Strategy Developing Strategic Business Plans How to Chart Organizational Direction (Two day seminar) A sound business strategy not only helps decide what to do -- but what NOT to do. Organizations that have a solid strategy are able to focus their resources and attention on areas that ultimately lead to their success. Using a "toolkit" designed to raise the key questions of strategy formulation, your company can establish a direction to take more control of your future. Objectively assess your organization's place in the competitive arena Determine what drives customers' buying decisions Evaluate your performance in aligning yourself with customer value Identify "trade-off" areas where you can decrease or eliminate effort and expense Select a technique to articulate your strategy that is best suited to your company Using the Balanced Scorecard How to Achieve Superior Performance and Strategic Success (Two day seminar) The Balanced Scorecard is a proven approach to strategic management that imbeds long-term strategy into your management system through the mechanism of measurement. Translate vision and strategy into your performance management system Effectively communicate strategic intent throughout your company Identify financial, business process, customer satisfaction and internal development metrics that support corporate strategy Track performance against the established strategic and operational goals Manage cross-functional process performance Identify improvements that will impact corporate success Strategic Planning: A Process-Oriented Approach How to Leverage Process Excellence to Improve Your Profitability and Competitive Advantage (Two day seminar) Breakthrough performance is within reach of your organization. By aligning strategic planning and process management, you will enable your organization to: Foster innovation that yields distinctive capabilities or competencies Leverage these capabilities for competitive advantage Focus process performance on strategic (as well as operational) objectives Convert strategic objectives into actionable operational plans Ensure your business system is performing at peak capability Capture the full, long-term benefits of process reengineering and improvement projects Strategy Maps How to Link Strategic Objectives to Operational Initiatives (One day seminar) Evaluate your company's strategic position and opportunities Build a Strategy Map that clarifies how and why your seemingly disparate initiatives and resources can be leveraged to deliver "big picture" results Deploy strategy by executing performance improvement initiatives that are linked to the corporate vision and objectives Process Management Process Mapping also known as Process Mapping & Analysis How to Streamline and Reengineer Business Processes (Two day seminar) Unlike one-day "flowcharting" seminars, Process Mapping presents a comprehensive "tool box" of process analysis techniques and addresses the critical business and systems thinking issues that truly impact the success of your organization. Identify and understand your organization's true core processes Select processes for reengineering Recognize and remove activities that do not add value Eliminate system flaws that result in poor quality Distinguish between technical and social processes View customer/supplier relationships and their impact on your system Use process maps to give direction to your quality improvement efforts Predict the success or failure of a business improvement Facilitating High-Performance Teams How to Work With Team Leaders to Make Sure Your Organization's Quality Improvement Goals Are Realized (Two day seminar) Successful teams don't just happen; they need the guidance and expertise of a trained facilitator. Only with such an internal resource can your organization achieve the dramatic improvements in performance that are necessary to compete and thrive in today's challenging economic environment. Work with team leaders to make sure company goals are realized Utilize key tools and techniques to accelerate team progress Run effective meetings Recognize and defuse conflict Balance the productivity (task) and human (maintenance) needs of a team Overcome the factors that undermine team productivity Process Value Analysis How to Optimize Business Processes via Value Assessment and Activity Cost Management (Two day seminar) Business processes are the core of your organization. They are the collections of activities that create value for your customers. Process Value Analysis enables you to pursue both critical paths. Increasing Customer Value The business process (or value chain) is the engine that produces value in the form of products or services a customer will pay for. Effective process improvement must begin with a thorough understanding of who the customer is and how he or she defines value, lest we create a more efficient system for "garbage in, garbage out". Define and manage customer expectations Understand how value accumulates in your value chain Determine which process improvement investments will maximize the value produced Increasing Process Efficiency On average 20% of all manufacturing process costs and 30% of all service process costs are attributable to non-value-added activities. Process Value Analysis will help you find, quantify and eliminate those wasteful activities. Reduce costs without sacrificing customer satisfaction Establish an activity costing system to manage process costs Increase capacity by improving utilization of existing resources Implementing Process Change Making it Work in the Real World (Two day seminar) Develop a strategic program for improving business performance Build cross-functional coalitions of influential people Develop a communication plan to sell and reinforce the new process vision Staff and facilitate process or technology implementation teams Achieve buy-in from the people who must utilize new processes and technology Provide high-level direction for implementation project management Recognize systemic changes needed to institutionalize improved process performance Project Management Strategic Project Management How to Plan, Execute, and Complete Successful Projects (Two day seminar) A successful project happens because of four distinct components. First, it was the right project. Second, the organization broadly supported it. Third, the project was well-defined and planned. Finally, it was executed well. The initial selection process determines whether the proposed project deliverable aligns with the organization's vision, profitability and competitiveness. The project execution process reflects the organization wide project management competency.how well it executes all projects in a repeatable, predictable, and sustainable manner. To do this requires the mastery of a full range of project management skills. Managing Project Teams How To Create and Sustain High-Performing Project Teams (Two day seminar) Achieving results on any project demands the soft, tactful, yet powerfully important leadership skills. Project Managers must get results through people over whom they have no authority and often little influence. It's the "Art" of Project Management. But by practicing new behaviors, you can develop teams in which everyone in your organization will want to participate! Through instructional methods such as role-playing, teach-backs and other participant-centered exercises, you will gain a practical understanding of Project Management Institute's (PMI) "Human Resource Management" and "Communications Management" knowledge areas of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide, 2000). Establish yourself as a project leader of high performing teams Plan effective strategies to deal with organizational influences and politics Gain organizational buy-in to project roles & responsibilities Address team dynamics to engage team members for solutions Acquire staff and develop staff skills Distinguish and develop a "team" out of the "Herd" you were assigned Establish powerful team reward and recognition systems Define explicit communications protocols Market and sell your project through the project team Create excitement around project status, progress and future plans Address project variances and manage conflict Develop a team with an outstanding reputation Managing Project Costs and Risks How to Stay Within Budget...Even with Unplanned Events (One or two day versions) A critical part of Project Management is the ability to control costs even when uncertainty prevails. The tight connection between cost and risk forces the Project Manager to plan and respond decisively. Any failure to appropriately respond to risks can make the project over budget, behind schedule, or mired in litigation. With effective use of cost and risk management process, a Project Manager can deliver project objectives, even in a severely constrained environment. In this seminar, you will gain a practical understanding of Project Management's "Project Risk Management" knowledge areas of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide, 2000). Participants will experience using the Earned Value Management (EVM) to measure and control project progress. Create a Cost Management Plan Develop Cost Baseline and Control Account Plan (CAP) Apply Earned Value Management (EVM) Technique Establish Estimate At Completion Identify Risks Analyze Risks Qualitatively and Quantitatively Develop a Risk Response Plan Manage Contract-Based Project Measure Schedule and Cost Performance Know What, When and How to Take A Corrective Action Business Analysis Enterprise Analysis Creating the Context for Successful Process Improvement and IT Projects (Two day seminar) How often have you read of a company that touted the successful implementation of new processes or technology one year and then struggled to achieve business results the next? Unfortunately, an improvement project executed to technical perfection will only have modest impact if it doesn't tightly target critical business needs. Enterprise Analysis is the collection of early project activities that capture the necessary view of the business to provide context to requirements and functional design efforts. Enterprise Analysis activities include: Creating and maintaining the business architecture Conducting feasibility studies to determine the optimum business solution Scoping and defining the new business opportunity Conducting the initial risk assessment Preparing the business case Prepare the decision package Building Effective Business Requirements How To Develop Specifications That Drive Quality Business System Results (Two day seminar) The job of the Business Analyst, at its core, is to elicit, analyze, communicate requirements for changes to business processes, policies and information systems. This "umbrella" seminar addresses a broad range of critical business analysis techniques. delivers specific skills you need to develop system specifications that will impel system results. Analyze business processes to determine business requirements Effectively harvest business need information from the user community Create thorough and useful business requirements Integrate business requirements into a variety of system development methodologies Establish a requirements traceability protocol to link business requirements to design, development, testing and deployment activities Develop a requirements gathering process that fully engages the users and creates an environment for success Project Management for IT & Business Analysts How To Manage Innovative Projects (Two day seminar) Good project management is an important part of general business management; for information technology projects, it is critical. IT projects typically are more complex and have greater impact on business processes. Timelines are tighter and user/business needs are more dynamic. Effective IT project management is essential to meet these challenges and make the most efficient use of scarce resources. For the Business Analyst, IT project management represents the core set of skills needed for Requirements Planning and Management. Recognize and eliminate common causes for IT project failures Understand how the project management life cycle supports and integrates with your system development methodology Apply tools to effectively and thoroughly plan systems and requirements gathering projects Effectively define and assign roles and responsibilities throughout the requirements, development and project life cycle Master the project management skills essential for leading your IT and user project teams Perform mid-stream evaluation to decide whether project funding should continue Monitor and communicate project progress Apply tools and concepts to mitigate project and product risks Gathering and Documenting Requirements Working with Users and Business Leaders to Get the Right Requirements (Two day seminar) The business analyst has been described as the person who bridges the divide between IT departments and the business organizations they support. For all of the tools and techniques to elicit requirements, nothing is more important than making the most of human contact between these two interdependent groups. This seminar discusses several useful approaches to gathering requirements, focusing on the facilitation of collaborative sessions. Elicit and assess information Conduct interviews with user and business leaders Facilitate collaborative sessions Resolve conflicts and reach consensus Navigate organizational politics Foster creative problem solving Document the information gathered

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