Archive for May, 2011

Harmonizing Agility & Discipline

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Live Webinar – June 8, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST
Offered by IAG Consulting (REP 2858)
Duration 1 hour 1 PDU / 1 CDU 1 Cat A Free

Demystify a wide range of agile & traditional requirements / development methodologies!

This session looks at the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and gives prescriptive guidelines to requirements leadership looking to improve results by striking a better balance between agile and disciplined practices.

These practices are not mutually exclusive – the real issue is to look at your current circumstances and find the right balance to maximize success.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Look at the structure of agility and discipline-based methods
  2. Provide guidelines for adding agile practices to traditional software development environments
  3. Provide guidelines for reapplying traditional development practices to the agile software development environment.

This session refocuses the agility versus discipline dialogue.

Click to register for Harmonizing Agility & Discipline

Creating Test Plans

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Online Webinar
Duration: 1 hour Credits: 1 PDU Category B Free
Presented by PROJECTinsight (Metafuse Inc)

Projects are not successful unless they can pass testing by the ultimate consumer of the product—the client, whether external or internal.

Many organizations create test plans in a haphazard way without thoroughly understanding the scope of the project. These kinds of test plans lead to scope creep and unsuccessful projects.

Learn the importance of creating test plans and a practical way in which to deliver them that enables the project team to gain acceptance by the client.

In order to claim a Category B PDU after watching this presentation contact PROJECTinsight (Metafuse Inc) and advise them of the Date and Time you watched this prerecorded event along with your information and request a Category B PDU Certificate.

Click here to view a recorded version of Creating Test Plans from 10/27/2010.

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Live Webinar June 8, 2011 – 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT
Presented by the The Agilista PM
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 Category B PDU Free
Certificate Provided Upon Request


Communications and social dysfunctional relationships are often associated with project teams’ inability to meet their project goals and objectives. The social and emotional skills of a project teams and individuals have been de-emphasized in favour of process and procedural fulfillment on part of the project profession.

In some respects, this is leading towards the commoditization of project management.

The latent value of project management is it that it sits at the epicenter where organizations integrate its specialized knowledge areas, learning to deal with ambiguity and the cross-functional teams requiring collaborative achievements.Far more times than not, these are social-related initiates and are not found in our collective tool kits.

Game theory and practice gives us the tools to reshape the project management profession to heighten the delivery of trust, collaboration and organizational value.

TOPICS COVERED

  • Emotional and social intelligence of teams is critical to project success
  • Seeing your project team as a social unit
  • Increasing team collaboration and trust using learning game systems
  • Avoiding the down-draft of a team’s Storming Phase

SPEAKER: Robert Castel (LinkedIn profile) is the founder of Information Resource Technologies and is responsible for Business Development with Vinezoom. He has extensive experience in implementing high risk, complex IT related projects in Canada, the US and United Kingdom with companies such as major Canadian banks, Federal healthcare agencies, and the Province of Ontario.

*** all who register will get a link to the recording ***

In order to claim a Category B PDU certificate after watching the recorded version of this webinar please contact donna@AgilistaPM.com and advise them of the Date and Time you watched this prerecorded event along with your information and request a Category B PDU Certificate.

Click to register for
Playing Games: Project Management’s Next Innovation

Donna Reed the Agilista PM: Donna Reed (LinkedIn profile) has over 20 years experience in IT infrastructure and Software Development solutions for Fortune 500 clients such as: Adobe, Bank of America, Countrywide, FileNet, HP, IBM, Kofax, MasterCard, Toyota, UnitedHealth Group, Visa, Wellpoint and Wells Fargo.

Donna is also the founder of THE AGILISTA PM (www.AgilistaPM.com). Enabling project teams, organizations, and managers to become as Lean-Agile as possible — helping them determine HOW, WHEN and WHERE to utilize Lean-Agile practices along with their Traditional Waterfall methods of doing projects.

Donna assists clients lead and develop teams by delivering business value as quickly as possible to their customers – by leveraging the right practices for the job (Agile, Lean. Waterfall, … or a combination), and delivering the right solution by collaborating very closely with their customers and users.

Donna (@AgilistaPM) happily promotes these agile user groups:

Click to register for

Playing Games: Project Management’s Next Innovation

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Online Webinar
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 PDU Category C
Presented by: Cisco Webex

All good performance starts with clear goals. If you don’t know where you’re going, your chances of getting there are greatly diminished.

Setting a clear vision for yourself, team, and organization is the first step toward getting where you want to go. In this webinar, vision expert Jesse Lyn Stoner (LinkedIn profile) will explain how to create a blueprint for achieving success.

Participants will learn:

  • How to create a meaningful vision that engages everyone on your team
  • How to set goals and take actions that help you get where you want to go
  • Six guidelines to help you stay the course and make your vision a reality

Don’t miss this opportunity to take your first step toward individual, team and organizational success.

Cisco WebEx presents free WebEx webinars on a variety of Business, Innovation and today’s Economy topics. These webinars should qualify as Category C – Self Directed Learning (SDL) PDUs (was Category 2 – SDL Prior to March 1 2011). Click here to read our article about Category C Self Directed Learning Activities

Presenter:

Jesse Lyn Stoner (@JesseLynStoner), is the founder of Seapoint Center, a consultant, keynote speaker, and co-authored with Ken Blanchard the bestseller Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Work and Your Life, 2nd Edition. This new edition of Full Steam Ahead! is a revised and expanded version. The popular first edition was translated into 22 languages and has sold over a quarter of a million copies.

Jesse mentors others on aspects of Vision, Leadership, Strategy, and Collaboration. Jesse’s very popular blog engages her readers and helps them create engaged workplaces that make positive impacts on the world. Her positive philosophy and dynamic results encourage others to make contributions as leaders in the workplace, in their communities, within their families, and in their own lives.

One of the most mindful posts I’ve read was Jesse Lyn Stoner’s 7 Tips For Sharing Your Vision With Your Team. I have always promoted a collaborative positive environment but she reminded me that “You don’t have to figure it all out before you share it with your team.” She offers guidelines for bringing that vision to the team. For an excellent primer on the concept of a compelling vision, check out her article “I Think We Have a Vision. It Must Be Around Here Somewhere.”

PDU Category C documentation details:

Process Groups: Executing

Knowledge Areas: 9 – Human Resources

  • 9.4 Manage Project Team

As a Category C ‘Self Directed Learning Activity’ remember to document your learning experience (include the weblinks) and its relationship to project management for your ‘PDU Audit Trail Folder’

Click to go to Jesse Lyn Stoner’s page Purpose, Passion, and Meaningful Work – how to get where you want to go and then click the view now button.

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Online Webinar
Presented by the Corporate Education Group (REP 1011)
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 Category A PDU Free

Did you know that according to experts, a large majority of project failures can be attributed directly to problems in requirements gathering, analysis, and management? Smart business analysts know they need to be capable of not only getting the requirements right, but of getting the right requirements. In this webinar, you will learn practical tips and techniques to equip you with the skills and knowledge required to elicit accurate and complete requirements from stakeholders in real-world business situations.

Recorded July 14th 2010

Presenter:
Phil Vincent (LinkedIn profile), PMP®, CBAP®, Certified ScrumMaster, and Certified Rational Solution Designer, is a professional coach and consultant to business analysis and project management professionals in organizations all across the United States and Canada. Phil also teaches business analysis programs to professionals, and will draw on these experiences to provide you with proven techniques for effectively collaborating with your project stakeholders to elicit accurate requirements.

Click to view the online webinar Essential Techniques for Business Analysts: Collaborate with Stakeholders to Elicit Requirements

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Online Webinar
Offered by: Global Knowledge (REP 1999)
Duration: 1 hour 1 PDU / 1 CDU Credits: 1 PDU Category A

Using earned value management (EVM) on your projects is like turning on the lights. It provides project managers with a clear and complete view of project performance. It illuminates where a project is–and should be–at any given time.

EVM is a cost-accounting system for projects. It is a monitoring tool that integrates the planning of time, scope, and cost to ensure that all three constraints are monitored and controlled in concert– rather than isolation. Running a project without EVM can be like operating a business without a bookkeeper.

This seminar will explain how EVM is used in the reporting and control of projects. It illustrates how EVM integrates time, scope, and cost for performance analysis. Attendees will learn just how easy it is to adapt project plans for use with EVM. They will be provided with detailed rules for EVM adoption. Along with the strengths of EVM, this web seminar will also outline its limitations.

Seminar Outline

  • Introduction to Earned Value Management (EVM)
  • Brief history of EVM
  • Role of EVM
  • Reasons for adopting EVM
  • Rules of EVM
  • Planning in an EVM environment
  • Reasons for not adopting EVM

I learned Earned Value methods for the PMP exam, but I found the acronyms awkward and a little confusing – BCWP (Budgeted Cost of Work Performed), BCWS (Budgeted Cost of Work Performed) and ACWP (Actual Cost of Work Performed). I often noticed clients getting that ‘glazed-over-eyes’ look when I was trying to explain the numbers to a client during a status meeting. As a result, I didn’t use EVM as effectively as I could have.

This webinar demonstrates the new terminology, which I find easier to understand – Planned Value (PV), Earned Value (EV) and Actual Cost (AC). The webinar includes illustrations of EVM calculations and a history of earned value management.

After viewing this webinar, I feel more comfortable and confident in presenting EVM to clients during status meetings.
– EdmontonPM

Presenter:

Brian Egan is the CEO of the Book Box Company and principal of Briny Deep Consulting. He has been involved in strategic management since 1985 as both a project manager and a management consultant.

Brian refers to himself as a “serial entrepreneur”. He has started several companies in such diverse fields as:fish farming, furniture design, gift manufacturing, and, most recently, catering. He is the author of three training courses in management science and several white papers.

Click to view the online webinar EVM – Management with the Lights On

Global Knowledge also has an excellent description of Earned Value concepts.

Click to view Global Knowledge’s Whitepaper on Earned Value