In-Class Workshops and Group Exercises:

This workshop is a stimulating combination of class interaction, case studies, and exercises in small peer groups. Each is designed to allow you to easily grasp new concepts and techniques and apply them to problems that you will experience or may be experiencing in the work place. Learn the methods that immediately allow you to:

• Effectively communicate to the business and to your peers
• Identify missing requirements
  
• Become an agent for change
  
• Learn a systematic process for solving problems
  
• Produce a well-defined estimate
  
• Identify and mitigate software development risks

Global Competition Changed the Rules of the Game

Those of us who've been involved in the IT industry for a number of years have experienced both boon and lean times. Although IT unemployment rates lessened in 2006 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics), the number of programmers in the American IT industry dropped by 17% between 2000 and 2004, and the threat of losing gigs to the growing low-cost offshoring business remains significant, and is expected to reach a volume of $50 billion by 2010 (Gartner).

Shift Your Career From Barely Surviving to Upwardly Thriving

To survive in this business as an IT professional, you will need to re-assess your skills and expand your capabilities beyond just technical knowledge and expertise. This two-day workshop will help you focus on assessing your business strengths, expanding your capabilities and communication skills to better serve the needs of the team and the business, and assuring that all of this fits into your career development life cycle.

See Immediate Results From This Professional “Tune-Up”

This information packed course exposes you to an array of ideas, techniques, and tools that you can incorporate immediately - all offered to help you not only survive the software business but excel in your career. This course combination of soft skills and practical project skills makes an extremely effective tune-up for the IT professional looking to advance.

20 Immediate Benefits of Taking This Class:

1. Avoid common estimating errors and identify the important components of what makes up an accurate estimate
2. Protect yourself from layoffs (and survive them) by expanding your knowledge and expertise in different areas
3. Discover how to apply the five principles of communication
4. Understand the characteristics companies value most in an employee, which ones you possess, and how you can improve
5. Recognize the difference between management and leadership behaviors
6. Understand how to run a successful meeting
   
7. Ask effective questions that will provide the answers you need
   
8. Examine where you are in your career, where you'd like to go, and how to manage your own expectations to get from here to there
   
9. Communicate effectively with the business
   
10. Identify key stakeholders and influencers
    
11. Learn tips for making a successful presentation
    
12. Identify requirements and recognize the difference between good and bad ones
    
13. Improve your communication, listening, and validation skills
    
14. See how to develop the leader within you
    
15. Better understand the business environment in which you work
    
16. Help (yourself and) others deal with and understand change
    
17. Flag software development risks early to prevent project damage later
    
18. Find out what leadership really means
    
19. Understand the steps to identify the root cause of a problem
    
20. Recognize your technical edge and share your accomplishments in the language of your business