ITIL^® – Why Should I Care?
This article is also published on Project Connections.
Topic: ITIL, Management   •   Date Published: 27 May 2011
ITIL (the Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a framework of good practice in IT Service Management. You needn't look far to find articles and presentations that explain ITIL. But those explanations may leave you with many more questions. Cinda Voegtli, CEO and Founder of Project Connections engaged in a long-distance conversation with me about this. We invite you to listen in.

Quality = Business Value Series

Part 1: Why common definitions of Quality fall short
This article is also published on Project Connections.
Topic: Quality   •   Date Published: 3 Jan 2011
"Quality" is one of those words that is used all the time, but rarely defined. We are supposed to produce "quality" products, but the precise meaning of that mandate is left to the imagination. Even among those who have undertaken to define "Quality", there is more variety than consensus. By examining the ways each of these traditional definitions falls short, we can appreciate an emerging new definition: Quality is delivering Business Value.

Part 2: Business Value as the Measure of Quality
This article is also published on Project Connections.
Topic: Quality   •   Date Published: 18 Mar 2011
We examined the ways each of the traditional definitions of "quality" falls short in part 1 of this 2-part series. Having done this, we can now appreciate an emerging new definition: Quality is delivering Business Value. As we do, we will see that it borrows the high points from each of the common definitions while leaving the baggage behind.

Blurring the Line Between Dev & QA
This article is also published on Project Connections.
Topic: Management, Quality   •   Date Published: 25 Oct 2010
What's the difference between development and QA? It's been decades since we began distinguishing between these two project roles, and in most organizations the fact that they are necessary and distinct from each other is taken as an article of faith. But new voices have arisen in recent years. Most of them do not suggest that we go back to the 1960s, but they do raise interesting questions about the Dev/QA dichotomy. How well has the traditional structure worked? What dysfunctions are crying out to be addressed? Can we make our projects more effective by re-thinking these two roles and how they relate to each other?

How to Estimate Program Size
Cost of Quality Redux
This article is also published on Project Connections.
Topic: Metrics, Planning   •   Date Published: 12 Aug 2010

In my last article on Cost of Quality, I started out by blithely stating, "Let's say we're going to write a system of 25,000 Lines of Code." Teri (a perceptive reader) called me on it! She wrote, "If a new system is built, how do you guess at how many lines of code there will be? You possibly can guess at the number of programs from looking at the requirements but how do you guess the amount of lines involved for each program?" It's an important question, and doesn't have a quick and easy answer. This was what I told Teri.

How Much Quality Can We Afford?
Improving our Cost of Quality
This article is also published on Project Connections.
Topic: Management, Quality   •   Date Published: 1 Jun 2010
Sure, it might be nice to build a higher quality product. But how much quality can we really afford? Well, let's break out our Cost of Quality Calculator and try out the numbers.