This month's edition of Project Management Jazzed Up is now available from the Newsletters link on the Horizontal menu bar or click here to read >>

• Contents
• Monthly Dinner Meetings
• Education
• Article: It is a Zoo Out There, But Let's at Least Cage Those Animals - Eric Uyttewaal
• PMIGNO Announces Magnolia Coast Community
• GNO Board Members
• Jackson Community Leaders
• Article: PMOLink Continues to Support FEMA Gulf Coast Recovery Office - Chris Trentacosta

Schedule Review

Christopher Carson, PSP, CCM

NOTE: We will be meeting on the South Shore at Andrea's

Venue, Registration and Payment details

Many schedulers provide reviews of schedules that compare to sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck reporting on what happened, when the value in schedule reviews and scheduling is the proactive predictions of anticipated progress, disruption and delay that will allow the project to stay on track.  In addition, few schedulers  have developed the quality control process necessary to allow for a consistent and thorough review of a schedule to achieve this goal.

This discussion describes the steps in the process for schedule reviews, including progress verification as well as the full analysis process covering on-time and late completion analysis with recommendations for historical trending, statistics and reporting.

Christopher Carson's Biography

Chris Carson is Corporate Director of Project Controls for Alpha Corporation, providing standards, processes, and procedures for a team of schedulers, analysts, and project managers in multiple office locations, providing all types of scheduling, estimating, and dispute resolution schedule analysis.  Chris has over 35 years of experience in scheduling and construction management of all types of building construction and infrastructure projects.  He has provided seminars for hundreds of scheduling professionals in CPM scheduling methodologies, and manages the in-house training program at Alpha.  

He is active in the PMI College of Scheduling as Managing Director of the SEI (Scheduling Excellence Initiative) project writing Best Practices and Guidelines for Scheduling and Schedule Impact Analysis, and the AACE, serving on the Claims & Dispute Resolution and Planning & Scheduling Committees, and is certified as a Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP) by AACE.  He is active in the Construction Management Association of America and has earned the Certified Construction Manager (CCM) designation and recently served on the nine person team revising the Time Management Chapter of the CMAA’s CM Standards of Practice.  He has presented numerous papers at AACE, DBIA, PMI College of Scheduling, and CMAA national conferences, and just received an award for “Significant Contribution to the Scheduling Profession” at the 2009 PMI College of Scheduling national conference.

This month's edition of Project Management Jazzed Up contains two feature articles about creating stronger bonds between Agile Project Management and traditional Project Management.  As always, the newsletter contains a number of announcements from our Board of Directors, just for you. 

Contents:

• Monthly Dinner Meetings, p. 2
• Education, p.2
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Magic Kingdom, David Prior, p. 3
• Jackson Community, p. 5
• GNO Board Members p. 6
• Jackson Community Leaders, p. 6
• The Declaration of Interdependence for Modern Management, Alistair Cockburn, p. 7
• Membership, p. 11

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New Version 4 of the PMBOK (at New Venue)

Carlos R. Zervigón, PMP®

NOTE: There will be a new venue for this meeting: Beau Chene Country Club, Mandeville, LA

Click here for map to Beau Chene Country Club

Register and Pay Here

Carlos is excited about the newest version of the PMBOK® Guide and will make the case that we all should take advantage of the work that PMI colleagues across the Globe contributed on behalf of the profession. The Scope Statement for the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge Fourth Edition team called for them to make it more accurate, up to date, relevant, clear, concise and easy to understand and implement. Following this they developed a document with more consistency and clarity. Of the forty four processes in the Third Edition, two were deleted, two were added and four in the Procurement Management knowledge area were consolidated into two. This led to a net loss of two processes. The resulting document is again a definite improvement to the previous version. Carlos Zervigon will walk us through the changes and emphasize how they will enable us all to be better project managers. He hopes to entice us to dig into this improved representation of best practices.

We are pleased to unveil the inaugural edition of our monthly newsletter Project Management Jazzed Up.  This issue has two feature articles on the topic of Virtual Teaming, and it includes important announcements from the PMI GNO Board of Directors.

Click here to read >>

Read more ... >>

 

PMI GNO April 15th Dinner Meeting Speaker - Timothy L Johnson

Chief Accomplishment Officer 

www.carpefactum.com

We all know that 90% of a project manager’s time should be spent on communication.  And we all know that communication takes the form of status reports, requirements, project plans, issues logs, and meetings (and more meetings and still more meetings).

But how well are we doing on our project communications?  How do we know the right messages are getting received by the right people at the right time?  The solution is surprisingly simple:  BRANDING.  No, not logos and pretty slogans.  But true branding of project communications.  Applying the approaches of marketing and branding experts to a project management setting, Timothy Johnson will demonstrate the DIRTY truth of branding and how to help you improve the quality of your communication to your project stakeholders.

In this keynote, Timothy will help you:

1) Make your project communications DIFFERENT so you stand out among the tsunami of emails and deliverables.

2) Communicate in an INVITING way that will encourage your stakeholders to start a dialogue with you rather than just passively read your material.

3) Be RELEVANT in your communications as you filter out the things that nobody really cares about anyway.

4) Integrate TRUTHFULNESS into your communications (balancing it with tact and information sensitivity) so your stakeholders know they’re getting “just the facts”

5) Make the communications YOURS so your readers can identify your authorship on a project deliverable before they even start reading it.

Timothy L.Johnson Biography

Timothy is Chief Accomplishment Officer for Carpe Factum, Inc. (Latin for “Seize the Accomplishment”).  He brings two decades of experience in successful project and program management, balancing results and success with creativity and innovation.  His clients have included Wells Fargo, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, ING, Wells Fargo, and Teva Pharmaceuticals. 

He is also an adjunct instructor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, teaching MBA classes in executive leadership, project management, business creativity, and office politics. 

He has published two books, Race Through The Forest – A Project Management Fable, and GUST – The “Tale" Wind of Office Politics.  His third book, Systems Working All Together, is due out in January 2010.

Seize The Accomplishment! 

PMI-GNO's Spring Project Management Professional (PMP) Study Group is starting on April 9th.

This is the second round (April 9th thru June 11th) of educational events scheduled for the 2009 calendar year.  On behalf of the Greater New Orleans Chapter Board of Directors, we have goals to educate as many professionals in Project Management Methodology as we possibly can.  It is the Chapter's success factor to have as many of you receive your Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications. We all know the value of this certification in the eyes of our employers and for our own professional development.  

Click here for additional details and registration information.

Traci Duez joined us again this year and further enlightened us on more of the science and soft skills that can help each of us be a better project manager. You can learn more at www.breakfreeconsulting.com.  The new venue at Andrea's worked out well and we look forward to meeting there again next month (with a few adjustments).

Click on slide show below to see photos from the meeting.

PMI GNO Mar 2009 Dinner Meeting Slideshow

Getting 40% More Cooperation & Productivity from your team

What would it mean to your stakeholders, project, and career if you could consistently get 40% more productivity and commitment from your team members? Do you think that it’s possible? Studies by Dr. Robert Hartman have shown that workers (team members, clients, stakeholders, etc.) withhold, on average, 40% of their capacity. He also discovered how to release that 40% latent reserve through “intrinsic validation”.

In this presentation, you will learn:

Traci Duez Biography

"Prior to starting her own company in 2006, Traci Duez had 17 years of project management. Her projects ranged from starting up a consumer products testing laboratory to managing a global twenty-six site Y2K upgrade for a large pharmaceutical company. Traci previously managed an IT consulting firm and directed over 100 consultants while working closely with the PMO to achieve a CMM Level 3 rating. She has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH) and is a certified coach. Today, Traci is a sought-after speaker in the PMI community and has been invited to speak at multiple PMI Global Congresses. She provides education, coaching and workshops to project managers, executives and their teams. Her work focuses on the new scientific discipline of neuro-axiology and how you, as PMs, can use this information to bring infinitely more value to your projects."

Coming to New Orleans March 23-26

Keep your project management skills fresh to remain competitive in today’s economic environment with PMI SeminarsWorld^®.  Deepen your knowledge and earn up to 28 PDUs toward the maintenance of your PMI credential.

Seats still available for PMI SeminarsWorld^® New Orleans
23–26 March 2009 • New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Resume Secrets That Might Surprise You!

Jan 21, 2009

Jack gave another informative and entertaining presentation for the local PMI community at the January Dinner meeting.  Click here to view the presentation slide deck.

Click on photo below to view photos from the meeting.

PMI GNO Jan 2009 Dinner Meeting

Meeting Topic

“For years I have resisted speaking about resumes thinking that everything that could possibly be said about writing effective resumes has already been covered.  But after seeing clients reject PM after PM based on what they had—and didn’t have—in their resumes, I realized that it’s time for me to step up and share what I have observed over the years:  Resume secrets that might surprise you.”

Jack Molisani
President, ProSpring Technical Staffing

Have you ever submitted a resume for a job but were never called for an interview?  Don’t miss our January meeting!

About the Speaker

Jack Molisani was a Project Officer in the Space Division of the USAF before starting ProSpring Technical Staffing, an employment agency specializing in engineers, project managers and technical writers: www.ProspringStaffing.com

Jack also produces The LavaCon Conference on Corporate Communication and Project Management.  The sixth annual LavaCon will be held October 26–28, 2009 in New Orleans: www.lavacon.org

Jack, a dynamic and entertaining speaker, has a BSE in Computer Engineering from Tulane University, is a member of the Project Management Institute, the Society for Technical Communication and Meeting Planners International.

On behalf of the 2008 Board of Directors, I welcome the opportunity to tell you about the PMI Greater New Orleans Chapter’s accomplishments for this year.  This is the Chapter’s 18th year of service to the regional members of the Project Management Institute.   There are 360 Greater New Orleans Chapter members along with an approximate 1200 PMI members residing within the Chapter’s PMI service area. 

We once again had an excellent year of serving the Chapter’s members.  

We started in January by preparing a 2008 Business Plan to guide the Chapter through the year in support of PMI’s direction and to ensure compliance with the Chapter’s by-laws.   The Operations Plan was updated with measurable goals for the services the Chapter intended to deliver to its members.   The Chapter has a Vision statement that is proudly displayed on a banner at every meeting.   Alfred, I thank you for your diligence with this honor.

Read more ...

I hope you were able to join us at the December meeting to share some good food, good stories, laughter and  the State of the Chapter Address by Ana Boudreaux, Chapter President.  We are all looking forward to a wonderful year in 2009.  We welcome you to join us in 2009 as we all work together to promote our shared profession, Project Management, in new and exciting ways.

Here are a few pics from the meeting.  Click on slide show to go to PMI GNO Picasa albums.

She thought she was going to blow us off the Map,

But instead she PUT us ON the Map….

For the FIRST time ever, PMI - Greater New Orleans Chapter’s nominee for the prestigious PMI Global Project of the Year Award was selected as a finalist. The excitement of us seeing our Chapter name at the PMI Annual Awards Ceremony was overwhelming.

From 2008 PMI Global Project of Year Award

Click here for the submittal cover letter

Click here for the project submittal

Click here for photos from PMI North America World Congress

There were several rounds of tough competition during the spring and summer. Then it happened……..

Our old nemesis, Hurricane Katrina, didn’t blow us off the Map she has PUT us ON the MAP, center stage of the PMI North American World Congress Awards Ceremony.

We are starting to post speaker presentations as we receive them on the October PDS page.  Click on PDS menu on the left.  Stay tuned for more.

Click here to see PDS photos.

Engagement and Buy-In: The Use of Stories in Project Management

From 2008-10-GNO-Dinner-Meeting

October 22, 2008

If you were not at the PMI GNO October dinner meeting, you missed a wonderful presentation by Larry Forster on how to use stories in many situations in the office environment, especially during various phases of your project.  Larry started with an example of how he helped facilitate a workshop that was designed to help the members of a large project team to get to know each other a little better.  The theory is that if we know a little information about each other, it helps to break down barriers to communitarian that we know is so critical to project success.  Please take a look of Larry's presentation and a page of resources he has kindly provided.  We learned that stories make the world (projects) go 'round.

Stories Presentation- Powerpoint

Stories Resources - PDF

Larry Forster
Shell Exploration and Production Co., Inc.

Larry Forster is a Staff Engineer with Shell Exploration and Production Co., and works in Technology Planning and Implementation in New Orleans.  Involved with technology throughout his 25+ year career with Shell, Larry is a pioneer in the use of story and collaboration, and is mentioned in the recently published Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results, edited by Lori Silverman, Jossey-Bass, 2006.

Synopsis

I recently witnessed a presentation of a well-organized, well-structured project plan.  “We need engagement and buy-in,” the project manager repeated over and over.  As he talked through the Gantt chart, describing tasks and milestones, I kept asking myself, where is the “engagement and buy-in” in the project plan? Where does this appear on the chart?

“Engagement and Buy-In” is the people thing.  How do you do it?  The question keeps coming up in project management circles, in performance benchmarking circles, product innovation circles, round and round we go.  But there is a secret, a secret language, which will make a difference.  The secret language of stories.

Read more ...

After a day-long workshop presented by Mr. Vijay Verma, we are indeed more knowledgeable on how to use our Power to Influence our projects and our personal lives. We all have power that no one can take away from us even when we don’t have the authority that we would want to have.

Mr. Verma held our undivided attention throughout the entire workshop. He is an extremely intelligent person that can easily relay his research and organization for the program he has created on the subject. The workshop consisted of lecture and break-out sessions. Mr. Verma encouraged active participation and we all learned as much from our peers as we did from the lessons taught.

One of the most important sources of power that we each have is in networking. Mr. Verma gave a class assignment to Mr. Gerald Davey to collect the list of attendee emails and send out the first email as a gesture for the entire class to continue the networking long after the class is complete. Following are some of the quotes of the class attendees that were replied to the initial email:

The PMI Greater New Orleans chapter, at its April Chapter Meeting, presented its 2008 Project of the Year Award to the corps’ Mississippi Valley Division. New Orleans CityBusiness has posted a press release regarding this award on their website. Read the Article

The US Army Corps of Engineers project has also been submitted to the PMI Global Project of the Year Evaluation Committee to compete at a global level. PMI will announce the winner of this award later in the year. Following is the text of the cover letter sent to PMI Global along with the submittal.

Dear POY Evaluation Committee Member:

The PMI Greater New Orleans Chapter is ecstatic to sponsor what we feel is without a doubt the winning submittal. It is flawless in its presentation and it tells of a most impressive world scale and enormously successful project.

This year, the Greater New Orleans Chapter welcomes the Jackson community as part of our chapter. Volunteers from Jackson will work with our Board of Directors to seek out project management professionals that reside in Mississippi and provide the leadership, structure and tools necessary to organize membership and promote project management principles and best practices within the region.