Use Case

Example Use Case

Use case naming follows verb noun from the perspective of the actor's goal and states the goal

Key Words

“MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” ​

Use Case Name: Policy Enforcement on a non-compliant information request
Pre-Condition (givens):

1. Organization's Information Policy
2. Non-conforming information

Starting Context (triggering event): Human Actor onDemand User Interface request to share/retrieve "sensitive" business information. 
Sequence:

1. System Actor evaluates information requested
2. System Actor applies policy enforcement that suppresses non-conforming "sensitive" information from unauthorized actors

Post Condition:  Human Actor shares/views only the permitted subset of the (system policy enforced information) information requested.

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Team ​etiquette

Toolkit

• Expected Behaviors (respect/independence/authenticity)
• Six (6) Key Rules of Engagement
  • Basic Courtesies
  • Operating Agreement
  • Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
  • Accountability
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Leader's Role: Take responsibility for task completion and accountability
• Toolkit (for healthy conflict and other types of adversity)
• Budget/Limit Other Adversity
  • Different priorities, interests, and judgment of team members
  • Role conflicts
  • Lack of commitment
  • Communication problems
  • Geographic scatter of team members
• GOAL: Super Success
  • 1. Seeing is believing
  • 2. Use incredible power of words
  • 3. action and adjustment
  • 4. Align Thoughts/Words/Action
  • 5. Maintain Focus
• Trust
  • 1. Partnership: when both parties share the same goals and outcomes (ie friends)
  • 2. Identification: trust based on personal experiences (ie colleagues/fellow enthusiasts)
  • 3. Contract: legally binding (ie customer)
  • 4. Reference: based on the reference of a mutually trusted third party (ie social climber)

Healthy Conflict

• Least Important "I"
• Most important "We"
• Two Most Important Words "Thank You"
• Three Most Important Works "All is Forgiven"
• Four Most Important Words "What is your opinion?"
• Five most important words "You did a good job"
• Six Most Important Words "I want to understand you better" 

Basic Questions

• How much will this cost?
• How long will it take?
• What am I going to get?

Negotiation Ground Rules

• 1. Be patient
• 2. Be positive
• 3. Gather information
• 4. Float trial balloons
• 5. Know your status
• 6. Know your opening offer
• 7. Limit your authority
• 8. Know your bottom line
• 9. Be prepared
• 10. Never reward intimidation tactics

Project In a Box (TBD) for template and guidelines on:

• how to manage the handover from sales to delivery,
  
• planning,
  
• stakeholders,
  
• kick-off meeting,
  
• revenue,
  
• monitoring and reporting,
  
• communication plan,
  
• lessons learned, and
  
• project closure
  
• Lastly, the scope of meetings, reporting, gates and risk and issue management.

Negotiation

Ten (10) Techniques

1. Make the pie bigger
2. Use humor
3. Show your strength
4. Ask a question
5. Review your preparation (privately)
6. Breathe deeply
7. Name hard-line tactics
8. Take a break
9. Use silence (after your proposal)
10. Reframe an issue

Tips for Negotiating in Project Environments

1. ​Assure the project is properly chartered and sponsored.
   
2. Establish clear company priorities with buy-in and support from the sponsor and leadership team.
3. Locate the project results within company priorities.
   
4. Tie project goals and results to support business goals.
   
5. Clearly define and vividly illustrate the tasks required to reach project goals.
   
6. Clearly define and vividly illustrate project resource requirements.
   
7. Build trust and credibility through accurate project planning, schedules, open and honest communications.
   
8. Provide risk assessments for missing resources.
   
9. Know the cost of delay.
   
10. Quantify the cost of NOT having the resources required.

Where are Requirements Used in an Organization?

From strategy to operations

• Strategic Planning (strategy to execution)—Business requirements (outcomes and benefits) are defined and quantified.
• Portfolio—Business requirements are used to link the strategy to the portfolio of change.
• Program—Business requirements are used to define the program scope and success criteria.
• Project—Business and stakeholder requirements are used to define the project scope and success criteria.
• Solution—Nonfunctional and transition requirements are used to build and implement a solution.
• Continuous Improvement (day-to-day business)—Business requirements and stakeholder requirements are used to define the continuous improvement, scope, and success criteria.

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The ideal situation is to manage requirements from the strategic plan, which are often expressed as outcomes and benefits, all the way to execution. ​

Requirements Traceability/Hierarchy

• Business Case (High-Level Objective and Goals) -  Overall Project Scope of Activities (Authorized by Sponsor)
  • Business Process Model (SIPOC) - Overall context of impacted business process(es)
    • Use Case (Business/System scenarios) - Specific Target State Project Outcomes
      • Granular (reusable) Requirements - RTM
      • Granular (reusable) Conformance/Validation Criteria - RTM
      • Granular (reusable) Verification/Acceptance Criteria - RTM 

Really Good Questions

For New Engagements:

• How do you like to work?
• What is your work style?
• What strengths do you bring?
• What types of behaviors annoy you?
• What kinds of behaviors take us off track or reduce our effectiveness?​

For Framing Stories

• What?,
• so what?,
• now what?

For Establishing Value

• What opportunity/threat needs to be maximized/minimized?
• Why is this important?
• How does this (add value) impact me?

For how detailed a Project's governance framework needs to be

• How much governance does my project need?
• How do I adapt the Project in a Box for my specific needs?
• Who are the key stakeholders for a project and what are the modes of communication?
• What gates/decisions are mandatory (aligned with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX)) and which are optional?
• Where can I get the key documents and templates, and where can I find samples?
• Who are the key points of contact for governance standards?
• What is the standardized tool set for a project manager?

For items in Statement of Work

• (1) what is it?
  
• (2) Who does it?
  
• (3) Who owns it?
  
• (4) How much is paid for it?
  
• (5) What happens if it is not done?

For Virtual Engagements

• ​Conflicting time zones: When is the best time for meetings to occur?
• Are you familiar with international holidays, so scheduled meetings don't impact personal time off?
• Be careful of using slang or language which may be offensive to others, particularly to those from different cultures
• How long are your meetings? Do you need to stop meeting activities and allow virtual team members on the phone/video conference to take a bio break?
• What happens if you lose your phone connection? Who re-initiates the call?
• Do you need guardrails for background noise? (How do you handle the dog barking in the background?)

For basic questions about the eight key components of project and program governance:

• Governance Model: To clarify the existing governance model, what are the gaps and what is currently working?
  
• Stakeholder Engagement and Risk Assessment: What is your role and how do you communicate status updates, risks and changes?
  
• Stakeholder Expectations: What do you consider success for the project/program?
  
• Roles and Responsibilities: What is your current role and what are you accountable for?
  
• Risk Assessment: What are the key challenges and how are they communicated and addressed?
  
• Meetings and Reporting: What meetings do you chair and participate in? What reports are you responsible for, do you need to review, that are missing and that you find obsolete?
  
• Assurance: How are you tracking in accordance with the project charter and baseline project management plan?
  
• Project Management Control and Roles and Responsibilities: What project metrics are you accountable for, do you have an interest in and do you monitor?

Really Good Prompts

For Facilitation

• “What I heard you say is….”
• “Can you give us an example so we can better understand what you are saying?”
• “Do we agree on this item?”
• “Does anyone have a different perspective to offer?”
• “Have we exhausted this topic? Are we ready to move on?”

For Accountability Conversations:

• Initiate. Create space for the conversation by saying something like, “I really care about the success of this project and your success, and I've observed something troublesome recently. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
  
• Notice. Make an observation of the behavior in question. For instance, say, “I've noticed that your conversations with IT have gotten more contentious.”
  
• Support. Offer specific evidence as needed. For example, “In your last two conversations with IT, you were shouting by the end of the meeting.”
  
• Probe. Ask “What's going on?” or a similar question that brings the other person into the conversation. Ask in a neutral, curious tone to allow him or her to share any relevant information. And after asking, give the other person a chance to talk.
  
• Invite. Ask how he or she could remedy the situation.
  
• Review. Make sure you have understood the person's commitment. Ask him or her to recap the plan.
  
• Enforce. Set a follow-up meeting when you will both check to see if the commitment has been kept. For instance, “I'll check back with you after your next call with IT to see how it went.”

For Retrospective

• What made us sad?
• What made us mad?
• What made us glad?

For Scrum Master

• Why is this sprint valuable?
• What can be done in this sprint?
• How will the chosen work get done?

For Improved Morale

• Communicate with and listen to team members
• Establish clear and specific performance goals for the team and each team member
• Ensure everyone on the team knows who has responsibility for what work
• Demonstrate commitment to team goals and project success
• Provide team members honest and useable feedback on project performance
• Encourage team members to be innovative and to take calculated risks
• Implement a performance-based reward and recognition system 
• Seek best practices from the best people by focusing on their strengths 
• Work to achieve a safe, healthy, and friendly workplace
• Find ways to instill a sense of team spirit 

Success Factors for...

Remote Worker Collaboration Success

1. Extroversion The first consideration of personality is extroversion. Certainly, you do not want any team entirely constituted of extroverts; however, for remote workers there is a healthy level of extroversion required. In the remote worker, extroversion implies that the person will be sufficiently outgoing as to not let a little thing—like not being physically in the room with others—stop him from being an active participant in the team.
   
2. Agreeableness Agreeableness is another key personality trait to consider in the remote worker. This does not mean that you want remote workers that are weak-willed, rather that they use reason and logic in discussions and communicate their facts and ideas in a non-confrontational style.
   
3. Conscientiousness It is of vital importance that the remote worker cares about the quality of their work. This means someone who owns, completes, and is accountable for their work regardless of location. It is more important with the remote worker because of the inherent degree of autonomy that exists and the need for heightened awareness of output quality.
   
4. Openness Genuine interest in the ideas of others is one aspect of openness, but another is to behave in a way that creates a sense of accountability. It is openness in the bidirectional sense. To confidently receive and simultaneously promote ideas is the challenge of virtual workers. Openness is our goal with the free exchange of ideas as the products.
   
5. Neuroticism Lastly, the level of neuroticism of the remote worker is crucial, related in that the remote worker be calm and able to handle confrontation in a flexible manner. The remote worker must not easily be rattled and can generally remain focused while operating with imperfect information. Perhaps the most important of all five characteristics, neuroticism speaks to the ability of the person to work through adverse situations without experiencing the same level of dissatisfaction or anxiety that one might normally feel in the workplace.