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Welcome to the Mindavation online project management newsletter.
Our commitment is to share news about project management upcoming events, tips & tricks of the trade, recommendations for reference and inspirational materials, as well as Mindavation course offerings.
This month's edition is dedicated to software testing. Our article and template are designed for project managers to ensure the proper focus on project testing activities. Mindavation has also added a 3-day course "Software Testing" to our available corporate course offerings. Contact us for more information on this course.
| Free Template of the Month |
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Each month Mindavation will offer a template from our Project Templates CD free of charge. Don't miss out on this opportunity!
This month's free download is our Test Strategy template. This strategy plan documents the activities that will be accomplished during product testing. Specifically, this plan documents the test environment, test objectives, test execution process, and the proposed test schedule.
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| Book Recommendation of the Month |
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The 8th Habit-From Effectiveness to Greatness by Stephen R. Covey
Review by Rick Griffin
A very fitting addition to the widely acclaimed and utilized personal foundation work by Stephen R. Covey---The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The 8th Habit is rich in growth material. This magnificent work was over five years in the making by Covey and his team of growth development professionals. It extends the "Seven Habits" by helping you to discover how to "find your voice" and help others find theirs. In a very unique concept, the author has provided a DVD with 16 films to view within the framework of the book. These films provide visual candy for the concepts that Covey relates. Many items are review and reinforcement for some of his previous works, but he builds on the transition we are making from the Industrial Age to the Information/Knowledge Worker Age. Within that shift the individual/whole person is reshaped and must be re-framed. The concepts of purpose, fulfillment, and inspiring others are deeply explored.
This book is rich with thought provoking concepts, practical applications to the world that we live in, and will not be absorbed in a single reading. In addition, this is one of those books in which the Appendix has real value, so don't overlook it.
Project Managers can greatly benefit by gaining further insights of themselves, the teams they lead, and the organizations that we are part of. The need to find our own voice and help our project teams find theirs is central in moving from an Effective PM to a Great PM.
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| Coming Soon to a City Near You... |
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February 10th, 2005 Pikes Peak PMI Chapter, CO "Intelligent Disobedience"
February 24-25, 2005 Oklahoma City, OK "Intelligent Disobedience"
February 24-25, 2005 Richmond, VA "Recovering Troubled Projects"
March 7-8, 2005 Colorado Springs, CO "Recovering Troubled Projects"
April 4-6, 2005 Denver, CO "Complex IT Project Management"
Looking for a class to attend? Would you like to meet us face to face? If we are in your area, feel free to contact us to schedule a meeting.
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| This Month's Article: Are You Done Testing? |
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By Denise DeCarlo, PMP
How do you know you've sufficiently tested the product your company is eagerly waiting for? This is probably one of the most difficult questions for a Project Manager to answer. Undoubtedly - there is some "grayness" to determining when testing is completed - but that doesn't mean you can't add some "science" to determine if your product has been tested "enough."
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| Mindavation Project Templates CD Available |
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Mindavation offers 30 customizable project templates and tools to make your life easier! The CD includes full project lifecycle templates and tools.
Documents are in MS Word, MS Excel, MS Project 2000 (and Adobe). Modify each template to suit YOUR business and project needs.
Price (including shipping & handling): $100
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Updates to the Mindavation Website... |
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We love hearing from all of you regarding our services, newsletter and our website. Based on some of the feedback received we recently made several changes to our site.
Several of our contacts have suggested having a one page view of the entire year's public course schedule. That work has been completed and is now available on our website under Public Course Schedule.
Also new this month under the links section of the website this month is a link to Projects@Work, a free monthly online publication for IT Project Managers.
Please let us know if you have suggestions or feedback.
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