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Back-Casting: A Flow Chart Junkie’s Approach to Use Case Requirements for Primavera Unifier

Prepared by: Cari Stieglitz, PMP Program Director – ePM Service Lead Faithful+Gould

This is a subtitle for the presentation that can be extended to three lines

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Introduction

■ Cari Stieglitz, PMP • ePM Service Lead for Faithful+Gould • Implemented numerous PMO’s, Project and Program Standards • Trained in Policy, Procedure and Process writing • Background in Product Development and Project Management • Side jobs in Training and Customer Success Management

Overview

■ Today we will cover: • Why are we here? • Why does this matter? • How do we get started?

Why are we here?

■ The goals and objectives of this session are: • Remind us why requirement sessions are vital to project

success. • Learn how to facilitate requirements gathering sessions. • Know how to visually diagram a process to expose more

requirements. • Learn how to use the same diagram to verify requirements and

document benefits.

How does this apply to Primavera Unifier?

■ Implementing Unifier: • Implementing a Project Management System – lifecycle and

stage gate methodology with attention to people, process and templates/tools.

• Complex system with many processes touching other processes.

• Large change in culture across many stakeholder groups – need stakeholder input to ensure success and adoption.

• Written processes versus reality – what we have documented isn’t always what happens because we find workarounds and solutions.

Example of Project Management System

Take a Second

■ Think about the last major implementation or continuous improvement exercise: • How were requirements gathered for your last project? Who was

chosen to be part of the efforts? • What surprise requirements were exposed later in the project? • Did the customer have any complaints with the deliverable? • How were these “surprise” requirements handled? Were they

included? What was the impact?

Common Mistakes

• Not taking time to actually properly gather requirements. • Using the RFP or RFQ as the final requirements. • Accepting requirements from one group – without conducting

stakeholder identification exercises. • Accepting requirements from customers without asking

questions. • “Sometimes the customer doesn’t know what they want”

Introducing “Back-casting”

• Crack the whip! (or fly fishing) • Similar to forward/backward pass done in a schedule • Look at the requirements multiple ways in different ways • Recite the alphabet backwards – stop and think instead of go

through the motions

Types of Requirements

• Solving Problems

• Capabilities

• Quality

• Process

• Project Management

■ You must look for all requirements, not just those related to the product of the project.

Requirements Documents

Requirements Management

Plan

Requirements Traceability

Matrix

Project Charter

Stakeholder Register

Interviews

Focus Groups

Facilitated Workshops

Group creativity and decision

making techniques

Questionnaires or surveys

Observations

Prototypes

Inputs and Output to Requirements

Before you Begin: “Signed” Charter

■ Charter (or Business Case or Statement of Work) • Officially defines the Business Need and Goals for the project. • Sets initial key roles and governance • Drives which requirements will or will not be adopted.

Before you Begin: Stakeholder Analysis

■ Stakeholder Analysis Worksheet • Asks questions about the project and who is involved. • To be worked through by the Project Manager, key managers

and executives. • Asks questions like “Who can make this project a success?” and

“Who can block this project’s success?”

Before Requirements: Stakeholder Identification ■ Stakeholder Register/ Communication Plan

• Outlines each Stakeholder that meets the threshold and how they will be communicated with during the project.

• Input to Requirements Gathering, Group Brainstorming and Workshop phase.

Before the Session

■ Prepare and document your approach: • Choose your approach (pre-workshop survey, 1:1 Interviews,

Decision Making, etc.) • Communicate, communicate and communicate • How the session will be handled? • Which questions will be asked? • What are the goals and expectations?

During the Session

• Communicate roles • Keep conversation open and forward moving • Know when to put an item on the parking lot • Group think isn’t always bad • Answer questions with questions • Focus on “Need” statements – not solutions! • Set expectations

Set expectations for decision making

• Agree on “how” the group decision will be made. • Unanimously: Everyone agrees • One Person (Dictatorship): Reduces stakeholder buy in • Majority Rules: More than half or plurality (most votes per

option) • Consensus: General agreement; those who prefer other

options are willing to accept there decision the majority supports.

During the Session: Back-casting

■ The forward pass: A list format of the process with a “Who” and “Action” column. We will ignore what goes wrong and how much time it takes.

■ The backward pass: Starting at the end, we will focus on the relationships between only two steps at a time. We will determine durations, pain points and issues.

■ The overall review: We will highlight the biggest issues and translate those into requirements and benefits by asking multi-level questions.

Methodology and Use Cases

■ Two levels: • Action statements at a higher level eg “Processing an

Invoice” feed into your methodology mapping and Stage Gate • Detailing these individual actions step by step creates our use

case content ■ Same requirements process can be used for both sessions ■ Keep the same “Action Statements” for user acceptance

testing and help file creation

Example: Use Case or “Actions” per Stage Gate All Stage Gates Planning Design Pre-Construction Construction Closeout Logging in and Setting Preferences

Documenting Estimates Issuing Requests for Proposal Creating a Contract

Capturing Contracts items in the Submittal Register

Tracking Warranties and As-Builts, etc.

Navigating Unifier Entering Approved Budgets

Entering a PO/Task Authorizations

Creating Contract Revisions Providing Submittals Closing out Permits

Requesting a New User

Revising the Authorized Budget Revising a PO Issuing Letter of

Authorization Issuing Requests for Information (RFI) Lessons Learned

Creating a Vendor Prequal

Transferring Budget between Line Items

Entering a PO/TA Invoice

Submitting a Contract Invoice

Entering and Viewing Transmittals

Completing a Punchlist

Entering a Vendor Navigating the Project Cost Sheet

Viewing Vendor Cost Information

Owner's Observations

Issuing a Non-Compliance

Entering Agendas and Meeting Minutes

Tracking Risks & Issues Reconciling Unifier to Financial Systems

Architect/Engineer Observations Tracking Incidents

Adding and updating Action Items

Providing Monthly Updates

Tracking Design Reviews

Recording Daily Reports

Conducting Controlled Inspection

Issuing General Correspondence

Architect’s Supplemental Instructions

Confirming Stakeholder Needs

Entering and Updating Permits

Completing Design Reviews

Tracking Change Control Tracking Architect Changes

Starting the Forward Pass

• Provide the high level action(s) prior to the meeting or start in work groups

• Capture the process, using a “who” or Actor, numbered list and statements that begin with action words.

• Capture time with “After” or “Before” statements and exceptions with “If”.

• Predecessor to creating the Use Case

Example: Use Case, processing an invoice Who Action Contractor 1. After completing the work, generates the invoice

2. Mails the invoice. Front Office 3. After the receiving the invoice, stamps with date received.

4. Places in Project Manager’s interoffice mail. Project Manager 5. After receiving the invoice, verifies the work billed has been approved and

completed.

5a. If the work is not aligned with the invoice, sends invoice back to contractor and ends process.

6. Verifies invoice against budget and updates project cost sheets.

7. Stamps invoice with approved and writes account code and PO on invoice.

8. Places invoice in Accounts Payable inbox.

Accounts Payable 9. Enters invoice into accounting system.

10. Generates check.

11. Mails check to contractor. Contractor 12. Receives payment.

Ask Questions

■ What starts the process? ■ Who hands does it pass through? ■ Is it electronic or physical? ■ Do they approve it? ■ Who else verifies, approves or sees it? ■ Is there coding involved? How/where is it entered? ■ Is information entered in multiple steps? Duplicated?

Mapping the Table to Swimlane Flow Charts

• Identify the “who” lanes. • Beginning at the end, visually document the last step. • Start moving backward and ask questions in between each

step. • Don’t “resolve” problems – just keep asking questions.

Swimlane Flowchart Example

Back-Casting: Now go the other way

Between each step: • Is this really the previous step? • How long does it take between these two steps? • What can go wrong? How does that affect duration or

process? • What else can go wrong? Why does this matter? • Are there any other steps that could happen here?

Just the beginning…

■ Circle or identify “pain points”, inefficiencies or unnecessary lags – these feed into your road map, implementation program and benefits register.

■ Translate these into requirements statements (not solutions!).

■ Requirements feed into scope and business requirements documentation.

■ Use the same “Action Statements” and language for use cases, testing scripts and training/help files.

Revisiting the Requirements

Change Management – add new requirements as they are discovered…determine if they are in scope, and which phase they should be included in.

During or after project, review the requirements documentation and compare to your benefits.

• Were issues resolved? • Does it still take x days? • Are there new pain points?

Closing

■ What benefits do you see in this approach? ■ Did we uncover additional requirements? ■ What industry are you in? How can you use this or

adapt it to your industry? ■ Questions for me?

Please complete the session evaluation We appreciate your feedback and insight

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