Exciting news. TAPUniversity has partnered with gnomio to launch its learning management system ahead. Additional must-have features include test bank expansion and knowledge sharing tools. An innovator in online project management training since 2006, this partnership ensures our delivery keeps paced with your learning needs! Just click on the TAPUniversity LMS* on the menu to… [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…]
March 31, 2011 by Michiko Diby
It’s great to learn new models. I LOVE models. I like to think about how they can be applied, and I get excited about both the predictive ability of models and the capacity for goodness that exists when a model is well executed. But I’ve learned that the reality is that you will never be… [Read more…]
March 22, 2011 by David Kohrell
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… [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 17, 2011 by David Kohrell
According to Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan – Execution is the ability to mesh strategy with reality, align people with goals to achieve the promised results. I was looking at an article I wrote a few summers ago about “Execution, the Discipline of Getting Things Done”. I was trying to convey two tangible sets of… [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 15, 2011 by David Kohrell
The last principle of the Agile Manifesto provides for learning and adjustment by the team. This adjustment allows for continuous process improvement. Teams don’t allow themselves to become stagnant or stale – they change and become better. The manifesto doesn’t proscribe how often and allows some leeway. The definition of “at regular intervals” provides sufficient… [Read more…]
February 14, 2011 by Adrian Reed (UKAdrianReed)
Project teams are complex and it’s essential that the team works together productively to achieve the end goal. Every so often, there will be a ‘project maverick’ that upsets the balance. Perhaps they ignore the plan, or escalate an issue straight to the CEO. Mavericks are often seen as a Project Managers worst nightmare, as… [Read more…]
February 14, 2011 by David Kohrell
Agile manifesto – principles number 1 – 10 were ones I could embrace or at least accept. And yes I know it’s your 10th birthday this month. But really, number 11 is a difficult one for this control oriented, project management/ manager type to swallow. You’re saying that self-organizing teams can get it done? Yeah… [Read more…]
February 12, 2011 by David Kohrell
The ninth principle of agile brings in important aspects of enterprise architecture and system design. Technical excellence is a board term. it can be applied to hardware, software, network infrastructure, process management, project management, programming, release management, etc. I also think of enterprise architecture I hear technical excellence. While Agile is change driven, that does… [Read more…]
February 9, 2011 by David Kohrell
Face to face interaction provides for the most effective form of communication. The sixth Agile Manifesto principle advocates face-to-face conversation. A sticking point for adopting Agile is the dominance of virtual teams within an organization and among different organizations (in a vendor – customer relationship or within a supply chain for example). Bringing virtual… [Read more…]
February 8, 2011 by David Kohrell
Is it a radical concept, motivate, support and trust people? No. Not really. The Agile principle of building projects around motivated individuals is clearly a Theory Z , Y or Herzberg management approach — people want to achieve and when they do, advance that performance to even higher levels. It doesn’t fit well with the… [Read more…]
February 7, 2011 by David Kohrell
Unleashing your developer geeks on unsuspecting business people was quite risky in the 1990′s. Why those geeks may be a bit rough, un-kept and may spill the beans (truth). They clearly have not transformed in “McDreamy” yet (Patrick Dempsey). They’re still commuting to work on their lawn mower. Seems a little silly now. The prevailing… [Read more…]
January 27, 2011 by meryljourneybeyond
Part of the project manager’s (PM) role is to delegate tasks to resources to get the work done. Mostly these people report to functional managers, not the PM leading the project. So, what do you do when assigned tasks don’t get done because a resource’s first allegiance is not to the project, but to their… [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…]
March 23, 2010 by tapuniversity
“I know Jack will get that report to me by Friday. He said I’ll have it by Friday, so I’ll have it by Friday—Jack never lets me down. When he says something will get done, I don’t worry about it because I can trust he’ll take care of it” says the project sponsor. “You’re fortunate… [Read more…]
 | Ade on Conflict of Interest–The… |
| Wideband Delphi « TA… on Wideband Delphi | |
 | fahadusmani on To-Complete Performance I… |
 | John on If Santa Thinks Chimneys Quali… |
 | DD on Organizational Process As… |
 | Olu Olufowobi on Make-or-Buy Analysis |
 | Arun on Organizational Process As… |
October 8, 2011 by David Kohrell
1