Four Cases for Early Requirements Verification

Performing a verification assessment on your requirements during the actual requirement definition process is a key step in validating the requirements.  As I mentioned previously, verifiability is a key characteristic of a good requirement.

Assessing verification as you develop your requirements can provide four major benefits to your requirements and to your project or product:

• It improves requirement quality
• It ensures that your requirements support verification
• It provides a basis for estimating verification cost and schedule
• It reduces requirements verification costs

Let’s look at each of these statements in more depth…

Early attention to verification improves requirement quality.

Asking “how will we verify this requirement?” before you baseline a requirement is an important step in validating that requirement.  An unverifiable requirement is an unnecessary or bad requirement.  If you can’t verify it, you may not be able to design a product or solution that will meet it.  For example, how you do you verify “the product shall be safe?”   How will designers make it “safe?”  If you can’t verify a safety-related requirement, you may not be able to convince your customers to use the product.

Early verification assessments help to identify additional requirements needed to support verification.

Your product or solution may need features dedicated to support verification, especially tests and demos.  Extra connectors on the wiring harness to connect to test instrumentation or external power, extra data on a display or in a database to give you visibility into an internal process, an inspection portal, or a bracket to hold a part in a test fixture are examples of features that can make verification possible in some cases or reduce it’s costs dramatically in others.  Knowing these requirements before starting design avoids late rework of the solution or product to enable verification.  It will also reduce delays in product development while you await delivery of test support equipment or software, which could have been on a parallel development track if you’d known that you needed it earlier.

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The Project and Line Manager: Final Conflict

From the pmStudent community:

Get out your light sabers

by Thunderchild tm via Flickr (Creative Commons-licensed content for commercial use)

In a matrix organization, you are going to have at least two types of managers. Line (or functional) Managers and Project Managers. There are different types of organizational structures along a spectrum which companies can be highly projectized or highly functional. Along this continuum the project manager role and line manager roles change. Their roles are also highly dependent on the organizational culture. Read more »

Companies building Alaska natural gas pipeline prepare for open season

Sourced from the Canadian Press

CALGARY — Two companies planning to build a massive pipeline to transport natural gas from Alaska to southern markets are getting ready for the project’s next major step.

Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) and Exxon Mobil Corp. of Irving, Texas (NYSE:XOM) said Friday they filed a plan to U.S. regulators for an open season, essentially an invitation for producers to commit to move their gas along a pipeline, which under one scenario would stretch more than 2,700 kilometres and cost up to US$41 billion.

The proposed pipeline would be the first to tie into natural gas fields on Alaska’s North Slope.

“The open season plan filing is an important step in the development of Alaska natural gas resources and we have worked diligently to advance the project,” stated TransCanada chief executive Hal Kvisle.

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Learning Tree Introduces New Course: Preparing for the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® Exam

Sourced from Sys-Con Media

Learning Tree International (NASDAQ NGM: LTRE) has announced the introduction of a new course entitled Preparing for the CAPM^®Exam. The Project Management Institute’s Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)^® credential signifies proficiency in fundamental project management knowledge and skills. Over three days, attendees will learn the terms and definitions of the PMBOK^® Guide and prepare for the exam. This course features extended class hours, providing attendees with the 23 contact hours/PDUs required to take the CAPM^® exam.

Attendees will learn how to:

• Decipher the processes and knowledge areas of the PMBOK^® Guide – Fourth Edition
• Identify significant steps of the project life cycle
• Master key terminology and definitions found in the PMBOK^® Guide
• Examine the PMBOK^® Guide tools and techniques essential for CAPM^® exam success
• Evaluate your exam preparedness and create a personalized plan for self-study

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February Survey: PMP Certification

Back in July 2009 I did an article entitled “Is PMP Certification Worth It?” and then a follow-up article a couple of days later entitled “Is PMP Certification Worth It? – My Analysis So Far.”  Those articles – specifically the first one, generated a lot of interest and feedback.  The first article alone received more than 100 comments just through PM Tips.

What I would like to do here is ask our readers to participate in a short survey.  It has to be short because I’ve set it up on my personal site so you can respond through a form online, but since I haven’t upgraded my site yet to a premium account, I’m limited in how long the survey can be.  But at least this way you won’t get bored.  And if it goes well, I’ll upgrade my account before I conduct another survey.

Please go to this URL to take the survey…..

http://www.bradegeland.com/feb-survey.html

I’m not asking for anyone’s name, email address, or other contact info, just your honest answers.  Here are the questions….

• Are you PMP certified?

• How long have you been certified?

• Did you pass on your first try?

• What is the PRIMARY reason you became certified (or will become certified if you are working on it or plan to)?

• Do you feel that the PMP certification has been or will be beneficial to your career?

Please route this in PM groups you belong to or post it on Twitter so that we can get maximum response.  If this goes well, I’ll plan on doing at least one new survey every month.

Remember – your survey responses go only to me at the email address below and I won’t share them individually with anyone.  I will however, share the overall results with our readers near the end of February.  So please try to respond by 2/20/10.

Thanks in advance for your participation!  If you have any questions or problems with the survey, email me at Brad.Egeland@pmtips.net.  Thanks!