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Instantly usable and helpful information for project management, agile/SCRUM, business analysis, IT strategy and compliance and lean – six sigma.
Browsing All posts tagged under »Project Management«
Estimate at Completion – Using CPI and SPI Method 5th Edition PMBOK
The Budget at Completion (BAC) is how much the project is supposed to cost when finished. However, during the project it may become clear that the project will not end up costing what it is supposed to cost. The Estimate at Completion (EAC) replaces the BAC for the amount that the project is now believed […]
Earned Value Management – CPI and SPI
November 9, 2013 by Dave Kohrell
Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI) are indicators of how closely accomplished work is on budget and on schedule. CPI shows how many dollars (or other type of currency) worth of work is being accomplished for every dollar spent. SPI shows how the work is progressing compared to the original schedule. The […]
Project Exclusions, Assumptions, and Constraints 5th Edition PMBOK
October 23, 2013 by Dave Kohrell
Project exclusions, assumptions, and constraints (among other information) are included in a Project Scope Statement. They’re also explicitly referenced in the Develop Project Charter, Plan Project Plan and Plan Procurement Management processes. Each of the 47 processes has an implicit reference to exclusions, assumptions and constraints. Here’s a simple example to help you lock in […]
PERT Formula – 5th Edition PMBOK
October 19, 2013 by Dave Kohrell
The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) formula or 3 point estimating is a simple and useful tool for project managers, and those who are planning to take their PMP Exam should have it memorized. There is much more to PERT as a project scheduling and planning technique than this formula, but here we’ll focus […]
Dirty Consultant Tricks – Leaky Faucet of Billable Hours
October 5, 2012 by Dave Kohrell
The leaky faucet, the sieve, the bleeding of billable hours – called different things in different settings they refer to the same concept, a consulting/ contracting company or resource who piles up time and material hours. It’s also one of three dirty consulting tricks I’ve observed first hand in the last few years. The irony […]
Dirty Consultant Tricks – Hiding the Crystal Ball
October 3, 2012 by Dave Kohrell
Nearly four years ago we began the TAPUniversity Blog. It’s been based on a mix of our training and consulting delivery. The first topic was a top 10 things to do for contractors or consultants (or not do). After a round of consulting assignments, in pharmaceutical and insurance, with other consultants alongside me, I observed […]
Working in the Weeds
July 31, 2012 by Dave Kohrell
12 months of two consulting project management engagements. Digging in. Pitching in. Working in the weeds! Since 2002 my career has been a blend of “doing” project management, business analysis, faclitation, agile and lean six sigma along with “teaching” those same subjects. The last 12 months has been 95% of the doing. Now that the […]
Stand up meetings – not just for software or Agile anymore
February 20, 2012 by Dave Kohrell
Stand up. Sit down. Which is better for the team, productivity, your company? The trend is stand up for a short burst of action and accountability among all types of business teams. A hall-mark of rapid software development (1990’s) and Agile (manifesto in 2001 onward) the stand up meeting has progressed rapidly beyond software, to […]
TAPUniversity’s Online Learning System has moved.
October 8, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
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 […]
Celebration! 100,000 readers!
May 17, 2011 by Dave 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 […]
Pragnalysis team announce launch of free Requirements Management Software Tool – “ReqLine”
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 […]
Business Analysis Technique #4 – Business Rules Analysis
April 29, 2011 by Dave 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 […]
Business Analysis Technique #20 – Problem Tracking
April 21, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
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 […]
How to Find Where New Process is Really Needed
March 31, 2011 by Michiko Quinones
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 […]
Project Health Check : 5 serious project warning signs
March 19, 2011 by Adrian Reed (UKAdrianReed)
As experienced change practitioners, I’m sure we’ve all worked on projects that have been difficult. The unfortunate truth is that some projects gain so much momentum, they become “too big to fail”. These projects steamroll their way through organizations, and have a tendency to displace anyone that dares to challenge them. Sometimes when working closely […]
Business Analysis Technique #3 – Brainstorming
March 1, 2011 by Dave 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 […]
Time for a quick celebration – 400 posts!
February 16, 2011 by Dave 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 […]
Agile Principle 12 – Team reflects, tunes and adjusts
February 15, 2011 by Dave 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 […]
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November 26, 2013 by Dave Kohrell
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