From the Co-publisher's Desk— Judy Umlas
“May your irreverent tongue stay firmly planted in your irreverent cheek! The usually stiff PMI crowd needs all the giggles it can get!” That was one of the encouraging responses I received to my question to all of you last month. I had tried, for a few paragraphs at least, to write more formally than I usually do, since I sometimes feel that in this exalted position of Co-Publisher of a global newsletter reaching 40,000 people in 90 countries, a bit of elevated and businesslike prose is appropriate. But Bradley Hunt, PMP from San Antonio, Texas, as well as others, assured me that I should continue to write as I do, which is often not knowing what I will be saying next, until I see it!
In any event, thanks for the license you have given me to continue to be myself! I welcome all of you to do the same, since ultimately we are all people first. So, people, how are you doing? I hope you are all stretching and growing and trying new things. I know I am, and scary as it is to do this at times, it is very rewarding. For example, tomorrow (as I write this), I am holding my first official book signing at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Nanuet, New York for the recently published book I wrote, The Power of Acknowledgment. Wow! What fun. I also promised any of you who submit an article for publication in allPM.com that we do publish, you will get an autographed copy of the book. So keep those articles coming. Please write to me at judy.umlas@allpm.com and tell me what you are doing to stretch and grow and try new things. I would love to hear about them – no kidding!
Speaking of positive things, all PM’s are familiar with the traditional triple constraints: scope, cost and schedule; and, the later additional constraints of meet or exceed stakeholders’ expectations and meet both the defined and undefined stakeholder requirements. This requires not only strong technical and project management skills. It requires advanced skills in people management.
But, according to Jocelyn Davis of the Positive Workplace Alliance, projects don’t fail because of failures in planning and scheduling. Projects fail because of human factors failures. But do we know what really creates a positive workplace?
Join us next month for the launch of the NEXT GENERATION PM, a new monthly column we are trying out, bringing practical applications to help you create, and sustain, global competitive advantage for your project and organization. Please let us know how you like it.
This month we are excited to have as our theme the various areas where the activities of the project manager and the business analyst intersect. Just as a construction project manager works with an architect at the beginning of a project, so does a project manager in a business-related project often work with a business analyst.
Following the success of the Project Management Institute (PMI®), the PM Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification, the business analyst community now has its organization, the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA™), the Business Analyst Body of Knowledge (BABOK™), and its newly created Certified Business Analyst Professional certification (CBAP™).
We thought this has been a very important development, so we are pleased to offer four great, informative articles on this theme by Greta Blash, PMP, Steve Blais PMP (he wrote two) and Frank Saladis, PMP, plus our daily tips on our home page that change every business day. Please take advantage of all of this useful information. We also have articles on Effective Leadership in Project Management by (you guessed it) Frank P. Saladis, And stay tuned for Frank’s upcoming book on Positive Leadership in Project Management, due out in the Fall of 2007. We have a Communications Toolbox™ column by guest writer Nick Kob on Effective Conversation (we seem to be focused on effectiveness this month) and a new column by Dr. Harry Rever, PMP called “Ask Harry!” It begins with questions that he has really been asked about PM and Six Sigma in his classes, and he will start taking your questions immediately as well. We will publish the best and most interesting of these. Please write to him at harry.rever@allpm.com. We have another Risk Doctor article by “Doc” David Hillson and an article by an allPM.com member (you get an autographed copy of my book, Dave Jennings!) on strategic retreats and how to make the most of them. Our company is having one next month, so I hope to pass on Dave’s words of wisdom.
So my friends and colleagues, I hope that whatever season you are in, you are growing and blooming with opportunities and newly acquired talents and skills. I hope allPM.com is the water that nourishes you and keeps you growing! And don’t forget to keep in touch and give us feedback on this issue of allPM Today. Or else I will get cranky! Please drop me a line: judy.umlas@allpm.com.
Until the next time….
Judy Umlas
From the Co-publisher's Desk - Frank P. Saladis, PMP
 The International Institute of Business Analysis defines the role of the Business Analyst as follows: “A business analyst works as a liaison among stakeholders in order to elicit, analyze, communicate, and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies, and information systems. The business analyst understands business problems and opportunities in the context of requirements and recommends solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.”
Sounds like a pretty important assignment. I think we can derive from the job title alone that the business analyst is expected to possess a very broad knowledge of their particular business, that includes the integration of systems and the inner workings of the organization, and have the ability to determine what is actually needed from the input of many stakeholders to achieve success. The BA job is quite challenging and, I am sure to some extent, unappreciated. The business analyst job requires a unique skill set that includes expertise in modeling and mapping of processes, determining what is and what will be, a knowledge of project management (The PMBOK ® Guide or Prince 2), knowledge of project management software and tools such as Visio Professional or other modeling and graphics packages, Information Technology, the limitations of existing and new systems, determining relevance of stated requirements to the project scope, determining feasibility of a stated requirement and above all the ability to communicate effectively with a very wide variety of stakeholders.
Terms such as Use Case, Entity Relationship Diagram, Systems Development Life Cycle, and object oriented analysis are a major part of the BA vocabulary and they are expected to explain these terms and their associated functions and purpose to their project teams and stakeholders. They must then manage through the requirements process to identify what the client or end user actually needs in terms of features and functionality and turn those needs into clearly defined requirements.
The BA role is central, if not key, to project success. You can find the business analyst at the very beginning of a project, well before the project is chartered, and then in the critical stage or phase of requirements definition. As Steve Blais points out in his article Casing Out The Problem, the BA’s first allegiance is to the organization or the business. They need to know what the problem is that the organization is attempting to solve or the specific goals of a project. The challenge is to take all of the information gathered from a large number of stakeholders, weed out the non-essentials, create an understanding among the stakeholders that they can’t have everything they want, identify the real needs to meet the objectives of the project and the organization and complete the project successfully -- all while attempting to manage changes, keep to a schedule, and deal with unruly, demanding, and sometimes very difficult users. The BA assignment takes patience, technical knowledge, and the ability to listen very effectively to what the end users and stakeholders are saying. Then it involves taking all of that information and determining what is truly important and what can actually be delivered. This is no easy feat.
This month we focus on the Business Analyst and how that very important job function relates to the project management discipline. The BA actually performs the first steps in the project management process by determining the connection between the business objectives and a proposed project. This is a critical step in project selection and can have a significant impact on the overall strategic objectives of an organization. This underscores the importance of the BA in the process of developing business cases and in managing requirements after project selection. I am sure many of you have experienced the result of poorly written requirements or rushed requirements processes. These situations come about from a lack of attention to the requirements process and a tendency to minimize the time the BA is allocated to obtain the real requirements. Consider this issue of allPM.com as “required reading.” The goal is to raise awareness about the importance of the BA position and to help those who depend on the BA to appreciate the challenges of the job.
Frank P. Saladis, PMP
Frank.Saladis@allpm.com
February's Poll Results
In the course of doing your job as a project manager, how often do you reflect upon PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct?
a) Frequently - 25.67 % (48)
b) Occasionally - 14.97 % (28)
c) Rarely - 14.97 % (28)
d) Never - 44.39 % (83)
Total votes: 187
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The March/April poll question is:
Does your organization use business analysts and project managers on the same projects?
a) All of the time
b) Depends on the size of the project
c) Both roles are performed by a single person
d) The projects are technical and no BA is needed
If you have not already done so, please stop by allPM.com and add your opinion today.
Theme of the Month: The Intersection of Business Analysis and Project Management-From Project Management (PM) Certification to Business Analysis (BA) Certification
By Greta Blash, PMP
Just as PMI has established a baseline for the project management profession, so has a new organization been established for Business Analysts (otherwise known as Systems Analysts, Business Systems Analysts, etc.). Since many of the processes identified during the Initiating and Planning Processes within the PMBOK® Guide are often done by a combination of project managers and business analysts (or one person performing both roles), I am going to address the similarities and differences between the two “Bodies of Knowledge” based on my previous experience in both of these roles.
The IIBA
In order to understand the “beginnings” of the IIBA, we set off to do some investigatory reporting and discover the story behind the initial organizational effort.
In August 2003, during the planning session of the first Business Analyst World conference to be held in Toronto, ON in May 2004, a member of the advisory committee suggested that it was time the BA community established a professional association to support the needs of Business Analysts - similar to the Project Management Institute (PMI). That suggestion was embraced by 23 like minded individuals and under the leadership and guidance of Kathleen Barret, resulted in the formation of the International Institute of Business Analysis™.
On March 3rd, 2004, the IIBA became the official association for Business Analysts. 35 representatives from two countries – the US and Canada – formally joined the organization, ratified the constitution and voted in the officers. Recently IIBA celebrated its third anniversary and the statistics demonstrate its success, all accomplished with a staff of volunteer and three paid employees.
- 3,500 members
- 62 Countries
- 102 Chapters
The organizations growth has been remarkable and it reflects the growing demand for capable, qualified Business Analysis professionals.
If you are interested in joining and supporting this exciting new profession, go to www.theiiba.org. You can get more information on chapters in your area (http://www.theiiba.org/content.asp?contenttype=Chapters).
BA Certification
In November 2006, the IIBA held its first certification exam in Orlando, FL. The certification program has been carefully designed to be in compliance with the International Standards Organization (ISO) 17204 standard for certifying the competence of personnel. Interested BAs who wish to sit the exam must qualify. The criteria includes 7500 hours of business analysis experience in the past 10 years, 21 hours of BA related education in the past four years and two references. Additional exams are being held in 2007 - eight scheduled exams will be held in Canada, US , UK and Australia. The exam consists of 150 multiple choice questions and is proctored over a three hour period. Successful candidates will receive the designation of Certified Business Analysis Professional TM.
The BABOK™
The release of the IIBA Body of Knowledge was the work of many dedicated volunteers devoting hundreds of hours to the task. Version 1 was released at the 2nd Annual General Meeting in April 2005. Version 1.6 was released at the 3rd AGM and formed the basis for the items contained in the certification exam. The BABOK is the “sum of knowledge within the profession of Business analysis and reflects what is considered currently accepted practice.”1. the BABOK™ outlines the set of tasks, knowledge, and techniques required to identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems
This document is available on the International Institute of Business Analysis™ (www.theiiba.org) web site.
© 2007 allPM.com
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Greta Blash, MA, PMP has extensive experience as an executive and consulting IT professional. Her areas of experience include project management, software product management, information system implementation, with emphasis in the areas of system implementations and conversions, customer relationship management (CRM), data warehouse/business intelligence (DW/BI), and data management. She has developed customized life cycle methodologies for major international organizations as well as training courses in the areas of project management, requirements analysis and data management and has spoken frequently on these topics at conferences world-wide. She is currently a Senior Instructor at International Institute for Learning (IIL) and resides in Las Vegas.
The Hat Trick
By Steve P. Blais, PMP
Many years ago I was project manager of a fairly large project of twenty or so people. I was a fairly new project manager at the time, fresh from designing and programming. Although the project manager, I was still the technical lead as well, a typical situation in which we on the development side find ourselves. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but I had picked up the habit of “wearing hats.” When someone asked a question about requirements, I’d answer “Well, putting my requirements hat on…” When in a meeting, my opinion on design was called for, I’d respond, “Let me put my design hat on…” Sometimes I varied the line by saying something like, “As project manager, this is what I have to say about …”
I lived in a small office that contained a four-drawer file cabinet, a desk and chair, and a wooden armless chair for visitors. One morning I came into the office and noticed when I sat at my desk, facing the file cabinet, that on the top of the cabinet were a number of baseball hats, each one a different color. Each hat had a couple of letters on it, such as “RQ", “DN”, “PM”, “PR”, and so forth. On my desk was a scrawled note that said, “From now on, please wear the appropriate hat. The team.” As I said, I wasn’t aware that I was using those words so often that it had become such a catch phrase among the team members that it would prompt this kind of joke.
Never one to let a joke end without stretching it to death, I fashioned a hook for my belt and fastened the back of all the hats on it so that I carried them with me all the time. Then when I got a question or was asked an opinion or had to preside over a particular meeting in a particular capacity, I physically put on the appropriate hat to replace the trite phrase. My default hat was the “PM” hat, which was blue. Even the team played along by reminding me to change my hat according to what role I was supposed to be playing. It was certainly great fun and worked wonders for the morale. It prompted a never-ending stream of variations and jokes on the subject. Several team members obtained their own hat to describe their role, but we won’t go into that.
© 2007 allPM.com
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Steve Blais is a consultant and educator living in Sarasota and Key West Florida. He has worked for 40 years in the field of computing. He is currently working with companies to create and improve their business analyst processes. He is the author of the IIL Business Analysis series of courses, and the forthcoming book, "The Beginning and End of Software Engineering: a guide for the Business Analyst."
Casing Out the Problem
By Steve Blais, PMP
Sometimes we on the solution side of the business get the impression that there is a large faucet in the organization dripping problems. Sometimes the drip is faster than at other times. There are no decisions made about the validity or applicability of the problems; they just flow our way, unfettered and unfiltered.
There seems to be an unending, unedited supply of problems, change requests, opportunities, defect reports, and the like emanating from the business. Sometimes the changes contradict changes previously made. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the stream of work, no filter to determine the validity or worth of the changes.
In fact there is a conscious decision made each time a problem is selected to be solved and a project is formed to solve it. Someone or some committee has decided that the problem is worth solving.
In organizations that take their problem solving seriously enough to make an informed decision through an established process, the decision making is based on some document that establishes what the problem is, what the solution will be and what it will cost in terms of resources and time. This document may be called a business case, a scope and vision document, a product scope, a project charter, or other title based on the applicable standard or process in use. All of these documents serve the same purpose: to provide the information necessary for someone to make a decision whether to solve this business problem now, later or never. The overall goal of the business case is to minimize the risk of decision making. “Business cases can serve to bridge the gap between the project and business sides of an organization.” [Pamela Robinson, “On the Case”, PM Network, 11/06]
© 2007 allPM.com
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Steve Blais is a consultant and educator living in Sarasota and Key West Fl. He has worked for 40 years in the field of computing. He is currently working with companies to create and improve their business analyst processes. He is the lead author of the IIL Business Analysis series of courses, and the forthcoming book, "The Beginning and End of Software Engineering: a guide for the Business Analyst.
Requirements – Pandora’s Box for Project Managers
Frank P. Saladis PMP
There are many versions and interpretations of the story but basically, according to the myth, Pandora opened a container that released all the evils of mankind - greed, slander, envy (maybe project management – just kidding). Only hope was left inside when she closed it again. Today, Pandora’s box is frequently used as a metaphor for the unanticipated consequences of technical and scientific development. It is basically used anytime people venture into unknown areas or start dabbling in areas that “should be left alone.” This sounds strangely similar to requirements management. For some reason, requirements are somehow related to the evils that project managers often face during the project life cycle. Things like: customer changes, incorrectly stated requirements, missing requirements, unnecessary requirements (unnecessary requirements?), too many requirements, unclear requirements and many more. These few examples provide a good basis for the reference to Pandora’s Box regarding requirements.
One of my favorite references to the requirements challenge is an example of the phases of a project found in Dr. Harold Kerzner’s book – Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, J. Wiley.
- Initiation
- Wild Enthusiasm
- Disillusionment
- Chaos
- Search for the Guilty
- Punishment of the Innocent
- Praise and promotion of the Non-participant
- Gather Requirements
© 2007 allPM.com
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Frank P. Saladis (PMP) is Senior Consultant with International Institute for Learning, Inc. He has been involved in the development of standardized Project Management Guidelines (PMGs) for the AT&T Corporate Information Technology Services (Corporate ITS) organization and is the author of the Project Evaluation Review Process (PERP). He is the recipient of the 2006 PMI Linn Stuckenbruck person of the year award.
Communications Toolbox™: Effective Conversation
By Guest Writer: Nick Kob, Jr.
Introduction: Earlier this month I engaged in some extreme sport known by my confederates as foot surfing down some stairs, followed by sock skating on linoleum with a hard bottom landing. In other words, I fell down some stairs, slipped on a hard floor and really banged myself up! My right arm was in a sling for a while and during that time I read the following article in one of our internal newsletters. I really liked it and thought this was the perfect time to introduce a guest writer! Nick Kob is a great guy and has some very good perspectives on communication that he relays in the following article. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! And …THANK YOU NICK!
-- Laura B. Moore, allPM.com Communications Toolbox™ Columnist
A key element of project management is communication. Without effective communication, the success of the project is in great peril. Effective communication is not only a key element, but is one thing we all spend a great deal trying to achieve. We spend the greater portion of our day listening, speaking, reading or writing. And it’s not just the preponderance of time spent engaged in communication that is a measure of its importance. A 1998 Wall Street Journal article reported on a survey that involved more than 450 companies. In the survey the companies ranked communication as the number one quality they would like to see in future employees. In addition to being an important consideration in securing a job, communication is also essential to successful job performance.
Communication can be defined as an exchange of information. In oral communication the exchange in a conversation involves more that just something we say and something we hear. It also necessitates a correlation between what is spoken and what is heard. The key to a successful conversation depends upon an understanding of that relationship -- the roles played by intent, emotion, empathy and clarity.
© 2007 allpm.com
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Nick Kob is a Senior Analyst in the Billing Operations/DBO Group at AT&T. He received a BSBA from Roosevelt University and a CPA from Illinois. He has been with AT&T for seven years and has over 30 years of experience that spans Financial and Operational Management, Cost and Fraud Analysis, Programming and Data Base Development and Special Projects.
Positive Leadership in Project Managment™: Effective Project Leadership - Leading Project Teams to Higher Levels of Competency and Effectiveness
By Frank P. Saladis PMP
Leadership is a topic that continues to be explored, reviewed, analyzed, and scrutinized by authors and thought groups in every industry and discipline in the private, non-profit, and government environments. Leadership competency models have become a part of the strategic planning process in most well established corporations and the value of effective leadership will probably never be fully appreciated or accurately calculated as a contribution to the bottom line. Executives of most successful organizations will agree that strong and effective leadership is a major factor in the effort to achieve the desired levels of established Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or Organizational Success Factors (OSFs) but much of what a leader actually accomplishes can not be measured accurately. Leadership is about vision, motivation, and an ability to allow each employee or team member to achieve their personal goals of self value while contributing to organizational objectives, working with the team to succeed, and creating an environment of loyalty and respect.
It is difficult to measure leadership behaviors such as:
- Providing an environment where every person can excel
- Managing with respect
- Managing with integrity and honesty
- Effective Listening
- Creativity and innovation
- Sharing knowledge
- Mentoring
- Continuous personal improvement
© 2007 allPM.com
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Frank P. Saladis (PMP) is Senior Consultant with International Institute for Learning, Inc. He has been involved in the development of standardized Project Management Guidelines (PMGs) for the AT&T Corporate Information Technology Services (Corporate ITS) organization and is the author of the Project Evaluation Review Process (PERP). He is the recipient of the 2006 PMI Linn Stuckenbruck person of the year award.
Six Principles for Strategic Retreats: How you can speed up by slowing down
By Dave Jennings, Ph.D.
Whether you are launching a project or in the middle of one, maintaining alignment among the diverse stakeholders is challenging. Competing projects, conflicting agendas, and limited staff make it hard to keep the project on time and within budget. Given the effort it takes to get alignment, the temptation is to just keep driving harder until the “death march” phase of the project.
However, pushing harder and faster is not always the answer to getting things done on time. In fact, sometimes pushing can actually slow down the process. So, what can project managers do to speed things along? They need to slow down and retreat. More specifically, project managers need to take the time to lead a strategic retreat.
Bringing together a group of stakeholders together for a strategic retreat is an investment in the success of the project. When done right, these retreats provide a powerful environment to gain alignment, make decisions, increase commitment, and increase speed. Also, when done right, they avoid the cynicism commonly associated with meetings where people just talk. Here are six principles that make a difference for your next project.
1. Define The Retreat’s Purpose
The most essential ingredient for a successful retreat is a clear purpose. It starts with asking yourself, “What do I really want to gain from the retreat…what do I expect to be different after the retreat?” This may sound simplistic. In fact, many project managers try to shortchange this step with vague statements about getting together to talk. This temptation is deadly. Without a clear purpose in mind, the retreat will yield disappointing results.
© 2007 allPM.com
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Dave A. Jennings, PhD, is a speaker, consultant, and author specializing in leadership and change. He designs and facilitates high impact retreats for strategic planning, organizational change, and project retrospectives. He helps organizations build more effective teams and increase bottom-line results. Dave has worked with leaders around the world with such clients as ExxonMobil, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft. Contact him at 1.801.318.5536 or www.davejennings.com
How High is High?
By Dr David Hillson PMP FAPM
Common definitions of “risk” describe it as an uncertainty which if it occurs would affect one or more objectives. These two dimensions of risk (uncertainty and its effect) are commonly called “probability” and “impact”, though other terms are used. Deciding the importance of a particular risk requires assessment of these two dimensions, as well as other characteristics.
The most basic risk assessments often use descriptive labels for probability and impact, such as High, Medium and Low. This would mean that a risk which is not very likely to happen but which would have a major effect if it occurred could be described as “Low-High”. While this practice is very common, it can lead to significant misunderstandings. For example if I tell a colleague that one of my risks was assessed as Low-High, she has no way of knowing exactly what I mean. When I say “Low probability”, do I mean that the risk has a one-in-a-million chance of happening, or do I use this term to mean <50%? In the same way, does “High impact” mean a total disaster leading to loss of the business, or does it mean a delivery delay of one month?
The usual solution to this potential problem is to define scales for probability and impact for a particular situation, and to insist that all risk assessments of this situation use the same scales. So everyone assessing risks to a specific project might agree that “Low probability” will mean 10-30%, and that “High impact” will mean more than 12 months schedule change or >$100,000 cost change.
© 2007 Risk Doctor Limited
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Dr. David Hillson (PMP, FAPM, FIRM, MCMI) is an international risk management consultant, and Director of Risk Doctor & Partners ( www.risk-doctor.com ). His speciality is risk technology transfer, assisting organisations to develop in-house risk processes, and he is a popular conference speaker and author on risk, winning several awards for his papers. He is recognised internationally as a leading thinker and practitioner in risk management, and his recent emphasis has been the inclusion of proactive opportunity management within the risk process, which is the topic of his latest book "Effective Opportunity Management Exploiting Positive Risk", published in 2003 by Dekker of New York.
David is an active member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and was a founder member of its Risk Management Specific Interest Group. He received the PMI Distinguished Contribution Award for his work in developing risk management over many years. He is a Fellow of the UK Association for Project Management (APM) and past chairman of its Risk Management Specific Interest Group. David is also a Fellow of the UK Institute of Risk Management (IRM), a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), and a member of the Chartered Management Institute.
David can be contacted at david@risk-doctor.com
"Ask Harry" Practical Advice on Project Management & Six Sigma By Harry Rever, Certified Six Sigma Black Belt
Q: Harry, I hear you’re a practical guy. Listen, I’m already a PMP and as a matter of fact, a pretty good one. Is getting a Six Sigma Green Belt certification something I should consider? - Sharon in Chicago.
A: Sharon, that’s a great question and a relevant one for many PMP’s. The quick answer is, get the Green Belt certification. It’s a must do action item. Now, let’s talk about the big picture. What does it take to be successful in today’s work environment? What skills are needed to excel, to move up the corporate ladder? Well, you have to have great communication skills. It helps to be a dynamic speaker. Project management skills, of course, are a necessity. Dressing for success is important. Having a firm grasp of corporate politics and a knack for networking is also an essential skill for success. What’s missing? You’re dressing the part, you’re talking to the right people, you’re organized, you can lead a project, and you mesmerize people with your verbal and written communications. The qualitative skill set is all there, check! But what about the quantitative side, the ability to use data to take the emotion out of decision making; it’s not represented. If you want to persuade teams, top management, other departments, or other people to your way of thinking, what can help you more than having data and facts on your side? The ability to break down a process, analyze the numbers, and effectively speak with data is, perhaps, the greatest weakness in corporate America today. There is so much “activity” in business today but how much of it truly results in improvement? This, Sharon, is why you, and other PMP’s, should SERIOUSLY consider pursuing a Six Sigma Green Belt certification. The Green Belt certification will close that quantitative gap. As a Green Belt, you will learn the methodology, the steps, and the tools to analyze data and improve results. This can only help your ability as a PMP. More importantly, it’s a good career move. My advice Sharon is simple, go for it. You’ll be glad you did.
Send questions to Harry at harry.rever@iil.com
© 2007 allpm.com
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Harry Rever is a Six Sigma Black Belt for a Fortune 50 communications firm. He earned bachelors degrees in Marketing and Management from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX and an MBA from St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX. He earned ASQ certifications as a Six Sigma Black Belt and Certified Quality Manager and is also certified as a Quality Consultant. Mr. Rever teaches one and two day process improvement courses on how to improve results using the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology.
PM Crossword Connections™: Analyze This!
By Frank Saladis, PMP
(Click here or the image above for a larger, printable crossword in a new window. )
Across
2 List by importance
5 Totally done
7 Something left out
10 Writing /recording of data
11 Circular SDLC
13 Obtain information by questionnaire
14 Signoff
16 Business analyst (Abbrv.)
19 Start
20 Initial working model
23 End result of a project
26 Change Control Board (Abbrv.)
29 Modification of a feature
31 Find something new or hidden
33 Unique undertaking
34 These should be SMART
41 Reachable
43 Person involved in a project
48 To program , or Morse _____
49 Evaluate, scrutinize
50 Simulation or replica
52 Connect
53 Justifies a project
54 Gathering of people
55 Something necessary
Down
1 To do or not to do
3 Ask for requirements
4 Rule
6 Limitation
8 Group of interacting entities
9 Series of pictures
12 A section of a project life cycle
13 Organizational or industry guideline
15 Physical characteristics
17 User acceptance testing (Abbrv.)
18 No changes beyond this point
20 Structured
21 Process done many times
22 Brief and to the point
24 Product of decomposition
25 Uncontrolled scope additions
27 Watch closely
28 Can be tracked
30 Visual display of a process
32 Business Process Re-engineering (Abbrv.)
35 Series of actions
36 Clear and not confusing
37 Ask questions
38 Everyone on the team
39 Tangible verifiable item
40 What is and what should be
42 Start of the project
44 Measure of uncertainty
45 Answer
46 Verify
47 Preformed guide or sample
51 See if it works
© 2007 allPM.com
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Click here to view/print the crossword solution.
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