What if you could double the efficiency of your software testing process, and substantially reduce errors found during the test, deployment, and maintenance phases, without purchasing any tool or method? The November 28 InformationWeek offers just that in a reprint of a recent Dr. Dobbs article on formal inspections by Capers Jones and Olivier Bonsignour.  They call formal inspections the “defect removal tool of choice” and back up their claim with lots of hard evidence, but I think they are still selling short.

I’ve never understood the obsession with “green” status among IT application development project managers, and the intense pressure put on them to “stay green” by the program management offices (PMOs) they report to. We would benefit from a cultural shift away from avoiding yellow status. 

For those not in the field, it is in vogue to express IT project status using a stoplight analogy, where green means things are going well, yellow indicates some quality, schedule, or budget risk, and red means there’s imminent risk of failure.

Most project managers have experienced projects with too few resources or a staff with insufficient skillsets. Specifically within the health care industry, the skillsets are in short supply due to the complex nature of health care; the ideal business analyst may be a nurse with an IT background. There is a sundry of knowledge, code sets, processes, jargon, and vendor systems that can differentiate one resource from another.  How do you overcome all of that and find the ideal candidate that can hit the ground running? Developing a creative resourcing approach is usually a part of any project manager's role when resources are scarce.

I’m a data modeler, so I enjoyed Jonathon Geiger’s recent article entitled “Why Does Data Modeling Take So Long”.  But why does he say it like it’s a bad thing?

Mr. Geiger’s bottom line is exactly right: “Most of the time spent developing data models is consumed developing or clarifying the requirements and business rules and ensuring that the data structure can be populated by the existing data sources." On the projects he describes, no one took time before modeling to determine available data sources and identify business entities of interest, relationships among them, and attributes that describe them before database design started, so the data modeler had to do it.

Compliance Lifecycle

Reform, Comply, Report. STOP!!!!

Implementing some form of Regulatory Reform & Compliance Management in an organization could be as simple as the title indicates but rarely is, nor should it be. Quite the opposite, in recent years governing bodies and shareholders have been demanding increased accountability and management transparency resulting in a progressively more complex regulatory environment.

Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the fundamental principles of business.  Any  business contemplating enterprise initiatives attempts to clearly see and understand the ROI. The use of ROI is no different for consultants as new projects, employees and business expansions must all be able to deliver a financial return on the cost of the investment whether that investment is money, time or some other resource.

One of the most fundamental ways we as consultants create a strong ROI is by investing our time into other employees during their initial time on a project.  Though called many things – ‘onboarding', ‘ramping up’, etc – I’ll refer to this process as ‘level setting’ as the main goal is to bring new project members to the same level as the team.  When given the attention it deserves, level setting creates a ripe environment for successful project delivery.

 There is a lot of buzz lately around Agile BI and Agile data warehousing.  Typical questions asked include - Does it produce better results?  Is it faster?  How much does it cost?  And of course, most importantly, is the Agile methodology a fit for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence projects?

What is Agile?

Let’s first level set on Organizational Change Management (OCM). It is not Change Control which relates to changes to business, system or other technical requirements.  OCM is the act of anticipating, preparing, managing, monitoring, measuring and supporting stakeholders through a transition. Regardless if that transition is large or small, technical, process, or organizationally driven.

People don’t fear change. We bring change to our lives all the time. We change jobs, get married, have children, move etc. People fear and reject change that doesn’t provide value to them or that they perceive as not valuable. As Project Managers, who by nature are inflicting change on an organization, you need to be prepared for your role in change management.

I submit to you that without realizing it, as an experienced Project Manager and/or PMP, you possess more knowledge than you realize to prepare you for your role in change management.

Recently my friend Mark Hudson posted about the inappropriateness of the term “sprint” for an agile project phase, preferring the cycling term “interval.” That post really struck a chord with me.