Training
I once heard a famous script writer being asked for the secrets to a successful movie script. He answered: "Good actors. They can make anything you write sound fantastic." Woody Allen agrees. His view is that: "Film directing is 90% casting." And so it is for software projects. Any experienced project manager will tell you: "No matter what goes wrong good people will save you every time."
- Les Chambers
Our training is designed to help you develop the "good people" your projects need to succeed. The goal of our workshops is to equip technologists with process-based frameworks for selecting proven approaches to complex systems development and dealing with the common problems that bring them undone.
The Causal Chain for High-Performance Projects
There is no doubt that highly trained and experienced people have a positive impact on projects. The secret to effective training is to identify the competency related causal factors that produce those impacts.
In designing our workshops we align our subject matter with positive outcomes by a process of causal chain analysis. We analyse the desired project results relating to scope, cost, time, quality and safety and track back to the individual competencies that need to be developed in project team members.
Case Study Based
Presented by systems engineers with more than 30 years international experience of projects in a variety of industry sectors, our workshops present best practices in the context of real-world case studies. We focus not only on transferring the knowledge but also on valuing it; valuing the systems engineering disciplines that represent the collective wisdom of millions of technologists that have gone before. Our workshop materials also provide checklists, standards and procedures that you can use in your projects.
CA Workshops
CA provides the following workshops in both public and in-house formats:
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- Evaluate, measure and control the quality of your software processes and products
- Identify where quality management practices can improve your organisation's profitability and efficiency
- Identify and prioritise the development processes that need improvement
- Build higher quality software products using ISO 9000 compliant standards and procedures.
This program is particularly valuable to organisations seeking ISO 9000 accreditation.
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- Value the principles of effective software project management
- Plan software/systems projects
- Define and manage project scope
- Develop and manage a project schedule
- Estimate and control costs
- Manage quality and safety
- Maintain and communicate clear visibility of project performance
- Organise, direct and motivate a project team
- Identify and manage RISK.
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- Understand the requirements specification process
- Elicit requirements
- Analyse requirements
- Develop requirements specifications
- Evaluate a Software Specification
- Manage changes to customer requirements
- Validate your software product
- Procure software.
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Follow-Up Training Services |
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CA provides follow up mentoring services to our training course attendees to assist in applying principles and practices covered in our workshops. In the role of mentor we:
- Facilitate, pointing the mentee at sources of information and creating opportunities to use new skills
- Coach, showing the mentee how to carry out a task and providing feedback on the result
- Counsel, acting as a sounding board, helping the mentee explore the consequences of potential decisions. Being a friend, adviser and guide
- Network, helping the mentee develop networks of contacts within and across organisations.
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The Benefits of Training
Competence impacts productivity with large swings measured in the software industry.
Losses Through Lack of Training
Poorly trained people are expensive.
Sources of loss:
- Directive management
- Disrupting other workers
- Errors require rework
- Cost of poor quality
- Low productivity.
The Evolution of Competence
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Evaluation
The ability to judge the quality of an outcome or the merit of an idea |
| Synthesis
The ability to perform original and creative thinking as opposed to the mechanical implementation of a standard procedure |
| Analysis
The ability to think critically and in-depth, often characterised by the ability to abstract |
| Application
The ability to perform basic procedures such as solving problems |
| Comprehension
The ability to internalise and organise information identifying links between facts |
| Knowledge
The ability to absorb and regurgitate facts. |
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