One a hundred problem tracking tools and a personal favorite - BUGZILLA!

Problems, issues, bugs, defects, action items, punch list, clean up tables – so many synonymous terms for the same underlying concept – tracking known “stuff” and making sure it gets resolved before a product or service is released.   While risk management concerns the known- unknown, management reserves address unknown  -unknown, problem tracking is smack dab in the middle of the here and now.  It’s real!

As there are multiple ways to describe it, there are also dozens of tools to track it.  Over the course of my delivery I’ve used Defect Tracker, Bugzilla, RUP, Spreadsheets (Lotus, Quattro Pro, Excel), Public Folders (Microsoft), Silk, Mercury Tester, Sharepoint, Quick Place and large flowing legal pads with a thing called a pencil.

While using those tools I’ve found a few simple tips help to keep my and my team’s attention focused.  I use the term “AIR”.  It helps breath some fresh air across this stuff and make sure the mildew does not mire your project down!

1. Create a category for Action Items (issues or problems that have been assigned to a single person with a specific date)
2. Create a category for Issues / Problems (issues or problems that are known and may transcend your current project or change order)
3. Create a category for Risks (issues or problems that have not yet occurred but you’ve deemed may occur).
4. For Action Items and Issues / Problems assign an impact rating if it is not addressed.  The probability is equal to “1″ since it’s a known.  The decision support is how much that issue will impact your project.  Higher impact issues rise up in their priority for fast assignment to an Action Item
5. Keep the AIR up-to-date with any project scheduling tools you might use (Project, Clarity, etc) – a project schedule is a collection of Action Items (aka tasks).
6. Review the most pressing, the top 10 action items, issues/problems and risks with your team regularly.  That could mean reviewing those once a week or, if you’re in the midst of an Extreme Programming or SCRUM or similar Agile approach, every day.
7. Use this to help guide your product and service launches.  Transfer any lingering problems/issues to the operational support team.

Related articles

• Considering a new keyword for Bugzilla (whereswalden.com)
• Project Health Check : 5 serious project warning signs (tapuniversity.com)
• Business Analysis Technique #26 – Scenarios and Use Cases (tapuniversity.com)
• How to Find Where New Process is Really Needed (tapuniversity.com)
• 22 Free Tools for Data Visualization and Analysis (pcworld.com)
• Business Analysis Technique #32 SWOT Analysis (tapuniversity.com)

Social Networking - what has the world gone to?

SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) is a venerable mainstay of management and MBA
curriculum.  While it’s typically applied at the organization level for strategic management, SWOT analysis can be a helpful technique for understanding the business perspective for a set of requirements or a project. It’s described in 9.32 of the BABOK™

A SWOT analysis also can be a wonderful technique to use to cultivate a group conversation – whether it’s with a laptop and projector, flip charts, dry-erase board or post-it notes – it’s a quick way to focus a group’s attention.

Here’s a sample SWOT analysis for Facebook.  Let me know what you think, agree or disagree?

Related articles

• A SWOT Analysis for Social Media in Libraries | Online | Find Articles at BNET (findarticles.com)
• SOAR, Don’t SWOT! (canyoulead.wordpress.com)
• SWOT analysis (tobysba.wordpress.com)

Kudos to Learning Tree for a very cool CBAP display!

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 impact has been embracing other best practice association’s bodies of knowledge (BOKs).  The primary body of knowledge that The IIBA and its Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®) reference is the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®).  That, in our opinion, is a good thing.  As best practices, BOKs, standards are established, allied or “nexus” organizations do well to embrace those competencies and not re-invent the wheel.

Risk assessment and management is an example of the BABOK®’s inclusion of the PMBOK®.  The full definition of it is in the Technique Chapters (Section 9.24.5).  Much of it repeats verbatim from the PMBOK®’s risk identification and management chapter/knowledge area (Chapter 11).  That definition provides one addition to the PMBOK® – specifically the further elaboration of risk tolerance.  Three categories of risk tolerance are provided:

• Risk-Aversion
• Neutrality and
• Risk-Seeking

Those tolerances may be applied to people or organizations.  Understanding the risk tolerance of either people or organization guides the building of risk management approaches for enterprise analysis, requirements management and organizational readiness (for solution implementation).   For example a risk averse organization typically does not embrace leading edge technologies.  Business Analysts in those organizations may want to opt for incremental improvement with proven technologies or approaches.

Related Articles

• Risk from a Business Analysis Perspective (tapuniversity.com)
• Risk Management Approaches (tapuniversity.com)
• Risk Priority Number (RPN) (tapuniversity.com)
• Business Analysis Techniques: 72 Essential Tools for Success (deurainfosec.com)
• January 25, 2011 Risk Management: Protecting Your Business and Profits (learnedatscore.wordpress.com)

Ah yes, the joy of a test!

The User Stories technique is one of 34 techniques described in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®). Business Analysts may use this technique to get a general understanding of the functionality that stakeholders want in a solution and why this functionality is important. User Stories are a brief, textual description that consists of three things: an Actor, Description, and Benefit. The Actor represents the stakeholders who will benefit from the described functionality. The Description is a high-level explanation of the desired functionality; and the Benefit is the business value that the desired functionality will deliver.

Here’s an example of a User Story: “the five of us in the testing department are tired of scoring tests by hand. If we had software that could score the tests, it would save us a lot of time and it would be more accurate.” The Actor is “the five of us in the testing department,” the Description is “software that could score the tests,” and the Benefit is “save us a lot of time and it would be more accurate.”

There are strict guidelines on who is eligible to take the CBAP exam, as it is meant for experienced business analysts. When applying for the exam, 7,500 hours (about 5 years) of business analysis work must be documented within the last ten years. For at least four of the six business analysis knowledge areas, 900 hours (about 6 months) of work experience must be documented. Additionally, candidates must have at least a high school education, 21 hours of professional development in the last four years, and two references.

More about earning the CBAP certification can be found in the official PDF handbook: http://www.theiiba.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Certification/Process/IIBA_CBAP_Handbook22Jun09.pdf.

Cover via Amazon

Greetings.

From David Kohrell (aka CoachDaveK)

As of July 21, 2009, there are 124 core descriptions of project management.  We’ve indexed over 500 core learning objects across business analysis, human resource management, information technology, project management and quality management  disciplines.  A good number of those objects cross over those disciplines – for example group formation and development (forming, storming, norming, performing and reforming).

To help your understanding and mastery of those objects, over the last six months I’ve been researching the  impact of physical, spiritual and mental performance on each other. The gate swings all ways.  There’s some solid, reliable research out there to back it up.  Call it the body, spirit and mind game.   My interest is twofold:

• from our work to help professionals achieve certification results as efficiently as possible and
• my passion for exercise – primarily in triathlons, marathons and quests to reach milestones in each.

Exam Day

What started as “ten things to do before your PMP exam” five years ago has grown into a deeper passion of mine.  In looking at 9 certification exam experiences of mine since 2000, I did very well on 8 and so/so on 1.   One of the factors on the so/so one in 2004 was taking exam after a period of 2 weeks of semi activity and on depleted resources (lack of sleep, stress and poor nutrition).

Before my most recent exam (CBAP – certified business analyst professional –  in April of 2008) I purposely ran two miles (7 minute pace) , 30 minutes prior to the exam.  I had a good overall aerobic and anaerobic exercise week (30 mile running week and 3 strength training sessions).  I felt pumped, though sweaty.  Pity my fellow exam takers .  My pulse was moderate through the experience – not spiking up. I got up twice to grab some water and finished the exam rather fast.  Now, my mental preparation wasn’t necessarily text book – I crammed during a 6 hour lay over at the St Louis airport.  Granted I had been immersed in the BA jargon for 15 years –still not the ideal prep.

So what?  We coach and recommend that exam takers get up and move around during an exam.  Prior to entering the exam we recommend aerobic exercise commensurate with the exam takers current level of fitness. It helps the different pieces and parts of the brain.    It will not replace adequate preparation!  It does help you reach the optimum mental state.

Day to Day Performance

I’ll share more on later blogs in terms of how it does that.  The essence of it is that we’re wired to move; as we move our brain thinks and learns better; as we move we also touch a spiritual pulse inside and the spirit and mind also propel our body to move.  The three are connected.

To complete this first “exermindspir” blog – I want to share two links to one of the works I’ve studied from Dr. John Ratey’s “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.”  Take a peek and let me know what you think!

http://brainsciencpodcast.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/brain-science-podcast-33-exercise-and-the-brain/

The CBAP exam will be based on the BABOK® (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge) version 2.0 beginning August 1. The BABOK change from version 1.62 to version 2.0 has been dramatic. Information has been deleted, added, re-named, and re-arranged. The earlier version was basically an incomplete draft, and the current version is much better edited. If you plan on taking the 1.62 version exam, you only have 3 more weeks to do so.

Because there are so many different types of products and perspectives, there are many different ways that products can be analyzed. One of these methods is product breakdown which analyzes the components of the product. For example, does the container of weed killer have the correct percentages of each chemical? The method of systems engineering begins early in the process with designing and making the product to meet customer needs. The value analysis method examines the relationship of cost and quality. How much more will customers pay for luggage that lasts fifty years than low-quality luggage that will need to be replaced after several trips? Other methods that the PMBOK® mentions are: systems analysis, requirements analysis, and value engineering.

Product Analysis is also a technique within the BABOK® an is a hallmark of business analysis activity.