Deepa Kalangi's Blog, page 3

Career Buggy QA Manual Testing and Project Management/Manager PMI PMP Online Training

Career Buggy QA Manual Testing and Project Management/Manager PMI PMP Online Training

 

Training courses offered(Online only)

Quality Assurance Training(contact: careerbuggy@gmail.com or call 646-675-3710)

See the DEMO CLASS here:

https://youtu.be/W-uT3o4wwa0

 

40 hours, 4 weeks. 2 hours per day on every week day. (Timings can be worked out based on everyone’s needs)

 

Cost $399($10/hour) (Inclusive of my book: Cracking the QA Interview: 100 Testing Questions and Answers)

 

Payment structure: First class is Free and you can treat it as a demo class. Full Payment due on Second Class.

Curriculum

Software Testing Fundamentals- Quality Assurance Life Cycle vs Software Development Life Cycle
Software Test Strategy
Software Test Plan
Software Test Metrics
Types of testing and when they are used
Organizational Culture, Chart and Roles.
Test documentation preparation (Test cases, scenarios, other)
Preparation of test data
Setting up test environment
Test reporting- Metrics
Test defect management- defect life cycle
Traceability Matrix
UAT testing and phase
Agile concepts and why they are important for the testers
Agile vs Waterfall: Testing differences
Test Management tools (HP ALM)
Testing world in different org domains (healthcare, finance, retail, etc)
Automation Testing handson project experience-  Selenium
Automation testing- working knowledge and concepts- Jenkins, Jira
How automation testing works, why do companies need it, what do you need to expect and how to achieve results.
QA in Healthcare domain- QA working knowledge
Professional Resume Preparation assistance (Tips and Tricks)
Mock Interviews session
Interactive questions and some real-world scenarios (discuss and collaborate)
Access to course material for 3months after training.


A little about ME, so you know me.

My career started with testing right from my school(Masters) and I have worked with various environments as tester to manager in the testing domain for 9+ years before I moved into Program Management. I am certified in Scrum and Project Management (I teach PM courses as well).  Likewise, my teaching career also started with testing, I trained a few batches earlier and they went successfully!! I like to write, teach and so want to come back to what I love to do. You can see my profile in linkedin, below is the link.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepa-kalangi-pmp-27701947/

Why ME?

There are many training organizations and Individuals that offer training services. It is hard for the candidate to choose from. But we all know the end result is securing a job and be successful at it. That is a fair expectation and this training course aims for that. I consider any training as Education. And teaching is my passion. When something comes out of passion, it is a whole new result. This course is totally driven to help students understand, implement and be successful.

Belief plus Motivation will bring the best in you and this course is aligned to do that (Yes, motivation is dosed right in the course

Building a career in IT- Quality Assurance

IT Industry is rapidly growing with newer technologies coming up and professionals working in the field are also keeping up to date with the emerging technology too. But, for someone coming from the outside and have a passion to enter into IT and build a career in the IT industry also has an opportunity. The requirement for anything is the passion to learn, develop, grow and contribute. And in these cases, QA would be the right choice as it is a nice blend of technology, communication and skills. Any skill can be acquired and developed as you further along the journey.

What is Quality Assurance by the way then?

We hear the term Quality always. It is a familiar term for all of us. When we are shopping a product, be it an outfit, shoes or toys, we question the quality. We ensure we are paying the right price for the quality of the product. Just like that the QA department ensures that quality of the product in the technology industry is up-to standards; in other words, in accordance to the requirements defined in the beginning of the software development life cycle.

Quality Assurance is the process of ensuring the developed software/product/service is working in accordance or in conformance to the requirements. The people working to test the same product or service are called QA analysts or QA or testers. Whichever may be the title of the role, the duties are pretty much the same. You as a Quality Assurance Analyst will plan how you want to test it, take approvals, test the product and report the results. If there is not a QA department in any organization, the quality is questioned. The organization then is taking a risk of putting the quality in jeopardy which in return may negatively impact their business.

So, QA is such a neat, important role to get a headstart in your career. And Quality plays a crucial role in the success of a company.

Would you like to learn and grow in the QA field? Hop on to the page, http://www.careerbuggy.com/trainingconsulting/ for full information on QA training batches starting soon and register for the course.

#QualityAssurance #QA #Testing #Training #IT #QAtraining

The post Building a career in IT- Quality Assurance appeared first on A Project Management Blog.

Project Statuses: When the RED color strikes your project.

 

Project management: Reporting statuses on projects

When reporting status on your project, we are using the standard signal light colors. Red, Yellow, Green. Red color stands out and says it is danger. Yellow is caution and Green is a go. It is very easy to understand, just by looking at the color of the project, we can state clearly, how the project is moving along.

The PM is using his status reports to clearly show the color of the project under the top three areas which are also the triple constraints. Schedule, Budget and Scope. All is well when the Green is ON. The alert hits when the project strikes Yellow, but won’t start fires until it turns RED.

RED is freaking the leadership out! And when it really is RED, it needs the most attention, we all are striving to bring it back to Green. But in reality, are the efforts made in the right direction. Are you unnoticeably stacking up one wrong action on the other?

Yes, unfortunately, this happens and is happening. The PM’s are sucked into something called a process. Yes, it keeps you sane, it keeps you organized, it keeps you on track. But this definitely cannot be a blind man’s standard.

Problem solving is the most important when a project turns RED. For example, the cause of the issue/risk is identified and a mitigation strategy is established. The PM along with the team’s help carefully should identify the issue/risk and define the steps to mitigate. Once they are defined, the PM documents those in the status report, ALL the efforts should be made in that direction to close the risk or issue. ALL the time and everyone’s time should be spent on solving the issue. The Project Manager does his job well on reporting.

Agree? But does that happen?

Because, the project turned RED, everyone in the leadership want to hear why it has turned red and what steps are we taking. If that everyone wants to hear it everyday differently in different meetings and with all the key stakeholders? This quickly adds up to four different meetings a day, repeating the same thing over. Answering the same questions over. All it brings is frustration and tiresomeness. No added value.

In the end, the process is the only thing that is followed. You will hear “but I followed the process?”

What happened to the most efficient beautiful process? It is evidently broken and needs to be fixed. Meetings are a waste of time, especially repeated meetings, talking the same thing over and with no solution to the actual risk or issue. Time is Money. When we are measuring time(schedule) for the success of the project, we need to understand and admit that all the time and attention should be given to solving the problems rather than discussing the same thing over and over without any result. In such cases, the standard process cripples you down heavily and furthermore brings no value.

So, next time, when a RED project is reported, look ONLY for problem solving, right attention and right escalations. Rest is all noise. And this has to be acknowledged, understood and implemented by the senior leadership.

#Projectstatus #REDGREENYELLOW #Leadership

 

#ProjectManagement #ProjectManager #PMInterviewQuestions #InterviewQuestions #CrackingPMInterview

Amazon Book ID: B072DYSC8Q

The post Project Statuses: When the RED color strikes your project. appeared first on A Project Management Blog.

Are we unknowingly fantasizing with busyness and workaholism?

 

Are you saying you are working round the clock? 24/7, 365 days?

Working round the clock, 24/7 work; are the lines we hear from most around us these days. And trapped in this viciousness, there seems to be the fantasy going on with the term ‘busyness’ and ‘workaholism’.  We are used to hearing workaholic or workaholism from a decade or so, but we despised it. Agree? Now, we kind of got sucked into it and so we are unable to reject the situations. So, the leaders and leadership sitting at the top are happily fantasizing with this so they can advertise and capitalize on it.

Regardless of the Industry, Role, etc; the culture has rapidly changed for the worst. All the Organizations are caring for are the profits and profits alone? It has become contagious, cyclical and utterly depressing!!

Especially when you see the ads that come from big companies and the senior leaders giving shout-outs when they work off hours, not able to find time for family and kids instead of doing the other way round.

It now is high time this changed. Doing business with busyness is daunting, stressful, and totally unproductive.

The companies are proud to advertise and capitalize on their inability to create a work-life balance by pushing a false sense of success trap in the employees. This is concerning because it has quickly turned into a culture, the one that just knows to calculate rather than care. The sense of trust, respect, and work-life balance has quite declined in the relationship between the upper management and the working people.

When you think of the future and what we are leaving for our future generations, at this pace and scale, things look scary. And everyone needs to garner the courage to stand up.

Learn to say no

If you are overburdened and don’t have the bandwidth, learn to say ‘no.’ It does not have to be rude, but say it in a confident tone. When you are able to voice your concerns, your boss should be able to listen and understand. Otherwise, you just are not working with the right leader.

Stand up, Speak up

When you encounter a pushing mechanism from either colleague, boss or leadership, speak up. That does not mean, we are just always pushing things out or raising voices at all places or meetings. Just make sure you take the opportunity or create one to say what you are unable to do and why? If you are demanded of things that are beyond your control and adds stress to your life and it is persisting, then you need to express instead of just suffering.

Be the change and Become the change

Don’t compare with peers and sit quietly. They may not be ready to take the challenge to bring the change. You be the change and it will serve well for you and others too. Not all conversations turn out into bad consequences, so just be bold, who you are and move ahead.

Anything that is done with a collective effort has turned successful pretty quickly in the history of life, so we can all be together and can walk small steps to leave a footprint of a positive path for the future generations because technology is going to grow, not decline in the years to come!!

 

#leadership #stress #organizationalculture #worklifebalance #productivity #toplevelmanagement #management #busyness #business

 

#ProjectManagement #ProjectManager #PMInterviewQuestions #InterviewQuestions #CrackingPMInterview

Amazon Book ID: B072DYSC8Q

The post Are we unknowingly fantasizing with busyness and workaholism? appeared first on A Project Management Blog.

Project Framework(Part-2)

In this post, we will look at some more of Project Framework knowledge.

Why do we need a project?

It can be market demand, legal requirements, organizational need advancement or a customer request. And all Organizations have a mission and strategy to be accomplished that are done using projects, programs, and portfolios.

Portfolio–Program-Project

A program is a group of management is coordinated because the projects are related.

A portfolio can be generally described as a group of programs to achieve a specific strategic business are helping to achieve goals of the organization.

A PMO is a department that centralizes the management of projects. A PMO usually takes one of three roles:

Provides the policies, methodologies, and templates for managing projects within the organization
Provides support and guidance to others in the organization on how to manage projects, trains, and assists with specific project
Provides project managers for different projects, of those projects (All projects, or projects of a certain size, type, or influence, are managed by this office)

And the hierarchy goes, Portfolio->Program->Project

Triple Constraints

Triple Constraints are very important in any project management life cycle. They are Scope, Cost and Time. They are called triple constraints because each one varies with the other. They are linked to each other. These are very critical to the success of any project and hence the Project Manager is expected to juggle between these three constraints most of the time.

 

#ProjectFramework #Tripleconstraints #Program #Portfolio #Project

 

#ProjectManagement #ProjectManager #PMInterviewQuestions #InterviewQuestions #CrackingPMInterview

Amazon Book ID: B072DYSC8Q

 

The post Project Framework(Part-2) appeared first on A Project Management Blog.

Want to learn leadership skills from birds?

 

Anytime, on any sunny day, during your walk if you have observed the birds flying above you in the blue skies, you must have noticed a pattern and also the bird talk/singing. The large flock of birds go in a “V” shape and there will be a bird in the front(let’s call it a leaderbird), and there will be other birds behind the leaderboard on both sides forming a “V” pattern. Why do they fly that way and they fly tens of thousands of miles especially when migrating from one place to the other. For such long distance traveling, no, for flying, just like we get tired, they get tired too. But they are smart, they are kind and helpful and are also leaders….yes, leaders just understand everyone equally and show the right way. So, the leaderbird when it flaps its wings, it distributes the wind speed so that the birds behind her are able to fly faster, and the birds(all of them) behind the leaderbird save 71% of their energy. But doesn’t the leader get tired? YES. But she will take a break. How? The bird right behind her observes how she does the technique and learns as they fly. And by using their bird language, they communicate to take turns. The leaderbird after some period of time, when she is tired or sick will come and join the flock behind the new leaderbird and thus the new leaderbird will take role and they all save energy behind her and fly long distances. Isn’t this incredible?

What can we as humans learn?

A leader is not for making or dictating rules. Leader is to make sure he/she is setting up the right path for many followers to follow.
A leader is also teaching the followers. So they are equipped with the right knowledge and are able to jump right in.
A leader is cooperative, understanding, kind and also communicates well(birds did communicate very well in their own language, we have such a jargon of expressive languages, so why not?)
A leader is also a teacher. There is nothing to worry if she/he shares knowledge, they will overtake him/her. After everything, knowledge is power and is divine. We gain knowledge to share and be much more stronger. Each one of us is powerful in our own unique ways.
The followers also should be smart, observing, learning, understanding the techniques of how leaders do things especially when they are making the company grow or propelling a task forward with a great skill. The team should not think it is not their responsibility and hence we should care less.

I am sure all of us can easily connect with this story as we as humans are part of nature and bird singing is something we always cherish as it is soothing to our ears. In addition, we enjoy their beauty when they sit on a branch or land on us. Do you agree that birds are beautiful to see, hear and follow? If so, can we learn from them?

 

#Leadershipskills #Projectmanagement #Management #PMInterviewQuestions

Amazon Book ID: B072DYSC8Q

http://amzn.to/2qt4aSw

 

 

The post Want to learn leadership skills from birds? appeared first on A Project Management Blog.

Project Framework(Part-1)

In order to understand Project Framework, let’s first look what project means. A project is a temporary effort to achieve a desired product/service. The key to a project is that it is temporary in nature with a fixed beginning and end. Not ongoing like Operations/Maintenance.

Project management is managing such endeavors as projects to achieve the desired result. A project framework is developed to manage such projects from beginning to the end which PMI-PMBOK(Project Management Institute- Project Management Body Of Knowledge) defines five process groups and thirteen knowledge areas.

The five process groups are

Initiation
Planning
Execution
Monitoring and Controlling
Closing

Every project goes through all the phases defined above. When the project gets approved, it kicks off during initiation phase and goes through many tasks before entering into planning. Likewise, Planning takes care of all kinds of planning- scope, cost, time mainly(also called as triple constraints). Unless we have a great planning process and the project manager with the help of the team, Execution phase cannot go well. Monitoring and Controlling is a separate phase, but really it overlaps with all the rest of the phases. This phase/tasks is like a cop taking care of the people. All the time making sure, no risks are turning into issues and resolving issues quickly before impacting any of the triple constraints. Closing is when we close a project once the project is successfully deployed and enters into warranty phase.

And the ten(PMBOK 5th edition) knowledge areas are

Integration Management
Scope Management
Time Management
Cost Management
Quality Management
Human Resource management
Communications management
Risk Management
Procurement Management
Stakeholder Management(added newly in the 5th edition)

The entire project regardless of the size of the project, goes through all of the management areas, except the difference will be with regards to Human Resource and Procurement Management areas are touched lightly if the project is not heavily needing to hire new resources or procure new services. Integration Management ties up all the other knowledge areas into a cohesive whole, so the project is being managed as a whole even though managing as broken down structure/ tasks.

Project Framework entails many other topics, on how the PMO is organized, the difference between Project, Program, Porfolio, etc. We will cover those topics under next parts.

The post Project Framework(Part-1) appeared first on A Project Management Blog.

Simple and quick ways of Calculating the ROI(Return On Investment) in Agile Scrum projects.

Agile Projects due the very nature of the methodology are always agile, iterative. And there are no fixed requirements. Agile allows and encourages requirement changes and agile runs on the ROI calculations still.. How is it possible to calculate ROI in such a dynamically changing environment? As Agile project managers, scrum masters, product owners, if you are trying to find some quick and easy ways to calculate the ROI, read on.

Benefit Value of a Product Backlog Item(PBI)

The first thing in an agile environment is to convert the high-level requirements(User Stories) into a backlog item list and create a value for each of those backlog items. This evaluation can be done in collaboration with both business and IT departments.

Estimations(high level): Do quick estimations. Use story points, play poker, make best-educated guess, etc. Come up with quick high-level estimations.

Initial Velocity: Determine the initial velocity. Velocity is how much ideal work the team completes in a day.

The cost of each sprint: Extrapolate using the initial velocity to determine the cost of the sprint. Daily estimations multiplied by the duration of each sprint. The typical timeframe for any sprint is 2-4 weeks.

Time to complete the project: Estimate the time to complete the project based on the size of the backlog items/features to complete the project.

Keep in mind, due to the nature of agility, you may have to repeat calculating ROI at certain intervals during the course of the project. With waterfall methodology, due to the requirements getting locked down after the requirements phase, the benefit value calculations pretty much remain on a straight line as long as no critical issues are found which will warrant either the time or cost overruns. But with agile projects, the curve can keep changing, re-calculating the ROI to make sure it is not downgrading is key to monitoring the agile project closely and trying for the expected ROI.

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One day in the life of a Project Manager

For someone that is already working as a project manager, they can connect with the title of the article. Yes, project managers typical daily duties are meetings, follow-ups, statuses, financials, schedule. But they vary from company to company and program to program, which also means that there are definitely deviations in duties from typical project management.

Meetings- Obvious in almost every day in the life of a PM. But why so many meetings and only for PM’s? It is because he/she is the one that is interacting with many stakeholders from cross-functional departments and different business/application areas. The coordination and communication play a key role in executing a project successfully and meetings are an efficient way to connect, communicate and work toward the project tasks, risks or issues.

Follow-ups- Follow-ups are also a daily routine, and all the more important and necessary especially if the project team/leads are not taking accountability. PM is the messenger and should act like one to bridge gaps and stay on the top of the timelines. So follow-ups are necessary and are part of a daily routine.

Financials – This may not necessarily be the daily routine if you are working on one project, but almost the daily routine even if it is one project you are managing. You will have a lot of work to look at the numbers, dashboards, trends, puts/takes, variances. Adding new resources to the project, allocating them and incorporating these numbers into various status reports etc. This activity is daily for a PM and needs to monitor continuously in order to avoid variance on the project.

Documentation- PM will make updates to documents. First under the list is project plan. The project plan is updated on a regular basis. Weekly updates come from the status meetings, however, the plan is constantly looked at and updated based on the work breakdown structure and resource changes. There is other documentation that the PM needs does, project charter being the first one, developing RACI, updating phase gate documents, obtaining approvals etc. Maintaining project documents in the SharePoint site for both audit and historical data perspective is something that a PM regularly does!!

Those described above are some of the main categories in which PM has his/her own daily duties on. There could be other things that a PM generally/occasionally does based on the program type, size, complexity and also the domain in which the company is(healthcare/retail etc). Hope this article helped you understand a broader perspective in the daily life of a PM.

 

Happy PM’ing : -)

 

The post One day in the life of a Project Manager appeared first on A Project Management Blog.

Want to become a Project Manager? PMP certified or not?

Are you looking for a career change? Want to become a project manager, but does not know how or you are debating whether there is a benefit in doing a PMP certification or not? If so, please read on..

There are two ways to look at this question.

You want to be a Project Manager and acquire skills and experience and are moving from some other non-managerial role.
You are already a Project Manager and are doing well, but you want to become certified by PMI either because the company mandates it or you want to get familiar with the PMBOK(Project Management Body Of Knowledge) standards or to gain growth and recognition.

If your goal is falling under the first category, then you don’t necessarily have to become PMP certified right away. You can first enter into an entry level project manager role and walk your way up. And slowly when you are interested and are able to invest time and effort, you can study for PMP certification and complete it.

If you are thinking in the direction of the second category, get PMP certification. PMP certification has its own set of benefits and value in the marketplace. It requires your time and money and also commitment. Because first you have to apply(allow 4-6 weeks time) and get trained(allow 6-8 weeks time) and then prepare for the exam(another 4-6 weeks). That timeframe is on average, it might vary from person to person. Some people do it faster, some people take longer. Whatever may be the case, once you pass the exam, you have to still need to recertify every three years. Recertification requires you to claim 60 PDU’s(Professional Development Units) every three years, otherwise, you have to sit for the exam again. That is why it is important that you are committed to being a PMP certified Project Manager.

 

Is it worth being a PMP certified PM?

A single big response is by all means, YES. Definitely. Project Management Institute(PMI) is highly accredited and PMP certification is recognized all around the world. Furthermore, there are many organizations that are mandating that the applicants for the Sr. Project Manager roles to be PMP certified. For those that are already working in the same company, that are non-PMP certified are required to get the certification in a certain amount of time. So, it is definitely totally worth being a PMP certified project manager.

If you want to look for full information on the application process and handbook from PMI, check the PMI website- http://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project-management-pmp.

Also, note that you do NOT need to be a PMI member to write the exam. However, it is recommended because the PMI members have less exam fee than the non-PMI members and furthermore, the members will have access to a ton of knowledge base and also gets a free download of latest version of PMBOK guide.( Project Management Body Of Knowledge)

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