June 2017: In what is Sensitivity Analysis used? Sensitivity Analysis is a popular technique used mainly for the purpose of decision making, like in project assessment or investment appraisal. The key idea of this technique is to understand how end results are affected by (sensitive to) changes in various variables governing the subject of the decision. For example, if you are considering to undertake a new initiative, you consider how the final ROI will be impacted by changes in variables, like initial invested amount, sales price, cost of capital rate, etc. Important here is to make single change at a time, analyzing the impact of a single variable while all others are constant. This can lead to a multitude of scenarios being analyzed in order to understand the safe margins for all variables, and risks associated with changes of values, so that a go/no-go decision can be made for the investment in hand.
May 2017: How arbitration is different from mediation? In business dealings, conflicts happen all too often, and for parties of the conflict to find a resolution, they usually seek judgment by a third party. Unlike litigation in courts that consumes time and costs, arbitration and mediation arrangements are more practical. Arbitration is a more strict process, with the arbitrators being the final decision makers in the case, based on evidence and facts, and sometimes judging by laws, but out of courts, and most likely to yield a win-lose result, legally binding. Mediation is amicable dispute resolution, where decision is reached by consensus for maintaining a win-win result, all parties are involved in a personal environment facilitated by the mediator. In all cases, confidentiality and impartiality are critical success factors for the whole process to be of value.
April 2017: What is the Post-Implementation-Review (PIR)? This term is mostly known in project management context, but not limited to it, it's also relevant to change management, release and deployment management, and in general most types of activities, which at the end are implemented as a project. PIR is a review activity that's performed after the project is completed and delivered, which allows for evaluating the results of the project in actual use and how much the project has succeeded in achieving its initial objectives. Outputs from the PIR would be lessons learned, improvement recommendations, and articulation of the project success level, technically and financially, documented in a final review report. PIR is different from audit, in terms of the purpose of each and who performs it, while PIR can still be done by internal or external parties.
March 2017: Is there a difference between a client and a customer? Usually used interchangeably, and in many cases with the same indicated meaning, but being two different words implies some discrimination in use. Each of the two words is more suitable to be used in different contexts. Customers are more generic, like buyers of products or services from some business, while clients are somehow limited to contexts of buying professional services usually from a specialized professional services firm (e.g. legal advice, financial advice, consulting agency, etc.). Another differentiation of use of the two words is the longevity and depth of the relationship, with the customer being a direct limited interaction, and the client is longer lasting dealings. So it all comes down to convention in use, based on type of industry and sort of interactions.
February 2017: How to move from data to wisdom? The concept of DIKW (Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom) refers to transformation of raw, directly collected data to forms that can be more expressive and informative for building conclusions and making decisions. Raw data, e.g. measured numbers, log events, etc., by themselves don't indicate a complete idea, they need to be processed and analyzed for more understanding by adding context to them so that data is turned into information. Further analysis of information and correlation between various pieces of information adds more context so that we now have more insight on circumstances and acquire knowledge. Building further on this knowledge to make decisions, recommendations, and take relevant actions forms the ultimate wisdom intended from collecting data from the beginning.
January 2017: How to select performance KPIs? KPIs are called 'key' for a reason, they are the most indicative metrics that summarize the status and performance of the activity in question, and they are usually used in dashboards and status reporting for that purpose. KPIs are composed of more primitive metrics that are measured directly as raw data, so that the compound KPI can express the intended meaning. Selection and composition of KPIs is very important in order for those KPIs to give the correct information as basis for decision making. If the sources of the data used to calculate the KPI or the method by which it is calculated are inaccurate and not in line with the meaning expected from this KPI, then everything to be built on the result of this KPI will be consequently mistaken.
Page:
‹ First < 16 17 18 19 20 > Last ›
[Archive: 2012 - 2015 | 2016 - 2019 | 2020 - 2023]