Focusing on the importance of effective management, the second annual World Risk Day features webinars, interviews, and live virtual sessions from project managers and risk practioners around the world. Beginning May 14^th, 2013 at 12:00AM EST, World Risk Day provides everyone with the ability to learn more about risk management and why it’s important to project success.

Why is World Risk Day necessary? According to a 2012 Accenture report, only 30% of capital projects are delivered on time and only 15% on budget. This year World Risk Day challenges the typical “project success is delivered by focusing on cost and schedule management.” The speakers will examine how real success in today’s complex projects requires bringing risk into the equation.

The 2012 World Risk Day attracted over 2,300 registrations and with the 2013 speaker line-up, this year is sure to be more. Webinars this year come from a range of speakers, including Assistant Secretary Alan D. Cohn, US Department of Homeland Security and Michael Lopez, Senior Associate, Strategic Innovation Group, Booz Allen Hamilton. The resources page also includes plenty of reading options with reports and whitepapers from Deloitte, Aberdeen, McKinsey, and PwC. 

Live sessions will be spread over 24 hours and all content is free and available online.

To register for the World Risk Day 2013 Virtual Summit visit www.worldriskday.com. You can also keep up to date on Twitter @WorldRiskDay and join the debate with #projectrisk.

In each organization problems are going to come up and a project is going to be created to help resolve this issue. Each project is unique and there are going to be different techniques a project manager can use to ensure a successful completion. We have complied a list of some basic techniques project managers use throughout the timeline based on the PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition.

1. Assumptions Analysis — Exploring the accuracy of assumptions and identifying risks to the project
2. Brainstorming — Gathering general data and promoting creativity to identify risks, ideas, and solutions
3. Cost of Quality (COQ) — Determining the costs required to ensure quality
4. Crashing — Compressing a schedule by decreasing the total duration through reducing activity durations or increasing assignments of resources
5. Critical Chain Method – Modifying schedule time to make up for limited resources
6. Decomposition – Dividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller components
7. Earned Value Technique (EVT) – Measuring the performance of work
8. Expert Judgment — Findings from experts in certain areas (industries, disciplines, educations, etc.)
9. Fast Tracking — Overlapping phases that would typically be done sequence
10. Portfolio Management — Centralizing the management of one or more portfolios to achieve a specific purpose
11. Progressive Elaboration — As details become available, improving a plan to produce more accurate strategies
12. Risk Acceptance — Team decides to not change the plan to deal with a risk
13. Risk Avoidance — Protecting a project from impact of risk
14. Risk Mitigation — Reducing the probability that a risk will occur or affect a project
15. Schedule Compression — Decreasing the project schedule without altering the project scope

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In case you haven’t heard, a new attack vector is a “watering hole” attack. In the real world, you might think of a watering hole attack as one in which a lion waits nearby for other animals to visit a pond for a drink. As a technical attack, it’s not much different. The attacker sets traps on sites that are frequented by individuals/organizations. Once the victim visits the site, the attack is launched.

As an example, some Apple employees were hacked after visiting a developer web site that exploited a vulnerability in the Java browser plug-in, installing malware on their Mac computers. Watering hole attackers can use various techniques to trap their victims. One such technique is designing the malware to look for multiple vulnerabilities:

if version > Java6  Update 32 or  if version > Java7  Update 10, then

       exploit the newest vulnerability CVE-2013–1493.

else if Java 7 (version <= Java 7 Update 10) then

       exploit CVE-2013–0422

else (version < Java 6 Update 32) then

      exploit CVE-2012–1723

Notice how the malicious applet checks for the version of JRE and then targets a specific vulnerable version. Attackers use this technique because exploits that may work for one version of vulnerable software may not be effective for another.

To prevent these types of attacks users should make sure their software up to date and keep anti-malware software current. Also, more companies are now starting to look at using secured isolated virtual machines and running a web browser in an isolated virtual environment can be used to limit the capability of the malware to spread. As with other attacks a good defense requires an in depth approach that builds in multiple layers of protection.

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I think the biggest questions out there regarding preparation for the PMP exam are:

• How long should I study for?
• What should I study? 

Of course, the simple answer is, “it depends.” It depends on a few things. Here are some questions to ask yourself (and be honest) as you get ready for the exam:

1. Do you practice project management every day in your current job? 
2. Do you plan on taking a Boot Camp course?
3. Can you dedicate at least 10–15 hours a week to study?
4. Are you a strong test taker?

If you answered “yes” to all of these questions, then I think a 3–4 month study plan will suffice. For every question you answered “no” to, add more time on. I know many colleagues of mine studied for a whole year because they had difficulty setting uninterrupted time aside to study. It is definitely not an easy exam, so you will have to make a time commitment. As for what to study, if you take a Boot Camp you will be provided with a copy of the PMBOK^® Guide and study guides. Dissect these guides and learn the concepts inside and out. If you don’t plan on taking a Boot Camp, I would purchase the PMBOK^® Guide and as many study guides and books you can find. Amazon is a great option for buying books because the reviews can help you find the best ones that will work for you. Well, I wish you the best of luck studying!

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I completed the online application about one month ago, and here is what I can tell you: The paper application that I printed to help me prep for the online application does not have a word count restriction, but the online application does. In fact, for each project you can only type up to 550 characters, and that includes spaces. Up to this last sentence I just wrote, there are 534 characters.  As you can see, that is not a lot!

If you have already written the details for each Process Group like I did, you will need to sum up each project. I just hit on what’s most important: the deliverables and how I managed the project. The good news is, PMI has done a great job structuring the online application. It’s extremely easy to enter all of your project info and double-check that you did not miss anything.

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The processes used in these phases may be repeated for future projects that will employ this same life cycle. It is natural, therefore, to use BPA to improve these processes also. For example:

• Requirements Development – Requirements are foundational to a successful software project, yet many enterprises pay inadequate attention to this key process.
• Testing – Any project life cycle that involves testing should have thorough and efficient processes.
• Transition to Operations – Most IT projects require a period of transition from the project state to the operational state.

The project life cycle example above would be described as a waterfall life cycle. That is, each phase is executed and completed prior to beginning the next phase. This traditional approach, while safe, can be ponderous for software development projects. Agile project life cycles have been developed to address this problem. Agile is a development technique that uses iterative cycles to build software in releases. It is called agile because the technique allows a dedicated co-located team to respond rapidly to change.

BPA for Project-Specific Processes

Change control can require project-specific processes. Although PMI identifies integrated change control as a standard process, the implementation must be customized for each project. Change management may vary depending on the sponsor or project scope. A PM should document the change control process including modeling with a flow chart. This process should be examined for efficiency and effectiveness throughout the project using BPA techniques.

Management of Projects Proposed Through BPA

Another reason for PMs to understand BPA is that many projects involve implementation of recommendations developed from BPA. Business Process Analysis is traditionally considered a BA responsibility. Enterprise analysis includes the activities that lead to project proposals that, if approved, become part of the enterprise project portfolio. Approved projects go through the PMI Initiating process group that includes assignment of the PM and the development of the project charter.

PMs who inherit a project of this kind have a vested interest in the BPA process. There are a number of factors to consider.

• Leadership Transition. Up to this point all work on the project has been led by a BA. It is imperative that there is a good transition from BA to PM.
• Stakeholder Information can be reused. One of the important jobs of the PM is to manage stakeholder expectations during the project. If the BA has done a thorough job of BPA then there has already been some stakeholder analysis and participation.
• Risks can be identified from BPA stakeholders
  • Are there stakeholders who have a negative view of the project?
  • Is it difficult to get on their schedules and do they cancel meetings frequently?
  • Are politics particularly difficult between business units?
  • Are there critical stakeholders that exhibit passive/aggressive/resistance attitudes?
  • Have some stakeholders reluctantly agreed to the project?
  • Are the users fearful of or dread this change?
  • Risks can be identified from the quality of the BPA effort – This can be a sensitive question but it is in the best interest of the PM and project to consider this.
    • Has the BA ever done this kind of analysis before?
    • Has the BA done an analysis of this scale before?
    • Did the BA work alone or were SMEs involved?
    • Was the team skilled in elicitation?
    • How thorough was elicitation? Were all business units consulted? Were end-users and managers consulted?
    • Were models, identified problems, and proposed solutions vetted and validated with the proper stakeholders?
    • If the business case included project costs and timing are these feasible?

The implementation of a BPA recommendation can have some specific deliverables, and PMs must make sure the appropriate deliverables are created. The project may make many changes to the processes themselves, tools used in the process, development of new roles, and training. Deliverables for process improvement implementations can include:

• Formalized process documentation
• Process guidelines and policies
• Tools such as checklists, templates, worksheets, forms
• Training materials
• Organization changes
• New or changed role and responsibility definitions
• Metrics definition and processes to collect metrics

Changes to processes often involve changes to manual activities as well as automation. Roles and responsibility changes can create discomfort which has to be anticipated and managed. The PM must understand this and include tasks in the project to smooth this transition. Again, BAs can be immensely helpful in this area because of their role as business advocates.

Managing a BPA Project

Up to this point the improvement implementation resulted from BPA performed by BAs prior to project approval. Sometimes however, the BPA is significant enough that the effort must be managed as formal project in its own right. Therefore the PM needs to have a thorough understanding how BPA works and how this can affect the project.

• Discovery – A BPA project involves a significant amount of discovery. This would include stakeholder identification from the elicitation perspective.
• Elicitation – Elicitation is discovery. Events must be planned to elicit from all stakeholders. This elicitation includes discovering the as-is situation, identifying problems, and identifying potential solutions.
• Analysis and Validation – Analysis involves sifting through elicited information, modeling processes, and documenting problems.
• Proposal – A proposal or recommendation is usually created as a project deliverable. The PM should make sure proposals are properly vetted with key stakeholders.
• Elicitation timing can be difficult to pinpoint – Many PMs are used to planning activities to happen at a certain time and riding herd on resources to get the work done. But elicitation can be difficult to plan and execute. Elicitation is one of the easiest BA disciplines to discuss but the hardest to implement.
• Elicitation is a skill – The PM should ensure that team members participating in elicitation or suited to the task by skill, discipline, and disposition. People oriented elicitation events require a level of skill in communications and facilitation.
• Stakeholders may change their mind – It is not uncommon in BPA for stakeholders to change their minds. In fact, they may not realize it or claim they have not. Here are some recommendations to handle this.
  • Elicitation results should be documented and sent to appropriate stakeholders for validation
  • Archive elicitation results, on a Sharepoint site for example, and use as backup for analysis and the proposal
  • Meet frequently with stakeholders to validate the findings. If they do change their mind the sooner that is discovered the better
  • It is more than automated tools – Many PMs have managed IT projects that create or modify tools or infrastructure.

Business Process Analysis is an important discipline for project managers. They should employ it to improve their own project management processes whether they are general project management processes, repeatable life cycle processes, or processes developed for a specific project.

Excerpted and available for download from Global Knowledge White Paper: What a Project Manager Needs to Know About Business Process Analysis

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There are a number of reasons why PMs, in particular, must understand the BPA discipline. Project Management is a discipline full of processes that are targets for improvement. Also many projects originate from BPA, and the project implements the improvements, or the BPA is the project itself. This series of posts will explain BPA and why it is important to Project Managers.

What Is a Quality Process?

Most PMs are familiar with the traditional characteristics of a project. The product is considered unique in that most projects create a product or service that changes the enterprise from one state to another. This uniqueness brings uncertainty to the project that must be managed. Uncertainty is highest at the beginning of the project and is reduced over time. Assumptions can be made to help manage the uncertainty, but the outcome of the assumptions may not be known until later. In general, PMs must constantly reevaluate the project plan, make changes, and manage stakeholder expectations. This type of planning is called progressive elaboration.

Projects are often compared to operations that are composed of processes. Processes are very different from projects. They are executed over and over, and the results are not unique at all but are repeated. The use of progressive elaboration for processes would be chaotic. Because processes are repeatable, they must be engineered so they are high-quality processes.

What do we mean by a high-quality process? There are a number of ways to view process quality. Typically it can be described as a balance of efficiency, timing, and result quality:

• Efficiency – Costs to execute the process. Costs include labor, tools, and rework
• Time – Elapsed time to execute all or part of the process
• Quality of the Result – Results of without defects and within acceptable control limits

Quality Balance

These attributes must be balanced appropriately. Overemphasis on one particular attribute can lead to severe problems in others. The discipline of BPA should help ensure that process improvement is not a series of over corrections. There are other quality attributes that can be just as important for a process. These include:

• Clearly Identified process goal and alignment with business needs
• Documented and repeatable processes
• Flexible processes – Changes can be made easily or the process can be easily adapted to changes
• Usable – it can be understood and followed by the intended users of the process

Business Process Analysis is the discipline used to document, create, or improve business processes. Process improvement is needed when processes no longer meet quality objectives. The process could be inefficient, take too much time, produce an unacceptable number of defects, or be deficient in any of the areas discussed above. The common, but not exclusive, areas on improvement include:

• The Process itself – This could include the actual process steps, documentation of the process, process compliance, accountability and ownership, and proper checks and balances.
• The Tools – Tools can include not only hardware and software but also the forms and documents that are still used in many manual processes.
• Process Inputs – Many processes suffer from poor inputs. Sometimes we may be working on the wrong process when we should be working to fix the process that provides poor inputs.
• People –There are still areas where people can contribute to process problems. Are they trained, motivated, available when needed, or under– or over-qualified?

What Is the Process of Business Process Analysis?

As a discipline, BPA is a process that is subject to process improvement. BPA is really a spiral process that repeats and overlaps steps as needed until the analysis is complete or when some deadline forces the analyst to move to the next step. The steps are described below.

1. Determine the business process to analyze BPA starting with the selection of a process or collection of processes that are the target for improvement.
2. Charter the Process Action Team (PAT). A PAT is a common term for the team assigned to do the BPA.
3. Identify the stakeholders.
4. Gather information from the stakeholders.
5. Document the process goal and identify metrics.
6. Model the current (as-is) process.
7. Identify process problem causes.
8. Determine improvement options.
9. Feedback and validate information with stakeholders.
10. Model the planned (to-be) process.
11. Make the business case for improvement.
12. Plan and implement the improvement.

How Does BPA Apply to PMs?

BPA is relevant to PMs in many ways. First, Project Management is conducted through the use of many processes that are subject to BPA. Second, many projects originate as proposals developed out of the BPA process. Third, sometimes the BPA effort is so significant that it is the project the PM must manage. Each of these will be discussed in the second half of this series.

BPA for PMI Processes

Project Management is composed of many processes. Project management methodologies are developed by enterprises to define how these processes are to be implemented in the environment and which tools will be employed by the PMs in the execution of these processes.

Many projects suffer due to poor risk processes. Poor processes can miss possible risks, cause poor impact or probability estimates, or fail to identify feasible risk responses. BPA can identify faults in the process itself (Process), make improvements to the tools used for risk management (Tools), identify training or mentoring needed to improve the PM’s ability to perform risk management (People), and identify the best and most complete data needed to get the best risk analysis (Inputs). In addition the identification and use of metrics can help determine whether improvements have been made or where/when further improvements are required.

Excerpted and available for download from Global Knowledge White Paper: What a Project Manager Needs to Know About Business Process Analysis

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The project schedule is a document that, if properly prepared, is usable for planning, execution, monitoring/controlling, and communicating the delivery of the scope to the stakeholders. The main purpose of a project schedule is to represent the plan to deliver the project scope over time. A project schedule, in its simplest form, could be a chart of work elements with associated schedule dates of when work elements and milestones (usually the completion of a deliverable) are planned to occur. In addition to guiding the work, the project schedule is used to communicate to all stakeholders when certain work elements and project events are expected to be accomplished.

The project schedule is also the tool that links the project elements of work to the resources needed to accomplish that work. As a minimum, the project schedule includes the following components:

1. All activities
2. A planned start date for the project
3. Planned start dates for each activity
4. Planned finish dates for each activity
5. Planned finish date for the project
6. Resource assignments
7. Calendar based
8. Activity durations
9. The “flow” (sequence) of the various activities
10. The relationships of activities
11. An identified critical path(s)
12. Total and free float

A. How to Develop a Project Schedule

PMI® has a Develop Schedule process and the main output is the project schedule. This is the result of four previous processes plus the work of up to eight tools and techniques for the Develop Schedule process. The previous processes are:

1. Define Activities (work elements)
2. Sequence Activities
3. Estimate Activity Resources
4. Estimate Activity Duration

The tools and techniques available to develop the schedule are:

1. Schedule network analysis
2. Critical Path Method
3. Critical Chain Method
4. Resource leveling
5. What-if scenarios
6. Leads and lags
7. Schedule compression
8. Scheduling tools

B. Why a Project Schedule is Important

Based on the work above, we now have a schedule for:

1. Individual Activities
2. Work Packages
3. Deliverables
4. The Total Project

This level of detail allows a project manager evaluate the schedule performance of the project from the top down or from the bottom up. If a deliverable is slipping or is in danger of slipping, the project manager can drill down until he/she finds the problem or potential problem. One other very powerful tool that will help in this analysis is the Earned Value Method (EVM). EVM can assist you in evaluating project schedule performance (what have accomplished related to the plan), calculate a Schedule Performance Index (SPI) which is a representation of the effectiveness of accomplishing your planned schedule.

EVM can also calculate a Schedule Variance (SV) which is the difference between the value of the work completed and value of the planned work. This will tell you the magnitude of the behind schedule, ahead of schedule, or if zero you are on schedule. EVM can be applied down to the work element level, if the appropriate level of detail exists. EVM does have several draw backs, but there are solutions to the draw backs:

1. EVM ignores the critical path. There are two thing we can do to solve this problem.
   • Perform a separate CP analysis.
   • Strip out all non-CP work elements and perform a second EVM analysis.
2. As the project nears completion, EVM breaks down for schedule analysis. This is because as the project nears completion, EV approaches PV, and in fact reaches PV at project completion. SV and SPI lose their meaning.

Variance analysis is another tool to help the project manager understand why work elements (or above) are behind or ahead of schedule. The Time Management Plan probably sets thresholds for behind schedule (say 5%), a different threshold for ahead of schedule (say 10%), to trigger your attention. Understanding why work elements are behind schedule will assist the project manager in developing solutions (action plans) to bring the project back within acceptable ranges. Understanding why work elements are significantly ahead of schedule will assist the project manager in feeding this information forward to new project schedule development.

Regardless of care or execution, project schedule slippages will occur. This is just another fact of the project world. While they cannot all be eliminated, they can be reduced for future projects. Some (not many) projects will finish very close to the schedule date. More projects will finish within acceptable ranges (+/-5%). Others (we hope not many) will finish well outside the acceptable range (>10% behind or ahead). Using the techniques outlined here will reduce the number of projects in this category and reduce the size of the behind variances.

C. Tips on How to Successfully Manage a Project Schedule

1. Use all of the tips from “Successfully Managing a Project Budget”.
2. Avoid the pitfalls in Section IV.
3. Get reports, even if you have to have them customized, from your scheduling software that tells YOU what is going on with the project and schedule accomplishment.
4. When work elements slip, analyze the cause and impact. Take action as necessary. These things will not fix themselves.
5. When resources do not materialize as planned and agreed, estimate the impact, and communicate this to management!
6. When things go wrong, analyze why, estimate the impact, communicate with stakeholders and take action to bring the schedule accomplishment back within acceptable ranges.

Reproduced from Global Knowledge White Paper: Importance of Schedule and Cost Control

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Project Baselines

1. Budget
2. Schedule
3. Scope
4. Quality

Schedule and Budget are the focus of this paper and the terms activity and work elements are synonymous. Schedule and cost (budget) are two of the major legs of the project constraint polygon. Without the schedule and budget baselines plans, one does not know where the project stands relative to planned schedule progress or planned budget performance. The schedule and budget baselines, along with other baselines, are developed in the planning phase of the project. The project plan is approved prior to execution by the project sponsor or an appropriate senior level manager.

The project plan includes the budget and schedule. Schedule determines when work elements (activities) are to be completed, milestones achieved, and when the project should be completed. The budget determines how much each work element should cost, the cost of each level of the work breakdown schedule (WBS), and how much the total project should cost. Actual performance can be compared to these plans to determine how well the project is progressing or finished. Schedules and budgets are interlocked, and most likely an increase in one causes an increase in the other.

Project Budget

The project budget is a financial plan for all project expenditures (cost). Success in project budget management depends on, amongst other things, the creation of a comprehensive, consistent, and reliable project budget. Some people want to use the term “accurate” in the above definition. But, the word “accurate” has no place in the project world. Reliable and consistent are the terms that should be used. By definition, the project budget cannot be accurate as it is an estimate. Normal ranges of project budget variability depends on the project, the organization, type of business (and many other factors) but usually falls within +/- 10%.

A. How to Develop a Project Budget

In the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide® world, there are two processes to developing a project budget. The first process is Estimate Cost, which is often confused with the Determine Budget process. Both of these processes are normally preceded by a project management team planning process, which is executed as part of the Develop Project Management Plan. This planning process is known as the Project Cost Management or the Cost Management Plan. The Cost Management Plan outlines the processes involved in determining organizational cost categories, estimating, budgeting, and controlling cost, so that the project can be executed within the approved budget.

The Estimate Cost process is not only confused with Determine Budget but is also widely misunderstood. Many think that this process estimates the total cost of the project. But this is not correct, at least not directly. The Estimate Cost process estimates the cost for each of the work elements and records the basis of that cost. That is as far as Estimate Cost goes!

The second of the three processes in Project Cost Management is the Determine Budget process, which rolls work element cost upward, applies cost aggregation, applies project contingency, makes a cash flow estimate, and now you have a budget for the various levels of the WBS and the total project.

B. Why a Project Budget is Important

Based on the work above, we now have a budget for:

1. Individual Activities
2. Work Packages
3. Deliverables
4. The Total Project

This level of detail allows a project manager (PM) to evaluate the budget performance of the project from the top down or from the bottom up. If a work package is running over or is in danger of over running the budget, the project manager can drill down until he/she finds the problem or potential problem. The drill down can be by the PM or in conjunction with the assigned team member.

One other very powerful tool that helps in the analysis of project budget performance is the Earned Value Method (EVM). EVM can assist you in evaluating project budget performance (what are you accomplishing for the funds you are expending) and in calculating a Cost Performance Index (CPI), which is a representation of the effectiveness of your spending. EVM can calculate a Cost Variance (CV), which is the difference between the value of the work completed and the amount of funds expended to accomplish that work. This will tell you the magnitude of the over– or under-run or if you are on budget. EVM can be applied down to the work element level, if the appropriate level of detail exists.

Variance analysis is another tool to help the PM understand why work elements (or above) are over– or underbudget. The Cost Management Plan probably sets thresholds for overruns (say 10%), a different threshold for under runs (say 15%), to trigger your attention. Understanding why work elements are overrunning will assist the PM todevelop solutions (action plans) to bring the project back within acceptable ranges. Understanding why work elements are significantly under budget assist the PM in feeding this information forward to new project budget development.

Regardless of experience, care, or execution effort, project budget variances will occur. This is just a fact of the project world. While they cannot all be eliminated, they can be reduced for future projects. Some (not many) projects will finish very close to the budget. More projects will finish within acceptable ranges (+/-10%). Others (we hope not many) will finish well outside the acceptable range (>10% over or under). Using the techniques outlined here will reduce the number of projects in this category and reduce the size of the over runs.

C. Tips on How to Successfully Manage a Project Budget

1. Capture all of the scope (scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary). If you do not capture the total project scope correctly, there is little hope that the project can be executed for the budget or schedule.
2. Insist on input from all stakeholders. Penetrate through stated needs and include implied needs.
3. Determine the various cost categories used at the organization.
4. Develop Project Team and Project Management Team trust.
5. Develop a reliable, consistent, sufficiently detailed WBS and time decomposition structure. Estimate
6. Cost and Determine Budget.
7. Stop scope and grade creep. Eliminate gold plating. None of these adds value to the project. Your team is your first line of defense.
8. Perform EVM, variance, and trend analysis.
9. Continuously communicate to stakeholders on project status, project direction, and what the project will look like at completion.
10. Use organizational process assets (OPA) to develop, analyze, and challenge.
11. Avoid the pitfalls in Section IV.
12. Take action when indicated! Sooner rather than later.

Reproduced from Global Knowledge White Paper: Importance of Schedule and Cost Control

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Scared of the work experience section of the PMP application? After reading several blog posts it sounds like a lot of people are. Documenting 4,500 hours of Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing is cumbersome, but I have developed a couple of tricks that helped me get started and I hope will help you.

Trick 1: Create a template for yourself.

I created my template in Word and started with a general section which included all of the basic project info (i.e. — start date, end date, and total number of hours). Below this section I created a simple table:

After creating this, I copied and pasted these two sections (the “General” section and the table) a few times, creating one for each project I am including on my application.

Trick 2: For each project, start by just typing key words.
This will help get your writing juices flowing before turning these key words into meaningful (non-industry specific) descriptive sentences.

I hope these simple tricks help! Remember, all of this hard work is worth it!

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