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Entries for March 2008

» Why Use BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)?

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A good negotiation method should protect you from making a bad agreement or rejecting one that you should accept. For example, if you implement a bottom line – by establishing in advance your worst acceptable outcome, such as the lowest price you’d accept for an item you’re selling – you’re limiting your options if circumstances should change durin...

» Who Does QA? Hint: Not your testers!

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Many of us have Quality Assurance (QA) groups in our organizations, and the natural assumption might be that these groups are responsible for the quality of our products. For a few of us, that assumption might hold true, but for most organizations, the QA group cannot be held responsible for quality because they don't actually assure quality. What ...

» Improving Your Presentation's 'Connection-ability' Part 2

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Key to improving presentations is to focus on where your're audience is, not where you are, or where you want them to be. To do that, you must make a connection first. It is by making this initial connection that your "believe-ability" - your "buy-in" factor - and your "connection-ability" as a speaker are first made. Author: Tim McClintock, PMP

» Improving Your Presentation's 'Connection-ability' Part 1

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"Life is a series of presentations!" I'm not the first to say that. Tony Jeary said it before I did, in his book of the same title. If life really is a series of presentations (and, as a business professional, you're going to be called on to present information) the question is, what are you presenting? What is your presentation saying? Author: ...

» Lessons Learned: It's Not Just a Good Idea...

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Call them "Lessons Learned," "Retrospectives," "Postmortems," or whatever you wish; taking the time at the end of each project to look back is almost universally considered to be a good idea. In fact, I can't remember ever having someone tell me that they don't think it is a good idea. "Oh yes!" I am often told, "We should do them!" Author: Alan K...

» How Did You Get That Out Of What I Just Said? Five Rules to Communicating

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Have you found yourself wondering those exact words just moments after a conversation with a co-worker? Or have you found yourself in a heated discussion because of something you've said to your spouse or loved one? Better still, your teenager gives you the "deer caught in the headlights" look when you ask where have they been so late at night? You...

» Never Let a Good Editor Go

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When documenting systems, quality assurance requires quality support people, especially final content editors. They are worth their weight in gold-edged certificates. If you are part of a large project that has a very large documentation aspect, learn to nurture, develop and retain a good editorial staff, and do not forget to keep everyone's skills...

» Effective Stakeholder Relationships

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Any project that is cancelled, not completed, or fails to meet its objectives and has to be written off, is obviously a waste of organization resources and time. However, it is also not enough just to successfully execute a project to completion. A successful project that is not implemented or used because it doesn't meet the customer's or user's r...

» Who Makes the Best Systems Analysts?

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Over the last four decades I have met a lot of Systems Analysts in a lot of different industries. Some impressed me greatly by their knowledge of their business and the systems they designed, but I have also met a lot of duds along the way. When I think about the better ones, I consider the attributes they share which I can narrow down to three are...

» The Elements of a Good Feasibility Study

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In its simplest form, a Feasibility Study represents a definition of a problem or opportunity to be studied, an analysis of the current mode of operation, a definition of requirements, an evaluation of alternatives, and an agreed upon course of action. As such, the activities for preparing a Feasibility Study are generic in nature and can be applie...

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Entries for March 2008