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View the latest inspiring and positive news and information about what's going on in the PM and IT world.

Date: 24/02/2020
QRP International has a core purpose: "Developing professionals to facilitate change". We believe in change as a tool for growth and improvement, not only professionally, but also in our society. This is the reason why every year we choose to support a cause. This year we chose to support Kibarè Onlus. Kibarè was founded in Como in 2013 and its founder members boast 20 years of experience in international cooperation in India and Africa, especially in Burkina Faso. What are they doing? We asked a member of Kibarè to introduce their project in Burkina Faso:
“Going to school is a privilege in Burkina Faso. Many parents think that children should rather help the family to grow crops; some also think that girls should wed and move out when they are barely in their teens. Issa Yelemou has dedicated his life to give these children a chance. In 2006, when he retired from being a teacher, he invested his life's savings to build his own primary school in the outskirts of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. He called the school Millennium and he became its headmaster. His vision attracted talented and motivated teachers, which have made the school a centre of excellence in the area. Over the years though, heavy rain seasons have taken their toll on the school buildings. Water has infiltrated the cheap cement and large cracks have appeared on the walls. Families have started to pull their children from school, fearing for their safety. Since 2016, we have been helping Issa Yelemou to rebuild the school. Some classes have already moved into the safe and dry rooms of a new wing, but many others still hope for the construction project to finish on time for the next school year.”
QRP International decided to support the organization with a donation that will enable Issa Yelemou to finish the construction project on time. Because all children need to study in a safe and stable environment to grow and develop their potential. Visit their website to know their mission, stories and beautiful achievements: Kibarè Onlus or follow their account: Instagram, Facebook  
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Date: 17/02/2020
QRP International is proud to announce the launch of new PeopleCert DevOps qualifications.  

PeopleCert DevOps

DevOps (a clipped compound of “development” and “operations“) is a software development approach to work that combines software development (Dev) with information technology operations (Ops).

The goal of DevOps is to shorten the systems development life cycle while delivering software releases frequently, in close alignment with business objectives in a faster, better, and cost-efficient way.

DevOps qualifications are offered by PeopleCert: these new hands-on qualifications are designed around those organisations using well-established IT Service Management practices to provide them with guidance on the ideal processes, tools and culture integration with DevOps.   devopes peoplecert switzerland
 

PeopleCert DevOps qualifications levels

The Peoplecert DevOps qualification scheme currently consists of three distinct certifications: PeopleCert DevOps Fundamentals Candidates gain practical guidance on how to deliver effective DevOps through 15 essential practices, especially about well-established ITSM frameworks.   PeopleCert DevOps Leadership Candidates get guidance on how to lead the implementation of DevOps practices and how to achieve a cultural shift for better collaboration and communication.   PeopleCert DevOps Engineering Candidates will gain practical guidance on automation tools use and how these tools support DevOps culture and practices. – Coming soon  
Feel free to get in touch to have more info on the PeopleCert DevOps.
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Date: 12/02/2020
In 2019, we saw numerous examples of successful DevOps initiatives across large and small enterprises – congratulations to all of you who were involved in one. But what can we expect for the future of DevOps 2020? As thought leaders in the DevOps community, we believe the following ten trends will shape the next year of DevOps across the globe.   1) Agile and DevOps will increase collaboration between technology and business functions 2) Training, learning, and improving DevOps skills will become an organizational priority 3) Upskilling and cross-skilling will lead to the rise of the T-shaped professional 4) More teams will shift mindsets from a “job done” to “value realized” 5) Tool fatigue will worsen before it gets better 6) DevOps will become more measurable and metrics will become better defined 7) DevOps teams will earn more and experience increased job satisfaction 8) There just might be Service Management and DevOps reunification 9) A new generation of IT members are taking over 10) Artificial Intelligence adoption will rise, and DevOps teams should check it out.    

1) Agile and DevOps will increase collaboration between technology and business functions

Agile and DevOps are grassroots movements that started within technology. In many cases, however, Agile and DevOps have not been able to break out of technology. On the other hand, Agile has been adopted in other functions including finance, human resources and procurement, and marketing. Some senior leaders are increasingly inviting their whole organizations to “become agile.” However, this doesn’t seem to have helped the technology community join forces with their colleagues in these other functions. Because of the competitive pressure digital is putting on organizations, we will start to see more collaboration across functions with agile as the conversation starter. To speed this up, encourage your teams to talk to people from different functions about their experience using agile methods. Questions that can help break the ice include:
  • How are you doing agile?
  • What are you doing?
  • What is changing for you?
  • What issues are you having?
  • How could we work together to help to address some of these issues?
These questions will help people from different functions get to know each other – as people – and collaboration will improve.    

2) Training, learning, and improving DevOps skills will become an organizational priority

DevOps requires trying out new technologies. Recent research from the DevOps Institute found that 55 percent of survey respondents prefer to hire into their DevOps teams from within their organization. Unfortunately, many companies don’t have the necessary skills to do this and hiring new people might not be possible due to budget restraints. One approach is to create internal training universities. This is what the courier delivery services firm FedEx did. The company knew it did not have adequate skills in its talent pool of engineers, leading their CIO to initiate the FedEx Cloud Dojo, which teaches its own engineers modern software development and technologies and functions as a university for FedEx. The university has reskilled more than 2,5000 software programmers. Organizations that want to use DevOps to help advance their digital transformations must make drastic improvements in training, learning, and improving skills that are essential to DevOps. We expect to see the more proactive pursuit of this in 2020.    

3) Upskilling and cross-skilling will lead to the rise of the T-shaped professional

Recognizing the strained talent market, organizations and individuals will invest heavily in upskilling and cross-skilling in order to meet accelerating demands for new skills. While all IT professionals will need to become more cross-domain competent, developers, in particular, will have to add new breadth to their skills portfolio in areas such as testing, containerization, infrastructure, AI, and security. There will also be a stronger emphasis on core (soft) skills such as empathy, customer experience, and collaboration. Silos are starting to come down in many areas, and the need for everyone to become T-shaped, with depth and breadth of knowledge will become necessary to enable and support innovation. All of this training and new collaboration (see No. 1 above) will lead to more workers developing new technical and professional skills and personal qualities, adding new depth and capabilities to the individuals on your teams.    

4) More teams will shift mindsets from a “job done” to “value realized”

Value Stream Mapping can help change the way your teams think about the definition of done (DoD) from being “I did my job” to “the value is realized.” It is one of the most effective ways of changing behaviours and getting your teams to think about the end-to-end lifecycle of what they’re working on. This is why the adoption of Value Stream Management is critical in 2020. It will enable you to automate the outputs from Value Stream Mapping for ongoing progress monitoring. This lets a team connect all parts of the ever-complex DevOps toolchains with system-derived data based on cycle time. Teams that adopt Value Stream Management in 2020 will be able to base their next improvement experiments on data-driven decisions and prioritizations.    

5) Tool fatigue will worsen before it gets better

The number of tools and frameworks in technology are daunting. The challenges IT teams face to understand, interconnect, and apply much of these will continue, and in 2020, there is no real resolution in sight. The competition in the DevOps toolchain is fierce and flourishing. Events and conferences are filled with technology and best practice sessions. Books, blogs, and videos are flooding email inboxes, with thought leaders are eager to share their expertise. Additionally, more open-source tools are emerging to integrate new technologies. To survive the challenges of complexity, it’s becoming increasingly important to have an automation strategy. As you work to develop this, don’t lose sight of the actual problems you are trying to solve and how you can get there by leveraging your own teams.    

6) DevOps will become more measurable and metrics will become better defined

“What gets measured gets managed.” This quote is still valid, more than 60 years after Peter Druker referenced it in his book, “The practice of management.” What we all want to avoid, however, is the syndrome of measuring for metric's sake. For the next few years of DevOps, the continuous improvement metrics we know today will continue to be the key metrics that matter. In 2020, we expect more organizations will agree on what to measure and adopt these metrics. Those looking for support can lean on the performance metrics outlined in research from DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA), which cites five measures of Software Delivery and Operational Performance (SDO) that can be used as leading indicators of success for high-performing DevOps teams. Key benchmarks within the report provide guidance on areas teams must improve in 2020. Selecting these key metrics and populating them with data will provide insights into the value and journey of DevOps.    

7) DevOps teams will earn more and experience increased job satisfaction

For employees who continue to proceed down the DevOps path in 2020, there will be benefits which will go directly towards their wallet and job satisfaction. Automation will allow employees to work on more value-adding work instead of mundane manual tasks, resulting in improved job satisfaction and hopefully reduced stress levels. In particular, DevOps engineers that see their work in automating and collaborating for improved software delivery can expect their salary to be significantly higher than peers in traditional roles, such as system administrators. Investments in training and certifications will also positively reflect on the quality of code and therefore may improve the business results. This, in turn, might finally change the value equation within organizations and give IT a true strategic seat at the table. It will certainly improve how other functional areas work with IT now and in the future.    

8) There just might be Service Management and DevOps reunification

With the recent release of ITILv4, 2020 will be an interesting year for organizations that have been adopting DevOps and service management frameworks. The development and management of software products need agile techniques, with a focus on value co-creation in a way that reduces waste. DevOps, service management, and other best practices like SRE can coexist to align teams, meet stakeholder demands, and improve the value delivered. Because digital transformation is not achieved instantly across an organization, established companies should begin with best practices and methodologies that are suited to their needs by starting small – then learn, build expertise, and scale-up.    

9) A new generation of IT members are taking over

The number of people who remember the days before DevOps is starting to shrink. The younger generation on today’s IT and DevOps teams don’t remember the strict silos, where there were clear lines around areas of responsibility such as infrastructure, operations, application design, development, testing and security. They don’t remember how this caused a lot of transition work between teams and groups. They don’t know that product owners, business analysts, architects, developers, testers, release managers, system administrators and infrastructure owners had to agree and coordinate on the planning, development, testing, deploying, operating and management of a piece of software. Just typing that sentence was exhausting, imagine living it. When we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of DevOps in 2019, we saw the wall removed between Dev and Ops. This is a reason for all of us to celebrate.    

10) Artificial Intelligence adoption will rise, and DevOps teams should check it out.

AI and machine learning (ML) were recently rated as the most important enterprise technology of the next decade, according to a recent report from ISACA. Both will play a critical role in next-generation IT operations and DevOps teams. AIOps will give DevOps teams the ability to analyze more data faster, allowing them to improve key processes, tasks, and decision making. In 2020, expect to see more DevOps teams adopting these tools, which automate the ingestion of fast volumes of data, use ML to analyze the data, and have the ability to leverage knowledge for automation or decision making. The AIOps market has already gained momentum, with 22 percent of IT enterprises using ML and data sciences as part of their work. The vendor landscape is broad with a variety of leaders. This year, the AIOps market will continue its shift from a science project to the pilot and experimental stage. A lot of work remains in 2020 to aid in the future of DevOps adoption. It will require more than focusing on tools and techniques. DevOps initiatives must be registered as change programs, requiring a time, resource, and priority commitment from all business leaders. We’re hopeful that some of these trends will be realized this year, and that DevOps will be recognized as a new way of working.   devops foundation brochure   Originally published on The Enterprisers Project and reproduced with kind permission of “DevOps institute”. Translation: © 2019 DevOps Institute. All Rights Reserved. Translated by QRP International, on behalf of Devops Institute in January 2020
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Date: 10/02/2020

In order to strengthen its presence in the project management training field, ProfeoQRP has decided to start a collaboration with ProcessCentric processCentric is an established training and consulting company for Swiss professionals. This partnership will contribute to enhancing our training portfolio with products such as HERMES 5.

 

processCentric GmbH

processCentric GmbH was founded in 2015 by Serge Schiltz. As an expert in process and project management in various areas, Schiltz was able to gain extensive experience in business process design and the implementation of change projects.

The mission is to offer companies a holistic vision for business processes and projects, the central focus of business activity. The processCentric services are divided into:

  • Consulting services for the implementation of effective governance with a process-oriented approach.
  • Training in the area of process management, management of change projects and process-oriented business management.
  • Active support in the establishment of strategic process management, process-oriented business management and the implementation of change projects.
 

ProfeoQRP: We provide Expertise

We provide a complete solution to achieve your training target outcomes and implement Best Practices tailored to your organisation. We adapt each session to the business context with concrete examples, visual supports and games.

Since 2000, QRP International has specialised in supporting organisations and professionals to develop their skills and successfully implement Best Practices through its tailor-made training, certification and consulting services in Best Practice Management Methods.

Education, certifications, consultancy, international business experience, outstanding training skills, customer support, responsiveness and flexibility. QRP is the solution you are looking for.

Our figures:

  • +25 QRP organises public training courses in more than 25 European cities
  • +20 years of experience in training and consultancy
  • +20.000 professionals trained
  • 6 Training languages
  • 9,17: QRP trainers received average feedback of 9,17 out of 10

The quality of our courses and our instructors guarantees the achievement of the certification to 95% of the delegates. But our trainers' philosophy is not just to make you get the certification, but to show you the method with practical examples so that you can use your new skills once you get back to your desk.

In Switzerland, we are present with regular courses in German, French and as well in English. If you want to know more about ProfeoQRP or our portfolio of services where we are strong in, contact us right now!

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Date: 07/02/2020

ProfeoQRP is proud to announce the launch of new PM courses: HERMES 5, the most known Project Management methodology.

HERMES 5 is one of the most widely used project management methods in Switzerland in the field of information technology, the development of services and products and the adaptation of business organization.

 

HERMES 5 - Background

HERMES is a set of instruments which, through consistent use, can contribute to the successful completion of a project.

HERMES was developed by the Swiss Federal Administration. It is an open standard and is recognized as standard eCH-0054 by the eCH association. Many cantons, cities, educational institutions and private sector companies have successfully implemented HERMES.

As a project management method, it has been in use in the Swiss Federal Administration since 1975. After a major revision in 1986, HERMES became binding for all IT projects of the Confederation. It has been further developed over the years and underwent revisions in 1995, 2003 and 2005. HERMES 5, the last version available, was launched in 2012.

HERMES supports the control, management and execution of projects of different characteristics and complexity. It has a clear, easy to understand method structure, is modular and expandable.

 

What makes HERMES unique?

The latest version of the proven HERMES was developed by numerous practitioners and methodologists.

In this exciting task, the project team counted on support at all levels:

  • A group of experts from the Confederation, the cantons and the municipalities, Research institutes, educational institutions, public law and private companies accompanied the project from the collection of requirements to the review of the content.
  • All users were invited to public workshops, to discuss and question the results.
  • The project committee, which consists of several federal departments and a professor of computer science at the University of Bern, managed the project and made clear decisions.

Throughout the project, there were intensive and often controversial discussions. The objectives were to update HERMES and at the same time simplify its application in the project.

 

Choose ProfeoQRP for your HERMES 5 training

ProfeoQRP is always ready to support professionals and organizations in their work. For this reason, we are happy to announce the launch of the new HERMES 5 Foundation, HERMES 5 Advanced and HERMES 5 Online courses.

hermes5 foundation

The HERMES 5 Foundation course can be the starting point for an organization that intends to implement the HERMES 5 methodology, as it provides participants with the basic principles, workflows and information for rapid adoption of the methodology.

HERMES 5 can give your organization a competitive advantage. Want to know more? Contact us.

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Date: 05/02/2020

PRINCE2®, an acronym for PRojects IN Controlled Environments, is a project management methodology.

Published in 1996, it’s now used in over 150 countries in both the public and private sectors, establishing itself as the world’s most practised project management method.

The owner of the method is Axelos, a joint venture company co-owned by the UK Government’s Cabinet Office and Capita plc.

PRINCE2 can guide professionals and organizations through the essentials for managing successful projects, regardless of type or scale. It provides a framework that focuses on organization and control throughout the entire project: PRINCE2 divides projects into manageable stages to encourage efficient control of resources and regular progress monitoring.

PRINCE2 is “product-based”, meaning the project plans are focused on delivering results, and not simply planning when activities will be undertaken; processes cover all the activities that compose a project, from start to finish. Every project starts with a project plan, each stage of the project is clearly structured. It provides a common language across a project and provides breakpoints within a contractual framework.

 

What are the benefits of using PRINCE2 

PRINCE2 is a generic best practice method which is flexible enough to be tailored to the specific needs of different organizations for all projects, including Agile delivery. The main benefits of the method are:

  • an organised and controlled start, making sure there is a valid reason for the project and that all people and resources have been organized and are ready for the project
  • an organised and controlled middle, once the project has been organized and has started, making sure its validity is maintained and the work carried out is controlled throughout the project life
  • an organised and controlled end. A controlled end is always better than the natural tendency to drift into the operational life of a project’s product, hence we need to make sure the project deliverable is accepted by our client before officially closing the project
  • regular reviews of progress against plan and against the Business Case
  • flexible decision points
  • controlled management of deviations from the project plans thanks to the Management by Exception principle
  • the involvement of management and stakeholders at the right time and place during the project
  • good communication amongst the project management team, the stakeholders, and the rest of the organization
 

Key elements of PRINCE2

The key elements of the methodology are principles, processes, themes and project environment.

PRINCE2_Structure-PRINCE2

The 7 principles

Principles are the guiding obligations and good practices which determine whether the project is being managed using PRINCE2. Unless all of them are applied, it is not a PRINCE2 project; the seven PRINCE2 principles are:

  1. Continued business justification There must be a justifiable reason to be running and managing the project. If not, the project should be closed.
  2. Learn from experience PRINCE2 project teams should continually seek and draw on lessons learned from previous work.
  3. Defined roles and responsibilities The PRINCE2 project team should have a clear organizational structure and involve the right people in the right tasks.
  4. Manage by stages PRINCE2 projects should be planned, monitored and controlled on a stage-by-stage basis.
  5. Manage by exception People working within the project should be given the right amount of authority to effectively work within the environment.
  6. Focus on products PRINCE2 projects focus on the product definition, delivery and quality requirements.
  7. Tailor to suit the project environment PRINCE2 must be tailored to suit the project’s environment, size, complexity, importance, capability and risk.
 

The 7 processes

The processes describe a progression from the pre-project activity of getting started, through the stages of the project lifecycle, to the final act of project closure. Each process has a checklist of recommended activities, products and related responsibilities. The processes are:

  1. Starting up a project The main purpose of this process is to ensure that the prerequisites for initiating a project are in place by answering the question: “Do we have a worthwhile and viable project?”.
  2. Directing a project The purpose of this process is to enable the project board to be accountable for the project’s success,
  3. Initiating a project The purpose of this process is to establish solid foundations (documented in the PID) for the project so the organization can understand the work that needs to be done to deliver the project product.
  4. Controlling a stage The purpose of this process is to assign work to be done, monitor the work, deal with issues, report progress to the project board, and take corrective action to ensure that the stage remains within tolerance.
  5. Managing product delivery The purpose of this process is to control the link between the project manager and the team manager, by agreeing on the requirements for acceptance, execution, and delivery.
  6. Managing stage boundaries In this process, the project manager provides the project board with an overview of the performance of the current stage, updates the project plan, and business case and creates a stage plan for the next stage. The project board reviews these documents and decides to approve the next stage.
  7. Closing a project The purpose of this process is to provide a fixed point at which acceptance of the project product is confirmed and to recognize that objectives set out in the original PID have been achieved, or that project has something more to contribute.
 

The 7 themes

The themes describe aspects of project management that must be addressed continually and in parallel throughout the project. They explain the specific treatment required by PRINCE2 for various project management disciplines and why they are necessary.

  1. Business case Create and maintain a record of the business justification for the project.
  2. Organization Define the individual roles and responsibilities of the whole project team.
  3. Quality What the quality requirements and measures are and how the project will deliver them.
  4. Plans The steps required to develop the plans and the PRINCE2 techniques that should be used.
  5. Risk Effectively identify risks and opportunities that could impact the project.
  6. Change How the project manager will assess and act on changes to the project.
  7. Progress The ongoing viability and performance of the plans and how and whether the project should proceed.
 

PRINCE2_Processes

Project environment: organizations often want a consistent approach to managing projects and tailor PRINCE2 to create their own project management method. This method is then embedded into the organization’s way of working.

The last version of the Method, launched in 2017, places a new emphasis on the flexibility of the method and how to tailor it to specific projects.

PRINCE2 is comprised of:

  • A certification scheme
  • The PRINCE2 manual - Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 2017 Edition
 

PRINCE2 Certification Scheme

The PRINCE2 certification scheme has two main levels:

  • Foundation: this level introduces the PRINCE2 method. The PRINCE2 Foundation exam aims to confirm that you know and understand the PRINCE2 method well enough to be able to work effectively with, or as a member of, a project management team working within an environment supporting PRINCE2.
  • Practitioner: the purpose of the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam is to confirm whether you have sufficient understanding of how to apply and tailor the method in a range of different project environments and scenarios.
 

PRINCE2 or other methodologies? 

Your choice of a Project Management methodology defines how you work and communicate with your team. Project management has more than one certification, and it can be difficult to choose the right one for you and your organization.

Other project management qualifications that are acknowledged worldwide include:

  • Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from PMI (Project Management Institute)
  • IPMA (International Project Management Association) also has detailed bodies of knowledge that explain the wider skills needed for a project manager
  • AgilePM from APMG, a method focused on the management of Agile projects.
 

How to get PRINCE2 certified?

In order to obtain your PRINCE2 Certification, you need to take a classroom or online training with an AXELOS' Accredited Training Organizations (ATOs).

QRP International is an official ATO for PRINCE2, accredited by Peoplecert on behalf of Axelos. We’re authorised to deliver PRINCE2 Foundation and PRINCE2 Practitioner classroom courses and PRINCE2 Online training.

Would you like support in order to figure out the best solution for you and your team? We would be happy to provide more info on the different PM methods available - contact us!

Source: Axelos, Key Benefits of PRINCE2®

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