More ASPE Giveaways on Twitter

Since we had so much fun last week with our Twitter Giveaway, we looked around the office for more free stuff to giveaway. This week we are giving away Project Poker Cards from our partners, @VersionOne.

All day today (7/7) you have a chance to win Project Poker Cards from ASPE. Entering to win is easy – follow @ASPE_SDLC and retweet the message below between 8am and 5pm EST today and we will randomly select one winner.

Now that you know how to enter and win – start spreading the word.

rt@ASPE_SDLC: Giving away set of Project Poker Cards today. Follow us & RT for a chance to win.

Understanding the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide: Transition From 3rd to 4th Edition

The 4th edition of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) continues the on-going efforts of the Project Management Institute to provide practitioners with an easy to understand and implement standard for the fundamental practices of project management. As the basis for much of the Project Management Professional (PMP) examination, understanding the PMBOK® Guide is fundamental not only for practitioners but for all those planning on taking the exam. This presentation provides an overview of the major differences between the PMBOK® Guide's 3rd and 4th editions, including the areas of process changes, terminological changes, and differences in emphasis.

Understanding the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide: Transition From 3rd to 4th Edition

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Congratulations to our Winner!

Thank you to all for the retweets about our CBAP v2.0 Study Guide yesterday (6/30). We randomly chose a winner this morning, and @7thpixel (also known as David) has won the $50 MasterCard gift card!

If you haven't ordered your copy of The Complete CBAP v2.0 Study Guide yet, take a few minutes to do so now. The study guide is just $99.95 and well worth it.

Follow us on Twitter and keep checking the blog regularly for more free giveaways from ASPE. Next week we will be giving away a great resource for any Agile professional so if you aren't following us on Twitter already, now is a great time to start!

Live Instructor Led Virtual Training – How does it compare to the Traditional Classroom?

A virtual classroom provides the same four pillars of learning that a traditional classroom provides. First, a live expert instructor - Technology now empowers the live instructor to be heard and interacted with in real-time. Second, content – For a virtual classroom, the content is easy. Just a slight adjustment to ensure few talking points per slide for more interaction. Third, labs - Labs can be done in virtual breakout groups or with real equipment. Fourth, peer interaction - If you can talk and hear your instructor in real-time that means you can talk and hear your peers in real-time.

Between security issues, administrative rights problems, bandwidth challenges, and VoIP concerns, virtual training proved to be a hurdle to knowledge instead of a bridge. The technology was not ready for the intended use. However, now the technology is an enablement - This is the major difference in Live Instructor Led Virtual Training in 2009 as compared to previous years.

The technology works. You get the same product whether live or virtual so what is slowing down the adoption of virtual training? The answer is trust.

Taken directly from the feedback we’ve received from customers and our advisory board, management does not trust that their employee is “actively” paying attention and learning in a virtual classroom. They believe this to a point that they value a virtual training class about half as much as a traditional classroom training program. We were very surprised to hear this feedback.

First we thought that in a live classroom there is just as much chance the employee is “zoning” out as in a virtual classroom - actually there is more of a chance. Virtual instructors are taught how to push interaction as a systematic practice in their training. They work harder at forcing interaction than a physically live instructor does. As a result, we hear feedback from instructors who say they get more student participation in virtual classes compared to the physical classes.

Also, we thought maybe the concern is interruptions - if participants are at their desk, there are more opportunities for interruption. Actually we have found that in today’s world there are fewer interruptions. With today’s technology, such as mobile data devices, employees now have the ability to take all aspects of the office virtually anywhere which leaves more concentration time in the office.

So if you have some time, take a look at Live Instructor Led Virtual Training. You will be very happily surprised at what you find.

ASPE $50 Twitter Giveaway

All day today (6/30) you have a chance to win a $50 MasterCard gift card from ASPE. Entering to win is easy – just retweet the message below between 8am and 5pm EST today, and we will randomly select one winner. Good luck & spread the word.

rt @aspe_sdlc: Our #CBAP 2.0 Study Guide is just $99.95 http://is.gd/1j5x7. RT for chance at $50 Check Card

Agile Industry Watch: Update on Industry Trends and Impact on SDLC Management

We just uploaded our first presentation to SlideShare and it is our most recent web seminar - Agile Industry Watch: Update on Industry Trends and Impact on SDLC Management.
Follow us on SlideShare or check back regularly for more presentation postings. We hope to get a few posted each week. You can find our presentations by going to www.slideshare.net and searching for ASPE_INC. And as always we would appreciate any feedback.

Agile Industry Watch: Update on Industry Trends and Impact on SDLC Management

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Agile Industry Watch: Agile Jobs Increasing while Titles Are Not

Recently, we held a free web seminar that took a look at the Agile Industry as a whole. Following the event, questions we received lead us to take a deeper look at job titles in the Agile space.

We have an Agile Salary Survey that we conducted in the Spring of 2009, and we will be releasing the results early Q3 2009. What we noticed was that it was much harder to get Agile professionals to participate than it was to get business analysis professionals to participate in a similar survey we were conducting for that audience over the same period of time.

That data, combined with what we are seeing from our customers, has lead us to conclude that Agile is not yet seen as a job title, but is seen as a skill. SDLC professionals seem themselves as someone in a particular position that happens to have Agile as a skill (I.E. a Consultant who knows Agile, a PM/BA with Agile experience, a Programmer who knows Agile, etc.)

Surprisingly, however, data shows that Agile jobs are on the rise. As you can seen in the trend graph below, there was a dip in SDLC jobs in late 2008, but they spiked back up a year later. Looking over the entire time period of the graph, Agile jobs have consistently been on a steeper climb, and did not see the same dip in late 2008. In fact, by late 2008 their data shows that there were actually more Agile job listings and that still holds true today.

That is pretty consistent to what we see from our customers, though we’ve seen a huge interest in Scrum over the last couple years. As you can see, Scrum has continued to slowly grow and looks though it will continue for the foreseeable future.

The good news is that as Agile jobs are growing, so are the salaries for Agile positions. There is obviously some concern, especially in today’s market, about not pigeonholing yourself and solely marketing yourself as an Agile PM/BA/Programmer/etc., but data is showing the increasing importance and benefits of having Agile knowledge, experience and certification. Though you may not see more Agile job titles anytime soon, you can bet that you will see more and more people with Agile designations and experience listed on their resumes.

If you are looking to get started in Agile, wanting to refine you knowledge, or are looking to get certified, check out our Agile training curriculum and free resources.

Limited Time Buy One, Get One from ASPE

**This Offer Has Ended. (6/19/2009)

As you may have heard, there was an incorrect email that went out about our CBAP v2.0 Study Guide. If you missed it (look at our earlier post for details). Due to the mix-up we have decided to meet the mistake half-way.

The correct price for the CBAP v2.0 Study Guide is $99.95, but for a limited time we are offering a buy one get one free special. The study guide is currently available for pre-order at our website at http://aspe-sdlc.com/cbap_guide.html, but this limited time special offer is only available when you call in. Call us directly at 1-877-800-5221 to pre-order your copy of the CBAP v2.0 Study Guide and receive a second one at no extra cost.

The guide contains over 500 practice test questions and tips on studying and sitting for the exam. Using this study guide will allow you to identify and focus on your areas of weakness, thus maximizing your study time. The bank of test questions will be provided in the guide and accompanying CD, which will allow you to structure your study.

And for a limited time, the free second copy will work great for study groups. Call 1-877-800-5221 and speak with one of our Training Advisors to reserve your copies.

Incorrect Email Blast -- "2 New Free Educational Resources..."

For anyone who received our latest email blast (see link below) about "2 New Free Educational Resources from ASPE," we apologize but the listing is incorrect.

Our CBAP Study guide unfortunately is NOT free, but is still a steal at just $99.95...

Again we apologize for then error in the header of our email, but if you click on the link for the CBAP v2.0 Study Guide you will be directed to a page with more information about the Study Guide and how to purchase it through our website or by calling ASPE directly for the advertised price.

On a brighter note, our new E-Catalog is free and easy to use, so check it out if you haven't already.

We're sorry for all of the confusion and headache.

View the Incorrect Email

Your PMP Recertification: For PDU-sake or Real Education?

As a PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) we are constantly trying to keep on the cutting edge of project management training offerings. One of the latest trends we are seeing is the rollout of PMP Recertification products. Our competitors are saying things like…Earn all your recertification PDUs with us for just $5000 dollars or Need PMP Recertification PDUs. Earn 20 PDUs for just $199 when you take our online course. We’ll give you 10 Free PDUs.

For me, these products revitalize the concern we see every couple of years about the value of PDUs, and whether it is being devalued by the training industry. Generally speaking 1 PDU equates to 1 hour of education. Putting a dollar amount to that is tough since there are so many different avenues to earn PDUs today, especially free PDUs (For a good list of ways to earn free PDUs visit http://www.pmi-sd.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=79. I have no affiliation with this chapter.)

I will be the first to admit that there has been some monetary depreciation of the PDU over the last few years, at least from a trainer’s perspective. PDUs went from something that made your project management courses stand out and gave you the opportunity to charge more. Today, offering PDUs with your training course are a must whether you are charging $199 for an online course or $4000 for a 4-day boot camp. But this monetary depreciation is good for us all. By broadening the number of trainers who can award PDUs with their courses, PMI has refocused the recertification, and the certification for that matter, on the education and not just the requirements. It is no longer about how quickly you can earn your 60 PDUs over the three-year period, but more about what you are learning over that time span.

Here at ASPE that is our position. We are not here just to help you regain your certification as quickly as possible, and earn our chunk of change while doing so. Instead, our goal is to help you grow and become better at what you do. PDUs or no PDUs…as trainers, by helping you become more successful at our job, we become more successful at ours.

Sure we offer 4-day boot camps that cost $2000+, but if you aren’t already aware, we also offer a free web seminar series that offers on average 2 free PDUs per month. Some months we will find the time to offer 4 project management related web seminars, and give away as many as 4 PDUs. Over 3 years you could earn all the necessary PDUs for recertification for free. And you can rest assured that our web seminars are not product pitches. Our web seminars are about education, not marketing. We pick specific, hot, and important topics to cover in detail. We assume the audience has the background and skill to attend. We want you to walk away with actual knowledge, not just a snippet of knowledge and how our product can help you do it.

So, since training budgets are especially tight now, as you work towards your recertification keep in mind all of the free means to earn PDUs whether it is with us or not. Remember the vast amount of knowledge you gained while working towards your PMP certification, and the sense of pride you got when you learned you passed. Use your recertification period to really update your project management knowledge, especially with the new PMBOK 4th edition release and things like Agile and SharePoint starting to change the project management landscape. Don’t just pay for PDUs; pay for an education because when you really strip it all down you can earn all your PDUs pretty painlessly for free.

Skills, knowledge, and tools SDLC professionals need to watch as the second half of 2009 approaches

SharePoint: With well over 100 million licenses SharePoint has become the darling of Microsoft. Since it is a web-based application, it makes users a lot happier as well. Once thought of as purely a collaboration and knowledge management tool, SharePoint is not stretching its tentacles into Project Management, Business Intelligence, Regulatory Compliance and Unified Communications. If you are new to SharePoint check out this primer on the tool.
A SharePoint Workflow Primer

If you are using this tool now check out ASPE-IT’s SharePoint curriculum for a better understanding of the power of this incredible tool.
ASPE-IT

Catch the WAVE: What is WAVE? Well you just have to check out the below link and get a first look. Let’s just say, SharePoint will have a run for its money in 2010.
Google Wave Preview

Managing Virtual teams and Running with Virtual Meetings: Software development, help desk, and customer service positions continue to flow out of organizations and into onshore and offshore service providers. Managing remote teams and dealing with virtual project management is a difficult skill that combines learning, experience and natural ability. Check out this white paper to get helpful tips and techniques to successfully handle virtual management.
Managing Virtual Teams

Sourcing and Managing Outsourced Vendors: It is one thing to manage the virtual team of doers. It is a completely different thing to find and manage the vendor. You have service level agreements, you have to monitor the financial viability of your partner, and you have to ebb and flow with changes in your partners organization. Here are two white papers detailing what you need to know to handle the myriad of changes when dealing with outsourcers.
Sourcing Vendors to provide Outsourced Services
or
Outsourcing in a Difficult Economy

Oslo Modeling Language: What is it? Well it is the replacement for UML. It is especially powerful in modeling Service Orientated systems. Take a look at this primer on Oslo.
"Oslo" Developer Center

Requirements Elicitation: Whether the Business Analyst, the Project Manager or the Developer is doing it, you must do requirements right. The skills of requirements elicitation continue to be a major “requirement” for large enterprise organizations. If you work in a software development group or if you are a business professional interfacing with business systems on a day-to-day basis, you need to understand what it means to elicit requirements. Grab this great assortment of tools, techniques, and templates dealing with all things associated with requirements elicitation.
Requirements Toolkit

Web 2.0: It is NOT about the technology of Web 2.0 -- that is the easy stuff. The real difficultly is understanding how to get business value out of Web 2.0 capabilities. Someone, somewhere will find the killer business application for Web 2.0 capabilities and you want to know enough about Web 2.0 to catch the “wave” of this app. The wave pun was intended because you will see it just might be that killer app.
A Web 2.0 Primer

IIBA Makes Online CBAP Application v2.0 Available

Yesterday the IIBA Online CBAP® Application was updated to reflect the new version 2.0 of the Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®). This change will direct all online applicants to version 2.0 of the application. They stated that “The paper-based application will be updated from v1.6 to v2.0 by end of day June 5, if not sooner.”

If you have started the application prior to June 1st using v1.6 you have until June 30th to complete it. By July 1st, v1.6 will no longer be available and any information will be lost.

Also, remember the CBAP® exam based on the BABOK® Guide v2.0 will launch on August 1st, 2009. If you are scheduled to take the exam up to and including July 31, 2009, you will be taking v1.6 of the exam and starting August 1, you will be taking v2.0 of the exam. To view more information about the changes, visit http://iiba.informz.ca/IIBA/archives/archive_35785.html

If you are preparing for the CBAP exam don’t forget to check out our CBAP Certification Prep Boot Camp that is currently tied to v1.6, but will transition to v2.0 on August 1st as well. We also have The Complete CBAP v2.0 Study Guide available, an invaluable resource with over 500 practice test questions and tips on studying and sitting for the exam.

CBAP Prep Boot Camp in Atlanta. Just $900. You Save $1295.

Take advantage of our Last Minute Special on our CBAP Exam Prep Boot Camp in Atlanta. Hurry! Class starts on June 2nd...so we really mean Last Minute Special.

If you did not receive the email announcing the offer, a link to the online version is provided below.

CBAP Prep Boot Camp in Atlanta, June 2-4. Just $900.

Why the Scrum Master Certification Exam is a Positive Step Towards Credibility of the Scrum Master

Industries have models. For the most part those models are good. They become a brand in and of themselves. Sure there is always the opportunity to break a model in an industry and forge a new model (aka be a disruption and gain considerable market share), but that happens very rarely. The normal product development process is to gain an understanding of the industry, follow the industry model, and make your new product fit the model. You differentiate your product by providing something that is needed and not currently available, or by providing something already in existence but offering it better and cheaper.

In the business-to-business for profit training industry, certifications are still very much the rage. They provide employers with a tool to help in recruiting efforts and to help in retention efforts. Employees love them because they help classify their skill set, making it easier to get an interview, and command a higher salary. The certification portion of the business-to-business training industry has been around for over 15 years. It started on the product training side with Novell; Microsoft learned it for Novell, and Cisco took it from Microsoft. These three product vendors learned quickly that training and certification sold product.

Why? Employees feel a bond to the vendor that gave them a “leg up” and help them become a “stickier” user of the technology. Employers see the certification market and give the product higher credibility because of the size and structure of the certification food chain.

The Scrum Alliance has done for Scrum what Red Hat did for Linux. It productized an “open” solution. It gave something that could be difficult to understand and grasp, meaning and understanding. The Scrum Alliance took Scrum, and for that matter Agile, and put them into an understandable “box.” A potential user of Agile can now find “certified” people to employ, they can find expert consultants to hire, and they can find “tons” of information on the process quickly and easily.

This was a powerful first step for the growth of Agile, both in users and legitimacy. The Linux market had a similar incubation phase to what Agile is having now. Linux was a hot concept, was powerful, but also a bit of an enigma. A lot of fear and uncertainly surrounded it. Linux was like black magic to some people in IT. Agile is the same way, there is a TON of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) surrounding it right now, and a large majority of the SDLC community still sees it as heresy or black magic. This makes Agile cool for the people in the cult, but for the mainstream it makes Agile look risky and illegitimate.

Moving the Scrum Master certification from a class participation certification to both class participation and examination is a strong next step in legitimacy. In the business-to-business training industry, exam-based certifications are the standard. Certificates without at least an exam associated with them are seen as lower quality and much less legitimate. The Scrum Alliance wants to focus on the class participation portion because it ties back to one of the basic premise of Scrum, people and interactions over processes and tools. That is very understandable to the “cult,” but not to the greater market of certification buyers and takers.

A much healthier way for the Scrum Alliance to get the people/interactions portion into the certification would be to make part of the certification a practicum and part of it an exam. Do it on the back end instead of the front end, but that is a topic for another discussion.

Just like in Agile, you need to take small and steady steps towards a goal. It is very good for the legitimacy of the Scrum certification that the exam is coming. It fits the industry model and reduces the skepticism that the certification is only in place to drive training revenue. I amvery hopeful that just like in an Agile project, more iterations are on the way. I would love to see the burn down chart for the Scrum Master Certification.

Marketing CBAP and the BABOK 2.0 to Employers

The roll out of the BABOK 2.0 has been a Herculean project for the IIBA. 2.0 is a major change from 1.6 and is the commutations of a lot of leg work by the IIBA to wrangle in the ideas of requirements “gurus” into the framework of the 1.6 to come out with something the professional side of the industry can embrace. They did a fantastic job. Though the effort left a huge void for the IIBA. It is really a question that has been dealt with throughout business. Does a great product sell itself or must you sell something?

It has been difficult for me to find business leaders and IT leaders who know about either the IIBA or the CBAP certification. I hope the IIBA sees this as a concern and I that this is a major focus for them for the rest of 2009.

Marketing a certification to employers is tricky. You don’t want the employers to think you are certifying their staff so that those staff members ultimately ask for more money or they move on to “greener” pastures. At the same time you want employers to think about what they are missing if they don’t hire CBAP certified professionals, and how less effective their system will be if they don’t use consultants with CBAP credentials.

The first step in this process is the professionals should educate their leaders. The IIBA President is doing a great job of being available to any organization interested in hearing more about the IIBA and the Certification. Recently, she was in Raleigh-Durham speaking with executives at BCBS of NC. Professionals can take their manager to a local IIBA chapter meeting, have the Chapter President come speak at a lunch, or even learn at the office. Nothing in the world beats grass roots and internal marketing.

On the flip side the IIBA needs to hit the conference circuit and begin keynote and session presentations discussing why CBAPs provide value to a business. A good start at this would be for the IIBA to develop metrics that measure the impact of BA work on an organization.

No matter how great your product is, if no one knows about it or doesn’t understand its value, it is worthless. I am very hopeful a great product like the CBAP certification and the BABOK doesn’t become worthless.

ASPE Free Offer

For many, the decision to outsource has resulted in resource reductions, infrastructure reformulation, and a new operating model being deployed. Today’s events have prompted many to reconsider their offshore/nearshore ventures and have seen subtle reductions in return on investment (ROI) benefits.

In one of our current White Papers, Mr. Durant discusses what he calls “retrosourcing”. Retrosourcing is the process of reversion control for outsource engagements. Jerry compares retrosourcing to the ejection seat on a plane flying at full speed. According to Mr. Durant, Retrosourcing is comprised of 6 stages including: Pre-Ejection, Ejection Alert, Ejection Sequence, Eject-Eject-Eject, Engage Recovery, Root-Cause-Analysis, and Return-to-Operations. These stages are discussed in detail and followed up with a section on how to apply retrosourcing. It is important for any size company to consider their position in the global market because social and economic factors are constantly changing and the decision to outsource may not always be the most efficient means of doing business. Retrosourcing is simply one measure to always leave the door-open to ever changing conditions in the outsourcing arena.

Jerry E. Durant is Chairman Emeritus/Founder of The International Institute for Outsource Management and Managing Director of Certellus Corporation. He has been actively involved in outsourcing since 1988 and serves as Sr. Technical Advisor to the Outsourcing Institute and The Beijing Association of Sourcing Services (BASS).

To learn more about Mr. Durant and to view the complete White Paper, visit www.aspe-sdlc.com/offers

7 Trends in Project Management and Business Analysis to Watch for in 2009

This post is in response to 7 Trends in Project Management and Business Analysis to Watch for in 2009, originally posted on Project Manager Spotlight.

This blog entry is more like a present view of Project Management and Business Analysis in 2009, instead of a future view. If you are a BA or a PM you have always felt the pressure of management concerns that your responsibilities overlap, you have seen the Agile trend coming over the last couple of years, and you saw the economy starting to tank in Q3 2009 and have felt its impact on business travel and education.

On the convergence of PM and BA roles, I think the industry sees that each position has a distinct profile of success. A Project Manager's profile is much like that of a General Manager or Accountant. A Business Analyst's profile is much like that of a Product Manager. This profile distinction limits the capabilities of each position to do the others' work. The rise of the business-side focused BA has a ton to do with the failure of Project Management to build what was needed. Project Managers can build what is specified, they can build it on time & on budget, and what is built can be really good, but the PM position never has never focused around whether what was built was usable.

For the rest of 2009 and beyond, the competitive advantage will be given to CIOs who understand this distinction and maintain the BA/PM solution in SDLC work, and even work to make that relationship strong. They will get relevant and useable product on time, on budget. If they use user feedback and create value metrics, they will be able to show great ROI on projects with both a BA and PM, based on increase productivity of the workers using systems built. This metric will easily trump the cost reduction metric and will provide significant business competitive advantage to the organization in terms of functional business applications.

I do agree with this post that Project Management and Business Analysis have to be seen as skill sets even more so than job positions. This becomes very clear when looking at Agile.

The Agile trend has a high level of potential failure. It is increasing looking more like a cult movement than a legitimate methodology. You are either part of the cult or you are not. PMI and IIBA will have to step up and look at Agile, not as methodology but as a management philosophy, and begin incorporating its basic concepts into their overall structure. Agile demands that human beings treat each other fairly. It demands we see each other as adults. It demands that teams are allowed to manage themselves and solve their own problems. All VERY good ideas in theory, but these basic human tendencies prove very difficult in practice. In the end, Agile is asking too much of management and the workers to be scalable and repeatable.

The trend in 2009 and 2010 will be for PMI first and IIBA second to look at Agile and integrate it within each of their Bodies of Knowledge to provide a vastly improved solution for the practice of Project Management and Business Analysis. This is a much more probable outcome than the continuation of the currently stove piped tactics.

The BABOK 2.0 is exciting, but an updated standard does not legitimize the association or the position. It is nice that professionals are using the standard to perform day-to-day work. The reality though is that workers are interested, but management isn’t. There are approximately 500 CBAPs currently. The certification is not setting the world on fire. The IIBA has not done a good job marketing the BABOK or the certification to Fortune 5000 companies. The BA-doers and their managers know about it, but does the CIO? Does the Application Development Director know about it? If they know about it, have they been told about its value?

The BABOK 2.0 is an exciting improvement in the BA standard, but the IIBA must quickly change its focus to show the VALUE of the skills set to the business side. They need to produce return on investment statistics that show how much faster and more effectively an organization goes to market with a solution or an application when it uses certified Business Analysts. They need to show the competitive advantage provided. Right now the CBAP is a nice to have from the perspective of a business. IIBA must turn it into a need to have.

The IIBA is at a critical junction. They have a solid product now, but little to no mind share with the business world. Without an active and fast attack by the IIBA to market the value of the Business Analyst skill set to the business work, the CBAP trend in 2009 and 2010 will look much like the trends of the CAPM and PgMP certifications from PMI.

Trends are always interesting to debate and concern, this was an alternative look at some “possibilities” for the PM and BA skill sets and positions in 2009-2010.

The Complete CBAP v2.0 Study Guide Now for Sale

Based on BABOK® V2.0 - Reserve your copy by pre-ordering today!

Order Online or call 877-800-5221.

What is the CBAP® Certification?

The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) has created the Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP®), a designation awarded to candidates who have successfully demonstrated their expertise in the field of Business Analysis. This is done by detailing hands-on work experience through the CBAP® application process, and passing the IIBA® CBAP® examination. If you are working in the role of business analysis, systems analysis, requirements analysis or management, project management, consulting or process improvement, and have an advanced level of knowledge and experience, you will want to consider the many professional benefits of earning the CBAP® designation.

What is the benefit of utilizing The Complete CBAP® Study Guide in your CBAP® preparation?

The Complete CBAP® Study Guide will prepare you with the type of questions you will encounter on the certification exam. The guide contains over 500 practice test questions and tips on studying and sitting for the exam. Using this study guide will allow you to identify and focus on your areas of weakness, thus maximizing your study time. The bank of test questions will be provided in the guide and accompanying CD which will allow you to structure your study.

The suggested course of study:

• Take a pre-assessment exam and score to determine your starting point.
• Proceed through the Knowledge Areas and Underlying Competencies of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK® v2.0) introductions and practice questions specific to each area.
• Simulate the CBAP® Exam with 150 questions provided using the CBAP® blueprint (Knowledge Areas question weighting).

At each step above you will be reviewing the author’s logic for correct and incorrect answers to familiarize yourself with the BABOK® material and CBAP® exam approach. A total of over 500 test questions

Characteristics of a Successful Culture: Your Main Thing

This post is in response to Stephen Seay's "Characteristics of a Successful Organization."

Stephen does a nice job of explaining culture as a starting point to his blog entry. Also, I would not refute his multiple points on what cultural characteristics make up highly effective enterprises. He includes a great list of traits and characteristics that both management and the worker need to exhibit, but I do believe he is missing something in this blog entry.

We all know that exercise is good for us, but only a few of us actually believe it enough to do it. We all start out with the best intentions of meeting a New Years resolution, but very few of us take those resolutions to heart through the entire year and stick it out. Finally, many of us want to change, but very few of us harness the power to change.

When examining culture, I think an organization has to keep the message simple and easy to understand. The concept I use is from the book Monday Morning Leadership: 8 Mentoring Sessions You Can’t Afford to Miss. The concept is the Main Thing. Every manager of every department in every company should have what the Main Thing is for their organization posted on the wall. The Main Thing is basically the essence of why you are at work. It defines your work purpose, and if the task you are doing does not match that Main Thing concept, you need to stop doing the task. The Main Thing is a very simple and easy way to define work purpose. A culture is basically an organization understanding its work purpose and executing on it together.

Finally, a Main Thing needs to be posted and visable, it needs to be reinforced and the concepts continuously discussed. The goal is to create a corporate mythology. That way, when new employees come into the organization they will hear about your department or company’s mythology and will more easily assimilate into the culture.

The key mistake people make is trying to hire a profile that matches the culture. Doing this leads you to a very homogenous group that will ultimately lack the creativity of a cognitively diverse team.

Cultural concepts should be kept simple, posted, discussed and taught. The concepts should be easily embraced by cognitively diverse employees and can be department focused, as well as company focused.

A large list of should do’s is not going to cut it, a tight purpose statement that incorporates organizational purpose and can be communicated, posted and discussed is going lead to the highest possibility of incorporation.

Agile Culture: Where Should a Newbie Start?

This post stemmed from a post by Joelle Godfrey, Agile Culture: Where Should a Newbie Start?

After reading the article I asked ASPE President David Mantica to give me his thoughts...

There are a number of problems in life, one of the biggest problems is humans' crazy desire to make everything so darn confusing and over complicated. Ayn Rand was so right when she showed true genus tied to John Galt’s one-equation solution to static electricity. We are always trying to over complicate things to show our intelligence, when true genus is being able to take the complicated and make it simple.

Joelle Godfrey's post does a fantastic job of showing the very basic concepts of Agile for a beginner. Agile, in its purest form is one of those KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) solutions of true genus, but as with anything over the years it has gotten more and more complicated. Godfrey likens Agile and the different “flavors” of Agile to a nation and different districts. I liken Agile to an open source methodology and the different flavors as productized variants of the methodology. Much like Linux is the base open source Unix operating system and Red Hat and Suse Linux are different productized variants.

A basic understanding of Agile as a management method is critical before a professional can dig deeper into it to roll out a specific methodology flavor. The Agile Management movement is not for everyone. One of the main concepts that will stop many professionals in their tracks is the concept that co-workers and support staff must be treated like “adults”. When was the last time your manager treated you like an adult. Furthermore, some people can’t even define what an “adult” is. I have been asking that question in a number of presentations and getting some pretty interesting answers.

“Going Green” with Microsoft SharePoint

Implementing a green strategy can be accomplished in many ways and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 can be a very useful tool for many organizations wanting to help. We will explore several ways that SharePoint Server 2007 can help you reduce the amounts of waste that your company generates.

Idea #1 – Document Imaging

Companies’ use and store paper… lots and lots of paper. In addition, depending on the regulatory compliance that may affect a company, this paper sometimes needs to be stored for up to 10 years. 10 years of paperwork can become a burden in many ways, including the storage that it requires.

Here are a few little-known facts about paper:

• Paper production is the third most energy-intensive of all manufacturing industries in the U.S., according to Department of Energy statistics, and uses 11.5% of all energy in the industrial sector
• One third of all wood harvested in the U.S. is used for paper products
• Despite advances in the electronic age, paper use is on the rise — about one third of waste sent to municipal landfills is paper and packaging

Through the utilization of a document capture solution; SharePoint Server can make documents and information readily available to users when it’s needed. Once captured with a scanner, OCR (optical character recognition) software is utilized to turn the “pictures” of text into actual data that gets stored in SharePoint’s back-end database system (Microsoft SQL Server). Once in the database, SharePoint’s advanced indexing and search system can be utilized by information workers to find the information that they need, when it’s needed, rather than having to search through mounds of paper archives.

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise Edition also includes a site template called the Records Center that can help in storing and organizing your company’s data. The Records Center is intended to serve as a central repository in which an organization can store and manage all of its records. The Records Center supports the entire records management process, from records collection through records management to records disposition.

It is important to remember that fully implementing a document management system can be a timely investment, but the amount of time, money, and energy saved makes it a worthwhile option for companies looking to “Go Green” and streamline worker productivity.

Idea #2 – Using InfoPath and Workflows to Automate Forms Handling

An important aspect of working in a business environment and collaborating with others is the gathering of information. In most cases, businesses use paper forms, however, this process not only consumes large amounts of paper, but also can be very time consuming. A common challenge for many organizations is to identify ways to make this process more efficient and effective. One solution to this problem is to collect information in an electronic form that contains preconfigured fields for the data you want to receive. This ensures that all the required information is collected, and it also helps consolidate information that can be used for comparisons or calculations.

Forms simplify the task of gathering important information. Microsoft InfoPath is a member application of the Microsoft Office Suite that allows you to create electronic forms that you can publish to team members and others through Microsoft SharePoint Server. InfoPath is simple enough that non-programmers can use it for a simple forms creation, yet flexible enough for programmers to create sophisticated forms-based applications. The SharePoint Forms Server, a new component of SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise Edition, allows users to fill out forms not only through the InfoPath application, but also by using a standard web browser. This means that users can have access to your organization’s forms from anywhere, using any computer with a web browser. Once users fill out the electronic form, the resultant data can be either stored indefinitely in SharePoint or can be processed through a business automation workflow. This not only saves paper, but it also can improve worker efficiency by automating standard business processes.

Idea #3 – Telecommuting

Telecommuting, Teleconferencing, and Telepresence technologies are being implemented more and more in green computing initiatives. The advantages are many; increased worker satisfaction, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions related to travel, and even increased profit margins as a result of lower overhead costs for office space, heat, lighting, etc.

Microsoft SharePoint is a web-based technology. This means that you can easily expose your SharePoint deployment to users outside your corporate firewall. Since the standard interface to SharePoint is web-based, telecommuting employees can access their documents, meeting agendas, e-mail, and important business information from the road and at home. In addition, no additional costs are incurred, since VPN technologies are not required.

Join SharePoint Server 2007 with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, and the 2007 version of Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and you really start to experience instant global communication. By integrating these additional tools as Web Parts in SharePoint sites, you provide real-time communication as well as a visual experience for your users.

Idea #4 – Server Virtualization

Microsoft SharePoint is a very good candidate for virtualization since it can involve many server components. By separating these server components into smaller, more manageable ones, processing resources that may have been underutilized can be used to handle user requests for data through SharePoint.

SharePoint’s core server features can be broken apart and run on different servers. In SharePoint terms, this is called a “server farm.” Each of the following components can be run on the same server or can be separated into smaller components and virtualized:

• Web Front-End
• Application Server (Excel, Workflows, etc.)
• Indexing Service
• Search Service
• Central Administration

In most corporate environments, server virtualization makes sense. Redundant server hardware can rapidly fill datacenters to capacity; each new purchase drives up the costs for power and cooling. With virtualization, many companies are able to easily reclaim unused resources, rather than having to dedicate additional funds for new ones.

Microsoft SharePoint can be a key component in helping your organization reduce its impact on the environment. Whether it is used as a stand-alone application or it is combined with other Microsoft Office Server applications such as Exchange Server, Office Communications Server, or Live Meeting, SharePoint Server has several features that lend itself to the going green ideal. It doesn’t matter if you implement a single idea mentioned in this document or all of them; What matters is that we all do our part to conserve the valuable resources that we have on our planet. After all, it’s the only world we have.

This info is part of our "Utilizing SharePoint to Create a Paperless Office" whitepaper. Click Here to Download the Full Whitepaper.

What do Agile professionals look like in Enterprise companies?

The big thing with PMP and Project Management is that it has become not just a skill set, but also a profession. Before you had a job and a job title, and within the context of your work you did project management. Now more and more professionals are being designated as Project Managers.

This transition has been the fuel that has driven a lot of the success of the PMP certification and of PMI. The PMP has become synonymous with Project Management, so when someone asks you for a PMP you know what they are looking for or someone uses PMP when asking for project management…like when someone asks you for a Band-Aid or a Xerox. When they ask you for a band-aid they are asking you for a bandage using the brand name to refer to bandages in general. When they ask you for a Xerox copy, they again are using the brand name to ask for a type of product (known as a genericized trademark).

With Agile we are getting a sense that it is a more a skill set than a profession right now. This can be seen in a number of ways including the two most prevalent:

· Responses we are seeing to our Agile salary survey are not as heavy as anticipated, and a large number of responses are coming from consultants not enterprise professionals.

· With customers we are working with, we are not seeing many Agile specific positions. Most customers are Project Managers using Agile, Developers using Agile or Testers working in an Agile project. It seems people are keeping their title and adding that they work in Agile.

What this is saying could be two things. One, Agile is still very new. Organizations have not restructured themselves utilizing titles like Product Owner, ScrumMaster, Agile Evangelist, Agile Practitioner or Agile Project Manager. It is just a matter of time and growth in the industry

Or it could be saying that Agile is seen more as a skill set not a specific job function. Professionals will continue to say they are a Project Manager using Agile or a Developer in an Agile Project or a BA doing User Stories.

Right now, the enterprise is seeing is an additional skill within the context of their overall job position. Time will tell if industry adoption goes to the point that SDLC professional job titles are significantly adjusted.

Agile vs. PMI -- The Debate Continues

After reading "Agile: The Great Debate" I approached ASPE President David Mantica to get his thoughts on the article. Here is what he had to say...

It is great to hear some strong feedback from PMI about the implications of the Agile trend on the Project Management industry. Certainly PMI has developed the defecto standard for Project Management and as aspects of the PMBOK are being questioned by other methods and practices, it is important to hear how PMI sees the trends.

First thing to note, there is no right or wrong in this debt. The key in this trend is “HOT”. Meaning for some reason, professionals who see themselves doing project management work, whether in software development or other disciplines say for example Product Management or Product Marketing, are looking for something else. Right now, Agile is that something else.

I am most interested first in finding out why they are seeking something new, especially since the PMBOK has been in existence over 35 years. So why now? From what we are hearing from our customers the industry is changing faster then the PMBOK can be mapped to those changes.

Now the interesting thing, is that a first mover in anything new is not always the winner, just look at Microsoft. So I think there is a big opportunity in 2009 for one of two things to happen. One, PMI figures out the answer to my why question above and makes the necessary changes to the PMBOK to map to industry change.

Two, PMI doesn’t make the needed changes and one of the many current organizations or a start up organization answers fully the why question and starts to take their place as the “go to” source for leadership in the field of project management or off-shoot fields in software project management or some other industry specific project management techniques.

The growth of the Agile industry reminds me a lot of the Linux industry. Yes, one is a process and the other a specific software tool, but both developed because of critical industry needs that were not being met and both truly rely on a community for enhancement and evolution.

ASPE-SDLC will look deeper into the issues PMI has brought out in their fantastic posting. We hope we can help professionals better understand their options and the pros and cons of each.

**This post references "Agile: The Great Debate" post on PMI's Voices of Project Management which can be found at http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2009/04/agile-the-great-debate.html

PMBOK 4th Edition -- This Time It's Iterative

Came across this intersting article about the new PMBOK 4th Edition Update and some argument about how it is starting to show more "embodiment of iterative approaches." I agree this could help the cause for those "arguing the case for agile adoption in PMBOK focused organizations."

http://www.pmtoolbox.com/project-management-news/pmbok-4-–-this-time-it’s-iterative.html

**Our PMP Boot Camp will be making the switch to the PMBOK 4th edition material this June to help transition into the updated test. For more information on the course visit http://aspe-sdlc.com/courses/4200B/

Calling all BA's...Take part in our Business Analyst Salary Survey

With today's economy we are all interested in how we compare to the rest of the world, especially when it comes to our pay. We wanted to take the usual salary survey and dive deeper. We have decided to do several very focused salary surveys over the next couple months.

Take part in our Business Analyst Salary Survey and help us get a better feel for the changes our current economic state have put on the sector. We will be compiling responses and rolling out our findings in April.

http://businessanalystsalarysurvey.questionpro.com/

Participate in our Agile Salary Survey, co-sponsored by VersionOne

Take a few minutes and participate in our Agile Salary Survey. Let us know about current position, and help us get a better feel of what is going on in the Agile World. We'll be compiling the responses and rolling out the results in April.

visit http://agilesalarysurvey09.questionpro.com/

Meet Stace Williams, our Business Analysis Curriculum Co-Developer

For those of you who haven't already seen our YouTube channel or the following video. I hope you enjoy one of our first Instructor Spotlight videos. 

Meet Stace Williams, course developer and instructor. Stace teaches and co-developed most of our Business Analyst curriculum. Courses include Business Analyst Fundamentals, Business Analyst Boot Camp, and CBAP Certification Prep Boot Camp. Stace also co-founded the Center for Requirements Excellence.

Another Satisfied Customer -- Warren Dyer, PMP Certification Exam Boot Camp

We'd like to thank Warren Dyer for his recent note regarding his experience with our PMP Certification Exam Boot Camp. Congratulations on passing your PMP Exam on the first attempt! Come back and see us as you work towards your recertification. 

To the ASPE team,

As one who recently passed the PMP Certification Exam on the first attempt, I would like to say that my experience with ASPE’s PMP Exam Boot Camp was above and beyond what I had initially expected. So many products guarantee results, but this one delivered. Both the PMBOK Guide and the PMP Study Guide used in the course were exceptional tools, as were the handouts and examples provided by the instructor. His content delivery was clear and concise, with hands-on project management exercises that brought the PMP exam methodologies into sharp focus.

Though a long time information technology project manager for the United States Air Force and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, I still found the PMP Certification Exam to be extremely challenging. Anyone approved to sit for the exam should definitely avail themselves of the ASPE PMP Exam Boot Camp.

Thank you!

Warren Dyer, MS, PMP

Senior Director, Telecommunication Services 

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center 

Follow Us On Twitter

ASPE, Inc is now on Twitter. 

You can follow us for news, announcements, special promotions, new courses, and updates. I've added a Twitter feed in the sidebar as

 well. 

Follow ASPE_Inc 

SharePoint Open Forum. Limited Spots Available.

On February 25th we will be holding the first in a series of Open Forums. Whether you are just now evaluating a SharePoint deployment for your organization or have been utilizing SharePoint for several years, we will address you specific questions. Don't sift through an hour presentation or an 8-page whitepaper hoping to find the answer to you problem. Come ask us directly.

Our SharePoint expert, Mark Weinstein, will be at your complete disposal. Any question about SharePoint will be accepted. No question is too specific.

For just $99 you can participate in this 1-hour consultation with our SharePoint expert. We will address your organization and your question directly. This event will be presented in an open forum fashion, allowing you to present your specific questions directly to our SharePoint expert and curriculum developer.

For more information visit ASPE SharePoint Open Forum

Hands-On Mastering SharePoint Customization Course Complete

One of the benefits of implementing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is the flexibility it offers to create custom solutions...but there’s a lot to know.

We just finalized our latest addition to the ASPE SharePoint curriculum. Our new Hands-On Mastering SharePoint Customization course is complete and open for registration. 

This lab-intensive three day program will help you zero in on customizing SharePoint’s look and feel, creating custom workflows, designing InfoPath forms, and accessing external data through the Business Data Catalog. You will create real-word workflow templates for SharePoint-based business solutions, and learn how to program against the SharePoint Workflow API.

For more information visit http://www.aspe-it.com/courses/9655/

LIVE Instructor Led Training over the Internet Introduced

ASPE SDLC Training is excited to offer you a new option in receiving our quality training. We now offer LIVE Instructor Led Training over the Internet utilizing Cisco’s WebEx technology. The great thing about this tool is that, while you attend via your computer, the voice side is done over a phone conference bridge, which greatly reduces the technical hurdle a learner has to take in attending a class. These virtual classes will use the same content as our classroom courses, and offer the same labs and breakout groups through WebEx’s technology. You get everything you would from our classroom course at a reduced price, while saving on travel time and costs.

We currently have 4 sessions scheduled, including 1 FREE pilot session. We have sent an email out to the ASPE database about the FREE session. If you did not receive that or want more information contact Shelley Koerber at skoerber@aspetech.com. 

For more information on our LIVE Instructor Led Training over the Internet, visit http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/VCL.html. 

Our BA Curriculum Now Awards IIBA CDUs

We have been approved by the IIBA to award CDUs with our core Business Analysis classes. CDUs are the IIBA’s equivalent of the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) PDU. They will be used by the IIBA to quantify approved professional development activities, and will aid in the certification/re-certification process for the Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) certification offered by the IIBA.

Yearly CDU requirements have not yet been announced by the IIBA, but we now have 9 approved courses that will help get you on your way. Courses include, Business Analyst Fundamentals, The Business Analyst Boot Camp, Business Process Analysis & Design, Collaborating and Communicating Agile Requirements, The CBAP Certification Prep Boot Camp, and several others.

For more information and for a list of approved courses visit www.aspe-sdlc.com/iiba.html.