Company User Groups

Have need to promote an application or process?  Start a user group! This will not only help your project solidify interest and support but allow for useful feedback and early adjustment of processes: Pick a frequency, monthly, weekly Invite all users and all interested Setup speakers a few months in advance Select a moderator to

Has Your SME, SME’ed? Part 2

We previously discussed a scenario where the SME had not performed a deep dive on their end and surprised everyone with a need to halt progress in the project. Some ideas to avoid this situation, keeping in mind it may not be avoidable: Be the “why” child in your discovery meetings and casual chats –

Has Your SME, SME’ed? Part 1

One of my project had a hot button issue that required immediate attention and resolution.  The facts were gathered, the meeting was conducted, the notes went out, and a path forward was published. Six months later, the solution completed and come to find out, the SME could not implement as they “just discovered” to complete

Losing Your Sponsor/No Attendees

I had a situation where I had to cancel all my meetings for a particular initiative because the sponsor moved to another project and all of a sudden no one showed up! Frustrating, I had no choice after 4 consecutive no show meetings, to cancel all of the weekly meetings for the rest of the

It’s a PowerPoint World – Part 2

Last week we talked about a simple presentation slide on your current project that would assist management in summarizing its current status. We want to emphasize simple. As gather-ers of information, facts, figures, scenarios, risks, exceptions, etc., at some point, we know more about the entire project than anyone else. We must avoid putting everything

The importance of an architectural review board

Many firms have no organization when it comes to development except Code – Test – UAT – Release. Especially in the age of exponentially increasing cybercrime, architectural review, not just code review, is a foundational practice. Developers that skirt around this step introduce costly and harmful elements into a company’s technology landscape and eventually network