Project Management: The Diesel and Dust Files

Online ITIL Foundation Instructor Led Training

2015-02-04T13:53:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone,

Just like the PMP instructor led training we are also launching ITIL foundation certification program.

The best part is that these training courses are just 4 hrs a day so that its easy for everyone to manage, and on top of that we are running two sessions at two different times, so that you can choose as per your comfort.

http://www.cognitel.com/webapps/cl.php?a=100

Online PMP Instructor Led Training

2015-02-04T13:48:00.001+05:30

Hello Everyone,

All those who are looking for PMP training course, can register on the below mentioned link. Its the best offer one can get in terms of price and quality. I myself will be the instructor for the session starting 28th Feb 2015.

Each session is scheduled for 4 hrs and there are two sessions on each scheduled day, so that you have atleast some choice in terms of time!!!!

For further details and to register yourself please visit the following link.

http://www.cognitel.com/webapps/cl.php?a=100

Clearing your PMP on first Attempt

2013-03-19T16:54:00.003+05:30

Hi All,

I have seen many people getting scared of PMP exam. First of all I would like to share some concepts about the exam. There are no defined number of questions that needs to be answered correctly, its all based on how difficult or easy questions you get. Putting it simply, more easy question you get more you need to answer correctly, or more difficult you get less answers would also pass the exam.

Now some tips and tricks to pass your PMP exam on first attempt.

1. Please please read the PMBoK completely and make sure you underline anything that seems to be important. Ensure to have an electronic copy as it makes it easier to search. Also very important to go through PMI Code of Ethics and Conduct, can be downloaded from http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics.aspx . Time (4-5 days)

2. Get Rita's Exam Prep and start answering the chapter wise questions without reading the chapters. This will help you to baseline your knowledge. After checking the questions try to understand what you did wrong. If your score on first attempt is between 60 - 70 % consider yourself to know the concepts. If its lesser than that, consider going through PMBoK again. Time (3-4 Days)

3. Now go through each chapter in Rita's book, write down any new concept or term you come across and then attempt the questions. This time your score should be atleast 85%. Make sure you just dont understand the right answers but also understand why the other three are not the right options. Many a times, you would see that book says A option is BEST, although C option is also possible, what if the BEST option is not given in other question, and C becomes best choice. So pay particular attention to all options. Time (5-6 days)

4. Make sure that all calculation related formulas are clear to you and you are able to perform those calculation. I saw as many as approx 30 formula based question on my test. They are very easy if you know the formula. Get habitual of answering Earned Value questions based on scenarios. In PMP exam they generally dont tell you the PV, rather statements are given like "In a six month project with a budget of 60000, 3 months have passed away." this statement just means PV is 30000.

5. Now its time to test yourself again and again. Use websites mentioned below to take multiple tests and than you will be ready for the exam.

www.oliverlehmann.com : Few of the most difficult questions you will see. Dont get upset if you score less than 60%, but important is to understand the logic behind each question.
www.pmstudy.com : Another nice site where you can create a free login and take one mock test of 200 questions. As close as PMP.
free.pm-exam-simulator.com : On this site you can create free login and can be used for 3 days. Take as many question as possible
www.passionatepm.com/free-pmp-exam-practice-test-questions : This site has got 3 different exam with different number of questions.

I am sure once you are done with this much of practice you should be confident about the exam. Very important dont study anything on the exam day, because that tends you to forget other things as you can't study the whole PMBoK. Also make sure that one day before also you are just answering the questions and understanding the right answers.

All the very best!!!!

Schedule Variance In MS Projects

2012-10-12T16:50:00.002+05:30

Hello everyone, recently during one of my training sessions, a participant asked me that how can they measure schedule variance without entering any cost in project. My answer was you cant!!

But then I thought that we can actually write a formula to calculate Schedule Variance based on the Status Date, Actual Duration and Current Duration. (Baseline is not required here) I would be calculating schedule variance using the current duration and actual duration.

Those who know how to work on MS Projects can just copy paste the below mentioned formula in a custom number field and see the results.

IIf((ProjDateDiff([Status Date],[Finish],[Project Calendar])/480)=0,[Actual Duration]/[Duration],IIf((ProjDateDiff([Status Date],[Finish],[Project Calendar])/480)<1,[Actual Duration]/[Duration],([Actual Duration]/480)/(ProjDateDiff([Status Date],[Start],[Project Calendar])/-480)))

If you are not sure how its working leave a comment and I will explain.

Project vs Service Management

2012-10-05T09:59:00.003+05:30

Hello everyone,

In many of the training sessions that I conduct, participants usually ask one common question, that how is Project Management different from Service Management or is Service Management better than Project Management or vice verse. So I decided to write it here.

We all must have heard of PMP or Prince2 or Agile which are supposed to be Project Management methodologies and also we would have heard of ITIL or COBIT which are Service Management guidance or methodologies. So how do they differ :

Project Management is about managing projects which are temporary in nature and the output can be a product, service or result. (House, Call center services or improvement in Customer satisfaction)
Service Management is about managing JUST the SERVICES from their birth till death. In service management we don't talk about products (house) rather its just about services like Hotel or Cab service or Hospital service or IT Service.

For instance there can be a project to start a new Service like a project to start a School (Consider you already have the Infrastructure). Now its a service that you want to produce. One can choose to apply PMP or PRINCE2 initially to complete the project but these methodologies wont help you to run the call center (operations). Or one can choose to use ITIL which takes care of the service from the Project phase to the operations phase.

So in nutshell Service Management provides a guidance on how to manage Services from Day1 to till we don't stop providing them whereas Project management is just about the Project phase of any service or product or result.

Nominal Group Technique

2012-10-04T14:30:00.002+05:30

Many of us have read about this or heard about it, but what I have seen is that people are not really clear about how to conduct it. So here I am with a complete step by step method.

This technique involves small groups for discussion. The process prevents the domination of discussion by a single person, encourages the more passive group members to participate, and results in a set of prioritized solutions or recommendations. The steps to follow in NGT are:

Divide the people present into small groups of 5 or 6 members.

State an open-ended question (" What are some changes you would like to see in the organization? ").

Have each Person spend several minutes in silence individually brainstorming all the possible ideas and jot these ideas down.

Have the groups, collect the ideas by sharing them round robin fashion (one response per person each time), and record them on a flip chart No criticism is allowed, but clarification in response to questions is encouraged.

Have each person evaluate the ideas and individually and anonymously vote for the best ones (for example, the, best idea gets 5 Points, next best 4 Points, etc).

Share votes within the group and tabulate. A group report is prepared, showing the ideas receiving the most points.

Allow time for brief group presentations on their solutions.

Advantage

Voting is anonymous
Opportunities for equal participation of group members
Distractions are minimized

What is role of PMO?

2012-08-25T09:05:00.000+05:30

Many of us know that big organisations that work on Projects generally have a PMO (Project Management Office), but I am sure that most of us are not really sure about the job roles performed by PMO. So here is a little insight :

A PMO provides an organization with a standard framework from which projects can be managed consistently. The benefits of a PMO for an organization include:

A standard approach is taken to manage projects and the project request process.
Clear lines of communication and responsibility are put in place.
Duplication is rigorously reduced.
Provides advice and guidance to project managers and team members.
Ensures that project delivery matches the business goals and objectives

The main task that are associated with a PMO include:

Planning: It is advised that the PMO system and the project manager are involved in the planning of a project. Activities would include; the size, time frame of the project and the resources that the project will require in order to complete the project.

Scheduling the project: Method of breaking the project down into tasks and mapping them out using a project management software tool such as ProjectVision.

Risk Analysis: A risk analysis should be completed by getting input from the project manager and the entire project team. A risk analysis is simply analysing a number of risks by looking at the probability of them happening Vs the impact it will have, and continuously tracking the risks from there on.

Tracking of projects: The tracking of the project is down to the project manager. Tasks involved in the tracking of projects include: weekly project status meetings, strict monitoring of the project schedule, examining the resources assigned to the project and all communication through the different layers in the project.

PMP vs Prince2

2012-06-30T09:44:00.001+05:30

PMP

*A broad collection of good practices

*Non prescriptive

*Each topic area can referred in isolation

*Targeted at Project Managers only

*Covers interpersonal skills

*Describes Techniques

*Tells how something should be done

Prince2

*Project Management method

*Prescriptive

*An integrated set of processes and themes

*Covers all project management roles

*Does not cover interpersonal skills

*Reference to techniques

*What to be done and why

Risk Vs Issues

2012-06-30T09:40:00.000+05:30

*Risk is an event that has not happened yet but may; an issue is something that already has happened. The main differences are related to timing and probability. Because of these differences, the language used to describe risks is future tense: “If this happens, then this will be impacted.” For issues, the language used is in present tense: “We have this problem. How should we deal with it?

Issues recorded in the issues register should be discussed almost every day; risks recorded in the risk register should be reviewed periodically—weekly or less frequently during status review meetings.

Webinar Recording

2012-06-20T13:29:00.002+05:30

for those who were not able to join this session, the recording is available here

Free Webinar on Project Management

2012-06-14T12:33:00.000+05:30

Hi All,

I would be conducting a free webinar on Project Management. The overview of the webinar can be found here.

For registration please click here.

Please feel free to join.

2012-05-09T15:55:00.003+05:30

Project Management: The Diesel and Dust Files:

Getting Difficult things Done - in Difficult Working Environments;

Hello and welcome to the opportunity to share your project stories and knowledge for the benefit of other Project people at any level who are grappling with the development and delivery of professional projects in difficult working or operating environments anywhere in the world.

You may be involved in Oil and Gas, Mining Industry, Support and Logistics services, Construction, NGO, Charitable organisations, Military or other commercial business or Government project situations - we want to open up communication and knowledge sharing specifically about the nuts and bolts of getting complex things achieved in challenging places, multi cultural working environments, where resources and logistics are scarce or in short supply perhaps - close to where results and deliverables in Projects either get completed as planned - or go off track. big time and need serious project leadership / action

In my experience that is where there is plenty of "diesel and dust" flying around hence the focus on this area of projects and their management.

We will work to improve ways of easily sharing your project experiences and look to provide useful forums and threads to support particular subjects of interest to you and other virtual colleagues and project people you have not met yet in this project space.

We hope you can get involved and share, be recognised ( or not - confidentiality is fine its just about knowledge sharing for personal development of others)

Look forward to sharing and hearing more soon.

Risk Responses

2012-05-02T12:40:00.000+05:30

We know that there are few types of risk responses we can apply, lets have a detailed look on some of the confusing ones.

Active Acceptance Mitigation Contingency these 3 are very close to each other so sometimes we get confused but understand it like this.

Active Acceptance:

Mitigation:

Contingency:

I think no further explanation is required, if you still have any doubts please comment :)

What is Discounted Cash Flow?

2012-04-13T09:43:00.002+05:30

Lets say we have some money which we want to invest somewhere. We have two options either to invest in bank where we will get 10% interest or invest in a project. If you are going to get higher return than bank then obviously we will invest in project. So this is what we do in DCF.

Bank = 10%

Money required after 1 year =1100

We will find out what amount was required to be invested in bank today in order to get 1100 amount. In other words we can say lets find out the principal that should have been invested today to get that amount.

Simply using Compound Interest formula we know :

P = A/ (1+i)ⁿ

A = Amount = 1100

i = interest = 10%

n = time period = 1year

P = Principal = 1000 (After calculating)

So what does this tells us?? It means that 1100 after 1 year is same as 1000 of today. So if you were investing 900 in a project today with an expected return of 1100 after 1 year this would mean that 1100 is equal to 1000 of today and your investment is just 900 so a profit of 100.

This is how we use DCF, just with changed variables:

PV = FV / (1+i)ⁿ

PV = Present Value which means value of future money in todays term

FV = Future Value which means the expected return from project

PMBoK

2012-03-15T14:13:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone, Sorry for not posting anything for long.

Here is something which I was working on, its basically the whole PMBoK in Excel.

Link : Click Here

RACI Matrix

2012-02-27T20:32:00.000+05:30

RACI Matrix is one of the most common and efficient tool that can be used to define roles and responsibilities of different resources.
R = Responsible, resource who is responsible to do something
A = Accountable, resource who is accountable to get the work done by R
C = Consult, resource who would be consulted if the R resource faces some problems
I = Inform, resource who should be informed of any significant progress on the given task.

What is Earned Value and how to use it?

2012-02-11T21:42:00.000+05:30

Hi All, back after a short break! Today we will talk about Earned Value.

First of all lets take an example from daily life, many of you would have planned that you will spend $1000 for shopping, but do you really end up spending same amount, I guess rarely. So thats when you would use Earned Value.
Lets say you have been given $1000 to buy 10 chairs in 10 days. So you would plan to spend $100 for each chair and buy one chair everyday.
After 5 days you realize when you should have bought 5 chairs you only were able to buy 4 chairs and when you should have spend $400 to buy those 4 chairs you actually spend $600. So I hope everyone would be able to understand that we are spending more than we budgeted and also we are buying less chairs than planned. We have spend $200 extra and we have bought 1 chair less.
This is whole Earned Value Management. Now let me translate all this in technical terms.

How many chairs you should have bought? 5 or 5 chairs worth $500 ---- This is Planned Value (Budgeted cost of work Scheduled)
What was the planned value of chairs you actually bought? 4 chairs worth $400 ---- This is Earned Value (Budgeted cost of work Performed)
How much money you actually spend? $600 ---- This is Actual Cost
So your Cost Variance = Earned Value - Actual Cost = 400-600 = (200)
-ve shows you are over budgeted
Schedule Variance = Earned Value - Planned Value = 400-500 = (100)
-ve shows you are behind schedule
Now we will replace minus sign with divide sign. So, we will now have ratios or I can say the index
Cost Performance Index = Earned Value/Actual Cost = 400/600 = .67
less than 1 value shows you are over budgeted
Schedule Performance Index = Earned Value/Planned Value = 400/500 = .8
less than 1 value shows you are behind schedule

I hope this makes it easy :)

Programs and Projects???

2012-02-06T21:28:00.001+05:30

Hi All, once again I am here with another confusion!!! Projects and Programs, lets see how they differ.

I guess we all understand that a project can have phases, and these phases would obviously be inter-related. And going by the definition of programs, the projects in a program also needs to be inter-related. So how are we going differentiate in a big project's phases and the projects of a programs??? confused!

I mean for example if the product is Metro Network in any city, than will it be called a program or project?

I can call it project because I can divide it in phases probably North Phase, South Phase and so on, and even some of you might want to call it a Program which has different projects like North Metro Project, South Metro Project and so on.

But it is not a program rather its a project because:

Scope of project is well defined ( Metro network) whereas in Programs scope is evolving.
Project's work is focused on an objective whereas Programs tend to be focused on different objectives which work collectively for a common goal.
Programs outcome will be a result of different products/services, where each of them will be unique. Whereas in our example you would notice that the product/service (Metro Network) is same through the North region or South Region so it is a Project.

I have seen many people saying Projects have end date and programs dont have end date but I completely disagree on that, simply because Programs are collection of projects (Inter-related) and if projects have end date than how can Program not have an end date!!

For example if Program A is a collection of Project1, Project2 and Project3. Then going by the statement all projects should have end date which means Project1,2 and 3 have got an end date which obviously means Program will also have an end date!!!

I hope this post makes it easier. :)

Contingency Vs Mitigitation

2012-02-03T14:03:00.000+05:30

Another very common area of confusion is Contingency and Mitigation. I have even seen people using these terms interchangeably, which is incorrect. Lets see how these 2 differ

Mitigation : Mitigation is used to reduce the impact/probability of a given risk before it occurs. For example, constructing a earthquake proof building than that would be a mitigation, because I am constructing is such a way that the impact of the earthquake is minimized. We plan and execute the mitigation before the risk occurs.

Contingency Plan: It is a plan that we keep to be applied if the risk happens. It doesnt look for reducing the impact/probability. For example having a fire evacuation plan, which is only used when there is a fire not before. Or having a backup server which will only be used when the main server breaks down. So we plan our contingency before the risk occurs and execute it after the risk occurs.

Hope this should be helpful

Preventive Action & Corrective Action

2012-02-01T20:59:00.000+05:30

I have seen many people getting confused between Preventive and Corrective Action. Lets see how these two differ.

Preventive Actions are taken before we start doing the work. Like in order to achieve the best quality of sound, I would prefer to buy branded and trusted speakers instead of some local ones. This is called Preventive Action.

Corrective Actions are taken when we are doing the work or you can say that they are "In Process" actions that we take. Continuing with the same example, after I have bought my speakers and I plug them in but I feel that the Bass or Treble levels needs some adjustment, so when I do those adjustments that would be a Corrective Action. Or I might have placed my speakers very near to each other and hence I dont get good sound, so I change the placement of my speakers that is also Corrective Action.

To go just a step ahead let me also explain Defect Repairs, they occur after we have completed our work. So in the above example, if one of my speakers stops working and I get that replaced or repaired that would be a Defect Repairs.

I hope this should really make it easy to understand the difference.

IRR Explained in Layman language

2012-01-31T08:53:00.002+05:30

IRR is basically the rate of growth a project is expected to generate. Also we can say IRR is the rate at which the difference between initial cash investment and present value of cash inflows (which project will generate) is zero.

For Example: we will take 2 rates of 10% and 20%(this is not IRR) rather its rate of return. Investment=9000

year cash inflow PV@10% PV@20%

1 5000 4545 4166

2 4000 3305 2777

3 2000 1502 1157

Total 9354 8100

NPV 354 -900

Now we know that IRR is the rate of return on which NPV is equal to 0 so in this example IRR should be between 10% and 20% as one gives positive NPV and one gives negative NPV.

NPV

At 12.55% rate of return my NPV is 0 so 12.55% is the IRR ( I used hit n trial method, for the formula please refer here)

Now we always take project with higher IRR because higher the IRR is more secure I m reason being any rate of return less than IRR will give me +NPV(profit). For example if today the rate of return is 15% and I take up the Project A whose IRR is 18% thinking it will give me profit and ignore the Project B with 22% IRR. In future if the rate of return increases to 20% my Project A would give me –ve NPV(loss) whereas Project B would have still given me +ve NPV(profit).

Procedure for getting PMP or CAPM certified.

2012-01-30T14:28:00.003+05:30

1. Log on to www.pmi.org

2. Create your profile which is free of cost

3. Buy membership (optional) which would cost you $129.

4. Then click certification.

5. On the certification page go to “Which certification is right for you?” and choose CAPM or PMP.

	Members	Non Members
CAPM	$225	$300
PMP	$405	$555

6. After you have filled the application form, wait for the PMI to get back to you with the approval of your application

7. Once you have got the approval which will include the link for the payment, you can pay for your exam.

8. After you have paid for the exam again wait for an email from PMI which will give you your IDENTIFICATION CODE.

9. Then you need to go to prometric website and schedule your exam, Identification code will be needed to complete your scheduling process.

10. Lastly don’t forget to take a printout of the email from PMI giving your identification code and prometric confirming your scheduling details.

Reguirements for Eligibility

To apply for the CAPM, you need to have:

· A secondary diploma (high school or the global equivalent)

AND

· At least 1,500 hours experience

23 hours of project management education by the time you sit for the exam.

To apply for the PMP, you need to have either:

· A four-year degree (bachelor’s or the global equivalent) and at least three years of project management experience, with 4,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.

· A secondary diploma (high school or the global equivalent) with at least five years of project management experience, with 7,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.

How to gather Requirements?

2012-01-30T12:58:00.000+05:30

Requirement Gathering Techniques

Analysts report that poor requirements management accounts for as much as 71% of software project failures. A structured approach to requirements capture and management resolves these problems and is the only way all stakeholders can be confident that all requirements have been understood and incorporated into the project plan. Using a structured approach to gathering requirements allows us to develop S.M.A.R.T objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based) which nearly guarantees the success of the project. The overall goal is to ensure a focused project direction, a solid schedule, and an accurate budget. Scientific approach requires a constant description of all activities, objectives and corrective measures to counter potential loopholes. One can do better requirement gathering using a scientific approach rather than random technique selection.

1 Apprenticing Technique

What is Apprenticing and when to use it?

v Analyst observes what the Business User does and understands

v Analyst becomes a part of what Business User does

v Useful when Business Users cannot spare enough time

v Useful when the stake holder has trouble in communicating the requirements

Note: Effective for Unconscious Requirements

2 Brainstorming Technique

Brainstorming involves two phases. They are Idea Generation and Idea Reduction and Voting.

Method:

v Give each participant to sticky sheets with marker for jotting ideas.

Rule:

v No criticism or debate

v Let Imaginations Soar

v Generate as many ideas as possible

v Mutate and combine ideas

A) Idea Generation

ü Facilitator explains the objective of process

For example:

a) What features would you like to see in your product?

b) What services would you like to see product provide?

c) What things would you like product to keep track of?

Each participant then reads his ideas and notes it down.

ü No criticism, and if natural silence occur, let it exist.

B) Idea Reduction and Voting

ü Prune ideas not worthy of further investigation.

ü If any disagreement about some idea, let it remain.

ü The index of healthy brainstorming session is the number of ideas discarded which proves people are thinking out of the box.

ü Group ideas according to

a) New features

b) Performance Issues

c) Enhancements to current features

d) UI and Ease of use

ü Else group ideas based on capability like

a) Marketing and Sales

b) Customer Service

c) Accounting

ü Once ideas have been grouped, walk through each idea and get feature definition from contributor.

ü Prioritize the idea and have cumulative voting to distribute amongst ideas.

Benefits of Brainstorming technique:

ü Encourages participation from all.

ü Allows participant to piggyback on other’s ideas

ü Results in broad set of solutions

ü Encourages out of box thinking

ü Most effective ideas originate from multiple seemingly unrelated ideas

What is Brainstorming and when to use it?

v Helps in getting as much as ideas as possible in different perspectives.

v Consolidate the ideas and evaluate it to get the requirements.

v Useful when there is a group of stake holders addressing the same problem.

Note: Effective for Undreamed Requirements

3 Mind Mapping

In mind mapping, we will discover the fragments of knowledge that we can capture by observing, listening, questioning and suggesting.

Below is the summary of mind mapping laws.

a) Use Emphasis

v Always use a central image

v Use images throughout your mind map.

v Use three or more colors per central image.

v Use dimension in images and around words.

v Use variations of printing, line and image.

v Use organized spacing.

b) Use Association

v Use arrows when you want to make connections within and across branch pattern.

v Use colors

v Use codes

c) Be Clear

v Use only one Key Word per line.

v Print all words

v Make major branches connect to central image.

v Connect lines to other lines.

v Make your images as clear as possible.

d) Layout

v Use Hierarchy

v Use Numerical Order

What is Mind Mapping and when to use it?

v By observing, listening, questioning and suggesting you will discover fragments of knowledge that you can capture.

v Use Pictures, Colors, Symbols that your brain perceives the subject matter.

v Useful when you are summarizing your understanding.

v Mind map is a way to take more extensive and meaningful notes.

Note: Effective for Undreamed Requirements

4 Use Case Workshops Technique

Use case workshops technique is more popular now a days. In this technique, we collect the requirement in step by step manner. Also it helps both requirement analyst team and customers to understand that even the obvious and minute details should not be ignored. It is easy to document and written in natural language.

Advantages of Use Case Workshops Technique:

v Use cases can be described very simply to prospective user of system.

v Written in natural language and easy to document.

v Provides simple structured format where development team and user can work together to define behavior of existing or new system.

v Early feedback can be obtained about user interfaces.

What are Use Case Workshops and when to use it?

v Capture details of requirement in step-by-step manner.

v Normally, people converse in transaction mode. Use Case Workshops help to force a step-by-step narration mode.

v Helps both the requirements analyst team and customers to understand that even the obvious and minute details should not be ignored or omitted.

Note: Effective for Conscious Requirements

5 Interviewing Technique

This Interviewing technique is useful when you have time and opportunity to talk to business user. In this technique we fix up the time with business user and attend the session and note down the information in notebook. Below table describes little clear idea about interviewing technique.

		Stake Holder 1	Stake Holder 2	……………
Requirements #1	Definition
	Scope
	Date of Interview
	Deadlines and Boundary
Requirements #2	Definition
	Scope
	Date of Interview
	Deadlines and Boundary
Requirements #3	……………..

What is Interviewing and when to use it?

Guidelines:

v Define a purpose and boundary.

v Have a fixed time limit.

v Talk to stake holders who have hands-on experience.

v Use Models and sketches

v LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN

- Most useful when you have time and opportunity to talk to the Business User.

Note: Effective for Conscious Requirements

6 Family Therapy Technique

This technique refers to all stake holders in the project. This technique works based on the model Intakeè Meaning è Significance è Response. Below table structure describes little clear idea about Family Therapy technique.

		Stake Holder 1	Stake Holder 2	……………
Requirements #1	Intake / Idea
	Meaning
	Significance
	Responses / Consolidations
Requirements #2	Intake / Idea
	Meaning
	Significance
	Responses / Consolidations
Requirements #3	……………..

What is Family Therapy and when to use it?

v Family in this context refers to all stake holders in the project.

v This model is based on

· Intake è Meaning è Significance è Response

v The analyst tells a idea (Intake), stake holders attach a meaning to it (Meaning), decide how we feel (Significance) and the analyst consolidates it (Response).

v Useful with diverse group of people.

Note: Effective for Conscious Requirements

7 Reusing Requirement Technique

This technique is used when multiple things are present for single common purpose. In some project, there could be possibility that, two are more modules have same functionality. In this case we can re-use the functionality and save the time.

How to Re-use the requirements?

v There might be number of functionalities inter-connected by a common purpose. Try to re-use them.

v It is possible that the requirement might be useful in another part of the project. Try to re-use them.

Note: Effective for Un/Conscious Requirements

8 Videos and Photographs

This technique applies to all type of requirements. When we are not able to understand the requirement properly in that case, we can re-visit the videos and photographs and get more clarity on the requirements.

Videos and Photographs, when do they help us?

v When you cannot understand the requirements immediately, Videos help you to revisit and get more clarity.

v Prevents communication loss / gap between on-site and off-shore teams as off-shore team’s gets access to direct version from the customer.

Note: Effective for all types of Requirements

9 Prototyping

In this Prototyping technique, generally we create prototype of an application and will be presented to the customer to make sure we and customer are having same understanding of an application. In this technique, customer will check only the functionality aspect not how/what code is written in prototype. Customer will traverse the prototype application and these prototypes will provide a data flow functionality overview from one end to another end of an application. Generally prototype application contains hard coded values, to display specific valid data on the page to the customer.

Prototypes are basically mock ups of the screens of an application which allow customers to visualize the application that is not yet constructed. Prototypes help customers get an idea of what the system will look like, and make it easier for design team to make design decisions without waiting for the system to be built. Major improvements in communication between customers and developers were often seen with this prototypes technique. Early views of the screens led to fewer changes later and hence reduced overall costs considerably. This has been a very powerful tool to capture and gain customers confidence and almost all projects do it.

Advantages of Prototyping Technique

v Gain customer confidence about our understanding

v Reduce the overall costs considerably as changes to prototype would be fewer.

v Improvements in communication between developers and customers.

v Design team can make design decision freely with the help of prototype.

Receive early feedback from the cus