Project Management Wave
Getting Agile
9:30 - 10:45
Geof Lory, GTD Consulting
Session Level: 100–Beginner
Audience: Project Sponsors, Managers, Project Managers, Business Analysts, Development Leads, Test Leads
The recent growth and acceptance of Agile practices like Scrum and XP has created unintentional divisive theological camps. Are Agile and traditional project management approached really that different? This session will focus on the similarities in values and principles between Agile and traditional project management, while outlining the differences in methods and practices. More importantly, it will provide a framework for choosing or applying the appropriate project management structure based on projet charateristics and organizational environment and demonstrate how the two can peacefully co-exist.
Managing Projects & Project Management Offices (PMOs) through SharePoint
11:00 - 12:15
Pete Hohenhaus
Session Level: 100–Beginner +
Audience: Business Analysts, Project Managers, Business Managers, IT Directors, SharePoint Technologists
See how SharePoint, out-of-the-box, supports and facilitates management of Project Management Offices and projects in general (multiple projects, budgets, multiple project managers). Effective project management requires collaboration, communication and content management, and SharePoint provides that. Also, see how you can augment SharePoint with third party tools, examples of which will be provided.
Project Implementation: The People Component of Meeting Business Goals
2:00 - 3:15
Jay Kasdan, Fredrickson Communications
Session Level: 100–Beginner +
Audience: Anyone that has interest or responsibility for success of a project or an initiative.
Defined business outcomes tied to the project charter are critical components of any successful project. So why do so many projects fail to meet their goals? The answer is often the failure to implement the project into the daily work procedures of the organization.
This hands-on presentation provides a business initiative questionnaire to define four elements critical to the success of any project:
1. Business goals
2. Process, skills and tasks
3. Proficiency
4. Implementation, accountability and measurement
Key issues we’ll address in this session:
- Transitioning from project team ownership to organization ownership
- Aligning business goals with process, skills, and tasks
- Creating an implementation plan that addresses building acceptance and accountability
From Start to Finish: Effective Activity Sequencing
3:30pm - 4:45pm
Daniel T. Renier, Milestone Consulting Group
Session Level: 300–Advanced +
Audience: Anyone that has interest or responsibility for success of a project or an initiative.
Poorly constructed project plans are ineffective at best and increase the challenge of successfully managing projects. Many scheduling tools, including Microsoft Project, make use of task dependencies to sequence activities and calculate schedules. When used appropriately, task dependencies create schedules with estimated completion dates that respond with precision to the dynamic events occurring in projects as they are executed. When used incorrectly, task dependencies can create Gantt Charts that are difficult to understand, schedules that are difficult to manage, and estimated dates that cannot be relied on, all of which may eventually lead project managers to abandon their Project Schedules all together.
In this session, Dan Renier from Milestone Consulting Group will clearly explain Milestone’s YJTJ (Your Job Tool’s Job) process for managing dependencies in Microsoft Project.
Those who attend this critical conceptual presentation will learn about mandatory dependencies and discretionary dependencies, practical methods of modeling dependencies in Microsoft Project, and why certain methods yield better results in the real world of project schedule tracking. This session will conclude by discussing how this simple set of rules will help you achieve more effective management of projects from the smallest project schedule to the most complicated multi-project program.