Growth Machine

My Agile Scrum Product Owner Certification (SPOC) Lesson Learn - Retrospect

2016-04-03T21:27:00.002-04:00

From SMC to SPOC:

I did my Agile Scrum Master Certification last year and posted my lesson learn (http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2015/01/my-agile-scrum-master-certification-scm.html) . I have also mentioned in my SMC lesson learn post , How I decided to add Agile Scrum in my experience in addition to PMP. Also , I put my views to choose Scrum Study over other certification bodies.

I used my SMC knowledge to apply in my real time experience and tailored few processes as per the need of my team. This year , I moved into a new role where I possess challenge to run large programs with more strategic and tactical intiative. Now as per business revamp strategy , I need to work more closely with the team of product owners . So I decided to pursue the next step and understand Scrum in more depth from product owner's eyes .

Importance of SPOC:

I feel that product owner is key of delivering overall project value and center of project execution so it is very important to have in-depth understanding of product owner roles and responsibility . Making or breaking of the project is heavily depend on product owner and he/she is the face of the team for stakeholders and sponsors. While Scrum Master primary role to facilitate the team , it is product owner reasonability to keep project goal aligned and make sure ROI achieved . SPOC certification provide required knowledge and depth to understand product owner role.

SPOC Preparation :

I used almost same tactic , I did for my SMC exam last year . Scrum study has lots of high-quality videos and SBOK which helps to prepare for Scrum Product Owner Certification exam . To prepare for SPOC , I went through SBOK once to refresh my memory but if you are directly giving SPOC then I will recommend to go through twice . Again I went through Bubbleman case study . As SMC exam has more tricky questions from principal and aspect , so I put more attention in this area and read through SBOK chapters one to seven two more times. I took copy of summary page of Scrum Phases and processes to go through ITTO (Input, Output , Tool and Technique ) more in depth .

The Exam Day : Finally , exam day came and it is well online proctored Exam. I got WebEX link in advance and exam admin has joined and ask me to share my desktop and show my photo ID. After putting my video camera on and sharing desktop my exam link got enable . It was 140 question need to solve in 180 minute.

Exam Experience :
As I mentioned in my previous post . SMC exam has significant toughness as most of the questions was scenario based , I found SPOC exam in same track . It was three hours long exam so you need to have good patience . I found good mix of questions from both direct and scenarios based area . Apart from tricky question from scrum aspects , this exam judge in-depth knowledge of all phases and processes . You will find questions from non-mandatory ITTO also.

Finally , after submitting my exam I saw green icon saying you passed SPOC exam :)

I wish you best for your SPOC exam and again please don't hesitate to ask question in case you need any help.

I am able to get good discount on SMC , SPOC and SAMC certification from A.T.P. BitMaple LLC , Putting their contact information and link here if you want to get benefit from discount:

http://bitmaple.com/enroll-class.html

Reach out to : contactus@bitmaple.com

Agile Architecture - Pay Now or Pay Later

2015-08-15T23:48:00.000-04:00

First question pop up in mind what is Agile Architecture?

The Myth is :

Architecture is heavy weight activity and the magic of agile makes it unnecessary to bother with up front design !!!

Agile Architecture is Fragile Architecture

So what our agile programmer Dilbert says :)

Actually Agile Architecture is:

Deliver working Architecture as code (abstract classes, artifacts ).Agile Architecture is not blue print but It’s about what changes you can ignore , It’s about pattern and principles ,It’s about minimum coupling and maximum cohesion ,It’s about getting velocity in your team. Architects are developers, coder and designer who Inspect and adopt and follow Iterative re-architect concept

Principles of Agile Architecture are :

Value People
Communicate
Feedback
Choose the right solution for the enterprise
Model and document in Agile Way .. To the point

So What Agile Team Need:

Team need Firm foundation , adapt to requirement that will change throughout the life cycle. Here collaboration is critical to our success and team need to focus mercilessly on quality. They need straightforward guidance and mentoring. Its always better to have overview diagrams and reference architectures. No one should practice and enforce detailed documentation,authoritative governance and yes lots of reviews. Team need to empower and self-organize.

So Strong Architecture means

Reduce the cost of Change
Challenge the Sillier requirement
Framework to rapidly reverse out the incorrect requirement

Here is the overview of Agile Development Vs Traditional Development :

What do you think about Agile Developer Vs Architect:

Finally It’s Not Just About Money ..

Hope you will like this article .. Please post comment for more fun while being Agile

If you are interested in achieving Agile Certification then please reach out to BitMaple http://bitmaple.com

They assign dedicated mentor and provide discount on Agile Certifications .

Reach out to contactus@bitmaple.com

Essential Skills and Tips for Agile Coaching

2015-03-11T20:41:00.001-04:00

Agile is all about teams working together to produce great software. As an Agile coach, you can help your team go from first steps to running with Agile.The art of Agile coaching is understanding the situation, the values underlying Agile software development, and how the two can combine.

As Agile coach, Your mission is to help teams produce great software by applying Agile. To succeed, you’ll need passion and enthusiasm for Agile. Experience applying Agile is also required before you can guide a team in it. Share your passion for Agile, without being too fanatical. Talk about it, demonstrate it, and offer to help others with it. Encourage and inspire the team that Agile can and does work.

Five Traits of an agile coach is :

Notice: Keep your eyes and ears open, notice how the team works, and then reflect on underlying causes.

Feedback: Give feedback about what you noticed to the team. Help them incorporate feedback into the way they work so they spot problems themselves.

Educate: Look for ways to encourage learning. You can do this by demonstrating how to be Agile, by telling stories, and by running training sessions.

Facilitate: Make it easy to be Agile by smoothing the path for constructive communication and collaboration.

Support: Be there when the team gets stuck, encourage them to keep going, and help them stay energized.

Important habits to develop as an Agile coach:

• Lead by example.
• Keep your balance.
• Set a realistic pace.
• Mind your language.
• Learn as you go.

PrOpER cycle to Coach:

Problem: Pick a problem to work on. Watch how the team works. What needs to be improved?

Options: Consider your options. What could you try that might influence the situation for the better? List at least three options.

Experiment: Pick one option to try.

Review: Review the outcome. Did you improve things? Even if things haven’t improved, have you learned something?

Work closely with Team:

• Practice deep listening to understand the problems the team faces and build trust. Give your full attention to the person talking, and ask clarifying questions to check that you have understood what they are saying.
• When giving feedback, separate what you saw or heard from your feelings about the situation. Give specific examples of what you noticed rather than general comments. Tell them what you saw or heard, and then ask about their explanation of events. Now put your heads together to come up with ideas for handling the situation next time.
• If a conflict erupts, make sure all sides get to share their viewpoint.Don’t step in to resolve every conflict for the team because otherwise they rely on you as a peacemaker rather than learning to get along.
• Use gradients of agreement to reveal the level of support for a change. This allows the team to find out whether there is major or only minor disagreements.Create opportunities for the team to get to know each other, which helps the team jell. Regularly spend informal time together, such as lunch or drinks.

Continuous Learning :

• Make time to learn. Create a plan of what you want to learn this month and for how you will do so.
• Make time to reflect. The most powerful lessons don’t come from books but from learning from our own mistakes—small or large.
• Take time out to destress. Work can seem very important, and it is easy to let it swallow you up. Keep things in perspective by making time for yourself every day.
• Meet other people who care about the same things as you. Local interest groups and conferences are great places to meet people who will help you keep your passion for Agile alive.
• Be kind to yourself. Forgive your mistakes. Learn from them, make amends, and move on.
• Be kind to others. Don’t attribute bad intentions to people.Instead, find out why they are acting that way. Differences in opinion and style in a team are good.
• Don’t let your job grow stale. Keep pushing yourself at work; otherwise,it will no longer be fun.

If you are interested in achieving Agile Certification then please reach out to BitMaple http://bitmaple.com

They assign dedicated mentor and provide discount on Agile Certifications .

Reach out to contactus@bitmaple.com

My Agile Scrum Master Certification (SMC) Lesson Learn - Retrospect

2015-01-27T13:02:00.001-05:00

From PMP to SCRUM:

As Agile SCRUM is getting widely popular and I am using it in daily project work since past few years so I thought to opt that certification . As I am already a PMP certified project management practitioner since long time so first I inclined towards PMI-ACP certification and went through their pre-requisite 21 hours training program. I found that PMI-ACP is too broad and considering all kind of agile practice , So I thought to focus more on Scrum and went through following option to access the best certification offered by different providers.

What to Choose :

I found Scrum Alliance- CSM (Certified Scrum Master), Scrumstudy.com - SMC (Scrum Master Certified) and Scrum.org -PSM (Professional Scrum Master) offer certifications in Scrum. I went through each and observe that all of the certification body has same SCRUM framework . I went through free SCRUM Open assessment offered by Scrum.org and scored 93% there and passed free SFC (Scrum Foundation Course) by Scrum Study . CSM is all training based but i went through content outline found pretty much same SCRUM framework .

Finally , I decided to go with SMC (Scrum Master Certified) offered by Scrum Study as it has well organized structure . They have well written SBOK like PMI has PMBOK which practitioner can follow in daily work and make use of SCRUM framework effectively . I have found that Scrumstudy's courses and certifications offer more in the way of guidance for practical application of the framework. That guidance in the real world application of Scrum was what I found missing in other Scrum courses and exams / certifications. So, when I found Scrumstudy and the SBOK I was really excited to see that they offer some real information on how to implement Scrum.

SMC Preparation :

Scrum study has lots of high-quality videos and SBOK which helps to prepare for Scrum Master Certification exam . I got an idea of the exam by going through their free offered SFC exam. To prepare for SMC , I used my PMP experience and went through SBOK two times . The Bubbleman case study helps a lot to prepare all processes .To get a good hold of principal and aspect , I read through SBOK chapters one to seven two more times.I also went through all SDC and SMC videos available in scrum study website.

The Exam Day :
Finally , exam day came and it is well online proctored Exam. I got WebEX link in advance and exam admin has joined and ask me to share my desktop. After putting my video camera on and sharing desktop my exam link got enable . It was 100 question need to solve in 120 minute.

Exam Experience :
You might get the impression that SMC exam will be easy after going through SFC exam but that is not the case. SMC exam has significant toughness as most of the questions was scenario based like I faced in PMP exam . It judge all your knowledge and experience . I found question was asked from all SCRUM principal , aspect and process but scrum aspect related question were more tricky .

Finally , after submitting my exam I saw green icon saying you passed SMC !!!! Hurrryyy

I wish you best for your SMC exam and please don't hesitate to ask question in case you need any help.

SPOC Lesson Learn :
I recently completed SPOC certification , You can find my tips and lesson learn in below post:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2016/04/my-agile-scrum-product-owner.html

I am able to get good discount on SMC , SPOC and SAMC certification from A.T.P. BitMaple LLC , Putting their contact information and link here if you want to get benefit from discount:

http://bitmaple.com/enroll-class.html

Reach out to : contactus@bitmaple.com

Earn Free PDU for your PMP Certification Re-newal

2014-12-25T20:23:00.001-05:00

After earning your PMP certification you need to maintain it by accumulation 60 PDUs (Professional Development Unit). You can see many organizations offering PDU for approx. $10 per PDU but you don't need to pat a single penny to get PDU. There are lot of resources available to provide free PDU.
Here I am listing few :

Scrum Study :

BitMaple ( http://bitmaple.com ) Provide free PDU under following category :

They provide free Agile SFC (Scrum Foundation Certification) worth 10 PDU under category A and B

They also provide Free Six Sigma Yellow Belt where you can claim 10 PDU

Reach out to them through contactus@bitmaple.com

PM Podcast:

They provide 30 free PDU visit http://www.project-management-podcast.com/

Category F:

You can claim 5 PDU each year for your project management experience so it will provide free 15 PDU

Training provide by employer:
Project Management and soft skills training provide by employer can worth 1 PDU per hours of training which is again free.

Reading project management white paper and blog can be claimed under free PDU as well under self learning.

I will keep posting more way to earn PDU.

Quantitative Project Management (QPM) - A guide to Quality Process & Performance Objective

2014-06-18T22:23:00.001-04:00

1. PURPOSE

QPM acts as a continuous process improvement vehicle using statistical means. It also serves the need to encourage the process and improvement culture in the Organization. It acts as an improvement path from adhoc, immature processes to disciplined, mature processes with improved quality and effectiveness.

2. SCOPE

It is applicable for pillars where CMMI kind of model is applicable namely Applications, Network and IMS offerings.

3. QPM Flow

The Project threshold can be 80% at the minimum
Projects being executed at high maturity will be required to maintain QPM case study as per the QPM flow ( reference / path to be provided)
Incase intermediate targets are identified as a part of goal setting, then once the interim period/goal is achieved, then for the next part/period, the entire QPM flow has to be followed setting new goals with interim performance as new achievement.

4. QPM GUIDELINE

4.1 Deriving QPPO (Quality Process & Performance Objective) from Business Objectives (BO)

“Improve Customer Satisfaction” and “Improve Profitability” are the two business objectives from which quality process and business objectives and attributes that can be used to measure it has been derived.

4.2 Criteria to be used for evaluating process alternatives

· Process Performance Model (PPM), based on project lifecycle model will be used to evaluate process alternatives

o PPMs’ provide insight into, and provide the ability to analyze critical process and product characteristics that are relevant to business value

o Provides information about the role of controllable independent ‘x’ variables that influence the dependent ‘y’ variable, and in turn, on how to be proactive in controlling and changing sub-process parameters to acceptable levels

o Projects use PPMs’ for estimating, analyzing, and predicting the process performance for their defined sub-processes

4.3 Identifying Alternatives

· This will mainly involve identifying Organizational, project level PPM that contains the dependent variable (Y) which ahs been taken by project for improvement

· Points to be considered while modelling

o Data considered from the sub-processes are homogeneous which is ensured by statistical tests

o X’s selected are controllable so that the performance of x can be improved which results in improvement of y

o Analysis included stratification for different data buckets based on parameters having high standard deviation

4.4 Criteria for selecting critical ‘x’ (Critical sub process)

Once PPMs are identified, project needs to select the critical ‘x’ (critical sub process) for further monitoring. Following are the criteria which would help in making this decision:

· Select ‘x’ which has maximum impact on y

· Check if ‘x’ is controllable or not

· There is an option of being able to modify the sub-process that affect ‘x’ (sub process level PPMs)

· Opportunity for statistical management (data richness, repeatability)

4.5 Identify the attributes

Attributes (based on PPM) which form sufficient conditions while monitoring the sub process, along with their thresholds or ranges needs to be mentioned.

Eg. For below PPM

Productivity (B-2) = 36.5 - 0.824 Average Team Exp + 28.4 Requirements Volatility - 0.240 Testing defects

If ‘Testing Defects’ is identified as critical sub process then ‘Avg. Team Experience’ and ‘Req. Volatility’ becomes attributes which forms sufficient conditions.

Such attributes needs to be mentioned along with their thresholds or range.

4.6 Risk of not meeting the performance objective

· This is to be planned and tracked through risk register

· The risk exposure, on the basis of probability of occurrence and impact, will be arrived at and accordingly the “Risk Response Strategy” will be arrived at. If the risk exposure is greater than 15 then a contingency plan is also required.

If you are interested in achieving PMP Certification then please reach out to BitMaple http://bitmaple.com

They assign dedicated mentor and provide discount on PMP Test. Test will have very nominal cost .

Reach out to contactus@bitmaple.com

Introduction To Capability Maturity Model Integration - CMMi

2013-09-25T11:11:00.000-04:00

CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration):

CMMI is a collection of instructions an organization can follow with the purpose to gain

better control over its software development process.

The five levels in CMMI :

There are five levels of the CMM. According to the SEI. Following is high level picture :

Level 1 – Initial

At maturity level 1, processes are usually ad hoc and the organization usually does not

provide a stable environment. Success in these organizations depends on the competence

and heroics of people in the organization and not on the use of proven processes. In spite

of this ad hoc, chaotic environment, maturity level 1 organizations often produce products

and services that work; however, they frequently exceed the budget and schedule of their

projects.

Maturity level 1 organizations are characterized by a tendency to over commit, abandon

processes in the time of crisis, and not be able to repeat their past successes again.

Level 2 – Repeatable

At maturity level 2, software development successes are repeatable. The organization

may use some basic project management to track cost and schedule.

Process discipline helps to ensure that existing practices are retained during times of

stress. When these practices are in place, projects are performed and managed according

to their documented plans.

Project status and the delivery of services are visible to management at defined points

(for example, at major milestones and at the completion of major tasks).

Basic project management processes are established to track cost, schedule, and

functionality. The necessary process discipline is in place to repeat earlier successes on

projects with similar applications.

Level 3 – Defined

At maturity level 3, processes are well characterized and understood, and are described in

standards, procedures, tools, and methods.

The organization’s set of standard processes, which is the basis for level 3, is established

and improved over time. These standard processes are used to establish consistency across

the organization. Projects establish their defined processes by the organization’s set of

standard processes according to tailoring guidelines.

The organization’s management establishes process objectives based on the organization’s

set of standard processes and ensures that these objectives are appropriately addressed.

A critical distinction between level 2 and level 3 is the scope of standards, process

descriptions, and procedures. At level 2, the standards, process descriptions, and procedures

may be quite different in each specific instance of the process (for example, on a particular

project). At level 3, the standards, process descriptions, and procedures for a project are

tailored from the organization’s set of standard processes to suit a particular project or

organizational unit.

Level 4 – Managed

Using precise measurements, management can effectively control the software

development effort. In particular, management can identify ways to adjust and adapt the

process to particular projects without measurable losses of quality or deviations from

specifications.

Sub processes are selected that significantly contribute to overall process performance.

These selected sub processes are controlled using statistical and other quantitative

techniques.

A critical distinction between maturity level 3 and maturity level 4 is the predictability of

process performance. At maturity level 4, the performance of processes is controlled

using statistical and other quantitative techniques, and is quantitatively predictable. At

maturity level 3, processes are only qualitatively predictable.

Level 5 – Optimizing

Maturity level 5 focuses on persistently improving process performance through both

incremental and innovative technological improvements. Quantitative process improvement

objectives for the organization are established, continually revised to reflect

changing business objectives, and used as criteria in managing process improvement. The

effects of deployed process improvements are measured and evaluated against the

quantitative process-improvement objectives. Both the defined processes and the

organization set of standard processes are targets of measurable improvement activities.

Process improvements to address common causes of process variation and measurably

improve the organization’s processes are identified, evaluated, and deployed.

Optimizing processes that are nimble, adaptable and innovative depends on the

participation of an empowered workforce aligned with the business values and objectives

of the organization. The organization’s ability to rapidly respond to changes and

opportunities is enhanced by finding ways to accelerate and share learning.

A critical distinction between maturity level 4 and maturity level 5 is the type of process

variation addressed. At maturity level 4, processes are concerned with addressing special

causes of process variation and providing statistical predictability of the results. Though

processes may produce predictable results, the results may be insufficient to achieve the

established objectives. At maturity level 5, processes are concerned with addressing common

causes of process variation and changing the process (that is, shifting the mean of the

process performance) to improve process performance (while maintaining statistical

probability) to achieve the established quantitative process-improvement objectives.

Continuous and staged representation in CCMI:

The method by which company wants to adapt to CMMI is called a representation. So

either organization can adapt for staged or continuous representation.

In the continuous representation process areas are organized by functional area. For

example, a company interested to improve its Project Management capability would focus

on IPM, ISM, IT, PMC, PP, QPM, RSK

CMMI contains 25 key process areas which organization can follow to adapt CMMI:

1. Causal Analysis and Resolution (CAR)
2. Configuration Management (CM)
3. Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR)
4. Integrated Project Management (IPM)
5. Integrated Supplier Management (ISM)
6. Integrated Teaming (IT)
7. Measurement and Analysis (MA)
8. Organizational Environment for Integration (OEI)
9. Organizational Innovation and Deployment (OID)
10. Organizational Process Definition (OPD)
11. Organizational Process Focus (OPF)
12. Organizational Process Performance (OPP)
13. Organizational Training (OT)
14. Product Integration (PI)
15. Project Monitoring and Control (PMC)
16. Project Planning (PP)
17. Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA)
18. Quantitative Project Management (QPM)
19. Requirements Development (RD)
20. Requirements Management (REQM)
21. Risk Management (RSKM)
22. Supplier Agreement Management (SAM)
23. Technical Solution (TS)
24. Validation (VAL)
25. Verification (VER)

Defect removal efficiency - DRE A way to reduce defect density

2013-02-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

Defect removal efficiency (DRE) is a very important aspect of product quality. A good defect removal process promotes the release of products with lower latent defects, generating high customer confidence.

DRE (Defect Removal Efficiency) is a measure to detect defects before delivery. It is calculated as a percentage of the defects identified and corrected internally with respect to the total defects in the complete project life cycle. Thus, DRE is the percentage of bugs eliminated by reviews, inspections, tests etc.

Defect removal efficiency shows how useful or effective quality management activities are on phase-by-phase basis.

Defect removal efficiency can indicate if there are issues in the quality management system that needs correction. It can be used to manage quality throughout the software life cycle.

Defect removal efficiency can be used as a measure to set process and product improvement goals. For example if the defect removal efficiency for testing is 50% and we may want to introduce new people, processes and tools to increase DRE to 60 or 70%.

Defect removal efficiency is a method to analyze the effectiveness of individual processes for example appraisal, reviews, testing, audits etc.

Defect, Defect Management and Prevention cycle

Defect:

The lack of something necessary or desirable for completion or perfection is called as defect. Faulty or Shortcoming or Non-conformance that prevents a software application/product from being used or causes safety issues or fail in its purpose. Defects are divided into

Severity 1 defects (high)
Severity 2 defects (medium)
Severity 3 defects (low)

The earlier the defects are detected the less is the cost to fix. This can be shown by Boehm’s curve below.

Fig a: Boehm’s Curve

Defect Management

Fig b: Defect Management Flow

Defect Prevention Cycle (Deming Cycle):

Fig c: PDCA cycle (Deming cycle)

PDCA cycle is used for cause identification and Process improvement and has four stages:

Plan – Define problem,
analysisDo – Perform ,
actionCheck – Reviews,
Audits Act – Standardize the code

Measures and Metrics

Measurement provides a quantitative indication of the extent, dimension, amount, capacity or size of some attribute of a product or process. Only the things that can be measured have a value. Quality and productivity of any product or process can be calculated if you can measure the attributes. Following are the basic measures used in organizations

Schedule(days)
Efforts(hrs)
SizeDefects

“A metric is a system of measurement that includes the item being measured, the unit of measurement, and the value of the unit.”

Metrics deals with measurements that are used to determine the progress toward meeting certain goals. It quantifiable answers the question whether or not the goal has been met. Every person with goals has used a measuring system to determine if his/her goal was met and what steps needed to take to continue to reach that goal. Metrics are used by organizations to measure which business and organizational goals are appropriate for the organization, given its particular mission. Following are certain metrics derived from above basic measures.

Schedule Variance
Effort Variance
Defect Density
Defect Removal Efficiency
Productivity

DRE is beneficial for both at project as well as process level. Defect removal efficiency is one of the very important metric for maintaining and improving product quality. Defect tracking measurements are intended to ensure monitoring of product defects and their resolution processes so those defects do not escape into the field and impact the customer.

Software Estimation Process - Get your Project Right

2013-01-06T13:24:00.001-05:00

Estimation is very critical for success of any project . It is most critical and challenging part as often we don't have very details information while putting estimation on the place. It is recommended to always use Work break down structure for estimation support by issue/risk register . Follow process recommended by PMBOK by provided three levels of estimation . I have used three levels of estimation technique in my work and it always work great.

The three levels are:

High level estimation - confidence +80% to -80% after Joint Business requirement Phase
Second level estimation - Confidence + 25% to -25% after Functional requirement Phase
Final estimate - Confidence + 5% to -5% after deisgn Phase

Things to consider while during Software Estimation Process:

Following are the high level steps for software estimation

Refer to process/project database

Estimates on similar projects,
Productivity

Identify the project boundary
Document the assumptions/constraints

Scope of interfaces
High level requirements
Inclusion of Lifecycle stages

Identify Stages/Phases/Modules

Work breakdown structure
Help in mapping estimates
Identify deliverables

Select Method of estimation
Estimate Size, Efforts, Human Resources, HW/SW, Other resources
Map estimates to respective schedule

Factors of wrong estimation:

Following factors may lead to significantly wrong estimation and jeopardize whole project

<!--[if !supportLists]

1. Lack of formal process

2. Lack of enough/consistent historical data / expertise

3. Person dependent estimation

4. Inadequate requirements / vague and/or changing requirements

5. Project contract is determined by commercial or political interests

6. There is natural human tendency to underestimate

Steps in CPM (Critical Path Method) Project Planning

2012-09-19T10:51:00.000-04:00

Steps in CPM Project Planning:

Specify the individual activities.
Determine the sequence of those activities.
Draw a network diagram.
Estimate the completion time for each activity.
Identify the critical path (the longest path through the network)
Update the CPM diagram as the project progresses.

1. Specify the individual activities.

From the Work Breakdown Structure, a listing can be made of all the activities in the project. This listing can be used as the basis for adding sequence and duration information in later steps.

2. Determine the sequence of those activities.

Some activities are dependent upon the completion of others. A listing of the immediate predecessors of each activity is useful for constructing the CPM network diagram.

3. Draw a network diagram.

Once the activities and their sequencing have been defined, the CPM diagram can be drawn. CPM originally was developed as an activity on node (AON) network, but some project planners prefer to specify the activities on the arcs.

4. Estimate the completion time for each activity.

The time required to complete each activity can be estimated using past experience or the estimates of knowledgeable persons. CPM is a deterministic model that does not take into account variation in the completion time, so only one number can be used for an activity’s time estimate.

5. Identify the critical path

The critical path is the longest-duration path through the network. The significance of the critical path is that the activities that lie on it cannot be delayed without delaying the project. Because of its impact on the entire project, critical path analysis is an important aspect of project planning.

The critical path can be identified by determining the following four parameters for each activity:

ES – earliest start time: the earliest time at which an activity can begin given that its predecessor activities must be completed first.
EF – earliest finish time, equal to the earliest start time for the activity plus the time required to complete the activity.
LF – latest finish time: the latest time at which an activity can be completed without delaying the project.
LS – latest start time, equal to the latest finish time minus the time required to complete the activity.

The slack or float time for an activity is the time between the earliest and latest start time, or between the earliest and latest finish time. Slack is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed past its earliest start or earliest finish without delaying the project.

The critical path is the path through the project network in which none of the activities have slack, that is, the path for which LS=ES and LF=EF for all activities in the path. A delay in the critical path delays the project. Similarly, to accelerate the project it is necessary to reduce the total time required for the activities in the critical path.

6. Update CPM diagram

As the project progresses, the actual task completion times will be known and the diagram can be updated to include this information. A new critical path may emerge, and structural changes may be made in the network if project requirements change.

ITIL foundations Questions Series - Part-4

2012-08-22T20:35:00.001-04:00

1) Which of the following statements best describe the aims of release and development management?

a. To build, test and deliver the ability to provide the service by service design and that will accomplish the stakeholders requirements and deliver the intended objectives

b. To ensure that each release package specified by service design consists of a set of a related assets and service components that are compatible with each other

c. To ensure that all release and development packages are tracked, installed, tested, verified and/or uninstalled or backed out if appropriate

d. To record and manage deviations, risks and issues related to the new or changed service

2) Which of the following is an objective of Release and Deployment Management?

a. To standardize methods and procedures for efficient and prompt handling of all Changes.

b. To ensure all changes to Service Assets and Configuration Items(CIs) are recorded in the Configuration Management System(CMS)

c. To ensure that overall business risk of Change is optimized

d. To define and agree release and deployment plans with customers & stakeholders.

3) Which of the following is the correct definition of a release unit?

a. A measurement of cost

b. A function described within service transition

c. The team of people responsible for implementing a release

d. The portion of a service or IT infrastructure that is normally released together

4) Which of the following statements best describe a definitive media library (DML)?

a. A secure location where definitive hardware spares are held

b. A secure library where definitive authorized versions of all media configuration items (CLs) are stored and protected

c. A database that contains definitions of all media CIs

d. A secure library where definitive authorized version of all software and back-ups are stored and protected.

5) Configuration management database (CMDBs) and the configuration management system (CMS) are both elements of what larger entity?

a. The Asset Register

b. The service Knowledge Management System

c. The Known Error Database

d. The Information Management System

6) Which of the following statement is CORRECT?

a. The configuration management system is a part of the known error data base

b. The service knowledge management system is a part of the configuration management system

c. The configuration management system is a part of the service knowledge management system

d. The configuration management system is a apart of the configuration management database

7) Which activity ensures there is conformity between the documented configuration baselines and the actual environment to which they refer?

a. Configuration Control

b. Configuration Identification

c. Status Accounting

d. Verification and audit

8) Which process is responsible for controlling, recording and reporting on versions, attributes and relationships relating to components of the IT infrastructure?

a. Service level management

b. Change management

c. Incident management

d. Service asset and configuration management

9) Which of the following options is a hierarchy that is used in knowledge management?

a. Wisdom – information – data – knowledge

b. Data – information – knowledge – wisdom

c. Knowledge –wisdom – information – data

d. Information – data – knowledge – wisdom

10) In a service operation, if too much emphasis is placed on stability, what might the likely outcome be in terms of responsiveness to the customer needs?

a. Customer needs will be met more easily because of the improved stability of the services with fewer failures with to disrupt timely delivery.

b. It is possible that responsiveness may suffer and customer needs may not be met within business time scales

c. There is only likely to be positive outcome from improved stability the customers must be made fully aware of this and their expectation regarding responsiveness must be managed

d. From the information given it is not possible to comment regarding the impact of responsiveness of over emphasis on stability

11) Which functions are included in IT operational management?

a. Network management and application management

b. Technical management and application management

c. IT operations control and facilities management

d. Facilities management and technical management

12) Which function would provide staff to monitor events in an Operations Bridge?

a. Technical management

b. IT Operations Management

c. Service Desk

d. Application management

13) The best description of the purpose of service operation is?

a. To decide how IT will engage with suppliers during the service management lifecycle

b. To proactively prevent all outages to IT services

c. To design and build processes that will meet business needs

d. To deliver and support IT services at agreed levels to business users and customers

14) Which part of the service lifecycle is responsible for coordinating and carrying out the activities and processes required to deliver and manage services at agreed levels to business users and customers?

a. Continual Service Improvement

b. Service Transition

c. Service Design

d. Service Operation

15) Removing or restricting rights to use an IT service is the responsibility of which process?

a. Incident management

b. Access management

c. Change management

d. Request fulfillment

16) What is the definition of alert?

a. An audit report that indicates areas where IT is not performing according to agreed procedures

b. A type of incident

c. An error message to the user of an application

d. A warning that a threshold has been reached or that something has changed

17) Which of the following is the BEST definition of an Event?

a. Any detectable or discernable occurrence that has significance for the management of the IT infrastructure

b. An unplanned interruption to an IT service

c. The unknown cause of one or more incidents

d. Reducing or eliminating the cause of an incident or Problem

18) Which of these is not a responsibility of application management?

a. Ensuring that the correct skills are available to manage the infrastructure

b. Assisting in the design of the application

c. Providing guidelines to IT operations about how to manage the application

d. Deciding whether to buy or build an application

19) Major incidents required?

a. Separate procedures

b. Less urgency

c. Longer timescales

d. Less documentation

20) Which of the following statements correctly state the relationship between urgency, priority and impact?

a. Impact, priority and urgency are independent of each other

b. Urgency should be based o Impact and priority

c. Impact should be based on urgency and priority

d. Priority should be based on impact and urgency

21) Hierarchic escalation is best described as?

a. Notifying more senior levels of management about an incident

b. Passing an incident to people with a greater level of technical skill

c. Using more senior specialists than necessary to resolve an incident to maintain customer satisfaction

d. Falling to meet the incident resolution times specified in a service level agreement

22) Which of the following is NOT the responsibility of service catalogue manager?

a. Ensuring that information in the service catalogue is accurate

b. Ensuring that information within the service pipeline is accurate

c. Ensuring that information in the service catalogue is consistent with information in the service portfolio

d. Ensuring that all operational services are recorded in service catalogue

23) Which of the following BEST describes Technical management?

a. A function responsible for Facilities Management and building control systems.

b. A function that provides hardware repair services for technology involved in the delivery of service to customers.

c. Senior Managers responsible for all staff within the technical support function.

d. A function that includes the groups, departments or teams that provides technical expertise and overall management of the IT infrastructure.

24) Identify the input to the Problem management process.

a. Request for Change

b. Problem resolution

c. Incident records

d. New known errors.

25) Which of this BEST describes a Problem?

a. A Known Error for which cause and resolution are not yet known

b. The cause of two or more incidents

c. A serious incident which has critical impact to business.

d. A cause of one or more incidents.

26) What are the two major processes in Problem Management?

a. Technical and Service

b. Resource and Proactive

c. Reactive and Technical

d. Proactive and Reactive

27) Where details of a workaround should always be documented?

a. The Service Level Agreement (SLA)

b. The Problem Record

c. The Availability Management Information System

d. The IT Service Continuity Plan

28) Who is responsible for ensuring that the request fulfillment process is being performed according to the agreed and documented process?

a. The IT director

b. The process owner

c. The service owner

d. The customer

29) What is the objective of Access Management?

a. To provide security staff for Data Centers and other buildings

b. To manage access to computer rooms and other secure locations

c. To manage access to the Service Desk

d. To manage the right to use a service or group of services

30) Which of the following is not a Service Desk type recognized in the Service Operation volume of ITIL?

a. Local

b. Centralized

c. Holistic

d. Virtual

31) Which of the following is the BEST description of a centralized Service Desk?

a. The desk is co-located within or physically close to the user community, it serves.

b. The desk uses technology and other support tools to give the impression that multiple desk locations are in one place.

c. The desk provides 24-hr global support.

d. There is a single desk in one location serving the whole organization.

32) Which of the following processes are performed by the Service Desk?

1) Capacity management

2) Request Fulfillment

3) Demand management

4) Incident Management

a. All of the above

b. 2,3 and 4 only

c. 2 and 4 only

d. 2 only

Part-2 : http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/05/itil-foundations-questions-series-part.html

Part-1: http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/04/itil-foundations-questions-series-part.html

Part-3:http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/07/itil-foundations-questions-series-part.html

If you are interested in achieving ITIL Certification then please reach out to BitMaple http://bitmaple.com

They assign dedicated mentor and provide discount on ITIL Certifications .

Reach out to contactus@bitmaple.com

ITIL foundations Questions Series - Part-3

2012-07-09T22:14:00.002-04:00

1) Which of the following activities are responsibilities of a Supplier Manager?

1. Negotiating and agreeing Contracts

2. Updating the Supplier and Contract database.

3. Planning for possible closure, renewal or extension of contracts.

4. Managing relationships with internal suppliers.

a. 1, 2 and 3 only

b. 1, 3 and 4 only

c. 2, 3 and 4 only

d. None of the above

2) IT Service Continuity strategy should be based on:

1. Design of the service technology.

2. Business continuity strategy.

3. Business Impact Analysis.

4. Risk assessment

a. 1, 2 and 4 only

b. 1, 2 and 3 only

c. 2, 3 and 4 only

d. 1, 3 and 4 only

3) Which of the following does the availability management process include?

1. Ensuring services are able to meet availability targets

2. Monitoring and reporting actual availability

3. Improvement activities, to ensure that services continue to meet or exceed their availability goals

a. 1 only

b. All of the above

c. 1 and 2 only

d. 1 and 3 only

4) Reliability is a measure of:

a. The availability of a service or a component.

b. The level of risk that could impact a service or a process

c. How long a service or component can perform its function without failing.

d. A measure of how quickly a service or component can be restored to normal working.

5) The goal of which process is “To improve the quality of management decision making by ensuring that reliable and secure information and data is available throughout the lifecycle”?

a. Knowledge Management

b. Availability management

c. Service Asset and Configuration management

d. Change management

6) Availability Management is responsible for availability of the :

a. Services and Components

b. Services and Business Processes.

c. Components and Business Processes.

d. Service Components and Business Processes.

7) The group that authorizes changes that must be installed faster than the normal process is called?

a. CAB emergency committee

b. Emergency CAB

c. Urgent change board

d. Urgent change authority

8) Which of the following sentences best describe a standard change?

a. A change to the service provider established policies and guidelines

b. A change that correctly follows the required change process

c. A pre authorized change that has an accepted and established procedure

d. A change that is made as the result of an audit

9) Which of the following is the correct description of the seven R’s of change management?

a. A set of questions that should be asked to help understand the impact of changes

b. A seven step process for releasing change into production

c. A set of questions that should be asked when reviewing the success of a recent change

d. A definition of the roles and responsibilities required for change management

10) Which body exists to support the authorization of changes and to assist Change management in the assessment and prioritization of changes?

a. The change Authorization board

b. The Change Advisory Board

c. The Change Implementer

d. The Change manager

11) Which stage of the Change Management process deals with what should be done if the change is unsuccessful?

a. Remediation Planning

b. Categorization

c. Prioritization

d. Review and Close

12) Which of the following are benefits that implement service transition could provide to the business?

1. Ability to adapt quickly to new requirements

2. Reduce cost to design new services

3. Improved success in implementing changes

a. 1 and 2 only

b. 2 and 3 only

c. 1 and 3 only

d. All of the above

13) “Planning and managing the resources required to deploy a release into production” is a purpose of which part of Service Life cycle?

a. Service Operation

b. Service Strategy

c. Service Transition

d. Continual Service Improvement

14) In the phrase “people, process, products and partners”. Products refers to

a. IT infrastructure and applications

b. Services, technology and tools

c. Goods provided by third parties to support the IT services

d. All assets belonging to the service provider

15) Which of the following are aspects of service design?

1. Architectures

2. Technology

3. Service management processes

4. Metrics

a. 1 only

b. 2 and 3 only

c. 1, 2 and 4 only

d. All of the above

16) In which core publication can you find detailed descriptions of Service Catalogue management, Information Security Management & Supplier Management?

a. Service Strategy

b. Service Design

c. Service Transition

d. Service Operation

17) Service design emphasizes the importance of the ‘four ps’. Which of the following is correct list of these Ps?

a. People, products, partners, profit

b. People, process, products, partners

c. Potential. Preparation, performance, profit

d. People, potential, products, performance

18) Within Service Design, what is the key output handed over to Service Transition?

a. Measurement, methods and metrics

b. Service Design Package

c. Service Portfolio Design

d. Process definitions

19) The main objective of service level management is:

a. To carry out the service operations activities needed to support current IT services

b. To ensure that sufficient capacity is provided to deliver the agreed performance of services

c. To create and populate a service catalogue

d. To ensure that an agreed level of IT service is provided for all current IT services

20) Which process is responsible for monitoring and IT service and detecting when the performance drops below acceptable limits?

a. Service asset and configuration management

b. Event management

c. Service level management

d. Performance management

21) What is the BEST description of an Operational Level Agreement (OLA)?

a. An agreement between the service provider and another part of the same organization.

b. An agreement between the service provider and an external organization.

c. A document that describes to a customer how services will be operated on a day-to-day basis.

d. A document that describes business services to operational staff.

22) Which of the following are activities to be carried out by supplier management?

1. Management and review of organizational level agreement (OLAs)

2. Evaluation and selection of suppliers

3. Ongoing management of suppliers

a. 1 and 2 only

b. 1 and 3 only

c. 2 and 3 only

d. All of the above

23) Which of the following is a responsibility of Supplier Management?

a. Development, negotiation and agreement of Service level Agreements(SLAs)

b. Development, negotiation and agreement of contracts

c. Development, negotiation and agreement of the Service Portfolio

d. Development, negotiation and agreement of Organizational Level Agreements(OLAs)

24) Which of the following defines the level of protection in Information Security management?

a. The ISO 20000 Standard

b. The ISO 27001 Standard

c. The Business

d. The Service Level manager

25) Which process contains the business, service and component sub-process?

a. Capacity management

b. Incident management

c. Service level management

d. Financial management

Part-2 : http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/05/itil-foundations-questions-series-part.html

Part-1: http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/04/itil-foundations-questions-series-part.html

How is Leader different from Manager

2012-07-08T21:42:00.000-04:00

Many people has myth that Managers and Leaders are almost same but there are major difference . These day we need more leaders than managers. Below are the some major points:

LEADER IS A REPRESENTATIVE OF SUBORDINATES:
He is intermediary between the work groups and top management.Leader shows personal consideration for the employees. As representatives they carry the voice of the subordinates to the to management.

LEADER IS AN APPROPRIATE COUNSELOR:
Quite often people in the work place need counseling to eliminate the emotional disequilibria that is created sometimes in them. Leader removes barriers and stumbling block to effective performance. For instance, frustration that results from blocked need drive keeps an employee derailed or the working track. It is here the leader comes in, renders wise counsel, releases the employee of the emotional tension and restores equilibrium.

USES POWER PROPERLY:
If a leader is to effectively achieve the goal expected of him, he must have power and authority to act in a way that will stimulate a positive response from the workers. A leader , depending on the situation , exercises different types of power , viz reward power and expert power. Besides the formal basis , the informal basis of power also have a more powerful impact on organizational effectiveness. No leader is effective unless the subordinates obey his orders. There fore, the leader uses appropriate power so that subordinates willingly obey the orders and come forward with commitment.

LEADER MANAGES THE TIME WELL:
Times is precious and vital but often overlooked in management. There are three dimensions of time – boss – imposed – time , system- imposed –time and self – imposed time . That are prominent in literature. Because the leader has through knowledge of the principle of time management such as preparing time charts, scheduling techniques, etc., he is in a position to utilize the time productively in the organization.

STRIVES FOR EFFECTIVENESS:
Quite frequently the manager are work – abolish and too busy with petty things to address to major details of effectiveness. To fill the gap, sometimes leaders throws his concerted efforts to bring effectiveness by encouraging and nurturing team work, by better time management and by the proper use of power. Further, leader provides and adequate reward structure to encourage performance of employees. Leader delegates authority where needed and invites participation where possible to achieve the better result. He also provides the workers with necessary resources. By communicating to workers what is expected of them, leader brings effectiveness to organization. The above functions of the leader are by no means comprehensive but they do suggest as to what leaders do generally.

MANAGING AND LEADING:
Leading and managing are not synonymous. One popular way of distinguishing between managing and leading is brought out by the French terms dux and Rex. Dex is a leader and an activist, innovators and often an inspirational type and rex is a stabilizer or broker of manager. But more realistically, effective management required good leadership. Bennis had once commented, there are many institutions I know are very well managed but very poorly led”. This statement crystal – clearly demonstrates that the difference between managing, and leading is indeed a lot. Though a layman considers managing as a broad terms including leading function a behaviorist advances the following points to marshall the difference between these two leading and managing.

RELATIONSHIPS:
Managerial behavior implies the existence of a manager managed relationship. This relationship arises with in organizational context. Where as leadership can occur why where, it does not have to originate in the organization context. for example , a mob can have a leader but cannot have a manager. Further, is an organization, informal. Group have leader not managers.

SOURCES OF INFLUENCE:
Another potential difference between leader and manager lies in their sources of influence. Authority is attached to the managerial position in the case of a manager: where as a leader may not have authority but can receive power directly from his followers. In other words, managers obtain authority from his followers. In rather pure terms, this is the difference between the formal authority theory and the acceptance theory of authority.

SANCTIONS:
A Manger has command over all allocation and distributions of sanctions. For Example, manager has control over the positive sanctions such as promotion and awards for his task performance and the contribution to organizational objectives. Manager is also in a position to exercises the negative sanctions such as with holding promotions, or mistakes, etc. In a sharp contrast, a leader has altogether different type of sanctions to exercises and grant. He cans gerent or with hold access to satisfying the very purpose of joining the group’s social satisfactions and related task rewards. These informal sanctions are relevant to the individual with belongingness or ego needs: where as the organizational sanctions granted or exercised by the managers are geared to the physiological and security needs of individual.

ROLE CONTINUANCE:
Another fundamental difference between managing and leading is the role continuance. A manager may continue in office as long as his performance is satisfactory and acceptable to the organization. In sharp contrast, a leader maintains his position only through the day to day wish to the followers.

REASONS FOR FOLLOWING:
Though in both managing and leading followers become involved, the reasons may be different. People follow managers because their job description, supported by a system of rewards and sanctions, requires them to follow. Where as people follow leader on voluntary basis. Further, it there are no followers, leader no more exists. But, even if there are no followers, a manager may be there.

Essential Quality for Leaders and People Manager:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/04/essential-quality-for-leaders-and.html

Six Sigma Responsibility and Need for Key Success

2012-06-20T22:59:00.001-04:00

Champions:

Champions are functioning at strategic level
They create the vision and define path for six sigma implementation across organization
They choose appropriate people for the projects and oversee that there people remain focused on the problem
They are the middleman to convey worthwhile improvement opportunities to the top level management so that resources needed are allocated
Champions are senior executive heading a major functional department ar a strategic business unit

Master Black Belts:

They are partners of the champions
They understand the big business picture and provide assistance in identification of the projects
They are the leader of major programs and take a role to develop and deliver training to other six sigma professional through out organization
They devote 100% of their time foe six sigma projects and using softskill organizing and dealing with people

Black Belts:

Like Master Black Belts, they are also full time advocates of six sigma quality initiative.
After the projects are defined by the Champions and MBB,the BB take the problem further through the next phases of Six Sigma
Black Belts are more technically oriented , they must be familiar and able to determine the most effective Six Sigma tool to attack the problem
Leadership quality must also be present because they must manage the project and provide training to Green Belts

Green Belts:

They are employee trained in Six Sigma who can spend a portion of their time completing project, but maintain their regular work role and responsibilities
Working with BB, they experience the practical application of Six Sigma tools as they apply to particular project

Key Success for Six Sigma:

Upper management involvement and commitment
Strategy coupled with the right people
Highly trained and cross functional personnel in team work
Project orientation with clear and defined goals
Striving for better quality not just meeting minimum standard

Other very useful Six Sigma Articles:

Growth of Six Sigma - From History :

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/01/undertaking-to-progression-of-six-sigma.html
Future embrace for Six Sigma:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/01/future-embrace-for-six-sigma.html

The Benefits of Six Sigma in the Service Industry:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/01/benefits-of-six-sigma-in-service.html

Womack and Jones' 5 principles of lean

2012-06-16T16:37:00.000-04:00

Womack and Jones' 5 principles of lean :

The basic idea of lean is attractively simple. It is that the organization should be obsessively focused on the most effective means of producing value for their customers. An organization using lean will approach this challenge by:

Applying 5 basic lean principles.
Focusing on understanding waste and value in its work .
Training staff who do and manage the work to act as improvement teams to bring about change.
The final outcome to prepare spiral of perfection .

The 5 principles are:

1. Specify what customers Value :

Value is what the customer wants and only what the customer wants. This requires a precise understanding of the specific needs of the customer. It is said that up to 95% of process activities are non - value adding. This is probably true, depending on your definition of value adding vs supporting and waste in a system

2. Understand the Value Stream :

The value stream are those activities that, when done correctly and in the right order, produce the product or service that the customer values. A lean organization traces and manages all the activities in the organization that deliver value wherever they are and whichever department they are in.

Activities can be:

· in whole or part unnecessary and wasteful (and therefore, should be eliminated).

· supporting the value-adding activities (which should be reduced as far as possible).

· customer value-adding (which should be continuously improved) .

3. Improve the Flow – In a lean organization work should flow steadily and without interruption from one value adding or supporting activity to the next. This is contrasted with the “batching” of work where, for instance a week's expenses claims are collected for a manager to authorize in one go. Where it is suitable, flow significantly speeds the processing and every effort should be made to eliminate obstacles and bottlenecks that prevent flow

4. Pull – The system should react to customer demand, in other words, customers pull the work through the system. In non-lean organizations work is pushed though the system at the convenience of the operators and so you produce outputs that are not required. Most services react to customer demand and so pull the work through the system

5. Perfection – As the first four principles are implemented you should get to understand the system ever better and from this understanding you should generate ideas for more improvement. A lean system becomes yet leaner and faster and waste is ever easier to identify and eliminate. A perfect process delivers just the right amount of value to the customer. In a perfect process, every step is valuable-adding, capable (produces a good result every time), available (produces the desired output, not just the desired quality, every time), adequate (does not cause delay), flexible, and linked by continuous flow. If one of these factors fails some waste is produced (see below).

Womack and Jones have set out six additional principles of what they call lean consumption that that correspond closely with those of lean production:

1. Solve the customer’s problem completely by ensuring that all the goods and services work, and work together

2. Don’t waste the customer’s time

3. Provide exactly what the customer wants

4. Provide what’s wanted exactly where it’s wanted

5. Provide what’s wanted where it’s wanted exactly when it’s wanted

6. Continually aggregate solutions to reduce the customer’s time and hassle.

These principles recast traditional lean thinking principles to make us take a customer eyed-view of our services. It is similar to the efforts marketers have made in recent years to move away from the 4P's of Product, Price, Promotion and Place to Concept (i.e. the benefit to the customer of the service), Cost (to the customer including hassle and lost opportunities to be elsewhere doing something else), Communication and Channel accessibility.

An Introduction to LEAN:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/01/core-idea-of-lean-to-maximize-customer.html

Very Brief history of LEAN:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/01/very-brief-history-of-lean.html

7 Steps of Continuous Service Improvement (CSI)

2012-06-12T19:28:00.000-04:00

7 Step Improvement Process

1. Define what you should measure

It's important that this step is already filled out instantly, as identifying what should be measured must be included in the initial stages (as early as planning the Service Design and Service Strategy, the precise areas/items to be measured should be clarified and noted).

2. Define what you can measure

With the service level requirements, budget constraints and IT capabilities noted and identified, it should be easier to find out what areas to measure. By having the different processes and functions mapped out, CSI can find out what areas have room for improvement as it conducts a gap analysis.

3. Gather the data

To be able to have comparable data, the next step should be to set out to gather and collect raw facts and quantitative data. Data is usually gathered according to the goals and objectives of the service operation. The second those goals and objectives are identified; data should be gathered through various means.

4. Process the data

In this step, the gathered data is processed in conjunction with the ITIL's Critical Success Factor and the specified Key Performance Indicators. During this time, the raw data is compartmentalized and organized according to its distinctive categories and operations which would make comparing and analyzing data much easier.

5. Analyze the data

When the data has reached its target and is instantly codified, information takes place as the data gathered is carefully analyzed and carefully compared as to find the missing gaps, flaws and its overall effect of the collected information on the company.

6. Present and use the information

The analyzed data is now presented to the owners and managing operators of the business in a manner that is clear and well defined. The collected data is distributed and explained in a way that answers the company's demands and at the same offers solutions and steps for improvement. There are usually three distinct audiences:

The Business

Senior (IT) Management

Internal IT

7. Implementing corrective action

As CSI identifies the areas in need of change or the soft spots of the business, the collected data can now be used to start the onset for change. With this gathered knowledge, CSI can offer multiple options and alternative solutions to the discovered problems of the various service operations.

Following is the graphical flow for these 7 Steps:

As these steps takes place in a spiral process, CSI can easily distinguish with greater clarity what the company needs the most. The compiled facts and data is a great thing to have over time, as it can work as a means to compare and contrast the past instances to present emergency conditions.

The 7 step improvement process is an integral process of CSI as this makes it possible for service resources and teams to identify and actually understand which processes and aspects of their operations are in need of major monitoring and enhancement.

ITIL foundations Questions Series - Part-2

2012-05-01T20:24:00.003-04:00

Simplilearn test were very helpful and close to real exam. They are not much costly:

http://www.simplilearn.com/simplilearn/?a_aid=4ff719e29ea6a&utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=saurabh

1) Which of the following activities are responsibilities of a Supplier Manager?

1. Negotiating and agreeing Contracts

2. Updating the Supplier and Contract database.

3. Planning for possible closure, renewal or extension of contracts.

4. Managing relationships with internal suppliers.

a. 1, 2 and 3 only

b. 1, 3 and 4 only

c. 2, 3 and 4 only

d. None of the above

2) IT Service Continuity strategy should be based on:

1. Design of the service technology.

2. Business continuity strategy.

3. Business Impact Analysis.

4. Risk assessment

a. 1, 2 and 4 only

b. 1, 2 and 3 only

c. 2, 3 and 4 only

d. 1, 3 and 4 only

3) Which of the following does the availability management process include?

1. Ensuring services are able to meet availability targets

2. Monitoring and reporting actual availability

3. Improvement activities, to ensure that services continue to meet or exceed their availability goals

a. 1 only

b. All of the above

c. 1 and 2 only

d. 1 and 3 only

4) Reliability is a measure of:

a. The availability of a service or a component.

b. The level of risk that could impact a service or a process

c. How long a service or component can perform its function without failing.

d. A measure of how quickly a service or component can be restored to normal working.

5) The goal of which process is “To improve the quality of management decision making by ensuring that reliable and secure information and data is available throughout the lifecycle”?

a. Knowledge Management

b. Availability management

c. Service Asset and Configuration management

d. Change management

6) Availability Management is responsible for availability of the :

a. Services and Components

b. Services and Business Processes.

c. Components and Business Processes.

d. Service Components and Business Processes.

7) The group that authorizes changes that must be installed faster than the normal process is called?

a. CAB emergency committee

b. Emergency CAB

c. Urgent change board

d. Urgent change authority

8) Which of the following sentences best describe a standard change?

a. A change to the service provider established policies and guidelines

b. A change that correctly follows the required change process

c. A pre authorized change that has an accepted and established procedure

d. A change that is made as the result of an audit

9) Which of the following is the correct description of the seven R’s of change management?

a. A set of questions that should be asked to help understand the impact of changes

b. A seven step process for releasing change into production

c. A set of questions that should be asked when reviewing the success of a recent change

d. A definition of the roles and responsibilities required for change management

10) Which body exists to support the authorization of changes and to assist Change management in the assessment and prioritization of changes?

a. The change Authorization board

b. The Change Advisory Board

c. The Change Implementer

d. The Change manager

11) Which stage of the Change Management process deals with what should be done if the change is unsuccessful?

a. Remediation Planning

b. Categorization

c. Prioritization

d. Review and Close

12) Which of the following are benefits that implement service transition could provide to the business?

1. Ability to adapt quickly to new requirements

2. Reduce cost to design new services

3. Improved success in implementing changes

a. 1 and 2 only

b. 2 and 3 only

c. 1 and 3 only

d. All of the above

13) “Planning and managing the resources required to deploy a release into production” is a purpose of which part of Service Lifecycle?

a. Service Operation

b. Service Strategy

c. Service Transition

d. Continual Service Improvement

14) In the phrase “people, process, products and partners”. Products refers to

a. IT infrastructure and applications

b. Services, technology and tools

c. Goods provided by third parties to support the IT services

d. All assets belonging to the service provider

15) Which of the following are aspects of service design?

1. Architectures

2. Technology

3. Service management processes

4. Metrics

a. 1 only

b. 2 and 3 only

c. 1, 2 and 4 only

d. All of the above

16) In which core publication can you find detailed descriptions of Service Catalogue management, Information Security Management & Supplier Management?

a. Service Strategy

b. Service Design

c. Service Transition

d. Service Operation

17) Service design emphasizes the importance of the ‘four ps’. Which of the following is correct list of these Ps?

a. People, products, partners, profit

b. People, process, products, partners

c. Potential. Preparation, performance, profit

d. People, potential, products, performance

18) Within Service Design, what is the key output handed over to Service Transition?

a. Measurement, methods and metrics

b. Service Design Package

c. Service Portfolio Design

d. Process definitions

19) The main objective of service level management is:

a. To carry out the service operations activities needed to support current IT services

b. To ensure that sufficient capacity is provided to deliver the agreed performance of services

c. To create and populate a service catalogue

d. To ensure that an agreed level of IT service is provided for all current IT services

20) Which process is responsible for monitoring and IT service and detecting when the performance drops below acceptable limits?

a. Service asset and configuration management

b. Event management

c. Service level management

d. Performance management

21) What is the BEST description of an Operational Level Agreement (OLA)?

a. An agreement between the service provider and another part of the same organization.

b. An agreement between the service provider and an external organization.

c. A document that describes to a customer how services will be operated on a day-to-day basis.

d. A document that describes business services to operational staff.

22) Which of the following are activities to be carried out by supplier management?

1. Management and review of organizational level agreement (OLAs)

2. Evaluation and selection of suppliers

3. Ongoing management of suppliers

a. 1 and 2 only

b. 1 and 3 only

c. 2 and 3 only

d. All of the above

23) Which of the following is a responsibility of Supplier Management?

a. Development, negotiation and agreement of Service level Agreements(SLAs)

b. Development, negotiation and agreement of contracts

c. Development, negotiation and agreement of the Service Portfolio

d. Development, negotiation and agreement of Organizational Level Agreements(OLAs)

24) Which of the following defines the level of protection in Information Security management?

a. The ISO 20000 Standard

b. The ISO 27001 Standard

c. The Business

d. The Service Level manager

25) Which process contains the business, service and component sub-process?

a. Capacity management

b. Incident management

c. Service level management

d. Financial management

26) Which of the following are the two primary elements that create value for customer?

a. Value on investment (VOI), return on investment (ROI)

b. Customer and user satisfaction

c. Understanding and user satisfaction

d. Utility and warranty

27) Which of the following statements about the service portfolio and service catalogue is most correct?

a) The service catalogue only has information about services that are live or being prepared for deployment; the service portfolio only has information about services which are being considered for future development

b) The service catalogue has information about all services; the service portfolio only has information about services which are being considered for future development

c) The service portfolio has information about all services; the service catalogue only has information about services which are live, or being prepared for deployment

d) The service catalogue and service portfolio are different names for the thing

28) As a strategic tool for assessing the value of IT services, Financial Management applies to which of the following service provider types?

1. An internal service provider embedded within a business unit

2. An internal service provider that provides shared IT services

3. An external service provider

a. All of the above

b. 1 and 2 only

c. 1 and 3 only

d. 2 and 3 only

29) Understanding customer usage of services and how this varies over time is part of which process?

a. Service Portfolio Management

b. Service Level management

c. Component Capacity management

d. Demand Management

30) Which process is primarily supported by the analysis of business activity (PBA)?

a. Availability management

b. Demand management

c. Financial management

d. Service level management

31) What are the types of activities within demand management?

a. Activity based, access management

b Activity based, business activity patterns and user profiles

c Analytical based business activity partners and user profiles

d Analytical based, shaping user behavior.

Visit Part -1 : http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/04/itil-foundations-questions-series-part.html

Essential Quality for Leaders and People Manager

2012-04-20T16:50:00.000-04:00

Essential Quality for Leaders and People Manager:

Good Communicator:
The ability to communicate with people at all levels is almost always named as the second most important skill by project managers and team members. Project leadership calls for clear communication about goals, responsibility, performance, expectations and feedback.

Team-Building Skills:
A team builder can best be defined as a strong person who provides the substance that holds the team together in common purpose toward the right objective

Enthusiasm:
Plain and simple, we don't like leaders who are negative - they bring us down. We want leaders with enthusiasm, with a bounce in their step, with a can-do attitude. We want to believe that we are part of an invigorating journey - we want to feel alive.

Ability to Delegate Tasks:
Trust is an essential element in the relationship of a project leader and his or her team. You demonstrate your trust in others through your actions - how much you check and control their work, how much you delegate and how much you allow people to participate.

Inspires a Shared Vision:
An effective project leader is often described as having a vision of where to go and the ability to articulate it. Visionaries thrive on change and being able to draw new boundaries.

Cool Under Pressure :
In a perfect world, projects would be delivered on time, under budget and with no major problems or obstacles to overcome. But we don't live in a perfect world - projects have problems.

Competence:
Simply put, to enlist in another's cause, we must believe that that person knows what he or she is doing. Leadership competence does not however necessarily refer to the project leader's technical abilities in the core technology of the business.

Integrity:
One of the most important things a project leader must remember is that his or her actions, and not words, set the modus operandi for the team. Good leadership demands commitment to, and demonstration of, ethical practices.

Problem Solving Skills:
Although an effective leader is said to share problem-solving responsibilities with the team, we expect our project leaders to have excellent problem-solving skills themselves. They have a "fresh, creative response to here-and-now opportunities," and not much concern with how others have performed them.

Empathy:
What is the difference between empathy and sympathy? Although the words are similar, they are, in fact, mutually exclusive.

Know How is leaders different than managers:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-is-leader-different-from-manager.html

Here a nice video for cost of poor quality:

Cost of poor Quality

ITIL foundations Questions Series - Part-1

2012-04-06T21:10:00.000-04:00

1) Match the following activities with the Deming stages

1) Monitor, measure and review

2) Continual improvement

3) Implement initiatives

4) Plan for improvement

a. 1 plan, 2 do, 3 check, 4 act

b. 3 plan, 2 do, 4 check, 1 act

c. 4 plan, 3 do, 1 check, 2 act

d. 2 plan, 3 do, 4 check, 1 act

2) Which of the following is not a characteristic of a process?

a. It is a measurable

b. Delivers specific results

c. Responds to specific events

d. A method of structuring an organization

3) Which of the following is concerned with fairness and transparency?

a. Capacity management

b. Governance

c. Service strategy

d. Service Level Management

4) A process owner is responsible for which of the following?

1) Documenting the process

2) Defining the process key performance indicators (KPIs)

3) Improving the process

4) Ensuring process staff undertake the required training

a. 1, 3 and 4 only

b. All of the above

c. 1, 2 and 3 only

d. 1,2 and 4 only

5) Who owns the specific costs and risks associated with providing a service?

a. The service provider

b. The service level manager

c. The customer

d. Resources

6) What are the publications that provide guidance specific to industry sectors and the organization types known as?

a. The service strategy and service transition books

b. The ITIL complementary guidance

c. The service support and service delivery goods

d. Pocket guides.

7) Governance is concerned with

a. Measuring and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of processes

b. Ensuring that processes and procedures are correctly followed

c. Reducing the total cost of providing services

d. Ensuring that agreed Service Level Requirements are met.

8) A risk is:

a. Something that won’t happen

b. Something that will happen

c. Something that has happened

d. Something that might happen

9) Which of the following is the BEST definition of the term Service Management?

a. A set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services

b. A group of interacting, interrelated, or independent components that form a unified whole, operating together for a common purpose

c. The management of functions within an organization to perform certain activities

d. Units of organizations with roles to perform certain activities

10) How many people should be accountable for a process as defined in the RACI model?

a. As many as necessary to complete the activity

b. Only one – The process owner

c. Two – The process owner and the process enactor

d. Only one – The process architect.

Visit next in Series Part -2 : http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/05/itil-foundations-questions-series-part.html

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle

2012-04-06T20:58:00.000-04:00

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act):

The PDCA Cycle was originally conceived by Walter Shewhart in 1930's, and later adopted by W. Edwards Deming. The model provides a framework for the improvement of a process or system. It can be used to guide the entire improvement project, or to develop specific projects once target improvement areas have been identified.

Ø Plan - Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the expected output.

Ø Do - Implement the new processes. Often on a small scale if possible.

Ø Check - Measure the new processes and compare the results against the expected results to ascertain any differences.

Ø Act - Analyze the differences to determine their cause. Each will be part of either one or more of the P-D-C-A steps. Determine where to apply changes that will include improvement

Study Item for PMI-ACP Agile certification

2012-03-09T10:10:00.000-05:00

As my next step to go for Agile ACP so I have just started collecting useful study item from different groups.

It is kind of Dashboard for me to collect all information and then start with certification . Hope it will help you too :).

Start with:
http://wafimohtaseb.com/2012/02/27/pmi-acp-study-guide/
http://www.wareness.com/ACPExamtips.shtml
http://agiletraining.com/2011/09/24/pmi-acp-agile-certification-exam-study-tips/#

Books:

Mike Griffith's book (Recommended ). It makes you think, changes your mindset (to both Agile-oriented and exam-oriented)-

PMI-ACP By Andy Crowe - Recommended

Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility by Alan Shalloway, Guy Beaver, James R. Trott

Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products – 2nd Edition by Jim Highsmith

Agile Estimating and Planning, by Mike Cohn

The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility by Michele Sliger and Stacia Broderick

Art of Agile Development by James Shore’s : Extreme Programming (XP).

The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility by Michele Sliger (Chapter 10 & 11): Risk and Communication.

Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins

Test:

If you are interested in achieving PMP and Agile Certification then reach out to BitMaple http://bitmaple.com

They assign dedicated mentor and provide discount on PMP Certifications course and other Agile course .

Reach out to contactus@bitmaple.com

Succeeding with Six Sigma

2012-02-24T12:01:00.002-05:00

Successfully implementing Six Sigma in service businesses requires a constant focus on customers and meeting their needs as efficiently as possible. This involves four critical steps:

1. Define what is critical to customers and confirm that the core processes are aligned to those requirements.

As the term “services” implies, you must understand your customers’ needs before you can serve them. Find out what those needs are. There are many ways to uncover those needs — through surveys, call center results, focus groups, and promotional campaigns — whatever means allow the voice of the customer to be heard loudly and clearly. At the same time, you must understand the key business issues for your company and align them with the voice of the customer.

2. Translate customer requirements into measurable characteristics of your processes.

Once you understand customer requirements, you must be able to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of your processes in fulfilling those requirements. Effectiveness addresses the problem of “defects” that your processes produce; efficiency addresses the time and money that the processes consume in meeting customer needs. A high rate of defects or time and money wasted in non-value-added activities increases your cost per transaction. The formula for translating customer requirements into measurable characteristics is simple, for example,”as measured by.”I If on-time delivery is important for your customer, then the metric would typically be on-time delivery “as measured by” the time from the promised date to the date of actual fulfillment.

3. Quantify the impact of particular gaps in your processes in terms of the cost of poor quality.

For example, a telecommunications vendor whose customers want fast action on their applications might find that the process includes a high number of abandoned calls by customers, long delays in producing a quote, which cause prospects to drop out, and numerous inaccurate credit reports. The Six Sigma methodology includes powerful tools for analyzing each of those gaps and quantifying what that poor quality is costing the company in each situation.

4. Prioritize improvement projects.

Once you clearly understand what each process gap is costing you, you can prioritize your improvement efforts according to what is most critical to you — customer service, time, money, perceived value, and other criteria. Because improvement in any organization proceeds project by project, you must be sure that you are investing your effort in the right projects and in the right order. Above all, you must continue to look at your business through the eyes of the customer. It is possible, but pointless to redesign your internal processes and never touch the real needs of the customer. This doesn’t mean remaking your processes with only the customer in mind. You must also remember the voice of the stakeholder and make sure that your customer-pleasing processes also meet the critical needs of your business. Six Sigma provides a powerful means for keeping those sometimes competing voices in perfect harmony.

If you are interested in achieving Six Sigma Certifications then reach out to BitMaple http://bitmaple.com

They assign dedicated mentor and provide discount on Six Sigma Geen and Black Certifications .

Reach out to contactus@bitmaple.com

Other very useful Six Sigma Articles:

Growth of Six Sigma - From History :

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/01/undertaking-to-progression-of-six-sigma.html
Future embrace for Six Sigma:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/01/future-embrace-for-six-sigma.html

The Benefits of Six Sigma in the Service Industry:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/01/benefits-of-six-sigma-in-service.html

Succeeding with Six Sigma:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/02/succeeding-with-six-sigma.html

Brief about Six Sigma DMAIC and DFSS process:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/01/brief-about-six-sigma-dmaic-and-dfss.html

Six Sigma Responsibility and Need for Key Success:

http://saurabh-growthmachine.blogspot.com/2012/06/six-sigma-responsibility-and-need-for.html

Study Items for the PMP EXAM

2012-02-19T14:29:00.001-05:00

You must:
1. Read PMBOK once. Suggest reading 3 to 4 times.
2. Memorized the mapping of project management processes to the project
management process groups and the knowledge areas.
3. Go through the terms mentioned in "Standards Glossary"
4. Suggest reading books of Rita Mulcahy, Kim Helman, Head First two to
three times
5. Flashcard from Rita Mulcahy, Clickme from Kim Heldman.
6. Sample Q&A from Kerzner (several times), Kim & Rita. PMBOK Q&A Book
supplied by PMI or whatever source for practice Q&A.
7. Memorize the formulas for cost, time etc.
8. Discipline yourself to a schedule and stick with it.
9. Strong suggestion: take a course for preparing for the Exam:
has

PM study has set of 4 PMP test in just $25 , you can reach out to below ATP to get discounted rate .

http://bitmaple.com/enroll-class.html

They assign dedicated mentor and also have full prep course in affordable price .

Reach out to contactus@bitmaple.com

PMP websites:
www.pmHub.net
www.pmstudy.com
www.readysetpass.com

There many be some duplicate link . Please ignore them

Following PMP materials on the web also helped.
1. free flashcard website for PMP with 1538 questions/flashcards.
http://www.flashcardexchange.com/flashcards/view/287102 go to "Study".
2. In addition there are lot of materials , questions in the other flashcards
http://www.flashcardexchange.com/tag/pmp
3. 75 free questions:
http://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm
4.PMP Exam Tutorials, 200 questions:
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/pmp-exams/pmp_mock_exams.htm
5. Free 15 questions:
http://www.testprepreview.com/modules/pmp.htm
6. 20 practice questions:
http://certification.about.com/od/projectmanagement/a/pmp_test_whiz.htm
7. Free PMP Certification Practice Questions:
http://www.certgear.com/products/preview/pmp_certification/index.html
List of sites on web that provide some ‘free’ PMP exam questions (as demos)
Some of these sites point to other sites with free sample demos
http://www.educationlist.in/pmp.html
http://www.carlstumpf.com/PMP%20Study%20Group/pm%20study%20group%20i
ndex.htm
www.certgear.com/products/info/pmp.htm
http://www.4pmti.com/
http://www.pmpexamtips.com/pmp-exam.html
www.MeasureUp.com
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Search/practice_exam_W1.html

Other Links:

http://headfirstlabs.com/PMP/free_exam/

http://www.pmstudy.com/freeresources/freeSimulatedTest.asp

http://www.pmroadtrip.com/readonlinev4.html

http://www.voightps.de/Free_PMP_Exam.asp

http://pmpexamsimulator.com

http://www.oliverlehmann.com/contents/free-downloads/175_PMP_Sample_Q...

http://www.pmpprepare.com

Oliver Lehmann - Set 1

175 questions for the PMBOK Guide, 4th Edition (downloadable)

Oliver Lehmann - Set 2

75 questions for the PMBOK Guide, 4th Edition (online)

Head First PMP

200 questions

Simplilearn PMP Simulation Test

Take the free 200 question free test

PM Study

200 questions

Voight Project Solutions

Mock exam with 10 randomly selected questions from a pool

http://headfirstlabs.com/PMP/free_exam/

http://www.pmstudy.com/freeresources/freeSimulatedTest.asp

http://www.pmroadtrip.com/readonlinev4.html

http://www.voightps.de/Free_PMP_Exam.asp

http://sites.google.com/site/pgmpguide/pmp-study-prep

http://pmpexamsimulator.com

http://www.oliverlehmann.com/contents/free-downloads/175_PMP_Sample_Q...

http://www.pmpprepare.com

http://tips.deepfriedbrainproject.com/search/label/Contracts

Ready Set Pass

1000 sample exam questions

Simplilearn

5 full-length sample exams including 1 free full-length exam

The two best flashcard sets for the PMP exam

1750 eFlashcards for the PMP exam need $$

by Cornelius Fichtner, PMP | Downloadable cards | Works on PC, Mac, iPhone and other smartphones

2000 Flashcards for the PMP exam need $$

ITTO:

www.monkibo.com/pmp-exam-itto-trainer/index.html.

New sources are added every week

PMP Exam: Practice Test and Study Guide, Eighth Edition

10 Free PMP Sample Questions on Project Quality Management

Free Flashcards from PMPrep Flashcards

10 PMP Exam Questions from Best Sample Questions

Free PMP and PgMP Sample Questions

PMP Practice Exams: 500+ Free Questions from PM Road Trip

Project Management Knowledge Assessment for PMBOK Guide 4th Edition from PMI

200 Free PMP Exam Questions from Simplilearn

2010 PMP Exam Simulation Software: 6,000 Questions Based on PMBOK 4th Edition

200-Question Full Length PMP Practice Exam from Edwel Programs

PMTarget: 70 PMP Exam Sample Questions

30 Free PMP Exam Questions from Mosaic Projects

Way2PMP: 26 PMP Exam Sample Questions

20 PMP Exam Sample Question on iPhone

50 Sample Questions for the PMP Exam

12 Sample Questions on Risk Management

Global Knowledge: Free PMP Practice Exam (10 Questions)

Passionate PM: 15/50/100/200-Question PMP Practice Tests

29 PMP Exam Sample Questions

Free PMP Exam Quiz - Cost Management

PM Final: PMP Exam Sample Questions

PMP Prepare: 210 Free PMP Exam Sample Questions

Test Prep Review: 15 PMP Exam Sample Questions

Guruttam: 9 PMP Exam Sample Questions

PMP Certification: 30 PMP Exam Sample Questions

Testking: 159 PMP Exam Sample Questions

Google Pages: 280 PMP Exam Questions Bank

PM Learn: 15 PMP Exam Sample Questions

8 PMP Exam Questions on Risk Management

8 PMP Exam Questions on Scope Management

PM Perfect: 5 Free Questions (Professional Simulator)

Effective PMC: Daily 3 Free PMP Sample Questions

PMP Exam Prep Plus: 30 Free Sample Questions

MyPMP: 90 PMP Exam Sample Questions

ProProfs: Random PMP Quizzes

PMP eSim - 45 PMP Exam Sample Questions

PM-ABC: 300 PMP Exam Sample Questions

PM PMI: 60 PMP Exam Sample Questions

PMP Exam Simulator: 50 Sample Questions (Professional)

uCertify: 15 PMP Exam Sample Questions

Ready Set Pass: 20 Sample Questions (Professional)

PM Daily Digest (Daily Question, Crossword Puzzle, and more)

Crosswind: 220 PMP Exam Sample Questions

5 PMP Exam Formulas explained

Honest PMP: 50 PMP Exam Sample Questions

PM Connection: 10 PMP Exam Sample Questions

GoCertify: 20 PMP Exam Sample Questions

Teleox: 50 PMP Exam Sample Questions

The Science Reporter: 1000+ PMP Exam Sample Questions

Cornelius Fichtner: 15 PMP Exam Questions (Slideshow)

PM Educate: 50 PMP Exam Sample Questions

IT World: 60 PMP Exam Sample Questions

PMP Exam Simulator

1538 Flashcards for PMP Exam Prep

PM Guru Online: 35 PMP Exam Sample Questions

Finally here is your PMP :

Function Point Analysis - A defined Estimation Approach

2012-02-17T22:52:00.000-05:00

Function point analysis is breaking huge systems in to smaller pieces and analyzing them. Software application is combination of set of elementary processes. Elementary Processes is smallest unit of activity that is meaningful to the user. It must be self contained and leave the application in a consistent state. Elementary process is not necessarily completely independent or can exist by itself. But it should leave the application in a consistent state.

Different types of elementary process in FPA:
There are two types of elementary process

Dynamic Elementary process
Static Elementary process

Dynamic elementary process moves data from internal application boundary to external
application boundary or vice-versa.Examples of dynamic elementary process:

Input data screen where user inputs data in to application. Data moves from the input screen inside application.
Transaction exported in export files in XML or any other standard.
Display reports which can come from external application boundary and internal application boundary.

Static elementary process maintains data of application either inside application boundary
or in external application boundary.Examples of static elementary process:

In a customer maintenance screen maintaining customer data is static elementary process.

Different elements in Functions points:
The different elements in function points are as follows:-

Internal Logical Files (ILF)
External Interface File (EIF)
Record Element Type (RET)
DET (Data element types)
File Type Reference (FTR)
External Input (EI)
External Inquiry (EQ)
External Output (EO)

Project Management Metrics

2012-02-10T19:28:00.001-05:00

Most metric sets deal with a variation of attributes and are chosen to help project managers gain insight into their product (size, software quality and rework), process (rework, software quality) and project (effort, schedule). But below is a broader classification:-

Project Management Metrics

Milestone metrics

number of milestones
number of proved requirements per milestone
controlling level metrics

Risk metrics

probability of resources availability
probability of the requirements validity
risk indicators (long schedules, inadequate cost estimating, excessive paperwork, error-prone modules, canceled projects, excessive schedule pressure, low quality, cost overruns, creeping user requirements, excessive time to market, unused or unusable software, unanticipated acceptance criteria, hidden errors)
application risk metrics

Workflow metrics

walk-through metrics
traceability metrics
variance metrics

Controlling metrics

size of control elements
structure of control elements
documentation level
tool application level

Management database metrics

data quality metrics
management data complexity
data handling level (performance metrics)
visualization level
safety and security metrics

Quality Management Metrics customer

Satisfaction metrics

characteristics size metrics
characteristics structure metrics
empirical evaluation metrics
data presentation metrics

Review metrics

number of reviews in the process
review level metrics
review dependence metrics
review structure metrics
review resources metrics

Productivity metrics

actual vs. planned metrics
performance metrics
productivity vs. quality metrics

Efficiency metrics

time behavior metrics
resources behavior metrics
actual vs. Planned metrics

Quality assurance metrics

quality evaluation metrics
error prevention metrics
measurement level
data analysis metrics

Configuration Management Metrics

Change control metrics

size of change
dependencies of changes
change interval metrics
revisions metrics

Version control metrics

number of versions
number of versions per customer
version differences metrics
releases metrics (version architecture)
data handling level