John provides a series of customized workshops for IT managers as well as non-IT managers. Workshops can be held on-site or online. Online workshops are held via the Adobe Acrobat Connect conferencing service as well as via direct Videoconferencing over IP. Some of the most popular topics are listed here:

For non-IT managers:

Non-IT managers have special needs when it comes to software. They usually provide funding or direct project management for software acquisitions and development efforts, but rarely have the knowledge necessary to clearly communicate with and guide their developers. These workshops are designed to solve this problem.

Who's on First: The Roles and Responsibilities of IT Personnel.  
  This 2-hour course covers the four basic categories of non-managerial IT personnel and their various titles. Education and experience profiles are covered as well as specific responsibilities and common career migration paths. If you've ever wondered what a DBA is or what a SysAdmin does, this will be of interest to you.  
     
Information Lliabilities of Non-IT Managers  
  This 2-hour course covers the basics of organizational information and the increasingly stringent regulatory environment surrounding it, as well as the common cultural causes of information mismanagement. If you've ever wondered what your liability is should a laptop go missing, this will be of interest to you. Recommended prerequisite: Who's on First: The Roles and Responsibilities of IT Personnel.  
     
Quality is Optional: Risk and Feasibility Assessment for Acquisition & Development.  
  This half-day course arms sponsoring managers with the tools needed to evaluate the impact and implementation risks of their projects and determine project feasibility based on risks, process, and resource availability. At the end of this workshop sponsoring managers will be able to quickly assess and identify the level of quality required for their projects.  
     
Piercing the Veil: Requirements Management for Managers.  
  This half-day course clears up the mysterious world of requirements. The course covers the different classes of basic requirements and walks attendees through exercises in their development. At the end of this workshop, attendees will have the tools necessary to jump-start and monitor the requirements gathering process for their projects.  
     
Scope, Schedule, and Budget: The Shape of an IT Project.  
  This half-day course describes the basic structure of successful software projects and their typical activities, whether formal or informal. The software development world is consolidating down to two primary lifecycle models: Agile and Formal. At the end of this workshop, attendees will have the tools necessary to identify the appropriate model for their project as well as a set of critical metrics useful in monitoring progress.  
     

For IT Managers:

Experienced IT managers are familiar with the basics, but need additional knowledge and tools to manage the nuances of software development efforts. These workshops cover techniques for the estimttion and tracking of IT projects using real information instead of guesswork.

How Much Rigor? Choosing an Appropriate Lifecycle  
  Despite what the authors of various books say, one lifecycle does not fit for all work. The software development world is consolidating down to two lifecycle models: Agile and Formal. Software project managers need to know the differences between the two models and their relative advantages to make the proper choice for their current project. This half-day course provides overviews of both models, explodes the more common myths expressed by developers, and gives the attendee the tools necessary to develop and document their decision. PREQUISITE COURSE: Quality is Optional: Risk and Feasibility Assessment for Acquisition and Development. Yes, the course is for non-IT managers, but IT managers need to integrate with the project sponsorship activities described by this course to make the right set of follow-on decisions.  
     
The Forward-Rolling Schedule: Managing Despite Uncertainty.  
  This 2-hour course describes and demonstrates a technique to define and manage the schedules of software projects using Agile or Formal lifecycles. The forward-rolling schedule technique combines estimation by analogy with continuous refinement via an iterative model. At the end of this workshop, attendees will have the tools necessary to produce viable schedules that account for and continuously manage uncertainty.  
     
BASISS Points: Software Sizing from Goals to Code.  
  Effort estimation for software is impossible without a reliable sizing metric. This 2-hour course describes the Shell Method BASISS Point sizing method for IT software development efforts. BASISS Points are similar to, but easier to develop and manage than function points. They can be developed using analogy techniques from requirements specifications and confirmed by direct extraction of final points from the source code itself. At the end of this workshop, attendees will be able to develop BASISS point counts from historical efforts and use them to estimate current and future efforts.  
     
Requirements Identification and Traceability Using Word and Excel.  
  High-rigor software efforts that are under audit must support requirements traceability. Since most requirements and design elements are contained in MS Word documents, it makes sense to use the content of the documents to handle traceability. This 2-hour course demonstrates a simple technique for the identification of requirements, design elements, test case steps, and code implementation points and their presentation using a simple spreadsheet macro. At the end of this workshop, attendees will have the spreadsheet, macro, and tools necessary to uniquely identify the requirements chain and easily summarize current traceability without the need for expensive requirements management tools.  
     
Configuration and Issue Management: A Simple Pattern that Passes Audit  
  Configuration and issue management (CM) tools are capable of supporting extremely complex processes. IT shops often attempt to go from a standing start to a complex process on initial implementation, with disastrous results. This half-day workshop presents a simple CM picture that is easily implemented and communicated to end-users and managers as well as the development team. At the end of this workshop, attendees will have and understand the elements of a formal presentation and documentation template for configuration management.  
     
Software Quality Assurance: A Simple Pattern that Passes Audit  
  Testing is often mistaken as Software Quality Assurance (SQA) by inexperienced developers. This half-day workshop covers the basic engineering quality assurance concepts associated with documentation reviews, issue management, coupling requirements to code, and prioritizing testing activities based on risk assessments. At the end of this workshop, attendees will have and understand the elements of a formal presentation and documentation templates for software quality assurance.  
     

To Schedule a Workshop:

Contact Digital Publications at 505-672-2092 / 800-980-2092 to schedule one or more workshops for your organization.