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Events: Project Assistants' 2009 Webinar Series

Following is a list of webinars offered in our 2009 Webinar Series:

Executive Track

Project and Portfolio ManagementStrategy Track

Project and Portfolio Management Technology Track

Webinars with Content Summaries:

Darwin's Theory of Evolution, written over 150 years ago, remains a rock-solid scientific theory for how organisms adapt to their external environment.  Just as the Theory of Evolution  defines a framework for dealing with environmental change, PPM brings to the business environment the science required by organizations to successfully adapt to change and to thrive with that change.

In this webinar, Gus Cicala will show how an organization’s strategy is doomed to fail without a clear way to execute this strategy – a well-defined approach to PPM.  The presentation will include an overview of the framework, including PPM best practices, required to enable effective initiative management that supports the execution of corporate strategy.  Mr. Cicala will also review methods of developing a convincing business case that will obtain the investment necessary to drive these changes in an organization.

Organizations generally employ one of two separate and distinct approaches to resource management: a less rigorous (and less effective) schedule-focused approach or a more rigorous approach that includes the management of resource capacity versus resource demand.  Bridging this gap is a huge challenge for most organizations, but a willingness to make this investment is also a critical requirement for building an effective PPM culture.

In order to consistently achieve optimal portfolio outcomes, both project and portfolio managers require reliable resource capacity information.  As a result of this inter-dependence between projects and portfolios, resource management often becomes the business driver that necessitates a more rigorous approach resulting in tighter integration of the project and portfolio management realms.

During this webinar, Mr. Cicala will first demonstrate how Resource Management really is the linchpin that allows you to successfully integrate the project and portfolio management processes. Then, we’ll introduce the concept of evolving your organizational leaders from schedule users to efficient resource managers through the development of a well thought out strategy and detailed supporting plan.  While there are many tools and technologies out there to help you meet this challenge, there is also a logical progression for successfully implementing these changes. 

Driving adoption is a critical, and often under-estimated, component of any project management improvement initiative; simply put, changes have to stick to realize the return on your investment. 

During this webinar, Mr. Cicala will focus on a critical component of the Adoption Process – the necessity of creating and effectively auditing an organizational adoption/change management process.  You will gain an understanding of the following:

·      Key elements that define the scope of an effective change management/governance plan
·      How  to implement this governance plan to ensure adoption occurs

Whether responsible for managing a portfolio or managing a project, an organization needs to determine a sensible approach for sequencing the maturity improvement plan in a way that makes sense and drives value to the organization.  

In this webinar, we will explore the recommended industry best practices that are available to drive this process of maturation as we discuss a tactical plan for addressing PPM. We will review PMI’s OPM3 methodology, as well as Project Assistants’ extensive real world experience working with these processes, to answer the question Which Came First?

Traditional project management theory defines successful project completion as completing a project on-time and on-budget.  But first an organization needs to have a process for ensuring the selection of the right projects and then executing those projects to efficiently meet its goals according to specified standards.  In this webinar, we will show how to leverage the Microsoft EPM and MOSS platforms to enable the effective combination of portfolio management, project management and knowledge management that best allows an organization to accomplish its goals.  In the process, we will discuss the following:

•  Key features of the Microsoft EPM and MOSS platforms that establish a firm foundation for building sound portfolio and governance strategies and effectively executing the projects that comprise the portfolio.

•  The use of portfolio management to plan, select, measure and control a group of projects that together support an organization’s goals.

•  Project management techniques that enable appropriate business controls at the project execution level in order to complete the project on-time and on-budget.

•  Project methodology lifecycles that guide the ‘how’ of delivering quality in the execution of the project, to provide deliverables that meet stakeholder expectations.

•  Strategies and techniques to integrate Project, Portfolio and Knowledge Management.

This webinar will address the critical challenge of project resource management and will provide an overview of best practices for using Microsoft Project to overcome this challenge.  During the presentation, we will focus on the following topics:

•  Where does resource management fit in the evolution of project management maturity?

•  Business drivers for addressing the resource management challenge

•  Addressing the resource management challenge with Microsoft Project

•  Optimizing resource management with ProjectCommander™

•  Best practices for driving adoption of optimal resource management approaches

Click HERE to download archived recordings of the webinars offered in our 2008 Webinar Series.

To learn more about any of Project Assistants' upcoming or past events, please contact us at .

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