Welcome to the asapm August 2007 email Newsletter!
This is an Opt-in Newsletter from asapm, the American Society for the Advancement of Project Management. We produce it in the even-numbered months: February, April, June, and so on. Subscribe/unsubscribe information is at the end of this Newsletter. This Newsletter is in html, with links to the asapm website. Enjoy!
In This Issue
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1. PrezSez: Trip Report for Krakow--IPMA 2007 World Congress
2. USA's First Level C Project Managers Certified in Performance Competency!
3. asapm Board Election Results
4. Tight, Inflexible Deadlines: Scourge of Projects; by Stacy Goff
5. ProjectSummit/Business Analyst World Events in San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago
6. Communities of Practice as Learning Enablers; Henrie & Hedgepeth
7. IIR ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts, 13-16 November 2007; Anaheim, CA
8. ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts Europe, 26-28 Nov. 2007; Barcelona, SP
9. Open Source Becomes Open Sesame' For Projects
10. Updates: Jobs Board, Hot Links, and Project MillStones
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1. PrezSez: Trip Report for Krakow--IPMA 2007 World Congress
The IPMA 2007 Congress in Krakow, Poland, was an opportunity to meet project managers, project consultants, and project management trainers from around the world. The Congress included social events for relaxing and informal gatherings of people to exchange information about themselves and their respective country. It was personally and professionally rewarding in a beautiful 750-year-old city and a country that has given the world such notables as Frederic Chopin. Wikipedia lists nearly 1000 Polish notables in the arts and sciences.
The highlight of the Congress was unquestionably the Keynote Speaker – Lech Walesa, winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, former President of the Republic of Poland (1990-1995), and labor organizer in the Gdansk, Poland, Shipyards (1987-1990). His work in the shipyards under a brutal Communist rule was not without hardship.
This is from the introduction to asapm President Lew Ireland's latest PrezSez. To see Lew's article, click here.
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2. USA's First Level C Project Managers Certified in Performance Competency!
June 23 was a momentous day in the history of both asapm and project management in the USA. On that day, asapm certified its first Project Managers! We’re still dotting some i’s and crossing some t’s, so we can’t announce the names yet, but we will do so in the next newsletter. The deep discounts authorized by the PMCert Board to kick-start the program will only be available through the end of 2007, so if you’ve been thinking of getting a performance-based competency certification, now’s the time to do it!
The next interviews, for Levels B and C are in late October, with applications due September 15. Our next Level D exam is in Boston, on October 29. Click here to read this whole news release.
The currently-available USA Project Manager certifications now include:
Level B:
Certified Senior Project Manager
Level C: Certified Project Manager
Level D: Certified Project Associate
To see more about PMCert and details about our three levels (so far) of IPMA-compliant certification we now offer, click here.
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3. asapm Board Election Results
Larry Kueppers, PMP, has been elected to the office of asapm Director of Standards. Congratulations, Larry! Part of his first job will be to establish a process for Standards recognition; then he will begin work on a Lessons Learned (or After-Action Review) Standard. If you are interested in participating, contact Larry through the Board web page.
Several members wrote themselves in for the position of asapm Vice President. We are speaking with them about their interests, and how to best engage them in building upon asapm's strengths. We may have a run-off election for the position.
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4. Tight, Inflexible Deadlines: Scourge of Projects; by Stacy Goff
Do your projects have unrealistically tight deadlines? Why? Where are your areas of flexibility? We’ve asked these questions for years of Executives, Project Management Office consultants, Program Managers, Project Managers and Team Members. All too often we hear that yes, many projects and programs do have deadlines, or unrealistic and inflexible dates by which they must be completed.
Defense Contractor Programs may have deadlines that coincide with September Federal year-ends—if a buyer needs to spend money before the year is over. Some project deadlines relate to calendar yearend cycles; others relate to slow periods, or to the calm before the retail storm for holiday seasons.
But in cases where individuals cannot cite the reason for the deadline, or when there appears to be no flexibility in other factors, such as more-available or more-skilled resources, or when funding and scope are also inflexible, unnecessary project risk results.
Inflexible deadlines may be evidence of frustrated Managers who feel they have no better way to control projects in their organization. They may be an attempt to cause the team to show the same sense of urgency Managers feel. Excessive use of deadlines in an Enterprise may result from a lack of communication or Management Malpractice—or both. Whatever the cause, it is not project competence.
This is from the article introduction; to see how Stacy relates the deadline dilemma to PM Competence, click here.
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5. ProjectSummit/Business Analyst World Events in San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago
Watch this Fall for the ProjectSummit series of events, where asapm leaders speak at three different conferences!
What is ProjectSummit & BusinessAnalyst World?
A series of events that bring together Project Practitioners and Business Analysts in regional conferences, with:
* 3 Project Based tracks over 2 days
* 2 Business Analysis tracks over 2 days
* 1 shared track for PMs & BAs over 2 days
* 8 Full Day workshops over 2 days
* Keynote Address
* Formal Roundtable discussion
* Industry networking events
* Earn Up to 25 PDUs for all 4 days
Diversified Business Communications is owner and producer of Project Summit & BusinessAnalystWorld, and the events are promoted and supported by asapm. See the Events page on the asapm website for member and friend discounts, or visit the ProjectSummit website www.projectsummit.com for full details. Note especially the due dates for early registrations, offering a significant discount.
San Francisco area – October 15 -18; Sheraton Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA
asapm Marketing Director Morgan Henrie, PMP, PhD will speak at the Palo Alto ProjectSummit.
Boston Oct 29 – Nov 1; Boston Marriott Burlington, Burlington, MA
PMCert Chair Bill Duncan will speak at the Boston ProjectSummit; his topic is "Guilty". Here is the write-up:
If you were arrested for being a project manager, could they gather enough evidence to convict you? For all too many project managers, the answer is "no." Most current project management certifications are about knowledge: assessing what you know rather than assessing what you do or how well you do it. But that is beginning to change. Increasingly, employers are demanding assessments of performance. In this presentation, Bill Duncan will present information about performance-based competency standards and performance-based competency assessment for project managers. The fundamental approach that Bill will present is currently being used by Motorola, Royal Dutch Shell, the governments of Australia and South Africa, and many others throughout the world.
Chicago Nov 12 – 15; O’Hare Crowne Plaza, Rosemont, IL
asapm President Lew Ireland will speak at the Chicago event; his topic: Project Management: Antiquity to the Future:
An interesting look at historical aspects of project management that lead up to the future evolutions in the field. The presentation will show pictures of artifacts that could only have been produced by some rudimentary form of project management and extend into modern project management as well as the potential for future project success through competence-based project managers and the project team.
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6. Communities of Practice as Learning Enablers; Henrie & Hedgepeth
Projects are communities and as a community they are social organizations. You as the project manager are the leader of this community with the full responsibility of achieving success. To increase your chance of success requires the continuous search of knowledge and learning opportunities.
An avenue that can significantly assist in advance your knowledge level is the Community of Practice. As this paper discusses, Communities of Practice (CoP) can be a project managers learning asset. CoP as a learning asset applies to all project managers. You might be a brand new project manager dealing with a small project team or, on the other end of the spectrum, a project manager with decades of experience dealing with very large and extremely expensive projects or somewhere in between.
This is from the introduction to this article by Morgan Henrie PhD, PMP and Oliver Hedgepeth PhD. To read the whole article, see it on the asapm website.
Various asapm members have completed a series of Community of Practice sessions. You could too! These are peer-group discussions about a relevant topic, as opposed to conventional, formal meetings, and they present far greater opportunities for interaction. See the PMCoP page at the asapm website for more information.
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7. IIR ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts, 13-16 November 2007; Anaheim, CA
asapm is helping to promote this stellar conference, presented by IIR, Institute for International Research, and to be held at the Disneyland Hotel 13-16 November 2007: Anaheim, CA, website: ProjectWorld. Based on participant requests, the presentations have been extended in length, for more in-depth coverage.
New Content and Session Choices Are Designed With You in Mind; They Are Organized by Maturity & Competency Level. Here Are Some Sample Topics:
Goff to Speak
Hear asapm co-founder Stacy Goff speak on Tracking Project Performance to Maximize Business Value:
Your project is not complete until you achieve the promised Business Value. Project teams and key Stakeholders may develop stellar plans; yet before benefit realization, many teams "take their eye off the ball". They fail to track the most important elements needed to achieve that Business Value. Based on asapm's USA National Competence Baseline, find ways to track and control the key competences that have the greatest impact on project performance and benefit realization.
Special Networking Sessions
To Sign Up for Industry Specific Lunch & Learn Sessions, please click here to complete and submit a request form.
Are you an attending Senior level practitioner? Do you want to get more involved as a Facilitator? We're Looking for you... For more information on how you can lead and facilitate a Lunch & Learn industry specific Roundtable, please contact Sabina Gargiulo, Sr. Conference Producer at M1920 Lunch & Learn Facilitator Request or call her at 212-661-3500, ext. 3032.
Registration Discounts: Act Soon!
Because asapm is a media sponsor for this event, members and friends can receive a discount: enter SPKRM1920SG to receive your discount; also, the registration rates go up August 17, so sign up soon!
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8. ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts Europe, 26-28 Nov. 2007; Barcelona, SP
If you can't make it to Anaheim (see above) asapm is also helping to promote ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts Europe, co-located with the Project Risk Symposium Europe. Join us November 26-28, 2007 in Barcelona, Spain.
Drive Innovation through Collaboration at the ONLY event in Europe helping you bridge the gap between Project Management & Business Analysis to achieve Operational Excellence. With the role of the Business Analyst quickly emerging, it is crucial to bring these two groups together, in an innovative learning environment, to better communicate the significance of building business value and organizational excellence together.
* Adopt best-practices from world-class organisations
* Deliver projects on time, on budget, and to business specifications
* Ensure customer satisfaction
* Advance the personal development of your career and the maturity of your team
Over 1,000 people annually attend the US ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts flagship event to achieve more profitable projects. Now it is time to do the same for the European market.
All the key companies, the key industry sectors, the Europe community, All in one place. For more information, please visit www.iirusa.com/projectworldeurope.
Anastasia Ioannou
Marketing Manager
Institute for International Research
708 Third Ave 4th Fl
New York, NY 10017
212.661.3500 x.3290 (tel)
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9. Open Source Becomes Open Sesame' For Projects
Just as Ali Baba learned the secret password that opened his world to treasures, Open Source Software is beginning to have significant influence in the World of Project Management. Here are two new treasures for those who really grok PM: Those who understand that tools only help if you are competent in your PM practices.
New Open Source PM Software Announced
This week a new Open Source PM Software tool was announced, "as a Microsoft Project Replacement". It is still a beta, but we downloaded it, round tripped several files (to and from MSP, Microsoft Project), and think it has great promise—especially for those who don't want to install Project Server for the whole enterprise. It's called OpenProj, and is developed by Projity.
OpenProj works on multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac and Linux. The beta version's Windows startup is a bit kludgy (a bat file starts a Java application in a Command window), but it ran fine on Vista. In addition to the Open Source version, Projity has a web-based version, Project-On-Demand, that they offer for a fee.
We've supported and promoted MSProject since before Microsoft bought the product from the original developer in the mid-eighties. We introduced hundreds of companies to it in the early Windows era. Even served as advisors and beta testers into the mid nineties. And although there are still some practitioners who have a bit of the attitude that "real project managers don't use MSP", we believe it has well-served the needs of millions.
But way more is needed, whether open source or usable commercial tools, to reach the potential market of usable PM software. Even Microsoft still says that Excel, not MSP, is the World's #1 Project Management software.
Given that there are now over 6 Billion people in the World, half of them need easy-to-use, easy-to-learn, and easy-to-acquire Project Management software. This is a big market!
Open Source Mind-Mapping Software
We've also used Mind Mapping software for many years, and really like it. It is useful for everything creative, from workshop design and content development to developing Project Work Breakdown Structures. We've especially liked Mindjet's MindManager Pro, with its great ability to roundtrip a Work Breakdown Structure with Microsoft Project.
And now an Open Source Mind Mapping project that we have been following has a .9 release that is very functional (even most of the Czech help files have been translated). It is called FreeMind, and you can download your copy (platform independent, but requires Java Runtime on your system) from SourceForge.net. Now there is no excuse for right brain dominant people sticking with simple outline lists! For more background on the topic of Mind Mapping, see Wikipedia on Mind Maps.
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10. Updates: Jobs Board, Hot Links, and Project MillStones
asapm Jobs Board
The PM Job market is hot, with more companies posting jobs. See the Jobs Board for the latest, including:
* Project Manager, Restructuring Initiative at University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.
* Associate Director (PM-oriented) for Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence, Reston VA.
* Global Portfolio Resources Allocation Manager, with Novartis Animal Health, in Switzerland (650kb pdf).
Max Wideman Posts Stacy Goff's Distinguishing Competence Paper
Max has posted our 2006 Shanghai IPMA World Congress paper on his website. He has done so to help spread the word about the differences between PM Knowledge and Competence, and the paths all project stakeholders can use to assess PM competence and resolve their weakest links. See the article at Max Wideman's website.
In June, Max posted Lew's article, The Value of Project Management Certification, where Lew cites the range of certification beneficiaries, and cautions that there are differences between various certifications, again citing knowledge-based and competence-based certifications.
While you are visiting Max's site, see also the announcement on his home page, about PortfolioStep, a Portfolio Management Methodology that Max and Tom Mochal's TenStep organization have developed. Dang, they beat us to it, because everyone knows there is a significant difference between a PM Standard and a PM Methodology.
NewGrange: asapm's Official Discussion Group
Recently-joined members and friends may not know it, but NewGrange Center for Project Management is asapm's official discussion group. And, NewGrange is open to everyone, whether you are a member or not. This has the advantage of attracting some of the best current (and vocal) thinkers in the World of Project Management.
You sign up on the NewGrange site. Click the Discussion List link on the top of the page, then click the Go To http://mylist.net/listinfo/newgrange link. Set your name and password, click the Subscribe button, and join in. Or, you can just lurk, as we often do. Enjoy!
Summer Humor in the asapm Project Millstones Area
This humor and entertainment section is consistently one of the most-visited parts of the asapm website. The most-recent post is one of the best: See Re engineered Requirements For Your Word Processor. Tom Hathaway, managing partner of Requirements Solutions Group, has documented the secret requirements (using reverse-engineering) for the word processing program he (and many of the rest of us) uses. See how many of these requirements you can recognize!
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Stacy Goff, PMP
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