PM Discipline Integration in the Federal Government
PM Point of View
Dive into the future of project management within the U.S. government in this engaging and insightful interview with key players from the USDA and NOAA. Hear from Jason Traquair, Kellie Cenzano, Daryl Frazier, and Joe Giraldi as they unveil their pioneering efforts and collaborations aimed at enhancing program and project management disciplines across their respective organizations. Discover the innovative strategies, such as building vibrant communities of practice and leveraging integrated value networks, that are set to redefine how government agencies achieve mission success and tackle...
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Risk and Resilience at the UMD PM Symposium (Revised)
PM Point of View
Risk-- again! This episode with guests from the upcoming UMD Project Management Center for Excellence symposium is a thought-provoking discussion that takes a closer look at a crucial aspect of project management – risk management. We've gathered a dynamic trio of experts from diverse backgrounds to share their insights, experiences, and groundbreaking strategies on tackling risks head-on, making your projects more resilient and successful. Joining us from the realms of technology, clinical research, and literary scholarship, our speakers, Lakshmi Sowjanya Uppala from Amazon, clinical...
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People in Projects at the UMD PM Symposium 2024
PM Point of View
Heralding the annual arrival of the flagship UMD Project Management Center for Excellence symposium, this episode has 3 of the presenters in the People and Projects track: Kevin Coleman, a visionary leader and the founder and CEO of KMC Empowerment, John Eskandar, a seasoned professional in project controls at Exelon and graduate of the UMD PM program, who brings a wealth of experience managing large-scale construction projects and Abbigail Meah-Ali, a manager of construction services at the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago. From Trinidad to Maryland to Virginia, our guests span a...
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Program Value Management
PM Point of View
Challenged by the hosts, Kendall Lott and Mike Hannan, returning guest Steven Devaux takes his value break down structure (the "Golden Triangle") to a new level, looking at quantifying value of project within programs. That’s the obvious, the less obvious is looking at the need for this view point in critical areas such as public health, emergency response and national security. He emphasizes the need to prioritize or sequence projects within a program to optimize the schedule for maximum impact, where the focus is on delivering outcomes rather than just producing products. What might...
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Asteroids
PM Point of View
In this podcast episode, co-hosts Kendall and Mike are joined by guest Roy Mazel, a retired NASA project leader and guest lecturer. They discuss the Project Management complexities of asteroid missions, specifically, the OSIRIS-REx Psyche missions. As you might guess, the successful implementation of risk management strategies and the importance of technical integrity in the face of schedule pressure is the litmus test of getting these missions completed on time, on budget, and without failure. And what you might not expect, Roy highlights the importance of a strong organizational...
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Let it Flow, Success without Force
PM Point of View
In this episode, Kendall, Mike, and Wolfram Mueller discuss strategies to improve business workflows using the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Critical Chain Project Management, focused on two things: underloading system constraints and buffer management (having a signal that our flow is or isn't working). One thing that pops out is the importance of calculating business cases and recognizing growth potential--that becomes the compelling case to get middle management on board with the change needed. Getting a team to underload (reduce the non-critical work) of key resources, while having other...
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Getting Out of Our Own Way
PM Point of View
The crux of any success? It isn't the plan, it isn't the desire, not even the WIIFM, its EXECUTION. And organizational change is no different. Today's episode discusses the difficulties that organizations face when it comes to executing change. Once again guest and change management author and guru April Mills comes to us on the topic of change…but this time it isn't how to do it, but how she has seen managers institutionally throw up their own barriers to change even as they try to change…starting with outsourcing on the thinking to…professionals. It may be that we are so good at PM...
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PM Faceoff: Process vs Principles
PM Point of View
So there we were at the 10th annual UMD PM Symposium, having the Great Debate of Process vs principles. Facing off were Crystal Richards, CEO of MindsparQ and Laura Barnard, CEO of PMO Strategies. One hour of back and forth and audience questions. In sum: From the debate between Laura and Crystal,It's clear that project managers should grab the handle.Be a business leader and ask good questions,Embrace risk and change with no exceptions.
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Listener Questions Revealed!
PM Point of View
Elevating the Conversation about Project Management, with a twist. In this episode cohosts Mike Hannan and Kendall Lott take on some Listener Feedback. A running theme in the show is the actual and delineation of project manager, product manager, and program manager--so we jump on that! Of course, our main theme of its all about value, adding value and understanding projects as investments is once again threaded through the answers. But new things lurk--how do you agile on a fixed-price contract? What's the danger and opportunity in cross-functional teams and accountability when managing...
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UMD PM 4.0 AI & Future for Project Managers
PM Point of View
No Luddites here! Episode 3 of the UMD PM Symposium prequal and guests Al Zeiton, Marissa Brienza and Bill Brantley chat about the role of AI in Project Management and the potential risks and benefits of using it as PMs. We discover the logic and importance of maintaining human interaction—turns out its not fear that makes us think “it will never replace us” but rather AI’s limitations in the larger PM discipline. Ah! But what potential magic AI may bring if we use it as augmenting project management, driving improved risk assessment, and being our outsourced memory! All in service of...
info_outlineIn the second of our 3-part series from University of Maryland's 2018 Project Management symposium, we feature excerpts from presentations in the Agile track: Jeff Dalton on Agility for Leaders; Jason Dunn on Deciding When to Save or Shut Down a Project; Sean Eddings on The Traffic Fallacy; Bruce Gay on Design Thinking; Christopher Harris & John Johnson on ECM and FIRE - A Framework for Rapid Acquisition; and Susan Parente on Agile Quantitative Risk Analysis.
Listen, learn, and get a free PDU!
About the Speakers
Jeff Dalton is Chief Evangelist at AgileCxO.org, an R&D organization that studies Agile leadership and develops Agile performance models. Mr. Dalton is also President of Broadsword Solutions Corporation, a process innovation firm, where he also serves as an Agile instructor, leadership coach, CMMI SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, and CMMI Instructor. He is Chairman of the CMMI Institute Partner Advisory Board and is principal author of the CMMI Institute publication A Guide to Scrum and CMMI: Improving Agile Performance with CMMI. Mr. Dalton holds degrees in music and computer science and builds experimental aircraft in his spare time. He can be reached at [email protected].
Jason Dunn has spent nearly 30 years in projects across a wide variety of industries, and in a variety of roles: Project Manager, Change Manager, Business Analyst, and Tester. In addition, he has worked with many Fortune 100 companies to assess and improve their project management maturity and processes. As part of this work, he has stood up PMOs as well as assessed and improved existing PMO using a data-driven assessment framework. Recently, Jason has developed a training program based on an industry standard maturity framework aimed at assessing, and then improving, companies’ portfolio development and management capabilities.
At present, he is the PM Community Program Director in Freddie Mac’s EPMO, which is committed to improving PM maturity and capabilities through education, networking, facilitation, and knowledge management. He is a PMP, CSM, CSPO, and Certified Change Manager.
Sean Eddings, Senior Producer and Agile Coach at Last Call Media, is a passionate agile-lean practitioner with close to a decade of experience coaching multidisciplinary technology teams. He enjoys helping teams design, visualize, and continuously evolve their own process to ultimately deliver business value with increasing predictability. Sean is a Certified ScrumMaster.
Bruce W. Gay, PMP, has over 20 years of experience managing programs and customer relationships across healthcare IT, telecommunications and defense industries. Currently a Senior Program Manager at UPMC Enterprises (the commercialization arm of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center), Bruce manages a multi-million dollar program to develop the next generation of Radiology Informatics systems. Over the past decade, Bruce has managed creative teams that incorporated UX Design & Design Thinking methodologies into their product development processes.
Bruce shares his experiences and ideas around Design Thinking on twitter as @brucegay
Christopher Harris studied International Business and Finance at the University of Tampa and obtained a Masters of Accountancy w/ an IT Focus from the University of South Florida. He applied his learning in the heavily-regulated banking and insurance industries, which, equipped him to understand the interaction of business processes and law and blend them in a way that yields productivity in daily operations. Later he moved to Northern Virginia and entered Government contracting, where he applied the same passion for results where he blended customer requirements, law and regulation, and business savvy to achieve uncommon results.
As a Bytecubed consultant, he works with Government acquisition officials to develop innovative acquisition strategies against the backdrop of current law, policy, and agency processes.
John Johnson, serves as the Chief Technology Officer for Softek Enterprises LLC, a minority-owned small business providing technology solutions to government clients since 2007. Softek specializes in evolving business systems using Agile, DevOps, and Cloud technologies to deliver working solutions faster for the government’s most critical IT challenges. He has 10 years of project management, systems engineering, and advanced analytics experience. Mr. Johnson has led multiple award-winning Agile projects in civilian and defense agencies using Scrum and Disciplined Agile Delivery methods.
Susan Parente is a project engineer, consultant, speaker, author, and mentor who leads large complex IT software implementation projects, and the establishment of Enterprise PMOs. She has 19+ years experience leading software and business development projects in the private and public sectors, including a decade of experience implementing IT projects for the DoD and other federal government agencies. Ms. Parente is also an Associate Professor at Post University in CT. She has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rochester in NY and an MS in Engineering Management from George Washington University in DC. She also has a number of certifications, most of which she teaches and she is a CMMI and ISO 9001 Practitioner.
Ms. Parente is a Principal Consultant at S3 Technologies, LLC, which focuses on revitalizing projects through the use of risk management and implementing Agile practices.