavior.

Today's Management Tip was adapted by HBR from Guide to Giving Effective Feedback.

Develop Strategic Business Units

2011-12-29T10:48:00.000+04:00

By Brian Tracy

The strategic business unit (SBU) concept has revolutionized many multi-product or multi-service businesses. It is a way of thinking that is absolutely vital to business success. It was first developed by the Boston Consulting Group and then used by many Fortune 1000 companies to transform their organizations into more efficient and vastly more profitable companies.

Business Within the Business
Each unit is managed as a separate business, with it's own management structure, strategic plan, business goals, sales and revenue targets, levels of profitability, and key roles and responsibilities of the people within the unit.

The starting point of implementing the SBU method is to make someone specifically responsible for the operations and the results of the unit. A competent person is put completely in charge of attaining a certain level of profitability, exactly as if he or she were being made president of a separate business.

Basic Business Planning
To make the SBU approach work, you begin by drawing up a complete business plan for each unit. Each product or service within the unit must also have a complete business plan that includes estimated sales revenues, costs, and profitability. You then proceed to determine the exact people and resources that will be necessary to achieve the goals of this SBU.

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Make Someone Responsible
The primary reason that a product or service succeeds is that a competent person is completely responsible for it and is totally committed to its success.

A major reason is the failure of any product or service is that the responsibility for its success or failure is spread among several people, and no one is accountable. No person has a meaningful stake in the outcome.

The Cash Cow
The cash cow is defined as an established product or service that sells well and is a net contributor of cash to the business. It is not growing in sales and profitability nor is it declining. It is a mainstay of the company. It is a key to the company's success. At one time it may have been the main product or service of the company, but now it is simply a dependable source of revenue.

Your strategy with your cash cow is to devote sufficient resources and people to them so that their ability to contribute sales and cash to your business extends as long as possible.

Dogs Drag You Down
An essential part of the SBU business plan is to not let the "dog" drag you down. The dog is a product or service that loses money and has no future in the marketplace of today or tomorrow. It seemed like a good idea at the time it was introduced. Sometimes a good deal of emotional investment and capital has been put into this product or service, but it is clear to almost everyone that it has no future.

Action Exercise
Begin today to view each product or service as a separate business, responsible for generating a certain amount of profit each month.

Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent

2011-12-26T17:12:00.001+04:00

+ Follow on Forbes

By: Eric Jackson

Publisher: http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=998904457&ids=cz4RejkRdz0MciMTe3oPe38Qc30Nb34Pd34PcjgVeiMQd3oTe3oPejAIdPkQd30Ve3AV&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-ttl-0&ut=382iw8Mt_0Y501

Whether it’s a high-profile tech company like Yahoo!, or a more established conglomerate like GE or Home Depot, large companies have a hard time keeping their best and brightest in house. Recently, GigaOM discussed the troubles at Yahoo! with a flat stock price, vested options for some of their best people, and the apparent free flow of VC dollars luring away some of their best people to do the start-up thing again.

Yet, Yahoo!, GE, Home Depot, and other large established companies have a tremendous advantage in retaining their top talent and don’t. I’ve seen the good and the bad things that large companies do in relation to talent management. Here’s my Top Ten list of what large companies do to lose their top talent :

1. Big Company Bureaucracy. This is probably the #1 reason we hear after the fact fromdisenchanted employees. However, it’s usually a reason that masks the real reason. No one likes rules that make no sense. But, when top talent is complaining along these lines, it’s usually a sign that they didn’t feel as if they had a say in these rules. They were simply told to follow along and get with the program. No voice in the process and reallytalented people say “check please.”

2. Failing to Find a Project for the Talent that Ignites Their Passion. Big companies have many moving parts — by definition. Therefore, they usually don’t have people going around to their best and brightest asking them if they’re enjoying their current projects or if they want to work on something new that they’re really interested in which would help the company. HR people are usually too busy keeping up with other things to get into this. The bosses are also usually tapped out on time and this becomes a “nice to have” rather than “must have” conversation. However, unless you see it as a “must have,” say adios to some of your best people. Top talent isn’t driven by money and power, but by the opportunity to be a part of something huge, that will change the world, and for which they are really passionate. Big companies usually never spend the time to figure this out with those people.

3. Poor Annual Performance Reviews. You would be amazed at how many companies do not do a very effective job at annual performance reviews. Or, if they have them, they are rushed through, with a form quickly filled out and sent off to HR, and back to real work. The impression this leaves with the employee is that my boss — and, therefore, the company — isn’t really interested in my long-term future here. If you’re talented enough, why stay? This one leads into #4….

4. No Discussion around Career Development. Here’s a secret for most bosses: most employees don’t know what they’ll be doing in 5 years. In our experience, about less than 5% of people could tell you if you asked. However, everyone wants to have a discussion with you about their future. Most bosses never engage with their employees about where they want to go in their careers — even the top talent. This represents a huge opportunity for you and your organization if you do bring it up. Our best clients have separate annual discussions with their employees — apart from their annual or bi-annual performance review meetings — to discuss succession planning or career development. If your best people know that you think there’s a path for them going forward, they’ll be more likely to hang around.

5. Shifting Whims/Strategic Priorities. I applaud companies trying to build an incubator or “brickhouse” around their talent, by giving them new exciting projects to work on. The challenge for most organizations is not setting up a strategic priority, like establishing an incubator, but sticking with it a year or two from now. Top talent hates to be “jerked around.” If you commit to a project that they will be heading up, you’ve got to give them enough opportunity to deliver what they’ve promised.

Some PM humor for you all.

2011-12-25T13:51:00.000+04:00

Collected by:

Justin P. GROUP

Project Manager at Apollo Group

Phoenix, Arizona Area

View profile

1. Any task, no matter how complex, can be estimated accurately, once it's completed.
2. The most valuable, and least used, word in a project manager's vocabulary is "no".
3. Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it.
4. You can bully a project manager into committing to an impossible project completion date, but you cannot bully him into meeting it.
5. Too few people on a project can't solve the problems - too many create more problems than they solve.
6. A change freeze is like the abominable snowman: it is a myth and would anyway melt when heat is applied.
7. A user will tell you anything you ask about, but nothing more.
8. A user is somebody who tells you what they really want the day you give them what they first asked for.
9. The conditions attached to a promise are forgotten, only the promise is remembered.
10. There's never enough time to do it right first time, but there's always enough time to go back and do it again.
11. I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
12. The sooner you rush into coding, the later you finish the project.
13. If project scope is allowed to change freely, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.
14. Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.
15. The person who says it will take the longest and cost the most is the only one with a clue how to do the job.
16. The bitterness of poor product quality lingers long after the celebration of meeting the project date is forgotten.
17. A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
18. What has not been put on paper has not been said.
19. If you fail to plan the project, you are planning to fail the project.
20. The more you plan the project, the luckier you get.
21. If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, you haven't understood the project plan.
22. If you don't attack the project risks, the project risks will attack you.
23. A little bit of project risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning.
24. The sooner you fall behind the project schedule, the more time you have to make it up.
25. When all's said and done, a lot more was said then was done

Managing Business Analysis-as-a-Service (BAaaS)

2011-12-12T14:11:00.000+04:00

By http://www.batimes.com

ROHIT SHAWARIKAR AND ERWIN FIELT ARTICLES

Introduction

Organizations are constantly in need of business analysis (BA) skills that can help them in various business transformation initiatives where information technology plays a major role as driver or enabler. In this article we explain the three trends which will result in a reorganisation amongst the BA communities as well as driving the emergence of new organisation models and business models around BA services.

Business analysis (BA) is defined as the "set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals " (as defined in the IIBA Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® Guide, Version 2.0).

We see Business Analysis as a Service (BAaaS) combining three (potential) trends. First and foremost, BAs are gaining an increasing strategic role, especially within large organizations. Second, increasing service orientation within organizations to offer, deliver and manage its business and IT functions and, finally, the emerging opportunities for CIOs to strategically source operational BA services. In this article we discuss these trends and focus on the emerging BA management models, i.e. how the organization wants the BA services to be arranged internally and sourced externally.

The Three BA Trends

The first trend is that the business analysis discipline is gaining a more strategic role in organisations. BAs act as the focal point for key organisational knowledge about business processes and IT systems. With many CIOs trying to reposition themselves as Business Process Managers rather than just caretakers of the IT Infrastructure, BA capabilities have become vital assets, especially for organisations with complex business processes and broad portfolio of IT applications. Hence, managers are trying to re-position BAs as innovators who can make use of technology to improve business performance, rather than just being involved in traditional software development and infrastructure management activities. As compared to just being translators between business and IT, BAs are now acting as architects of the business. According to a study 56% of Business Architects / Business Consultants are erstwhile BAs .

Based on our interactions with Senior IT executives and Industry Analysts few significant pain points which are hindering effectiveness and efficiency of BAs are:

Lack of analytical frameworks as well as sufficient skill-sets to understand the business needs and turn them into improvement projects. Currently, these projects are usually driven by more technical IT professionals.
With a high BA turnover, (sometimes due to the large number of BAs working as contractors) there is much less bandwidth spent on knowledge building and retention.
Lack of thought leadership and collaboration between the different BAs within an organization as well as between BAs and the other stakeholders

Lack of understanding and usage of the appropriate BA methods and tools and industry best practices.

These deficiencies lead to lower productivity, high cost for projects and sometimes may also lead to lack of motivation amongst the BA staff. They also comes with a very high opportunity costs which organisations have recently started to realise.

Secondly, service orientation is gaining importance in both the internal and external way of thinking about value creation, organizational arrangements, and business-IT alignment.

On one hand, enterprises continuously strive to offer their services in a manner which aligns with satisfying their customer's needs, while on the other hand the internal organisational structures are also evolving in the form of loosely coupled "soup of services" (as compared to traditional 'department' oriented structures) to increase responsiveness, better performance management and increased accountability. Consider this, apart from re-organising services in a more citizen-centric manner, (Service Canada, DirectGov -UK, Smart Services Queensland) governments are also undergoing large scale re-organisations in IT departments (and shared service agencies as a whole). Some time back, a large state government enterprise in Australia began its journey developing a sustainable internal capability development for the provision of BA services to projects and business units. In another case, a large Australian Bank recently formulated its BA practice strategy with an aim to be the "supplier of choice" and a "Centre of Excellence" for its internal customers. Both these cases highlight the degree of service orientation organizations are bringing into their BA management strategy.

The third notable trend is in the area of (global) sourcing. project managers/BA managers are faced with a Hobson's choice of either pursuing the traditional model of high cost contractor -based sourcing of skills, or developing permanent staff. The latter implies loosing flexibility of quickly ramping up and ramping down teams on an ad hoc, need-driven basis. This issue is exacerbated in the case of BAs since most of the BA work happens in-house unlike Design & Development which can be largely outsourced. Hence more and more organisations now want their large IT services vendors to "partner" with them in BA space rather than just providing generic, professional/ augmentation like services. Last year's survey by Mckinsey & Co. on IT outsourcing clearly stated that managed service models lead to higher customer satisfaction, and this is applicable to BA services as well. It is notable that bringing in an external partner also sometimes aids innovation in business processes and technology, since often it is difficult to "insource" innovative thinking.

Emerging Models: BA Services

Deloitte suggests that next wave of competitive advantage will accrue to organizations that can effectively apply the shared model to business advisory services as well4. Now that the worst is behind us in the global financial crisis the leaders look up to build internal capabilities in variety of areas.

We believe that the three trends, illustrated above, and renewed eagerness amongst the leaders to build and nurture internal capabilities will contribute immensely to an increase in shared advisory/shared services group for the BA community. Trends already suggest an increase in service orientation amongst the BA communities, especially the emergence of BA Centres of Excellence (BACoE) in large organisations. Sometimes these capability centers may be termed BA Competency centre, BA Solution centre, BA Shared service centre and so on. These centers are expected to be centralized bodies (physical or a virtual organisation) of professionals with a charter of providing professional BA skills to various internal customers (projects). This group has good subject matter and technology expertise to be able to provide services around Requirements Engineering, Process Management, Data Management, Product Evaluation, Business Case Preparation, Business Architecture and many more. Establishing a central function has in the past helped organisations to foster collaboration and innovation within the BA community.

Our experience suggests that one of the critical success factors for such groups is the amount of "Service Rigor" (service oriented strategies) provided to its customers. However, most of the time, the focus has been just on providing staff trainings, skill assessments, creation of knowledge repositories, methodologies, etc. Often the CoE is too internally focused and reduced to being a collection of repositories on a web-portal or a forum for regular BA meetings.

Figure 2: Illustrative BACoE model with vendor partnership

This also enables the internal capabilities of the CoE for example; trainings, methodologies, tools and templates to be directly aligned, according to the needs and demands of the service provided.

For example, Infosys has been investing in creation of BACoE through a unique partnership model between its Business Units, Education & Research division and their R&D arm SETLabs. Apart from Training, Collaboration and best practices creation, this model has been successfully used to create a suite of BA service offerings for its customers.

When the Infosys BACoE decided to launch its "Requirement Development" service offering it was well supported by the proprietary tool and methodology called "InFlux" for developing use cases. All the BAs involved in provisioning this service to clients were trained experts in this methodology.

Inarguably, having such a service-oriented strategy for internal customers (Business Units) as well as a provider of BA services (IT department) can deliver outcomes that can enhance efficiency, quality and productivity; in IT as well as non IT initiatives. Based on our experience we prescribe the following considerations for the CIOs while creating such a service-oriented structure:

Clearly identify and define the services which are easier to understand, support and deliver. This may sound easy but experience suggests that it is the most challenging task for the BA community
Establish well-defined SLAs with measurable outcomes/deliverables and an overall promise of service. Clearly associate performance measures with each of these identified BA services
Establish a framework to manage a portfolio of these BA services. This includes appointment of Service Managers, Service Performance Management, Periodic Service Upgrades and so on.
Create a well-defined sourcing strategy for these services.

Engaging an IT vendor or a consulting partner, who comes onboard with basic practices, processes and guidelines, can accelerate the development as well as the maturing of such a function. There are many instances where organisations have set up a joint shared services model with their vendors to achieve flexibility, scale and demand of business with good service level performance at a lower total cost. Such partnerships also help to free up in-house BAs, allowing them to focus more on innovation and value creation for the business.

While most of the firms currently operating in the market are either specific tool vendors or BA training providers it is notable that only a few vendors possess the integrated capabilities of providing BA services that provide a strong value preposition across multiple service areas and innovative financial schemes, e.g. outcome based pricing.

Conclusion

Service orientation within BA organisations or in other words Business-Analysis-as-a-Service (BAaaS) presents a lot of promise for the CIOs and senior managers. A well developed model for the BA as a Service that addresses the value proposition, the strategic alignment, the organizational configuration and the financial scheme (revenue, investment, KPI) can works as a catalyst for innovation, enhancing workforce effectiveness and reducing enterprise costs.

References:

Forrester Research - The Up-And-Coming Business Architect by Jeff Scott and Katie Smillie for Enterprise Architecture Professionals
McKinsey Quarterly - How Innovators are changing IT offshoring - Michael Bloch, Dejan Boskovic, and Allen Weinberg
Hewlett Packard - Business Analysis Centre of Excellence: The Cornerstone of Business Transformation by Kathleen B. Hass, With Richard Avery, Terry Longo, and Alice Zavala
Deloitte LLP - Sharing internal expertise making shared advisory capabilities work
Infosys in-house research artifacts.

Don't forget to leave your comments below

Rohit Shawarikar (BE, MBA) is a Consultant with Software Engineering and Technology Labs, Infosys Technologies Limited. He has significant consulting experience across Banking, Telecom and Industrial sectors in the area of IT Requirements Development, Business Process Improvements and Technology Product Implementation initiatives. Rohit is also responsible for evangelizing IP based BA service offerings to customers in Australia Region. He has successfully managed the creation and global roll out of Business Analysis Center of Excellence (BACoE) for Infosys.

Erwin Fielt (MSc, PhD) is a senior researcher at the Information Systems Discipline of Faculty of Science and Technology of the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. In his research, he focuses on the intersection between business and IT, where information systems have to create value for individuals and organizations addressing topics like success, strategy, business models, service-orientation and architecture. Erwin participates as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Business Service Management project of the Smart Services CRC. Within this project, he is responsible for the business model research and he works closely with different industry partners like Queensland Government, Suncorp and Infosys.

Project Organization

2011-12-07T15:40:00.000+04:00

By: www.tenstep.com

The way that the project team is organized is directly related to the way the entire organization is structured. There are three major organization structures to manage work and people.

Functionally Based

In a functional organization, a project team is staffed with people from the same department. All the resources needed for the project team come from the functional organization. For instance, if the project is related to the finance function, the project resources come from the Finance Division. If you need IT, finance and legal resources, they would all be available from within the Finance Division.

A second way that a project is staffed in a functional organization is by executing portions of a project in one functional organization at a time. For example, let’s say that a large project needed resources from the Finance, Purchasing, IT and Manufacturing departments. In a functional organization, the project would be broken down by organizational unit and each unit would do its own part relatively independently. The IT Department would work on its piece. The Finance Department would work on its piece. The Manufacturing and Purchasing Departments would work on its pieces. At the end, all of the independent solutions would be integrated into one final solution.

The biggest advantage of functionally-based projects is that there is usually clear authority, since the project managers tend to also be the functional managers. You also do not need to negotiate with other organizations for resources, since all of the staff needed for your project will come from the same functional organization. Other advantages of this organization are that the team members are usually familiar with each other, since they all work in the same area. The team members also tend to bring applicable business knowledge of the project.

A major disadvantage of the functional organization is that your functional area may not have all of the specialists needed to work on a project. A Finance project with an IT component, for instance, may have difficulty acquiring specialty IT resources such as Database Administrators, since the only people available will work in their own functional department. Another disadvantage is that project team members may have other responsibilities in the functional organization since they may not be needed full-time on a project. They may be assigned to other projects, but it is more typical that they would have operational or support responsibilities that could impact their ability to meet project deadlines.

Project Based

When projects are large enough, it's possible to form functional departments within the project team. This is especially practical when a large program has hundreds of people assigned over a long period of time. Advantages include clear authority, since the project manager is also the functional manager, and a clear focus, since everyone on the team has only the project for his primary responsibility.

One disadvantage is duplication of resources, since scarce resources must be duplicated on different projects. For instance, a large project may have its own Human Resources staff, which could duplicate a central Human Resources Department. There can also be concerns about how to reallocate people and resources when projects are completed. In a functional organization, the people still have jobs within the functional department. In a project-based organization it is not so clear where everyone is reassigned when the project is completed.

Matrix Based

Matrix organizations allow functional departments to focus on their specific business competencies and allow projects to be staffed with specialists from throughout the organization. For instance, accountants may all report to one functional Finance Department, but would be allocated to work on various projects in other departments. A Legal resource might report to the Legal Department, but be assigned to a project in another department that needs legal expertise. It is common for people to report to one person in the functional organization, while working for one or two project managers from other departments.

The main advantage of the matrix organization is the efficient allocation of all resources, especially scarce specialty skills that cannot be fully utilized by only one project. For instance, data modeling specialists may not be utilized full-time on a project, but can be fully leveraged by working on multiple projects. The matrix-based organization is also the most flexible when dealing with changing business needs and priorities.

The main disadvantage is that the reporting relationships are complex. Some people might report to functional manager for whom little work is done, while actually working for one or more project managers. It becomes more important for staff members to develop strong time management skills to ensure that they fulfill the work expectations of multiple managers. This organization also requires communication and cooperation between multiple functional and project managers that all need time from the same resources.

WATERFALL vs. AGILE METHODOLOGY

2011-12-01T16:03:00.000+04:00

By: http://agileintro.wordpress.com

There is no IT meeting that does not talk and debate endlessly about Waterfall vs. Agile development methodologies. Feelings run strong on the subject with many considering Agile ‘so of the moment’, just so right, while Waterfall is thought to be passé! But, before deciding which is more appropriate, it is essentially important to provide a little background on both.
Waterfall
A classically linear and sequential approach to software design and systems development, each waterfall stage is assigned to a separate team to ensure greater project and deadline control, important for on-time project delivery. A linear approach means a stage by stage approach for product building, e.g.
1.      The project team first analyses, then determining and prioritising business requirements / needs.
2.      Next, in the design phase business requirements are translated into IT solutions, and a decision taken about which underlying technology i.e. COBOL, Java or Visual Basic, etc. etc. is to be used.
3.      Once processes are defined and online layouts built, code implementation takes place.
4.      The next stage of data conversion evolves into a fully tested solution for implementation and testing for evaluation by the end-user.
5.      The last and final stage involves evaluation and maintenance, with the latter ensuring everything runs smoothly.
However, in case a glitch should result, changing the software is not only a practical impossibility, but means one has to go right back to the beginning and start developing new code, all over again. That’s Waterfall for you! Now, as for minimal risk Agile, it is a low over-head method that emphasizes values and principles rather than processes. Working in cycles i.e. a week, a month, etc., project priorities are re-evaluated and at the end of each cycle. Four principles that constitute Agile methods are:
1.      The reigning supreme of individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
2.      As does, working software over comprehensive documentation.
3.      Likewise, customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
4.      And again, responding to change over plan follow-throughs.
To synopsise the difference between the two, one can say the classic waterfall method stands for predictability, while Agile methodology spells adaptability. Agile methods are good at reducing overheads, such as, rationale, justification, documentation and meetings, keeping them as low as is possible. And, that is why Agile methods benefit small teams with constantly changing requirements, rather more than larger projects.
Agile, based on empirical rather than defined methods (Waterfall) is all about light maneuverability and sufficiency for facilitating future development. By defined methods what one means is that one plans first and then enforces these plans. However, Agile methods involve planning what one wants and then adapting these plans to the results. Extreme Programming (XP) is an excellent example of Agile methodology i.e.:
1.      Communication between customers and other team members;
2.      Simple, clean designs;
3.      Feedback given on Day 1 of software testing;
4.      Early delivery and implementation of suggested changes.
Agile methodology means cutting down the big picture into puzzle size bits, fitting them together when the time is right e.g. design, coding and testing bits. So, while there are reasons to support both the waterfall and agile methods, however, a closer look clarifies why many software and web design firms make the more appropriate choice of employing Agile methodology. The following table enumerates the raison d’être for choosing Agile methodology over the Waterfall method.

Once a stage is completed in the Waterfall method, there is no going back, since most software designed and implemented under the waterfall method is hard to change according to time and user needs. The problem can only be fixed by going back and designing an entirely new system, a very costly and inefficient method. Whereas, Agile methods adapt to change, as at the end of each stage, the logical programme, designed to cope and adapt to new ideas from the outset, allows changes to be made easily. With Agile, changes can be made if necessary without getting the entire programme rewritten. This approach not only reduces overheads, it also helps in the upgrading of programmes.
Another Agile method advantage is one has a launchable product at the end of each tested stage. This ensures bugs are caught and eliminated in the development cycle, and the product is double tested again after the first bug elimination. This is not possible for the Waterfall method, since the product is tested only at the very end, which means any bugs found results in the entire programme having to be re-written.
Agile’s modular nature means employing better suited object-oriented designs and programmes, which means one always has a working model for timely release even when it does not always entirely match customer specifications. Whereas, there is only one main release in the waterfall method and any problems or delays mean highly dissatisfied customers.
Agile methods allow for specification changes as per end-user’s requirements, spelling customer satisfaction. As already mentioned, this is not possible when the waterfall method is employed, since any changes to be made means the project has to be started all over again.
However, both methods do allow for a sort of departmentalization e.g. in waterfall departmentalization is done at each stage. As for Agile, each coding module can be delegated to separate groups. This allows for several parts of the project to be done at the same time, though departmentalization is more effectively used in Agile methodologies.

In conclusion, though on the plus side, waterfall’s defined stages allow for thorough planning, especially for logical design, implementation and deployment, Agile methodology is a sound choice for software development and web design projects. More and more firms are becoming Agile!

Goals, Strategies and Objectives Explained

2011-11-30T17:20:00.000+04:00

By tenstep.com

The definition of goals, strategies and objectives can be difficult to define. However, through practice and the use of some common definitions, you can start to identify and tell the difference.

Business Goals

TenStep does not use the term “project goals”. Goals are set at the organization level – not the project level. Objectives are at the project level.

Goals are high-level statements that describe what are organization is trying to focus on for the next three to five years. For example an organization goal might be to "increase the overall satisfaction levels for clients calling to the company helpdesk with support needs". Because the goal is at a high-level, it may take more than one project to achieve. In the above example, there may be a technology component to increasing client satisfaction. There may also be new procedures, new training classes, reorganization of the helpdesk department and modification of the company rewards system. It may take many projects over a long period of time to achieve the goal. The goal should reference the business benefit in terms of cost, speed and/or quality. In the prior example, the focus is on quality of service.

If you can measure the achievement of your goal, it is probably written at too low a level and is more of an objective. If your goal is not achievable through any combination of projects, it is probably written at too high a level. In the above example, you could envision one or more projects that could end up achieving a higher level of client satisfaction. A goal statement that says you are trying to achieve a perfect client experience is not possible with any combination of projects. It may instead be a vision statement, which is a higher-level statement showing direction and aspiration, but which may never actually be achieved.

Business Strategies

Business goals tell you what is important. Strategies tell you how you are going to achieve the goals. There may be many ways to achieve your business goals. Your organization’s strategies are a high-level set of directives that articulate how the organization will achieve the goals, and ultimately move toward its long-term vision.

Projects may be authorized that contribute directly to the business goals, or the project may contribute to a strategy. For example, many organizations want to get better at project management. Getting better at project management is not a goal in itself. It is more of a "how" so it better aligns to strategy. Your organization could have a strategy to execute projects more effectively and a project management initiative can align to this strategy.

Project Objectives

Objectives are concrete statements that describe the things the project is trying to achieve. An objective should be written at level that it can be evaluated at the conclusion of a project to see whether it was achieved. A well-worded objective can be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART). SMART is a technique for wording the objective. An objective does not absolutely have to be SMART to be valid.

An example of an objective statement might be to "upgrade the customer service telephone system by December 31 to achieve average client wait times of no more than two minutes".

Note that the objective is much more concrete and specific than the goal statement.
The objective is measurable in terms of the average client wait times the new phone system is trying to achieve.
You can assume that the objective is achievable and realistic.
The objective is time-bound, and should be completed by December 31.

Objectives should refer to the deliverables of the project. In the prior example, the objective refers to the upgrade of the telephone system. If you cannot determine the deliverables that are created to achieve the objective, the objective may be written at too high a level.

Objectives are important because they show an agreement between the project manager and the project sponsor on the main purpose of the project. The objectives should be written in a way that they are understandable by all of the project stakeholders. Objectives are also valuable since they provide alignment to organization goals and strategies. Your organization should not authorize projects that do not tie to goals or strategies

Building Long Term Relationships

2011-11-28T13:36:00.001+04:00

By Brian Tracy

Did you know that building and maintaining long-term selling relationships is the key behavior and skill of the top ten percent of the money earners in sales.
If you could take everything we know about communications, put it all in a large pot, boil it and distill it down into its critical essence, it is about the importance of relationships in successful selling. Building and maintaining long-term selling relationships is the key behavior and skill of the top ten percent of the money earners in sales, in every field, selling every product and service.
The Reason for Success
Most of your success in life will depend on your ability to get along well with other people, and on the quality of your relationships. Psychologist Sidney Jourard, found that 85 percent of a person's happiness in life comes from happy interactions with other people. The reverse holds true as well: 85 percent of a person's unhappiness or problems in life comes from difficulties in getting along with others.
Sell to Lots of People
Anyone can sell to a few people, some of the time. But only the very best human relations experts can sell to a wide variety of people, and sell to them repeatedly. The only way that you can make the kind of big money that you are capable of is by selling more easily, and more often, to the prospects you talk to, and by having those prospects open doors to others through testimonials and referrals. All top salespeople build and maintain high quality business relationships with their customers and sell to them repeatedly year after year.
Decide Emotionally, Justify Logically
We are all sensitive to the quality of our relationships with other people. We are primarily emotional and we make most of our decisions on the basis of how we feel inside. We may carefully consider all of the logical and practical reasons why or why not with regard to buying a product or service, but in the final analysis we tend to go with our gut feeling. We listen to our inner voices. We obey the dictates of our hearts. We buy on the basis of how we feel about the relationship that we have with the other person. Where there is no relationship, there is no sale.
Focus on the Key Variable
Everything that you ever learned of value in the profession of selling, regarding your product or service, or personality, is only helpful to the degree to which it contributes to the building of high quality relationships with customers.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, become a relationship expert in sales. Focus first on the relationship, above all, and the sale will take care of itself.
Second, take care of your relationships once you have built them. Never take them for granted. Tend to them as you would to a flower garden.

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Estimating a Project for Planning Purposes

2011-11-24T14:46:00.000+04:00

www.TenStep.com

When a project or collection of projects is in the idea or concept stage, you want to put together a high-level estimate to see whether or not the project is worth pursuing. You typically do not want to spend too much time working on a detailed estimate at this point, since you do not know if the idea is a worthwhile. Basically, you just want to know the relative magnitude of the effort. While you may be asked to provide a high-level estimate of the cost, the business people are also struggling to try to understand and quantify what the benefits of the project will be.

The most accurate way to estimate the size and cost of a project is usually to build a work breakdown structure and to estimate all of the lowest level individual work components. This is a bottom-up approach. It is also the most time consuming and is not appropriate for the initial estimating that you do early on in the funding and prioritization process.

Instead, you will want to utilize a top-down approach, trying to gain as much estimating confidence as possible while also taking as short a timeframe as practical. Depending on the project, you may find that one or more techniques will work especially well. If you think the effort is large enough to be considered a program (collection of projects) you need to take your best guess at breaking it up into a corresponding set of projects, and then estimate the projects at a high level.

The following are all top-down techniques that should be considered.

Previous History

This is by far the best way to estimate work. If your organization keeps track of actual effort hours from previous projects, you may have information that will help you estimate new work. The characteristics of the prior work, along with the actual effort hours, should be stored in a file/database. You then describe your project in the same terms to see if similar work has been done in the past. If so, then you have a good idea of the effort required to do your work.

Partial Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

In this approach, you would start building a traditional WBS, but you would only take it down one or two levels. At that point you would estimate the different work components, using your best guess, or one of the other estimating techniques listed here.

Analogy

Even if you do not keep actual effort hours from previous projects, you may still be able to leverage previous work. Analogy means that you describe your work and ask your organization whether a similar project has been done in the past. If you find a match, see how many effort hours their project took and use this information for your estimate. (If the organization does not track actual effort hours, find out how many people worked on the project, and for how long, and then adjust the hours as needed.)

Ratio

Ratio is similar to analogy except that you have some basis for comparing work that has similar characteristics, but a larger or smaller scale. For instance, you may find that the effort required to complete a software installation for the Miami office was 500 hours. There are twice as many people in the Chicago office, which leads you to believe it may take 1000 hours there.

Expert Opinion

In many cases you may need to go to an internal or external expert to get help estimating the work. For instance, if this is the first time you have used a new technology, you may need the help of an outside research firm to provide information. Many times these estimates are based on what other companies in the industry are experiencing. You may also have an internal expert who can help. Although this may be the first time you have had to estimate a certain type of project, someone else in your organization may have done it many times.

Parametric Modeling

To use this technique, a pattern must exist in the work so that an estimate of one or more basic components can be used to drive the overall estimate. For instance, if you have to implement a package in 40 branch offices, you could estimate the time and effort required for a typical large, medium, and small office. Then, group your 40 offices into buckets of large, medium, and small. Finally, multiple the sample estimates by the number of offices in each category to create a final estimate.

Estimate in Phases

One of the most difficult aspects of estimating projects is that you do not know exactly what work will be needed in the distant future. To reduce the level of uncertainty, you can break the work into a series of smaller projects and only give an estimate of the most current project, with a very vague estimate for the remaining work. For instance, many times you can provide a high-level estimate for an analysis phase, during which you will gather business requirements. After you have the requirements, then you will be in a position to estimate the rest of the project (or at least the next major phase). At that point, management can again do a cost-benefit calculation to determine if it makes sense to proceed with the rest of the project.

Summary

When you want to do a quick estimate of project cost, you want to use some type of high-level, top-down approach. Depending on the characteristics of the project and the type of information you have available, these approaches can actually be very accurate. Worst case, they should at least give you a decent ballpark estimate. From an expectations standpoint, this type of high-level estimate should be –25% to +75% accurate. That is, if you estimate the cost of the project to be $100,000, you would expect the actual cost to be in the range of $75,000 to $175,000. If your management or customer would like more accuracy than that, they need to give you more time to allow you to uncover more details, or lay the work out at a lower level.www.TenStep.com

Eight Steps to Problem Solving

2011-11-24T11:37:00.000+04:00

By: Brian Tracy

There is a simple eight step method for systematic problem solving. By solving problems in an orderly way, you can dramatically increase the power of your thinking.

Proceed With A Positive Attitude
First, approach the problem with the expectant attitude that there is a logical practical solution just waiting to be found. Be relaxed, calm, confident and clear in your mind.

Second, change your language from negative to positive. Instead of the word "problem," use the word "situation." Problem is a negative word while situation is a neutral word. "We have an interesting situation", is better than, "We have a problem."

Define the Situation Clearly
The third step in systematic problem-solving is to define the situation clearly, in writing. "Exactly what is the situation?" Then ask, "What else is the situation?" Sometimes stating the problem in different words makes it much easier to solve.

Once, when I was working with the Chamber of Commerce, I came to the attention of a senior executive who hired me away from the company I was working for a year later at triple the salary. Meeting people is very important. Network at every opportunity.

Fully 50% of situations can be resolved by accurate definition.

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Identify Causes and Solutions
Step number four is to, ask "What are all the possible causes of this situation?" Failure to identify the causes or reasons for the situation often causes you to have to solve it again and again. Fully 25% or more of situations can be effectively dealt with by discovering the correct causes.

Step number five is to ask, "What are all the possible solutions?" Write out as many solutions or answers to the situation as possible before moving on. The quantity of possible solutions usually determines the quality of the solution chosen.

Clear Decisions Are Key
Step number six is to "Make a clear decision." Usually any decision is better than none.

Step number seven is to "Assign clear responsibility for carrying out the decision and then set a deadline for completion and review." Remember, a decision without a deadline is just a fruitless discussion.

Finally, step number eight is to follow-up, monitor the decision, compare actual results with expected results and then generate new solutions and new courses of action.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two ways you can apply this technique to think more creatively.

First, state the problem clearly, in writing, so that you know exactly what it is that you are trying to solve. Ask, "What else is the problem?"

Second, develop as many solutions as you possibly can, including doing nothing, before you make a decision. Quality of ideas is in direct proportion to the quantity that you generate.

Make Every Minute Count

2011-11-16T14:06:00.002+04:00

By: Brian Tracy
Time management is the central skill of success. Your ability to manage your time, to focus and channel your energies on your highest value tasks, will determine your rewards and your level of accomplishment in life more than any other factor.
Save Hundreds of Hours and Thousands of Dollars in Personal AdvancementYour mind is your most precious asset. You must be continually working to increase the quality of your thinking. One of the best ways is to turn driving time into learning time. Listen to educational CDs or audio cassettes in your car. The average driver, according to the American Automobile Association, drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles each year, spending 500 to 1000 hours that you spend each year in your car. That is the equivalent of 12 1/2 to 25 forty-hour weeks. This is the same as two full university semesters spent behind the wheel of your car each year.
Use Traveling Time as Learning TimeIf you did nothing but use that traveling time as learning time, this decision alone could make you one of the best educated people of your generation. Many people have gone from rags to riches simply by listening to audio programs as they drive to and from work.

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Attend Every SeminarIn addition, for personal and professional development, you should attend every seminar you can. You can often save yourself 100's of hours of reading and researching by attending a seminar given by an authority in his or her field. You can learn ideas, techniques and methods that can save you hours, days, even months of hard work and research on your own.
Increase Your EarningsRemember, to earn more, you must learn more. Your outer world of results will always correspond to your inner world of preparation. Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.
Action ExercisesNow, here are two things you can do to put these ideas to work in your life immediately.

First, purchase an audio program that can help you to be happier and more effective today. Begin listening to it immediately. Resolve never to listen to music in your car when you can turn driving time into learning time.

Second, seek out seminars and training programs given by experts in your field. Sit close to the front, take careful notes, and apply the best ideas that you learn immediately.

Quotes & Sayngs

2011-11-16T12:27:00.000+04:00

http://www.quotesandsayings.com/gsajid.htm

"Tell me whom you love, and I will tell you who you are." Houssaye

Falsehood is never so successful as when she baits her hook
with truth, and no opinions so fastly misled us as those
that are not wholly wrong, as no timepieces so effectually
deceive the wearer as those that are sometimes right.
Colton (1780-1832)

If I have been able to see further than others,
It is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.
Sir Isaac Newton

When man is born, he is tender and weak.
At death, he is stiff and hard.
All things, the grass as well as trees,
are tender and supple while alive.
When dead, they are withered and dried.
Therefore the stiff and hard are companions of death.
The tender and the weak are companions of life.
- Lao-Tzu

The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
William Blake (1757-1828)

To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task. Sophocles (B.C. 495-406)

We are no longer happy as soon as we wish to be happier. Landor

"Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,but for those who love,
time is eternity." Henry Van Dyke

"The saddest words of tongue or pen are the words It might have been."

"If they give you lined paper, write the other way"

"We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.
They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening.
Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them;
nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine
and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true "
Woodrow Wilson

"It's about walls, it's about the walls we build up to protect ourselves,
and trying to create a facade that we think is more interseting than who we really are. And hiding those insecurities."

"~I knew that looking back on the times I've cried, I would laugh,
but I never knew that looking back on the times I've laughed, I would cry~"

"Don't go where the path may lead; go where there is no path and leave a trail."

"A child does not have to be taught how to be happy or the ways of love. It is fear, hatred, & prejudice that have to be taught. And from the condition of the world we can see that unfortunately there are some very good teachers," Javan

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." George Bernard Shaw

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." Helen Keller

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T. S. Eliot

"Among my most prized possessions are the words that I have never spoken." Orson Rega Card

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not."George Bernard Shaw

"Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed." Storm Jameson

"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these." George Washington Carver

"All men and women are born, live suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live." Joseph Epstein

"Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child." Ron Wild
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt

"Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny." Carl Schurz

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear" Ambrose Redmoon

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." Leo Buscaglia

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." Dale Carnegie

"The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." Lao Tzu

"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." Buddha

"Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow--it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it." Shakti Gawain

"i'll be here just waiting for you, i'll be under your stars forever"SP

"Insanity--a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world."
- R.D. Laing
"Often the real test of courage is not to die, but to live." - Vittorio Alfieri

"Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within." - James Baldwin

"The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn." - H.G. Wells

"The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of Divine accident." Sir Hugh Walpoe

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge (Reading this makes me wonder how much sooner man could have walked on the moon...had we listened to a child's fantasies. It is truly a pity that so many lose their gift of imagination to the steady hum of the status quo.) Albert Einstein

I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from Here I can pretend... I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come and Gods go. Mortals Flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend. Olethros in Sandman

Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice, Not something to wish for, but to attain. William Jennings Bryan

Life is just a dream on the way to death. I believe there's a place where the restless souls wander, burdened by the weight of their own sadness. They wait for a chance to set the wrong things right. Only then can they be reunited with the ones they love. Sometimes, a crow shows them the way; because sometimes, love is stronger than death. The Crow, City of Angels

Show me a heart unfettered by foolish dreams And I'll show you a happy man But only in their dreams can man be truly free 'Twas always thus and always thus will be Spoken by John Keating Robbin Williams, Dead Poets Society

When I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream? Descartes

... I don't know. Sometimes it would stop raining long enough for the stars to come out. Then it was nice ... It's like just before tha sun goes to bed down on the bay, those million sparkles on the water ... Like that mountain lake, it was so clear, Jenny, it looked like 2 skies, one on top of the other. And then in the desert when the sun comes up, I couldn't tell where heaven started and the earth begun. It's so beautiful ... Jenny, I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is. Forrest Gump

"There are mysteries about our love. Things that neither one of us may ever understand because love is an emotion without limit and understanding. We know we love each other but we could never explain completely as WHY we love each other. Love is not a clock. You simply cannot take it apart just to see what makes it tick, and even if you could, you probably could never get it back together again." anonymous

We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today. I don't think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great. If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time. Art Buchwald

Love lasts when the relationship comes first.

There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart... pursue those.

Love is friendship set on fire. Jeremy Taylor

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them. Disagree with them. Glorify, or villafy them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. Think Different Apple

The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer. Oliver Wendell Holmes

I wonder how much deeper would the ocean be without sponges

"Life is too important to take seriously." Corky Siegel

"We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another." Luciano de Crescenzo

"Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them." Nathaniel Hawthorne

"...they think that I'm strange... they say that I'm a dreamer... but I don't complain, though I don't have much to call my own. I know a place where I keep the best of things. I'm not gonna wait for my piece of heaven where there's a road, it leads to the promised land. I just turn the key, the key to the kingdom." The Kingdom

"You say that I have no power? Perhaps you speak truly... But you say that Dreams have no power here? Tell me... what power would hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to dream of heaven?" Morpheus in Sandman

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ( Mark Twain)

The day we lose our need for dreams is the day the human race forfeits its soul. (John Chiam)

Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch is, and it darts away. Dorothy Parker

There is a new billboard outside Time Square. It keeps an up-to-minute count of gun-related crimes in New York. Some goofball is going to shoot someone just to see the numbers move. David Letterman

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music. Angela Monet

"Don't walk ahead, I may not follow." "Don't walk behind, I may not lead." "Just walk beside me and be my friend." ---Albert Camus

I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who have not got the guts to bite people themselves. August Strindberg

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I have not lived. --Thoreau-- (also in Dead Poet's Society)

"If you should die before me, ask if you could bring a friend." Stone Temple Pilots

"Don't be dismayed by goodbyes, a farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again is certain for those who are friends." Richard Bach

"Don't cry when the sun is gone because the tears won't let you see the stars." Violeta Parra

"All our young lives we search for someone to love. We chose partners, change partner. . . all the while wondering of there's someone, somewhere who might be searching for us." Kevin, The Wonder Years

"Tomboy - all right, call me a tomboy. Tomboys get medals, tomboys win championships, tomboys can fly. One more thing: tomboys aren?t boys." Even though we said goodbye, remember we watch the same sunset.

"people tell you to be yourself...like youself is some defined thing." mscl

And Pooh gave Christopher Robin the biggest Pooh hug he could give because he knew that goodbyes were not far away*

"False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine but leaving us when we cross into the shade."

If you really love someone write their initials in a circle not a heart because a heart can be broken but a circle goes on forever.

"I could rush and be on time, but I would rather be a few minutes late and enjoy the ride"

"Some people used to believe the Earth was flat. There are some people today whom I'd love to push off the edge, if I could make it look like an accident." Eromon D'Alyzala (b. 1942)

~*Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down*~ -Oprah Winfrey

"Love is friendship set on fire." Jeremy Taylor

"Love lasts when the relationship comes first."

"There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart... pursue those."

"The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer." Oliver Wendell Holmes

"a hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house i lived in, or the kind of car i drove...but the world may be different because i was important in the life of a child"

"When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly." -Patrick Overton

"Every now and then, we find a special friend, who never lets us down, who understands it all, reaches out each time I fall. Youthe best friend that I found. I know you can't stay, but part of you will never ever go away. I'll make a wish for you and hope it will come true; that life will be kind to such a gentle mind. And if you lose your way, think back on yesterday. Remember me this way."--Remember Me This Way

"you are one of the best things that's ever happened to me. you're my love and my best friend. And every day that goes by, it seems like i discover something new about you to love. It's incredible to me how one person can make such a big difference in my life. You touch me in a way no one else ever has and give me so many reasons to smile. I've never been so happy...and ive never been so much in love."

"Too many of us stay walled because we are afraid of being hurt. We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care as much or not at all." --Eleanor Roosevelt DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY:

"I believe in making the world a safe place for our children, but not our children's children, because I don't hink children should be having sex."-Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts

A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. "Hear that?" you say. "That's dynamite, baby."-Jack Handey

I hope if dogs take over the world, and they choose a king, they don't just go by size, because I bet there are some Chihuahuas with some good ideas. (Jack Handey)

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." xxxxx--Aristotle

"When you smiled you had my undevided attention, when you laughed you had my urge to laugh with you, when you cried you had my urge to hold you, when you said that you loved me you had my heart forever."

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another. --James Matthew Barrie

Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough. --William Saroyan

The issue isn't whether you're paranoid, It's whether you're paranoid enough. --Strange Days

Hannibal Lecter: How did you catch me, Will? Will: You had disadvantages. Hannibal Lecter: What disadvantages? WIll: You're insane. --Manhunter

"If I'm not back in five minutes, wait longer." --Ace Ventura, Pet Detective

i'd rather have a moment of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special -steel magnolias

Oh, Veronica Vaughn. Soooo hot. Want to touch the heiney. Billy Madison

"Life Is What You Make Of It, So Live It Up Today, Because Yesterday Has Passed And Tomorrow May Never Come"

"Don't shirk away from challenges... keep reaching for that star, that sky" Rick Moore

"You are all destined for greatness if you wish to achieve it....and I'm countin' on ya" Rick Moore

"The night is my companion...solitude my guide....and I would be the one to hold you down, kiss you so hard, I'll take your breath away...my body aches to breathe your breath, your words keep me alive" Sarah McLachlan

"I love you smile at me, I love the way your hands reach out and hold me near....I believe this is heaven to no one else but me" Sarah McLachlan

"I tell you how I feel but you don't care, I say tell me the truth, but you don't dare, you say love is a hell you cannot bear, and I say gimme mine back and then go there for all I care" Fiona Apple

"Excuse me, think I've mistaken you for somebody else, somebody who gave a damn, somebody more like myself" Jewel

"Remember the good times that we had...we let them slip away from us when things got bad" Sarah McLachlan

"In good times and bad times, I'll be on your side for ever more...thats what friends are for"

"I miss the little things... oh, I miss everything" Sarah McLachlan

"We've gotta start feeding our souls, not our addictions or afflictions of pain to avoid the same questions we must ask ourselves to get any answers" Jewel

"In case you failed to notice, incase you failed to see, this is my heart bleeding before you...this is me down on my knees" Jewel

"These foolish games are tearing me apart,,,and your thoughtless words are breaking my heart" Jewel

"You're stretchin' out your arms to something thats just not there" Tonic

"Im so tired, but I cant sleep...standing on the edge of something much too deep...funny how I feel so much but cannot say a word...we are screaming inside, oh, but we can't be heard...so afraid to love you, more afraid to lose...clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose" Sarah McLachlan

"I wanna be there when I'm outta town and when your whole damn world is crashing down" Blessid Union of Souls

"Cause you don't know what you have 'till your everything is gone" Blessid Union of Souls

"I wanna be there when your nights are long and when you're feeling like you don't belong" Blessid Union of Souls

"And when you're hurtin' baby, so am I and we'll both cry...there's nothing stronger than our love" Blessid Union of Souls

"Hey, little girl, keep dancing...hey, little girl, keep dancing alone...'cause theres not enough time in your life to stay here" Tonic

"If you could only see the way she loves me then maybe you would understand why I feel this way about our love and what I must do...if you could only see how blue her eyes can be when she says...when she says she loves me" Tonic

"It's so safe floating in the glass while above all your troubles pass...just be quiet...they'll all go away" Tonic

"I wish I'd seen you as a little girl, without your armor to fend off the world...I would have kept you underneath my wing...I would protect you from everything" Tonic

"Deep within Im shaken by the violence of existing for only you" Sarah McLachlan

"I know I cant be with you, I do what I have to do... and I have the sense to recognize that I don't know how to let you go" Sarah McLachlan

"Every time Im close to you, there's too much I can's say and you just walk away... I grieve in my condition for I cannot find the words to say I need you so" Sarah McLachlan

"These are the times to remember, they will not last forever. These are the days to hold onto, cuz we won't although we want to" Billy Joel

"What I wouldn't give to find a soulmate....someone else to catch this drift" Alanis Morissette

"All I need now is intellectual intercourse" Alanis Morissette

"We'll love you just the way you are....if you're perfect" Alanis Morissette

"We make up for so much time a little too late" Alanis Morissette

"You're the sweet crusader...you're the last great innocence" Alanis Morissette

"Don't you know you're riding on a carousel that's going nowhere round and round and round...when will it end?" Meril Bainbridge

"Don't ever be afraid to open up your eyes so you can see tomorrow" Meril Bainbridge

"We underestimate the beauty and the power of one" Meril Bainbridge

"You slowly fade and yet still remain as if to say everything matters in such an invisible way" Poe

"Cause it's just another one of his Jedi mind tricks" Poe

"I waited for the light but it never shone" Poe

"And I had a feeling that I belonged, and I had a feeling that I could be someone, be someone, be someone" Tracy Chapman

"We are bound together in our desire to see the world become a place in which our children can grow free and strong. We are bound together by the task that stands before us and the road that lies ahead" James Taylor

"I just told my dreams and you made me see that I could walk into the sun and I could still be me and now I can't deny nothing lasts forever" Darius Rucker

"He wasn't claustrophobic, but he had a logical and healthy fear of being confined in an extremely cramped place ninety feet below the ice, in the Arctic wilderness, while surrounded by fifty-eight enormous packages of explosives that were ticking rapidly toward detonation. He was funny that way." Dean Koontz

"I always knew that looking back on the times I cried, I would laugh, but I never realized that looking back at the times I laughed, I would cry"

"We have your balloons punk!" Dave Letterman

"If you give a smile right now, I'll give you the whole damn world" Leo Roth

"If they give you lined paper, write the other way"

"So take me as I am.....this may mean you'll have to be a stronger man." Meredith Brooks

"Wherever you go, whatever you do...I will be right her waithing for you" Richard Marx

Only as high as I reach can I grow,
Only as far as I seek can I go,
Only as deep as I look can I see,
Only as much as I dream can I be.
Karen Ravn

The Key to Leadership

2011-11-09T19:14:00.001+04:00

By: Brian Tracy

http://www.briantracyintl.com

The Foremost of the Values
Winston Churchill once said, "Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it all others depend." The systematic development of the deep down quality of unflinching courage is one of the fundamental requirements for leadership in any field. Fear, or the lack of courage is more responsible for failure in management, and in life, than any other factor. It is always fear that causes people to hold back, to sell themselves short, to settle for far less than they are capable of!

Eliminate Fear and Doubt
I firmly believe that you can do, have or be far more than you now know if only you could eliminate the fear, doubts and misgivings that consciously and unconsciously interfere with your realizing your full potential.

Unlearn Your Fears
If there is anything positive about fear, it is that all fears are learned, that no one is born with fears, and that having been learned, they can be unlearned. If you want to understand the role of fear in shaping the course of your life, just ask yourself, if you had a magic wand that would absolutely guarantee you success in any one thing you attempted, what goal would you set for yourself.

The Great Question

"What one great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?" If you had no fears at all with regard to money or the criticism of others, what would you do differently? Most people can think of all kinds of changes they would, or could, make in their lives if they had no fears to hold them back.

The Origins of Fear
The development of courage begins with understanding the psychological origins of fear. The newborn child has only two fears; the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears that we experience as adults are learned as we are growing up, primarily as the result of well-meaning but destructive criticism from our parents.

How Fears Develop
When the curious child gets into things and makes a mess, the parent scolds and punishes the child, eventually building up a pattern of fear connected with trying or getting into anything new or different. As adults, we experience this as the fear of failure, the fear of risking, of making a mistake, of losing.

Action Exercises
Here are two steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, imagine that you had no fears at all. What would you set as a goal for yourself if you were guaranteed of success?

Second, decide exactly what you want and then act as if it were impossible to fail. You may be surprised at how successful you are.

How to Build a Positive Relationship with Your Project Sponsor

2011-11-08T10:45:00.000+04:00

http://www.pmi.org/eNews/Post/2011_11-07/Relationship-with-Project-Sponsor.html

16 Votes

One of the most important relationships a project manager can build is the one with the project sponsor and it is one that project managers often find challenging to build and maintain.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge(PMBOK^® Guide)—Fourth Edition states that a project sponsor: “…champions the project. This includes serving as spokesperson to higher levels of management to gather support throughout the organization and promote the benefits that the project will bring... [and] serves as an escalation path.”
According to PMI's 2010 Government Program Management Study, 81 percent of program managers at U.S. government agencies said that strong support from at least one executive-level sponsor had a high impact on project success.
We asked project professionals through Community Post and PMI's Facebook page on ways they foster a positive relationship with their project sponsors. Here is what they said.
Establish Trust
The best way to foster a positive relationship is to establish trust. To achieve trust, you should: communicate openly and honestly, be flexible with change, demonstrate different viable approaches or options to problem resolution and respect commitments and promises.

~Eda Francescangeli, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a project manager for a defense company that services international military programs.

Gain trust through delivering what you promise. If that mission is impossible, I will try my best to show my sponsors the obstacles.

~Hee Ling Sia, ISTQB, PMP, Singapore, a senior manager with a company that provides eGoverment solutions.

Understand Your Sponsor’s Motivations, Expectations and Constraints
In order to establish trust, it is helpful to know why a sponsor does what he or she does, and what sponsors might be unable to do.
When first meeting a sponsor, take an approach similar to a job interview. The project manager should ask the sponsor: “Tell me about you, your vision and goals for the project. How will you measure success for the project? How would you like to communicate? And then, do it, and don’t surprise them.”

~Catherine M. Goodrich, MBA, PMP, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, a senior project manager in the healthcare/IT shared services industry.

There are six things you might consider doing with your project sponsor or boss to understand his or her motivations. They are:

Figure out what’s important to them and drives their success
Talk to them in their language about what’s important to them
Focus on helping them be successful
Connect your project objectives to their objectives
Stay constantly connected to them and keep them up to date
Deliver bad news in person and have a solution to addressing problems

~Jeff Singleton, contributed on PMI’s Facebook page.

Paraphrase, promote and represent sponsors’ expectations, which may not be in written project documents. It is also important to acknowledge their time constraints for participation. Sponsors need to know their roles in the project as well. Ensure your sponsors are gently reminded of their accountability under the project and of the team’s expectation of support from them.

~Henry Hattenrath, Seaford, New York, USA, a senior project manager in the transportation industry.

Keep the Sponsor Updated (Stay Transparent)
In order to support you and your team, a sponsor needs the latest information.
Tell your sponsor what the team is working on for the next two weeks. Ask if you are missing anything. You might send them short and crisp summary emails throughout the week, showing highlights and upcoming risks, if sponsors are okay with this level of communication.

~Danelle Peddell, PMP, London, Ontario, Canada, a senior project manager with an insurance company.

Understand that Sponsors Are Different
Each business sponsor is different; what works to build a relationship with one sponsor, does not necessarily work with another. You have to understand each sponsor’s personality and tailor your communication style accordingly.

~Michael T. Lubragge, PMP, Trevose, Pennsylvania, USA, is the director of PMO, Trevose Center.

Your sponsor works with your team to successfully deliver the project. When you have a good relationship with your sponsor and take care of his or her needs, chances are your needs will be taken care of as well.

New e-Learning Course Focuses on Project Manager — Sponsor Relationship
PMI will introduce a new self-paced e-Learning course in January calledInfluencing Your Project Sponsor. This course will help you learn how to translate “project speak” into concepts that executives will understand. Gain insight on how to nurture relationships with these decision makers—their participation and influence can impact your project’s success.Pre-order this course by 31 December and receive a 25 percent discount. To order, send your name, email address, PMI member ID (if applicable) and course name to professional.development@pmi.org.

Related Reading
Two recent PM Network^® articles discussed the relationship between project managers and sponsors andproject managers and senior executives. PM Network magazine is an important benefit for PMI members!
Start or Join a Discussion:
Join this or other discussions on PMI’s Facebook page.
Start a discussion about this topic or article on your PMI Community of Practice site.

Think Liquid, not Solid, Project Plans

2011-11-08T10:41:00.000+04:00

http://www.pmi.org/eNews/Post/2011_11-07/Next-Level-Up.html

Customer: “How is the project going?”
Project Manager: “Don’t worry, I have a solid plan.”

A detailed plan that's considered solid today may not survive future uncertainty. The customer thinks that the project manager has everything under control and the project will go according to plan. The project manager is confident of the plan, but the rigid plan may blind her or him to recognize a shift in the customer’s needs and the need to adjust the plan.
To deal with this, the ideas of "rolling-wave planning" — detailed planning for the immediate wave and high-level milestone planning for future waves — became popular. Also, practices like iterative planning, progressive elaboration and agile techniques are used more and more.
Although these techniques can help, a fundamental shift from a “solid” to a “liquid” approach can set the stage for a more effective collaboration between a customer and a project manager.
This is important because it sets the stakeholder’s expectation for project variation and helps project managers by preparing them to withstand unforeseen changes and adjusting plans accordingly instead of proceeding with a false sense of comfort.
Here are ideas on how to complement your project plan with the idea of liquid planning:
Recognize the reality of plans
Project plans are based on the understanding of current assumptions and objectives, which are bound to change. Rarely do projects go exactly according to plan.
Working without a plan is not wise, but following a plan that has no relationship to reality is foolish. Recognize how solid plans can become blinders that limit your options. Learn to develop flexible plans with multiple perspectives and options that are enabling and not constricting.
Practice real-time planning
A pilot flying a plane with a clear objective starts with a flight plan, but has to constantly re-plan in real-time based on weather conditions and wind patterns to reach his destination. Similarly, successful project managers start with a plan, but manage and adjust the project in real-time based on unfolding reality on the ground.
Sense-Respond-Adjust-Adapt
Real-time planning can be enhanced by cultivating skills to sense, respond, adjust and adapt. Sensing skills help you develop acute awareness and vigilance to anticipate unexpected changes and respond accordingly. Adaptation helps you to quickly adjust to new realities and alter the plan to accommodate the changes.
Use the appropriate communication approach to set the right expectations
In the above scenario, instead of saying, “I have a solid plan,” the project manager should communicate that the current plan is based on certain assumptions and validate them. Show the impact of changes in assumptions. Collaborate with the customer to identify and anticipate emergent needs, concerns and possible adjustments. Provide a range of estimates, rather than fixed numbers. List the impact of anticipated risks and issues.
Successful project managers start with a good plan, but never get too comfortable with that plan. They understand the liquid nature of projects and are constantly planning and adjusting to the dynamic and changing reality.
Mr. Duggal is the managing principal of Projectize Group LLC, specializing in next generation training, consulting and tools. He is a keynote speaker and a PMI SeminarsWorld^® leader, for Building a Next Generation PMO and Portfolio Management seminar. He works with leading companies worldwide. For questions, comments or your feedback, please contact Mr. Duggal.
Check out the new Next Level Up seminar in PMI’s SeminarsWorld program.

How to Conduct a (PDSA) Change Cycle

2011-10-31T20:29:00.000+04:00

http://www.advancingrecovery.net/Content/ContentPage.aspx?NID=122

What is a change exercise, and why do it?

A change exercise is a quick, effective way to make changes addressing issues you discovered during your walk-through. The NIATx change model relies on the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle to turn a change idea into action. The value of the PDSA model is that it is simple in structure and natural in execution. It represents the natural flow of information gathering, decision-making, action, and assessment involved in a wide range of actions. It uses a series of short rapid cycles, with each cycle from planning through implementation taking only a couple of weeks. The results of each change cycle are compared to pre-test measurements to ensure that the change is actually an improvement. Only when the change cycle results in a significant improvement in the existing process is the change fully implemented.
By testing changes this way, you: 1) minimize risks and expenditures of time and money, 2) make changes in a way that is less disruptive to clients and staff, 3) reduce resistance to change by starting on a small scale, and 4) learn from the ideas that work, as well as from those that do not. Thus, by starting with small changes to test ideas quickly and easily, and using simple measurements to monitor the effect of changes over time, the PDSA model can lead to larger improvements through successive quick cycles of change.

Steps for conducting a change exercise

1. First, answer these three questions: 1) What are we trying to accomplish? 2) How will we know if a change is an improvement? and 3) What changes can we test that may result in an improvement?

These questions are meant to ensure you've identified a promising change, one that can address an issue important to your organization. Think about how you will know if a change really is an improvement. What will the results be? Decreased waiting times for clients? Fewer no-show appointments? Always make sure you design the change so that you can test these improvement measures by analyzing data you collect before, during, and after the change. For instance, monitor how long it takes for an average client to be admitted before and after the change, or record no-shows in a before-and-after, or control group, scenario. The four steps to take before starting the change are:

Collect baseline data for the indicator you wish to improve (e.g., your current no-show rates).
Determine the target population and location for the change(s) (e.g., new IOP clients).
Establish a clear aim (e.g., reduce no-show rates for IOP assessment appointments).
Select a Change Leader and team responsible for developing and implementing change ideas.

2. Then, PLAN the Change

The purpose of the PLAN step is to identify the aim of the change, and predict which results will make the change a real improvement. In this stage you should consider what steps you need to take to prepare what needs to be improved. Why is this important to clients, staff, and the agency? Who needs to be involved? When do various actions need to happen? Remember to use what you learned in your walk-through exercise to guide your change plans.

3. DO the Plan

The purpose of the DO step is experimentation. Try the change for a short period of time (e.g., two weeks) and in a limited area (e.g., for a few patients). In this step, you should document any problems and unexpected observations, as well as analyze the data you are collecting on the change. Remember to only change one thing at a time, so you can track the data associated with the change and determine which change is actually making an impact.

4. STUDY the Results

In the STUDY step, you should complete the analysis of your data, comparing your predicted results with your actual results. In this step, you should summarize what you have learned. Ask: What worked well and what did not? Did the change result in an improvement? Why or why not?

5. ACT on the new knowledge

In the ACT step, use the results of the STUDY stage to decide on your next steps. Was the change beneficial to clients, staff and/or the organization? Should the change be increased in scope or tested under different conditions? Should the change be adopted, adapted, or abandoned? What will be the next cycle?

6. REPEAT

Consider what barriers you faced, what you would do differently in the future, and what went well and should be repeated. Begin a new cycle, adapting the change as needed, in order to make it a real improvement. Your changes should stay true to the Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle, or PDSA Cycle.

Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Change Cycle Example

Aim: Reduce New Client No-Shows

Cycle 1

Plan: Decide to discontinue agency's procedure of giving prospective clients assessment appointments.
Do: Tell all prospective clients to either come in at 7:30 a.m. next day, or at their convenience.
Study: Evaluate the change. An example: We find that this change resulted in more clients coming in immediately, and did not result in long waiting lines. The staff could revise their workloads to do more flexible tasks (such as paperwork).
Act: The change did not work perfectly the first time. So in the spirit of improvement, we initiated a new change cycle.

Cycle 2

Plan: Decide to continue not assigning prospective clients assessment appointments.
Do: Assign managers to work alongside intake and assessment staff to personally experience and solve problems that staff encounter.
Study: Evaluate the change: We find that the percentage of clients who show for assessments increases from 25 percent to 65 percent. In addition, the percentage that continues from assessment to treatment increases from 19 percent to 52 percent.
Act: The change is then fully implemented. The improvement benefited clients, who could come in right away; staff, who didn't have as many unexpected no-shows; and the agency, which increased its number of billable hours.

CLICK HERE to get a PDF version of how to conduct a change exercise using PDSA Cycles.

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2011-10-26T00:57:00.002+04:00

Taking the PMP Exam - Appendix B - Contract Types

2011-10-26T00:54:00.000+04:00

Publisher: http://zo-d.com/blog/archives/taking-the-pmp-exam/taking-the-pmp-exam-appendix-b-contract-types.html

Understanding the type of contract you are working under or to use on your project is one of the more important elements of Project Management. After all, the contract sets the scope and compensation and what could be more essential than that? However, different circumstances require different types of contracts. The different types of contracts allow more or less flexibility, and allocate different amounts of risk to the contractor and owner.

There is usually a cost associated with assuming risk, so contracts where the contractor bears most of the risk typically cost more. However, in some cases the contractor may be better able to mitigate the risk than the owner so having the contractor assume that risk may be more economical. It all depends on what the goals of both parties are. So here are some of the most common types of contracts and a brief definition of the contract type.

Fixed Price (FP or FFP - "firm fixed price") also called "Lump Sum"

The simplest type of contract. The owner specifies the work and the contractor gives a price. In this case the contractor assumes almost all of the risk and as a result reaps whatever profit there is. Fixed price contracts are often used in governmental contracting as they give an easy way to compare competitive bids and to budget for the work as all the uncertainty in actual price becomes the responsibility of the contractor. On the other hand, this may not be the cheapest way to get the work done. A side effect of the fixed price contract is the Change Order which modifies the initial contract for unforeseen conditions and changes. Some contractors are highly skilled at generating change orders which can boost profits on the job. In some cases change orders can equal the size of the original contract. Litigation is often more expensive than construction, so arbitration and settlement are typical in these cases.

Time and Materials (T&M)

Simple billing at pre-negotiated rates for labor and materials on a project. Some Fixed Price contracts specify this as a method for determining costs of change orders. Labor rates include a certain percentage markup for overhead. In this arrangement all risk goes to the owner.

Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF or sometimes just Cost Plus)

Also fairly simple. This type of contract shifts most of the risk to the owner, but also allows the owner a high degree of flexibility. The contractor under this form of contract has profit at risk and will seek to minimize cost/duration to return a higher proportional profit margin. This type of contract is more common on projects which have high amounts of risk and uncertainty which would scare contractors into giving impossibly high bids, or where the owner just needs resources to work on a project.

The "fixed fee" is typically a percentage of estimated costs and the contractor is reimbursed for other allowable costs. The difference between CPFF and CPPC is that for fixed fee, the total amount of the fee is decided in advance based on estimates.

Cost Plus Percentage of Costs (CPPC)

This is very similar to the cost plus fixed fee contract except that the contractor bears even less risk. Their fee is calculated based on a percentage of actual costs. It is generally believed that having a fee at risk is a motivating factor for contractors, so this approach is not allowed for federal government contracts (though there may be loopholes...?) It is very similar to T&M. Good work if you can get it.

Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF)

This type of contract uses an incentive fee for motivating better performance than you would get with percentage or fixed fee. In addition to a fee, an incentive is paid for beating a schedule or cost target. Like having the fee at risk, is intended to motivate the contractor to minimize costs and duration. Determining the appropriate incentive is one difficulty, another is that once the target has been missed, the incentive is no longer a motivating factor. Often the incentive fee is calculated as a percentage of savings and is shared by the owner and the contractor. The flip-side of incentive fees are liquidated damages.

Liquidated Damages

While not really a contract type, Liquidated Damages are often part of Fixed Price contracts. They are the opposite of an incentive payment and are payments made by the contractor to the owner for failing to perform to a target date. The name liquidated damages comes from the practice of determining a pre-agreed monetary (thus liquidated) cost for damages to the owner's operations. For example, late completion of a new production facility may cost the owner additional costs to keep an aging and inefficient facility running, or the presence of the contractor may impair the owner's profitable use of a facility. Rather than determining these costs at the end of the contract, the costs are negotiated at the beginning and are usually quite large. This serves to motivate the contractor and gives the contractor the cost information needed to accurately determine the best course of action. It is intended to reduce the costs of litigation. Liquidated damages may apply to the contract as a whole or to smaller elements of it. For example, on a contract where a road is being resurfaced during nighttime hours, failing to have it back in operation by a certain time each day may be cause for liquidated damages.

Fixed Price Incentive Fee (FPIF)

Similar to Fixed Price but with an incentive fee. Motivation to perform is the reason.

So those are the most common contract types. Of course a contract can take any form that two parties can agree too (and which is not prohibited by law) so hybrids of these forms are possible. For the PMP Exam knowing the common types is probably the most important thing. Contract evolution beyond Time and Materials is all about how risk is allocated to the different parties and how to motivate one party or the other to act in a certain manner. For the most part you do get what you pay for... or conversely, you don't get what you don't pay for.

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Posted on February 5, 2007 10:25 AM | Permalink

Taking the PMP Exam - Part 12 - The PMP Examination Specification

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Taking the PMP Exam - Part 6 - Downloading the PMBOK

Taking the PMP Exam N*ked - Part 0

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New Fields in Microsoft Project 2010

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The Cashmere Bikini

The Practice of Discipline

2011-10-25T10:34:00.002+04:00

By: Brian Tracy

http://www.briantracyintl.com

Discipline yourself to do what you know you need to do to be the very best in your field. Perhaps the best definition of self discipline is this: "Self discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."

It is easy to do something when you feel like it. It's when you don't feel like it and you force yourself to do it anyway that you move your life and career onto the fast track.

What decisions do you need to make today in order to start moving toward the top of your field? Whatever it is, either to get in or get out, make a decision today and then get started. This single act alone can change the whole direction of your life.

Seven Steps to Success
There is a powerful seven step formula that you can use to set and achieve your goals for the rest of your life. Every single successful person uses this formula or some variation of this formula to achieve vastly more than the average person. And so can you. Here it is:

Decide What You Want
Step number one, decide exactly what it is you want in each part of your life. Become a "meaningful specific" rather than a "wandering generality."

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Write it Down
Second, write it down, clearly and in detail. Always think on paper. A goal that is not in writing is not a goal at all. It is merely a wish and it has no energy behind it.

Set A Deadline
Third, set a deadline for your goal. A deadline acts as a "forcing system" in your subconscious mind. It motivates you to do the things necessary to make your goal come true. If it is a big enough goal, set sub-deadlines as well. Don't leave this to chance.

Make A List
Fourth, make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. When you think of new tasks and activities, write them on your list until your list is complete.

Organize Your List
Fifth, organize your list into a plan. Decide what you will have to do first and what you will have to do second. Decide what is more important and what is less important. And then write out your plan on paper, the same way you would develop a blueprint to build your dream house.

Take Action
The sixth step is for you to take action on your plan. Do something. Do anything. But get busy. Get going.

Do Something Every Day
Do something every single day that moves you in the direction of your most important goal at the moment. Develop the discipline of doing something 365 days each year that is moving you forward. You will be absolutely astonished at how much you accomplish when you utilize this formula in your life every single day.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put these ideas into action immediately.

First, decide exactly what you want, write it down with a deadline, make a plan and take action - on at least one goal - today!

Second, determine the price you will have to pay to achieve this goal and then get busy paying that price - whatever it is.

Six Steps to Effective Delegation

2011-10-24T17:19:00.000+04:00

By Brian Tracy
http://www.briantracyintl.com

To delegate effectively in your work with others, there are six steps that you can take. If you neglect any one of these steps, you run the risk of miscommunication, misunderstanding, demoralization, and poor performance.

Step 1: Match the Person to the Job
One of the great time wasters in the world of work is delegating the task to the wrong person. Often the task is delegated to a person who is not capable of doing it properly or getting it done on schedule.

Step 2: Agree on what is to be done
Once you have selected the right person for the job, take the time to discuss the job with the person and agree upon what must be done. The more time you talk to discuss and agree upon the end result or objective-the more effort you make to achieve absolute clarity-the faster the job will be done once the person starts on it.

Step 3: Explain how the Job Should Be Done
Explain to the person your preferred approach or method of working. Explain how you would like to see the job done, and how you or someone else has done it successfully in the past.

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Step 4: Have Your Employee Repeat Back Instructions
Ask the person to feed your instructions back to you in her own words. Have him or her explain to you what you have just explained and agreed upon. This is the only way that you can be sure that the other person actually understands the job or assignment he or she has been delegated to accomplish.

Step 5: Set a Deadline
Set a deadline and schedule for completion of the task. At the same time, arrange for regular reporting and periodic inspection. Invite feedback and questions if there are any delays or problems.

Step 6: Manage by Exception
Managing by exception is a powerful time management tool that you use to work more efficiently with other people. If the job is on track and on schedule, managing by exception means that the person does not have to report back to you. If you don't hear from him, you can assume that everything is going well. The individual only has to report back to you when an exception occurs and there is a problem with getting the job done on time, to the agreed upon level of quality.

Action Exercise
Sit down with your staff members and explain to them exactly why they are on the payroll and what their highest value tasks are.

PMI Earned Value Management Terms and Formulas

2011-10-20T11:58:00.000+04:00

By: http://www.anticlue.net/archives/000772.htm

Earned Value Management is a way to measure a project's performance against the project baseline. An earned value analysis can clue the project manager into trending deviations from the project's cost and schedule plans. Earned Value Management integrates cost, time, and scope completed. It is very useful in forecasting future performance.

The Terminology

Acronym	Term	Description
PV	Planned Value	PV is the authorized budget assigned to the scheduled work to be accomplished for a scheduled activity or work breakdown structure component.
EV	Earned Value	EV is the value of completed work expressed in terms of the approved budget assigned to that work for a scheduled activity or work breakdown structure component. The cumulative EV is the sum of the approved budgets for activities completed during a given period.
AC	Actual Cost	AC is the total costs incurred and recorded in accomplishing work performed during a given time period for a scheduled activity or work breakdown structure component. Actual cost can sometimes be direct labor hours alone; direct costs alone; or all costs, including indirect costs
BAC	Budget at Completion	BAC is the total amount of funds to be spent at the completion of the task.
EAC	Estimate at Completion	EAC is used by project managers to give their best estimate of the total costs of projects based on actual costs to date. The most frequently used formula for EAC is AC plus ETC; this formula is typically used when previous assumptions regarding costs are wrong.
ETC	Estimate to Complete	ETC is the expected cost needed to complete all the remaining work for a scheduled activity, a group of activities, or the project. ETC helps project managers predict what the final cost of the project will be upon completion.
VAC	Variance at Completion	VAC forecasts the difference between the Budget-at-Completion and the expected total costs to be accrued over the life of the project based on current trends.

The Formulas

Acronym	Term	Formula	Description
CV	Cost Variance	CV = EV - AC	CV provides the cost performance of the project to help determine whether the project is proceeding as planned. Subtracting AC from EV calculates the cost variance.
SV	Schedule Variance	SV = EV - PV	SV indicates the project's schedule performance. This value can indicate whether the project work is proceeding as planned. Calculate the SV by subtracting the PV from the EV.
CPI	Cost Performance Index	CPI = EV / AC	For the CPI of individual budgets, divide EV by AC. For a cumulative CPI, divide the sum of all EV budgets by the sum of all ACs. A CPI of less than one indicates that the project is over budget, and a CPI of over one indicates that the project is coming in under the estimated budget.
SPI	Schedule Performance Index	SPI = EV / PV	Project managers can use the SPI to help predict when their projects will be completed. To calculate the SPI, divide EV by PV. An SPI of one indicates the project is on schedule; greater than one indicates it is ahead of schedule; and less than one indicates it is behind schedule.
EAC	Estimate at Completion	EAC = BAC / CPI EAC = AC + ETC EAC = AC + (BAC - EV)	EAC is used by project managers to give their best estimate of the total costs of projects based on actual costs to date. The most frequently used formula for EAC is AC plus ETC; this formula is typically used when previous assumptions regarding costs are wrong.
ETC	Estimate to Complete	ETC = EAC - AC	ETC is the expected cost needed to complete all the remaining work for a scheduled activity, a group of activities, or the project. ETC helps project managers predict what the final cost of the project will be upon completion.
VAC	Variance at Completion	VAC = BAC - EAC	VAC forecasts the difference between the Budget-at-Completion and the expected total costs to be accrued over the life of the project based on current trends.
CPI^c	Cumulative Cost Performance Index	CPI^c = Σ EV / Σ AC	Cumulative CPI Method forecasts the total amount to be spent by adding costs incurred to date to the remaining work to be earned, which has been weighted against the current CPI performance value. Starts from the 20 percent completion point.

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BRILLIANT IDEA's COLLECTION

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http://www.advancingrecovery.net/Content/ContentPage.aspx?NID=122

What is a change exercise, and why do it?

Steps for conducting a change exercise

1. First, answer these three questions: 1) What are we trying to accomplish? 2) How will we know if a change is an improvement? and 3) What changes can we test that may result in an improvement?

2. Then, PLAN the Change

3. DO the Plan

4. STUDY the Results

5. ACT on the new knowledge

6. REPEAT

Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Change Cycle Example

Aim: Reduce New Client No-Shows

Cycle 1

Cycle 2

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Exam Prep for PMBOK 4

Most Popular Content

Taking the PMP Exam - Appendix B - Contract Types

Fixed Price (FP or FFP - "firm fixed price") also called "Lump Sum"

Time and Materials (T&M)

Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF or sometimes just Cost Plus)

Cost Plus Percentage of Costs (CPPC)

Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF)

Liquidated Damages

Fixed Price Incentive Fee (FPIF)

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The Practice of Discipline

Six Steps to Effective Delegation

PMI Earned Value Management Terms and Formulas

The Terminology

The Formulas

Educational Qualifications
and Other Skills Required