PMOZ Update

We have had three intensive days at the 6th Annual Project Management Australia (PMOZ) conference http://www.pmoz.com.au.

Despite the GFC induced slow-down delegate numbers were surprisingly good, everyone seemed to enjoy the program and the conference dinner lived up to its reputation as a great party. There was lots of interest in Lynda’s new book, our various papers and workshops were well received and planning for PMOZ 2010 in Brisbane, in August has started.

Links to our main inputs to the conference are:

• Lynda’s book: Stakeholder Relationship Management: A Maturity Model for Organisational Implementation (aspects of which were the basis of our workshops)
• Lynda’s paper: Communication in organisations: making the schedule effective 
• My paper: Seeing Who’s There – A Brief History of Stakeholder Mapping & Visualisation

Now all we have to do is catch up with our backlog of work…….

More later

Managing Upwards

I am collaborating with Bob McGannon to develop a workshop for the PMOZ conference in Canberra (August 10-12) – Avoiding Project Manglement: Advising Upwards. The workshop brings together three streams of thought; my work on stakeholder management, a collaborative paper with Ken Farnes, From Commander to Sponsor: Managing Upwards in the Project Environment (PMI Denver 2008) and Bob’s work on Intelligent Disobedience.

The workshop will provide a forum for those interested in developing new techniques for managing the expectations and perceptions of important senior managers. The three components of the workshop are:

• Being ready, willing and able to communicate effectively with senior management.
• Being heard.
• Being extraordinary! (for more information visit the PMOZ website…)

If the workshop is as successful as we hope, the ideas will roll forward into a new book planned for 2011.

Travel Update – Tokyo

It has been 3 long weeks on the road…….

First port of call was Boston USA for the PMI College of Scheduling conference. The conference attracted well over 200 people; the numbers were down from 2008 in Chicago but not bad for the middle of a recession. My paper Scheduling in the Age of Complexity was well received and there was a wide range of other papers and key note addresses of interest. The College’s work on its Scheduling Excellence Initiative (SEI)  was progressed and is moving towards the completion of the first stage.

Second stop was the UK for 2 key meetings and some family time. The first meeting was with the CIOB manager developing their guide to scheduling good practice – this standard will have significantly more focus on the practice of scheduling than the current PMI Practice Standard. Whilst the standard will be specifically aimed at the construction industry, my feeling is the content will have wide application. More on this later….

My second UK meeting was with Gower Publishing Ltd to discuss the marketing of Dr. Lynda Bourne’s book, Stakeholder Relationship Management: A Maturity Model for Organisational Implementation. The book will be available in September and pre-publicity will commence soon.

This last week has been in Tokyo as part of the Australian delegation contributing to ISO 21500: A Guide to Project Management. Multi-national committee work can be frustrating but the feeling at the end of 5 intense days was good progress had been made building consensus and the body of the standard was close to being technically complete. As soon as the contents are signed off, the team I work on will finalise the language and glossary and subject to a vote of all of the nations involved, move the standard forward to a formal committee draft. Developing an ISO standard is a slow process, the likely date for publication will be late 2012 by the time the standard has moved through all of the drafts needed to ensure international acceptance. ISO 21500 is designed as an overarching standard to help bring coordination and commonality to the various underlaying national and industry standards such as the PMBOK® Guide.

Now all I need is a quite flight back to Australia and its back to the backlog of mail and business. More later.

Travelling

We have an interesting 3 weeks coming up.

I will be in Boston next week for the PMI College of scheduling conference, followed by the UK for a meeting with the Chartered Institute of Building over their new Practice Standard for Scheduling and then onto Tokyo for the first week of June as part of the Australian delegation working on ISO 21500; the new standard for project management. In the meantime Lynda Bourne will be in Amsterdam for the PMI EMEA Congress.

We will try to let you know if anything interesting happens.

PMI EMEA Congress May 2009

It’s only a few weeks before I’m off to Amsterdam for the PMI EMEA Congress (18 to 20th May). The Conference program is looking really interesting and Amsterdam is a great city to visit.

I would encourage everyone who can to attend the Congress. As a fore tast you can preview my presentation Introducing a Stakeholder Management Methodology into the EU at http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Resources_Papers_087.html. We look forward to seeing you in the Netherlands – if not, I will post my thoughts from the congress in May.

Revolutionary Scheduling – Boston 2009

Registrations are open for the 6th annual PMI College of Scheduling conference. The conference will be held in Boston, MA from May 17-20, 2009 at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel. For more information see http://www.pmicosconference.com/

This annual gathering is the preeminent scheduling event of the year with a wide range of speakers, working sessions and networking opportunities. My paper, Research 106 – Scheduling in the Age of Complexity, can be pre-viewed at http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Resources_Papers_089.html

More on the conference next month from Boston…..

PMI Asia Pacific Congress KL

We are back from the 2009 PMI Asia Pacific Global Congress in Kuala Lumpur, and I would like to share my overall impressions.

The congress was definitely less crowded than last year in Sydney. A symptom of the tightening global economy, but paradoxically, this also made the event more enjoyable. There was time and space to meet and talk to interesting people, the quality of the papers was exceptional, and the social events entertaining and interesting.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Young Min Park’s paper suggesting many of the processes in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) were applied 200 years ago in Korea for the building of the Hwaseong fortress. This paper clearly demonstrated projects have been around for millennia.
• Patrick Weaver’s paper on Improving Schedule Management was selected for an encore presentation. He linked a clear understanding of the history of scheduling to the emerging views of projects as social networks and temporary knowledge organizations to suggest improved ways of using a schedule to influence future team actions and decisions.
• The Tastes of Malaysia reception–the food was interesting, the displays of local culture and music fascinating. And watching the dozens of project managers armed with wooden mallets hammering disks of pewter into bowls to take home was a sight to remember. What is it about us project managers that makes bashing something with a large hammer so attractive?

The congress has been fun and my SeminarsWorld workshop, The science and art of communicating effectively was well recieved, so overall our trip to KL was a week well spent.

PMI Congress – Asia Pacific

We are in Kuala Lumpur for the PMI Asia Pacific Congress. So far, it has been a great start. The congress sessions are diverse and interesting. The venue, food and hospitality of the Malaysians are wonderful. The city of Kuala Lumpur is defiantly a place to visit and enjoy with its shopping, tropical atmosphere and a cosmopolitan population. All of these facets were present in the congress with delegates from all points of the compass ranging from the USA to India, Japan to Australia and a number of Europeans. The congress sessions were animated and lively with plenty of discussions and questions that rolled into the networking sessions and receptions.

We are here for a couple of key reasons:

• The R.E.P. breakfast is a key opportunity to talk face-to-face with PMI management. One of the key parts of the morning was debating the opportunities and challenges confronting the project management profession with PMI CEO and President, Gregory Balestrero. Doing what we did last year is not going to work but refocusing on the needs of project managers to up skill and move industries to focus on where the new work is will present opportunities for PMI approved Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.) such as Mosaic.
• For Patrick Weaver to present his paper, Improving Schedule Management – this was well received and selected for an Encore presentation. Download the paper from http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Resources_Papers_081.html
• For Dr. Lynda Bourne to deliver the official PMI OPM3 presentation at the congress, for more on OPM3 see http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/OPM3.html and Lynda is staying on to deliver her The Science and Art of Communicating Effectively workshop at the post-congress SeminarsWorld. For more on the workshop see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-Comms.html  

So far the Congress has been great – unfortunately it’s back to Melbourne tomorrow.

See you in Kuala Lumpur

PMI Global Congress Asia Pacific 2009

I’m pleased to say my paper for the PMI Asia Pacific Congress is finished at last…. it’s focused on effective schedule management in the 21st century. To pre-view the paper go to http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Resources_Papers_081.html

Apart from my scheduling paper, Mosaic’s other contributor to this blog, Lynda Bourne, will be presenting the official PMI OPM3 presentation: ‘Optimizing Organizational Performance: Harnessing the Power of Project Management’ and also our workshop ‘The science and art of communicating effectively’ as part of the PMI SeminarsWorld following the congress.

So with all of the hard work done, we are now starting to plan our travels to Malaysia for February 2009. The PMI Congress is being held at KLCC from 9th to 11th Feb. We have both been regular visitors to KL over the years and are looking forward to returning to a wonderfully vibrant city.

Between us, we have been to all of the PMI Global Congresses in the Asia Pacific and find them both educational and enjoyable – if you can make the Congress, we would certainly enjoy catching up.

PMOZ Program Update

PMOZ

PMOZ will introduce a new, interesting and dynamic program for the 2009 conference to be held in Canberra, Australia from August 11-13.

The elements to be included in the program structure are:

• The core of the program will be pairs of selected papers from academia and industry practitioners, each paper will be 45 minutes (total session time 90 minutes). These sessions will be immediately before and after lunch; streamed by industry and focus.
• 60 minute Keynote and locknote presentations from internationally recognised experts, at the beginning and end of each day.
• 30 minute ‘quick hits’ briefings, updates and short papers focused on points of interest.
• 90 minute mini-workshops, including skill development for advanced practitioners and foundation sessions focused on core PM skills
• Half day pre-conference workshops.

The final shape of the program will evolve based on responses to the Call for Papers and the requirements of our keynote speakers. Check back here for details of keynote speakers, workshop presenters and later, accepted session speakers. 

For additional information:
PMOZ – August 11-13, 2009 [www.pmoz.com.au]