Can you tell our readers a little about your background? What recent activities have you been involved in that are relevant to the courses you instruct?

I am CBAP certified which means I passed the exam and been able to document my many years of experience doing analysis work. I consult on a regular basis with clients looking to improve project success via better requirements, which form the foundation of any project.

What courses do you currently teach?

Business Analyst Boot Camp, Developing Requirements with Use Cases, Business Analyst Fundamentals and Advanced Project Management Techniques.

What real-world skills can these courses teach people that they can take directly to their jobs?

These courses offer practical day to day tools you can use to organize, plan and execute the way people work. The workshops are designed to immerse participants in a case study so that they can learn the tools the way adults learn by doing. Depending on the maturity level of their organization, everything we do in class can be taken back to the field. For example, we use context diagrams to scope projects, activity diagrams to break down the processes within the systems we are studying, data flow diagrams to look at very low level detail so that we can decide, as analysts, what about the current process can be kept, removed, added or changed. We can’t improve systems unless we understand the needs they meet for their users. These tools all support that understanding.

What kind of hands-on training do you use in the courses you teach?

Our workshops are case study based, which means we take an immersion approach. Our model is basically 70/30, with students spending 70% of the time in exercises/discussions and about 30% of the time listening to the instructor. Adults learn by doing they are not good listeners!

What are the professions of your students?

Project managers, business analysts, systems analysts, department managers, testers, programmers, architects

What organizations are you a part of that help you keep in touch with the technologies you teach about?

Project Management Institute (PMI) and International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).

Why did you decide to teach the courses that you teach?

Because of my experience doing the work and the incredible need so many organizations have to get good practices and methodology in place. Most face an enormous percentage of project failures.

Mary is available for On-Site courses that can be custom built to fit the needs of your company. To learn more or to request an On-Site service quote please visit www.aspe-sdlc.com/onsite.

Over $115,000 has been granted to more than 100 students since the ASPE Scholarship Program was rolled out in September of 2009.

“We set out to utilize our resources to help displaced workers in our industry build the necessary skills to reenter the workforce as quickly as possible,” says David Mantica, President of ASPE, Inc. “We were able to really connect with customers through this program. I loved that the program helped so many people advance their career in a very tough economy. I look forward to a continued relationship with our scholarship recipients.”

Cynthia L. explains, “I was a recipient of this wonderful scholarship and opportunity.  I was able to complete 3 of the 5 courses required for the BA certificate and I paid for the 1st one myself.  Now, I only have 1 to go before I am done – THANKS to this program.  With the help of ASPE elevating my courses through this program, I have now found a job that I attribute to the knowledge and initiatives gained in these classes. I was unemployed for 8 months and I feel blessed to have another chance to make a difference in the Business Requirements and PM world.”

Hear what other Scholarship Recipients have to say

On June 30th,2010 the ASPE Scholarship program will come to an end. There is just 1 week left to submit your application.

Download the Scholarship application here

I’ve scene some references to this around the blog-o-sphere lately. Obviously starting out with a successful plan is the key to any project. To learn more about these initial stages I went to Tom Mochal, who had more then a few thoughts on this subject.

Building a Logical Organization is the Key to a successful Project Management Office

The term “logical organization” means that when the definition is complete, the organizational structure will only exist on paper. Once the logical organization is defined, you still need to actually staff the PMO at the right level to support the logical organization. The following major components are used to define your logical PMO. Many companies have the expertise to perform this definition by themselves. However, defining missions and strategies is something that you do not do every day. That is why consultants are sometimes brought in to assist. There are consultants that specialize in these organization assessments. They can facilitate the definition process and make sure that the resulting logical organization provides a firm foundation for the subsequent staffing and project execution.

• Mission: Describes what the PMO does, how it is done, and for whom. It is a very general statement, usually aligning the PMO to the value it provides to the business. An example of a PMO mission statement is “The Acme Project Management Office (PMO) implements and supports project management methodology to enable our organization to deliver projects faster, cheaper, with higher quality and within estimates and expectations.”

• Strategy: There may be many ways to achieve your mission. A strategy is a high-level set of directions that articulates how the organization will achieve its mission. Defining a strategy also helps get the PMO aligned in the same direction as strategies in the rest of the company. Strategy defines how you will do things over the long-term – say three years – and is used as an overall framework for the more detailed tactical decisions that are made on a month-to-month and day-to-day basis. Click to continue »