Benchmarking is a valid, powerful and concrete way to compare a new system or process to the current, “as-is” state OR to compare multiple systems in a vendor selection process. To ensure each of those adjectives (valid, powerful and concrete) are met here’s some suggestions: Valid – ensure a level playing field in all systems… [Read more…]
May 17, 2011 by David Kohrell
Time for a little celebration. Today the TAPUniversity blog surpassed 100,000 visits or reads. Over the last two years our blog readership and contributions have grown steadily. Several hundred professionals check in each day and explore over 400 articles and growing. We’ll continue to publish and hope you’ll share in our exploration of the Management… [Read more…]
May 16, 2011 by Adrian Reed (UKAdrianReed)
On medium and large scale projects, requirements management can become a difficult overhead. Teams that rely on spreadsheet and word-processing software to create and manage requirements documents often find it difficult to maintain the traceability and inter-dependencies between requirements. We all know the value of tracing, tracking and maintaining our requirements documents, but until now… [Read more…]
April 29, 2011 by David Kohrell
Business Rules. Universal definitions or process descriptions that transcend a single use case or process flow. A little bit bigger than a glossary definition (such as income range, gender, ethnicity) but not quite a usage scenario in its own right. Business rules as they’re refined, adapted and updated are invaluable requirements assets – they really… [Read more…]
March 31, 2011 by David Kohrell
Focus Groups – the 11th Technique listed in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge employ a skilled facilitator(s) and a small group of prospective or current customers to seek out and understand what the customer or user wants and/or how they use a product or service. The information gathered from a focus group is powerful. … [Read more…]
March 2, 2011 by David Kohrell
Several years ago I shared a series of articles in the Rational Edge for IBM that showcased real life applications of use cases and incremental development. Two of those articles focused on replacing a legacy unemployment insurance system. The entire article provides a much more thorough introduction from that example – so take a quick… [Read more…]
March 1, 2011 by David Kohrell
The whiteboard. The dry eraser. The multi-color pens. The overbearing meeting participant. Those four things often come together when thinking of brainstorming. It’s a technique among multiple management nexus disciplines and at the heart of agile, business analysis and project management. It can produce great results from a team. The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge… [Read more…]
February 25, 2011 by David Kohrell
Chapter Nine of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®), Second Edition provides a concluding overview of thirty-four techinques used throughout business analysis and the six processes defined within the BABOK®). I’ll highlight the most frequently used ones in my career over the next several weeks. If one of the following techniques does not make… [Read more…]
February 21, 2011 by David Kohrell
The tenth anniversary of Agile is upon us. We just concluded a 12 part review of the Agile Manifesto. Agile was a software development out to business, innovation. Or it could have been called “geeks to execs”. Now for a fast forward, to today. Emerging trends and practices include those that fuse business, design and… [Read more…]
February 16, 2011 by David Kohrell
I wanted to share a little milestone. We reached 400 posts yesterday. Our blog is primarily targeted for education, learning and conversation. While we do need some money to keep the lights on, we try to keep the commercial pitches and “monentization” to a minimum. Thank you everyone who has participated, read and engaged with… [Read more…]
February 5, 2011 by David Kohrell
Re·quire·ment n. 1. Something that is required; a necessity. 2. Something obligatory; a prerequisite.¹ Among the twelve principles of Agile, that one that evokes a good amount of debate is changing requirements, even late in development. This contrasts from plan driven approaches to development that “freeze requirements” and lock those in through development and deployment. … [Read more…]
February 3, 2011 by David Kohrell
One of my favorite movie lines is from the Princess Bride. In it the hero is told he must go back to the beginning. When the movie reaches one if its many climaxes – Indigo (hero) exclaims “I am waiting for you, Vizzini. You told me to go back to the beginning. So I have.… [Read more…]
January 31, 2011 by David Kohrell
Various technologies have various levels of media richness. Media richness means communication media have varying capacities for resolving ambiguity, negotiating varying interpretations, and facilitating understanding. Media is said to be very rich when it provides: the availability of instant feedback; the capacity of the medium to transmit multiple cues such as body language, voice tone,… [Read more…]
January 2, 2011 by tapuniversity
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats. About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was… [Read more…]
January 1, 2011 by Adrian Reed (UKAdrianReed)
Asking the right questions and framing problems carefully is an important part of project definition and organizational change. Often organizations frame problems in a way which constricts or constrains potential solutions, and this can lead to a poor outcome or the wrong tactics being employed. Spending time consciously defining a problem can pay dividends in… [Read more…]
December 29, 2010 by David Kohrell
The International Institute of Business Analysis was founded just a few years ago in 2003. In terms of professional associations it’s a new kid on the block. Yet in a short time it’s made a profound impact on the discipline and profession of business analysis. One success factor of The IIBA for making a swift… [Read more…]
December 22, 2010 by David Kohrell
Don’t start from scratch. Reuse and recycle. Learn from others. Those three quick statements for learning apply to risk management. Identifying potential risks, good and bad, can be a cumbersome process. To hasten the process, discover what risk are common for your industry, whether that’s construction, information technology, product development or public power. Use those… [Read more…]
September 30, 2010 by David Kohrell
Risk management weaves through multiple disciplines. Addressing potential future events, both good and bad, is the focus of risk management. There are two primary factors: 1) the probability of that event occurring and 2) the impact of that event occurring. Take those two together (multiply) and a Risk Priority Number can be calculated. For example… [Read more…]
 | Olu Olufowobi on Make-or-Buy Analysis |
 | Arun on Organizational Process As… |
 | Liz F on TAPUniversity’s Online L… |
 | uzair on PERT Sample Questions |
 | Kuan Xin Hen on Green Project Management … |
| 5 Tips for Effective… on Virtual Teams – Swift… | |
| theprojectmanifesto on Green Project Management … |
May 27, 2011 by David Kohrell
0