End of term entry

1.  Given your knowledge and experience at the end of these courses, which course objectives did you master?

• Understand the place of requirements gathering in the project lifecycle.

I learned that requirement gathering tasks place during the whole lifecycle in some way shape or form. 

•  Illustrate and demonstrate the processes of discovering, eliciting and managing requirements.

Don't know if I am an expert but I did learn the different processes that can be used to gather requirements. I learned how to identify good, high level requirements.  There needs to be a requirement plan developed to manage requirements. Involve all stakeholders when gathering requirements. Plan for change.

• Discuss and evaluate the role of the Project Manager in requirements gathering.

PM's need to demand and facilitate good requirements analysis. PM's need to support those performing the act so that a greater proportion of the project's resourses can be allocated to the requirements process. PM's must take on the discovered requirements along with the assumptions and risks that may arise to build and strengthen the projects plan. PM must make sure that his people use the right practices, methods, techniques, tools and templates.  PM can make sure that the correct requirements have been gathered. Also that all the requirements were gathered.

• Apply best practices in gathering and managing requirements.

The best practices takes leadership and coaching by dedicated PM's.  They need to guide the people outside the project so not to put more pressure on the project members. Contribute to your own quest to gain more success as well as job fulfillment.  Identify the real requirements, control requirements and their changes, invest in the requirement process, inspire teamwork, establish an attitude of continuous improvement among all members of staff.

• Effectively prioritize requirements.

Using your experts, the ones that are most likely to work with requirements, you pick those requirements that are the most important from a business standpoint.  Considerations like cost, value, risks, implementation difficulty and others must be evaluated to prioritize requirments.

• Examine the relationship between requirements gathering and project success.

The lack of good requirements, complete requirements and real requirements can cause a project to fail.  Good requirements are the basis of a solid project.

2.  Given your knowledge and experience at the end of these courses, which course objectives still look troublesome to you?

#8-Identify and apply processes for measuring and reporting project success
#4-Explain the process of defining requirements in various development methodologies, including agile development.

3.  What obstacles did you run into during the course? How did you try to overcome them?
I had to overcome the discipline it takes to take a online course.  I am used to classrooms and had to figure out how to split my time up into workable segments.  I also started a new job at the same time class started.  I was training on the job learning new and hard things, then I went home and tried to get through the homework.  This class had more homework than I have ever had before.  But now I can't go to bed unless I do my homework or part of it.

4.  How do you feel here at the end of a term as you look at your efforts and accomplishments? 
I am proud of myself. I conquered work and school. I loved this class and looked forward to the homework. Some homework was harder than the other but I knew I could do it. Sometimes I had to walk away from the task, think about, then retry working on it.

5.  What did your learn this semester and how will you use that in your current or future work?
I learned that I could do anything I set my mind to. I learned to take one task at a time and conquer it and move on.  I learned to read the instructions or requests carefully, disect each part and master it step by step.  My instructor taught me that. I also learned that requirement gathering is very important. In fact is the most critical process of a project. Projects have such a low success rate.  We learned so much in this class that can help with the success rate. One must wonder are the corporations using these methods and processes in their attempt to implement change?  They cannot be.  Your success rate cannot improve if you don't use the proven methods out there.  Are they incorporating risk management?  If they don't protect their project, they cannot control the threats that can affect it.  To control the threats (risks) means your project has a better chance to succeed.

Middle of Course Blog

1.  Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of these courses, what have you learned so far?

I have learned about successfully identifying stakeholders and ways to gather  requirements.  I learned whose roles and responsibilities certain requirements belong to.  I studied different tools used to help in gathering requirements.  I learned about different start up issues of a project and some remedies for them.  I learned communication is the #1 skill that a PM should possess.  Not only from the PM but from all team members.  Without open communication between everyone, shareholders too, there could be all kind of misunderstandings and misconceptions.

2.  Looking at the course objectives, which ones do you feel you have achieved, and which ones still look difficult or completely unfamiliar to you?

I feel like I have achieved the concept of how to gather requirements using different tools.  I also feel comfortable in identifying stakeholders and getting their needs from them.  I am not so sure about declaring the scope of a project and writing it's scope statement.  I am still a little fuzzy on what I actually should say. 

3.  How has the information you learned so far changed the way you approach projects or think about projects in your everyday life?

I take a little more time to listen to the person I am working with/for.  Instead of thinking of questions in my mind while I am communicating with someone, I open my mind to listen to them completely.  Then I think of questions after they have completed their communication and I have thought about what they said.  I gather details and requirements before I act upon things more than I did before.  I read the assignment requirements and objectives before I do my assignment now which I didn't do before.

4.  Are there any topics that have been discussed that still seem unclear? What are your thoughts as you get ready to start the second half of the course?

Risk Management is still unclear.  I am not sure how to minimize risks but my research paper is on the subject so I will be forced to understand it. 

I love this course.  This is my favorite course so far.  It is too late for me to certify as a PM.  Too much to do, too little time, however, if I were younger I would go for it.  I can only hope to learn more and more on such an interesting subject.

Grad Paper Milestone 1A

Topic - Importance of Risk Management on a Project

Pre-Writing Activity - Brainstorming:

what is risk management?
why is it needed in project?
what is it's history?
is it always good for a project?
when do you start risk management?
do you use it all the way through the project?
what person has risk management expertiste?
how is it implemented?
when is it implemented?
how long is it implemented?
cna anyone implement it?
are there different kinds of risk management?
what areas is risk management used for?
is the PM the responsible person for risk management?
is it really necessary?
if used, can it save a failing project?
is it ever to late to start risk management?
does it take care of all risks?
is risk management used in conjunction with other processes?
how much does risk management cost?
can it be divided and delegated to more than one person?
is it time consuming?
does it always help the project?

I chose Risk Management because I will need to research it more to fully understand it.  Brainstorming has brought up some interesting areas of concern for my paper.  My desire is that I learn more about how risk management works in a project.  How to implement it and when to use it.  It is a topic that I am not really sure of .  Something that I should already understand better than I do right now.  This is giving me a better insight to project management and project managers.  These topics surprisingly interest me.  So for now I am going to try to learn as many aspects of project management as I can.

Initial entry on the objectives of the Project Requirments class

March 14, 2011, I started a new course (2nd of it's kind) named Defining and Managing Requirement and Project Success.  I was instructed to create a blog and to answer certain questions on it.  Here I go...

1.  Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of these courses, which course objectives look familiar to you already? 

Understand the place of requirements gathering in the project lifecycle.
Discuss and evaluate the role of the Project Manager in requirements gathering.
Examine the relationship between requirements gathering and project success.

2.  Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of these courses, which course objectives look either difficult or completely unfamiliar to you?

Illustrate and demonstrate the processes of discovering, eliciting and managing requirements.
Explain the process of defining requirements in various development methodologies, including agile development.
Apply best practices in gathering and managing requirements.
Effectively prioritize requirements.
Identify and apply processes for measuring and reporting project success.
Discuss and document best practices for achieving project success.

3.  How do these courses fit into your career plans and dreams?  Are the objectives crucial to your success, or will accomplishing the objectives simply mean good general background information for you?

Truly I am taking this course a little late in my life.  I am close to retiring and I am getting scared that I may not be able to live as comfortable as I once thought I could when I retire.  My hope is to get my masters degree in something that I can possibly teach or tutor once I retire from my primary job.  I envision that I will always need to work.  If it isn't to pay for my heath insurance, or to help with my grandchildren it might be to pay Uncle Sam.  I need to actually be successful in this course because I am hoping I can teach part time as a college instructor.  Teach when I need to make ends meet like...replace my carburetor, or put on a new roof, things like that. 

Not only are these Project Management classes interesting, I actually know a little about them from my work experience.  Not much but just enough to interest me more.  I worked a job that used me like I was a Project Manager but I never got the pay or title.  Most of the responsibilities I shared with a group.  We had a lead but that lead was just as ignorant to the process as we were.  So this, in a way, will give me the right knowledge to do the job right.  That will feel good in the end. 

4.  How do you feel here at the start as you set out to accomplish these objectives.

Just starting on my masters, this class being my 5th class, I am gaining more and more confidence.  At first I was timid and felt out of place in the classroom.  I am old enough to be most of my instructors and classmates mother yet I love the feeling I get when I finally master a feat. I am excited to learn more about Project Management.  It is something that I am familiar with but not proficient with.