OTOBOS

Scope creep, shopping-style!

June 30, 2010

I try really hard not to let scope creep impose upon my projects, so why is it so difficult to stop it in the rest of my life? Despite my efforts to keep my language skills up since moving back to the UK from Paris, my French is rusty to the point where if it [...]

BAs and PMs working together (part 4)

December 7, 2009

In this final instalment of the ‘working together’ series, I’ll be looking at how to improve the working relationships between project managers and business analysts. Changing working relationships is often more about culture than concrete tasks, but there are some things you can do to smooth any blips in the way that project managers and [...]

BAs and PMs working together (part 3)

November 30, 2009

Last week I wrote about what project managers value when working with business analysts. This week I want to focus on what we don’t. Don’t worry: it’s not that bad! The differences in the ways that project managers work and the ways that business analysts work means that it’s not always easy to work together. [...]

BAs and PMs working together (part 2)

November 23, 2009

Last week I wrote about the way that project managers work, and how this relates to OTOBOS. This week I want to explain what project managers value in our working relationships with business analysts. Project managers see BAs as architects. They are detailed, they decide on and build solutions, they work in a methodical way. [...]

BAs and PMs working together (part 1)

November 16, 2009

About a month ago I spoke at the Business Analysis Conference about how project managers work, and how business analysts and project managers can work together more successfully. As you can imagine, telling a room full of BAs that project managers don’t want to hear all that detail and analysis paralysis was received with a [...]

What is OTOBOS?

February 26, 2006

OTOBOS is On Time, On Budget, On Scope. This definition of what makes a project successful misses out quality, happy stakeholders and a whole host of stuff, but it’s a good starting point. If you can deliver OTOBOS, chances are that you are doing something right.

OTOBOS and nems au chocolat

February 13, 2006

Part of a PMs role is to educate our colleagues in what PM means as a discipline. That you can’t just change the scope and give us no more resources. That you have to sign of a plan before we can start work on it. I had someone email me this week with comments on [...]