by John Parker | Mar 19, 2014 | Business Analysis, ITIL and Service Design, Project Management, Uncategorized |
Lately, Marketing has been purchasing a significant amount more of marketing-related technology and services using their own capital and expense budgets. Some of this purchasing is being done outside the control of the internal IT organization and some is being done in conjunction with IT. Gartner has made the bold prediction that by 2017, the CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO. Let’s look at some of the facts from the Gartner 2013 US Marketing Spend Survey: The average percentage of revenue spent on marketing is 10.4 % Digital Marketing represents 1/3 of Total Marketing Spend Up to Half of all Digital Marketing is Outsourced Search Marketing topped the CMO’s list of Outsourced Activities Over 40% claim that the keys to Marketing success are 1) Corporate Web Site, 2)Social Marketing, and 3)Digital Advertising Now, let’s look at some trends of why marketing is spending more and more on technology. First, we are living in the age of the customer. Customers now have real-time information about pricing, product features and competitors. As a result, they hold the advantages, and one of the few competitive advantages remaining for businesses is to concentrate on the knowledge of and engagement with customers. Josh Bernoff, a Forrester Research analyst stated in a recent report that companies must not only be customer focused, they must be customer obsessed, focusing their strategy, energy, and budget on processes that enhance knowledge of engagement with customers. Implementing a customer based strategy falls under marketing for most companies. For the last 10 years, many organizations focused on Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Now the focus is on marketing...
by John Parker | Mar 14, 2014 | Business Analysis, Project Management, Uncategorized |
Normally, trends and projections come out in December or January. These are a little late, but at least they still make the first quarter in 2014. Here are my predictions of key trends that we will see affect business analysis and project management in 2014. 1. Agile Continues to Grow – Agile adoption will continue to grow. This will mean many changes in terms of how requirements are developed and managed. Requirement “shall” statements will be replaced with user stories. The three C’s model of users stories: Card, Confirmation, and Conversations will continue to grow. PMs and BAs will continue to redefine their roles in the agile world of self-managing teams and product backlogs. 2. Managing Data not Documents – As agile adoption continues, the need for large paper based requirement documents will go away. Requirements will be managed as data in a backlog, not as long paper-based business requirement documents (BRDs) or Functional Requirement Specifications (FRS). 3. Dual-Track Agile Takes Off – Agile will be difficult and a cultural challenge for many organizations where there are multiple teams and resources are not collocated. “User story hell” will become a reality for many organizations as teams continue to spend more and more time grooming the backlog. Many organizations will adopt dual-track agile or some variant to better manage discovery activities. This will enable lower costs as requirements will be validated using less expensive methods than code. 4. More Emphasis on Business Change – The BABOK Version 3 will be released sometime in 2014. There are big changes coming to the role of business analysis. The focus will be much...
by John Parker | Mar 10, 2014 | Project Management, Uncategorized |
According to the Standish Group, over 60% of projects fail or are challenged. Gartner Group 2011 research shows the same story; only it paints a slightly worse picture. Based on these statistics, program/portfolio managers and PMOs need to have skills for rescuing troubled projects. Determining if You Have a Troubled Project It is important to determine if you have a troubled project before any significant intervention is taken. It is best to do this using predefined criterion that are administered at the PMO or portfolio level. The following criteria provide some examples: Project Planning The project does not have an agreed upon vision and clear set of objectives. Impacts that the project will have on the business architecture have not been identified and defined. A thorough stakeholder analysis has not been performed. Discovery The solution scope has not been clearly defined as a set of features that can be delivered independently. Customers and users are not adequately engaged in project discovery activities. Delivery Delivery team satisfaction is low. Agile team commitments have not been met. Velocity is decreasing. Project Performance The project is trending 20% or more over its estimated budget. The project is trending 20% or more over its estimated deadline. Benefits Realization The client is extremely dissatisfied with the performance of the project team. Benefits as defined in the business case are not being achieved. Project Recovery Process Turning around a troubled project is never easy, but there are approaches that can be used that provide a good chance for success. It is important to note that success may not mean delivering the project within the original time and budget constraints. Rather the focus must now be on salvaging the project to ensure that the project addresses the business need and achieves the expected business outcomes. If...
by Jenny Boronyak | Mar 5, 2014 | Agile, Project Management, Uncategorized |
In our previous blog on Dual-Track Agile, John Parker described the benefits of this emerging concept. Dual-track agile is an approach to agile development in which project teams are constantly working on the discovery and delivery of solutions that will deliver business value and obtain user adoption. By following the principles of dual-track agile, project managers and their teams can eliminate a lot of frustration and costs in agile development. Below are the key guidelines to implementing dual-track agile in your projects. 1. Put together a proficient discovery team with expert capabilities who are able to blend entrepreneurial skills and research gathered from the market. Your team needs to have the following skills so they can thoroughly and effectively understand the problem, recommend the best solution, and align the project with business needs: User Experience/User-Centered Design Business Analysis Pricing and Financial Analysis Customer Discovery Impact/Gap Analysis Focus on Collaboration Experimentation Attitude 2. Have the discovery team working one or more months ahead of the development team. The discovery team should be constantly populating the backlog with validated ideas and user stories. 3. With the help of the discovery team, create an understanding of your customers’ core problem before gathering ideas/features. Do not start putting together a solution until you have a complete understanding of the problem. Use Root Cause Analysis techniques like Fishbone Diagrams or The Five Whys to dig deep into the source of the problem and set the context for the project. 4. Develop a shared vision by hosting a vision planning workshop. Invite the product owner, business stakeholders, technical subject matter experts (SMEs), user-centered designers, and...
by Jenny Boronyak | Feb 24, 2014 | Project Management, Uncategorized |
Even though it’s a methodology designed for product management teams, Lean Startup provides a lot of good concepts and principles for project managers looking to make sure their projects are successful. And while the word “startup” is in the name, its core tenets can actually be applied to any organization, whether a startup or a Fortune 500 company. “The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build—the thing customers want and will pay for—as quickly as possible. In other words, the Lean Startup is a new way of looking at the development of innovative new products that emphasize fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and great ambition, all at the same time.” – The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries If we take this quote from author and Lean Startup pioneer Eric Ries and replace the phrases “a startup” and “Lean Startup” with the phrase “an organization,” the statement would still be true. Any organization wants to figure out the right thing to build as quickly as possible, not just startups. With agile development being the latest craze, we all want to emphasize fast iteration, and experience has taught us all that customer insight is at the core of success. Many of the lessons and principles in Lean Startup are indeed tailored to the needs of entrepreneurs and new endeavors; however, many of them also apply to project management initiatives in any company. 50% of features and functions are rarely or never used, while 30% get used sometimes or infrequently, according to...
by John Parker | Feb 21, 2014 | Agile, Business Analysis, Project Management, Uncategorized |
The questions below came from our latest webinar on KPIs for Agile Project Managers and Business Analysts. What are some leading BA KPIs? Stakeholder satisfaction by Feature (Satisfaction) Stakeholder activity by Feature (Engagement) Cycle time from ideation to Feature approval Business value per Feature (Value) Test coverage for Feature (Quality) Number of defects per Feature (Quality) Feature Completeness (Inspection or Peer Review) Is it common practice to have stakeholders sign off on KPIs prior to development? Yes, however, stakeholders should also be actively involved in their development. Getting stakeholder approval is key for all KPIs. What is a good way to minimize the time to get signoff on requirements WITHOUT getting poor/missing/misunderstood requirements? Optimally, requirements should be reviewed as they are being created. To do this requires an automated requirements tool such as Enfocus Requirements Suite™. Here are some specific recommendations: Break down the solution scope into separate independent components (Features). Validate each Feature and eliminate Features that provide little or no value. Define solution requirements only for validated features. Assign a BA and a Sponsor to each Feature Allow stakeholders to review and comment on each requirement as they are being developed using an automated tool such as Enfocus Requirements Suite.™ Obtain review and signoff on a Feature by Feature basis using stakeholders that are involved in that feature. This procedure can prevent a lot of noise. Measure the cycle time from Ideation to validation and validation to acceptance. Where can I get the benchmark for any metric? There are many benchmarking services, including: APQC The Hackett Group InfoTech Enfocus Requirements Suite™ (RequirementCoach™) Process Intelligence What tool was...
