PM’s Corner
Two of Dr. Young’s books are valuable tools for Project Managers:
Project Requirements: A Guide to Best Practices

This book is written for program and project managers (PMs) to help them realize how important requirements are to the success of projects. The book explains why requirements are critical and how to make improvements in the project’s approach that will make a huge difference in the results you achieve.

This book has many features that make it an essential reference for any PM:

• Concise: you can select a few ideas to try in just a few minutes; you don’t have to digest the entire book to make immediate improvements!
• Written from the PM’s perspective, based on experience on real projects!
• Includes contributions from several practitioners—for example, see:
  • Chapter 10-perhaps the best explanation available anywhere concerning what is Quality on a Project?
  • Chapter 11-How to manage Risk.
  • Appendix A-The best explanation available concerning the critical topic of requirements traceability and the requirements traceability matrix (RTM).
  • Appendix B-A one-page article by Neal Whitten (PMP): “Meet Minimum Requirements-Anything More is Too Much”
  • Appendix C-A template for a project vision and scope document developed by Karl Wiegers.
• Standardized Terminology and Processes
• The Impact of Requirements on Project Success – A PM’s Perspective
• Identifying Project Stakeholders, by Suzanne Robertson.
• A description of a facilitated partnering process that could provide the basis for getting your project back on track.
• Requirements-related project start-up issues and remedies for them.
• Fostering effective teamwork.
• Coaching the project’s requirements manager and requirements analyst.
• Improving communications on projects.
• Being agile: The “Right” Amount of Discipline and Process.
• How to enable continuous improvement.
• A rich set of recommended references and resources.
• High-level requirements process.
• Risk management process

Shop for it at:

• Amazon.com
• Management Concepts

How to Save a Failing Project (Also known as How to Keep Your Project from Failing)

How to Save a Failing Projectprovides the knowledge, insight, and tools to recognize a failing project, determine what to do about it, and transform it into a success. Even more importantly, it provides methods and techniques that will greatly help project and program managers prevent failed projects from ever happening. Some of the topics addressed include analyzing your project, how to create and use a plan, how to build a team, identifying the products that will be needed and estimating product size, identifying the work effort that will be required, establishing a schedule, minimizing risks, managing external and internal expectations, managing scope and quality, and a recommended approach for project success.  A unique and helpful feature of the book is that brief synopses of other helpful references (the best of the industry literature) are provided at the end of each chapter.

Success depends on teamwork: on a common purpose, on agreed goals, on people in different roles working effectively together. Many engineering textbooks barely mention management; many management books barely consider engineering. Worse, different schools of thought scarcely give each other the time of day, when in fact they are dealing with complementary aspects of the same problem: making a project work. Young and his team are equally at home quoting software and systems engineers as management gurus. They can draw pragmatically on Six Sigma, on requirements engineering, on software estimation, on systems engineering, on peer review, on software inspection, on earned value management, and many others. This is good and right, and hugely necessary.

More than three dozen figures are provided that illustrate processes, how to involve customers, sample tools, templates, requirements-related topics, metrics, and guidelines. A card is included with the book that describes “The Project-Saving Process”, including inputs, outputs, and steps to follow.

The book provides a useful glossary, an excellent set of references, and a comprehensive index. The Foreword is provided by Ian Alexander, www.scenarioplus.org.uk.

This book is available from all of the popular booksellers. Shop for it at:

• Amazon.com
• Management Concepts

Project World Canada “Project Executive Forum”, May 17, 2011, Toronto
Dr. Young was a panelist in the Project Executive Forum – he developed a scenario for a hypothetical project that provides many insights concerning project management – see Handout.