Session Streams

Monday

Monday, November 21, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

The Power of Networking presented by Louise Chalupiak

In order to achieve project results, project management professionals are skilled at brainstorming out-of-the-box solutions. In order to do this, we must continue to grow and to absorb information from learning and development activities, from observation, and from networking. One of the casualties of the information age is the belief that Internet applications can replace the value of face-to-face contact. While they complement the art of networking very nicely, this change in our social behavior has moved the art of networking into a routine pattern of online behavior. As we mature through our career cycle, we reach a point in time in which routine becomes our norm. When we experience an extended period of routine we inhibit the process of growth. The art of networking can be a very powerful distinguisher during this time in the process of elevating ourselves to the next level.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

Project Sponsorship & Managing Up presented by Dr. Dale Christenson

Project success is difficult if not impossible if you do not have fundamental critical success factors in place. The most important critical success factor for any project or change initiative is project senior management support. Often times the conduit of this support is through a project sponsor. As a profession we have been addressing the accidental project Manager” syndrome but now need to turn our attention to the “accidental project sponsor.” IN this workshop you will learn the criticality of this role and their responsibilities. We will also discuss what to do when project sponsorship is absence and how one might need to manage up. Managing up is a delicate matter but can be done in a way that it is not career limiting if done effective.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

Does your PMO Produce Multiple Obstacles for your agile project or Promote Many Opportunities for success? presented by Mike Griffiths

A Project Management Office (PMO) can act as an obstacle to agile projects. This can take the form of asking for inappropriate planning detail by not recognizing the likelihood of changes; or asking for conformance to templates that are not even used on an agile project. For these reasons PMOs often get a bad reputation on agile teams, but it need not be that way, they can also add tremendous support and be a great help.

This presentation identifies the core roles of the PMO and explains how implementations often inadvertently create obstacles and problems for agile projects. It then goes on to explain the differences required to support agile projects and become enables rather than roadblocks.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

Agile Portfolio Management With a Twist: Achieve Value Through Results presented by Gurpreet Singh and Mark Rovers

Traditionally we tend to plan a portfolio as an ordered list of projects, programs and initiatives slotted into time slots. This approach is a structured approach and offers significant value but misses a great opportunity to multi-fold the business value realized through Portfolio Management discipline. But with agile approach towards Portfolio Management "with a twist", we have the opportunity to re-plan, re-prioritize and refine the portfolio as we better understand the progress in ever changing world of business needs. Project Managers can utilize this agile approach to offer a significant value to their clients by consolidating not only projects, programs and initiatives but also nonplanned activities such as operational activities. This approach comes from real world experiences at Cenovus Energy Inc where "Agile Portfolio Management with a Twist" transformed the engagement model between business clients and IT. This transformation helped IT project management discipline to align capital and operational activities to ever changing business needs. The visibility into IT allowed business to better prioritize and refine portfolios.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

Progam Management Panel: Program Management Identity Crisis Part I facilitated by Laurel Sim

Program Managers are being more recognized than ever before but has the role been identified ac. What is the role of a Program Manager over that of a Project Manager? Is it to ensure programs continue to support the organization's strategic objectives by providing the benefits to the stakeholders’desire. How is governance at the program level interface effectively and regularly with the PMO and/or Portfolio Director? and the head of the Enterprise Program Management Office, and working effectively to motivate a winning team? How do they measure the benefit of the program? How are they unique to that of the Portfolio Manager? Through this panel discussion these and other questions to program management will be answered.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

Leveraging the Cloud to Build Enterprise Business Continuity presented by Mark Fossen and Sheetal Jaitly

The goal of this presentation is to equip IT PM's with private hybrid cloud technology information and innovation they can share and apply within their organization to connect the mobile field office to the front office for effective project creation, execution, management and completion that delivers a positive and measurable ROI around productivity, social media, health, safety, environmental sustainability, security, and compliance metrics. Rigstar’s presentation speaks to the rapidly changing landscape of the global technologically advanced marketplace and the urgent need to be connected even in the middle of nowhere. What was a good communications solution to yesterday's project, may not be the best solution for tomorrow's project due to changing demographics and the speed of information transfer, which constantly influences and impacts how organizations operate. Adopting a private hybrid cloud infrastructure enables organizations to effectively embrace change and meet the growing and consistent data storage and information dissemination challenges for remote and mobile staff.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

Project Change Management presented by Dr. Dale Christenson

Project success is difficult if not impossible if you do not have fundamental critical success factors in place. Regardless of this foundation, project success can remain elusive without considering the complimentary discipline of change management and its critical success factors. As you will learn, project management and change management are inextricably linked and to practice one without the other leaves project success to happenchance.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

Progam Management Panel: Program Management Identity Crisis Part I & II Moderated by Matthew Hillhouse Panelists: Laurel Sim & Colin McGuire, Husky Energy

Program Managers are being more recognized than ever before but has the role been identified ac. What is the role of a Program Manager over that of a Project Manager? Is it to ensure programs continue to support the organization's strategic objectives by providing the benefits to the stakeholders’desire. How is governance at the program level interface effectively and regularly with the PMO and/or Portfolio Director? and the head of the Enterprise Program Management Office, and working effectively to motivate a winning team? How do they measure the benefit of the program? How are they unique to that of the Portfolio Manager? Through this panel discussion these and other questions to program management will be answered.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

What do you need to do to get ready for GO? Lessons from research and history presented by Dr. Jenny Krahn and Dr. Janice Thomas

Murphy's laws tell us that nothing happens as we expect it to. Military history tells us that "no plan survives the first engagement" (Field Marshall Helmuth Carl Bernard von Moltke, 1855). Despite considerable gains in the field of project management in organizations, project planning, project manager certification, and project tools - projects are still failing. Perhaps the focus should be increased effectiveness of the leader; as Napoleon Bonaparte said, "The winning general is the one who can best act on imperfect information and half formed theories." But do we have even half formed theories on projects? In a world where projects may need to be highly adaptable to be successful, traditional PM guidlines require projects to have complete plans and unchangeable design. It doesn't work, but project management practice encourages use of the same process again in the next project. Perhaps we need to look for new approaches.

What would project management look like if we took Einstein's advice to heart? That "the problems of tomorrow won't be answered with the techniques of today." Research and practical experience both tell us that the failings of project management lie in the "fuzzy front end" – even before the emerging complexity of managing a social activity involving many thinking, learning individuals. We need to have better insight into the people side, particularly for the two phases of a program where people play games which have been called: "Too early to tell and too late to stop." Project managers have two choices: follow recommended project management practice and proceed as if projects operate as planned and elements can be reused OR develop a sophisticated understanding of project practice realities by adding more diverse people and organizational skills to their project management toolkits. If you choose the latter, you must do two things. First: Get the facts! Second, incorporate tools into your toolkit that allow you to review the facts about the social part of your project more effectively. These come from varied places, including new research. We invite you to join us as we explore the skills and knowledge needed to move project management from wishful ignorance to sophisticated practice.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

Stoney Trail Project - A Tale of Two Projects presented by Garry Lamb, M. Eng., P. Eng.

The NW and NE sections of Stoney Trail were delivered using two different project delivery models. NW Stoney Trail used the traditional Design Bid Build Project Delivery method commonly used in the Public Sector. Design Consultants were selected in 2003 and though the road is now open to traffic, upgrades to the freeway are continuing and will not be completed until 2014. The NE Stoney Project used a P3 Model, the contract includes the Design Build Operate Maintain and Finance for this section of the Calgary Ring Road. The procurement process started in 2006 with the contract for the project signed in 2007 and work completed in November 2009. The presentation will focus on the differences in the two project delivery models.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Creating the Project Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) presented by Lee Lambert

The Project Management profession has a plethora of tools that in the hands of the knowledgeable “user” can dramatically improve the realism and the quality the project plan. Join Lee R. Lambert, PMP as he espouses a pragmatic evangelism while carefully weaving his way through the critical project planning process. He will candidly describe and illustrate the most potentially significant and “value add” tools in the PM’s toolbox. Lee will demonstrate how understanding and properly using the appropriate tools can lead to the establishment of a meaningful basis for comprehensively managing the execution of the project

Monday, November 21, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

How to Train Your Project Sponsor presented by Yogi Schulz

Sometimes project managers see their project sponsor as an untrained dragon. The project sponsor may be new or uncertain in the role, reluctant to fulfill the role or quick to assign blame, particularly to the project manager. Yogi Schulz will describe successful techniques for strengthening the critical relationship with the project sponsor who often holds a much higher rank within the organization.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Creating Synergy: How to Create Winning Teams and Achieve Outstanding Results presented by Mark Tewksbury and Debbie Muir

The Project Management Industry is all about synergy – working with numerous people to create solutions to the ever evolving challenges organizations face. This interactive session will look at the phases all great teams go through, and ask you to identify where you currently find yourself. What will it take to move the people you work with to the high performing phase? Do you have the right people in the right roles? And what essential requirements are you lacking or displaying that will ensure the people you partner with can deliver world class results?

Monday, November 21, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Mega Project Management from the Trenches: The Workface Planning Platform presented by Geoff Ryan

Workface Planning is a system that enables dedicated construction planners to produce detailed construction plans that are free of constraints.

This process was researched and developed in Alberta (2001-2005) and has been identified as an industry best practice by the Construction Owner Association of Alberta (COAA) and by the Construction Industry Institute (CII). The process is now being applied on mega projects across Nth America, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

Workface Planning optimizes project performance and delivers predictable results in construction productivity, quality and safety through the sequential execution of the project schedule. The process is a pull planning system where planners develop detailed plans (one week for one Foreman) from a sequentially arranged backlog of engineering and procurement. The optimal path of construction is used as the road map for the project schedule which then predicates the sequence of engineering and procurement.

The application of the process highlights the need for enhanced information management, which can be facilitated by Workface Planning software. The software allows the construction team to utilize the 3D model to simulate construction, based upon materials, documents and the project schedule – 4D modeling.

Owners across the globe are now adding this Alberta product to their contracts as a method to manage project schedules, costs and predictability.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Agile: Easier Said than Done presented by Peter McCurdy

This presentation, "Agile: easier said than done", is a frank retrospective of the experiences that SMART Technologies has had in adopting the Agile framework over the past two years. It looks at some of the elements of the framework that were easy to adopt and then delves into some of the challenges of using the framework in a medium sized company. These challenges include: aligning the Agile roles to those in the organization, producing high quality, maintainable software, engaging the developers, scaling the framework and understanding what is project success. The presentation concludes with the benefits that SMART has gained by adopting the Agile framework.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 4:00pm – 5:00pm REPEAT SESSION

Creating Synergy: How to Create Winning Teams and Achieve Outstanding Results presented by Mark Tewksbury and Debbie Muir

The Project Management Industry is all about synergy – working with numerous people to create solutions to the ever evolving challenges organizations face. This interactive session will look at the phases all great teams go through, and ask you to identify where you currently find yourself. What will it take to move the people you work with to the high performing phase? Do you have the right people in the right roles? And what essential requirements are you lacking or displaying that will ensure the people you partner with can deliver world class results?

Monday, November 21, 2011- 4:00pm - 5:00pm

How the Grinch Stole Pmmas presented by Wayne Rambow

Poor participation from the project sponsor is often cited as the number one reason a project fails and executive support is cited as the number one reason a project succeeds. Most project sponsors are senior in the organization and poor participation from the sponsor seems inevitable due to their limited availability. Projects can be delivered successfully with limited involvement from sponsors provided the PM can clearly understand what the sponsor is looking for and how the project impacts the organization. How the Grinch Stole PMmas is a story based on the classic Dr. Suess classic. We will discuss the moral of the story and how you can deliver successful projects even if your sponsor is a bit of a "Grinch"

Monday, November 21, 2011- 4:00pm - 5:00pm

The Next Generation in Software Estimation presented by Aaron Stein

Recent studies suggest that over one‐third of software development projects continue to suffer from schedule and/or cost overruns severe enough to warrant the projects as failures. One reason for such poor industry performance is that progress in this area has been relatively slow compared to the tremendous advances in technology and software over the last three decades. While traditional techniques for estimating software projects are often complex, require non‐intuitive inputs, and target large waterfall efforts, the advent of agile has seen a trend towards iterative empirical techniques that often fail in their ability to estimate real-world projects. In the face of these difficulties, many organizations continue to rely on naive seat‐of‐the‐pants estimation techniques. In response to these issues, our organization has developed an easily accessible and accurate estimation methodology that successfully models real‐world software projects through the use of statistical methods and Monte Carlo simulation. This session explores why traditional estimation techniques often prove unsuccessful, and demonstrates new concepts, tools and technologies that have helped our clients become better estimators.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Project, Change and Benefits in a track and field context presented by Jeffrey Wallace

Before his formal business career, Jeffrey was an international track athlete competing in the 400 metre hurdle discipline. Today, Jeffrey is a business leader and PMP and has realised, in hindsight, that his time as an athlete involved Program and Project Management, Change Management and Benefits Realization – it just wasn’t called any of that.

In our project lives, we are bombarded with terms such as Portfolio Management, Program Management, Project Management, Investment Governance, Benefits Realization, and Organizational (People) Change Management. Each has varying degrees of definition and maturity - each with its own area of professional competence and a rate of adoption.

Rather than using a fictitious IT or business project to illustrate the context and links between projects, benefits and change, Jeffrey will use his personal experiences from his track days to show how programs, projects, benefits realization and change management fit together to create a complete opportunity to deliver success.

Monday, November 21, 2011- 4:00pm - 5:00pm

To PMP, or not to PMP? That is the question… presented by Lee Lambert and Ethier Associates

This controversial panel discussion will challenge the value of getting a PMP, why it has value and where, in some cases, its value is questioned. Our experienced panel members represent three perspectives; Lee Lambert, a Fellow of the PMI, a Partner from Ethier Associates who hires and places project managers, and an Executive that hires project managers to deliver projects.

Tuesday

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

2010 PMI Project of the Year: National Ignition Facility presented by Patrick Coyle

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a multi-mega joule laser facility constructed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NIF is the world’s largest laser and the NNSA’s largest scientific construction project. The NIF’s 192 intense laser beams direct nearly two million joules of ultraviolet laser energy in billionth-of-a-second pulses to a BB-size target. This is at least 60 times more energy than any other laser system. The NIF is the world’s preeminent facility for conducting Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and fusion energy research and for studying matter at extreme densities and temperatures. By creating, in essence, a miniature star on Earth, the NIF will enable the Department of Energy, through Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to accomplish its three missions: stockpile stewardship, basic science and energy production.

The DOE launched initiatives directed at improving management of the projects in its portfolio for both the department and its contractors. A new DOE order relied heavily on the concepts and processes outlined in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) as well as ANSI/EIA 748. The department established a formal relationship with Project Management Institute to provide a professional and best-in-class framework upon which to re-engineer its project management approach. The LLNL project team incorporated the new order and the underlying practices and processes outlined by the PMBOK Guide®. The successful turnaround and completion of the NIF project can be traced directly to the strategic change in approach to project management adopted by the department and LLNL.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

Lessons in Estimating: Agile vs. Waterfall Part I presented by Ethier Associates

Many PMs have experience estimating in either Agile or Waterfall projects, but very few have experience in both. This workshop will review project estimating techniques, contrast the approaches taken by Agile projects versus Waterfall projects, identify differences and similarities, and help you discern when to select the appropriate approach. The two hour workshop format will allow for hands-on practice of the techniques and lots of opportunity for Q&A and discussion.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

EPC Panel Part I presented by Scott Diehl

Mega Projects in Alberta

As we move into 2012, the Alberta Energy Industry has planned a number of capital-intensive energy projects. Together, those working in the industry are facing a wide range of challenges. Some of these have been experienced before and some are relatively new – in all cases innovative approaches and ideas will be needed to address them.

The 2011 EPC Panel will bring together senior executives from owner companies and EPC firms to share their perspective about how we do business together in a large project environment.

The agenda will cover a range of topics, including an overview of foundational concepts, such as what differentiates mega projects from other large projects, and tools and techniques used during the main phases of the life cycle of mega projects. Expert panel members will also consider key success factors and challenges related to people and teams on these large projects, risks and uncertainty, and external issues. They will also consider organizational issues and emergent topics such as construction productivity, labour availability, front end loading, uncontrollable risks, convertible lump sum contracting and predictability. Finally, the panel will look to the future of projects and share their perspective on upcoming opportunities and challenges associated with mega projects and the organizations seeking to deliver them successfully.

The senior executives that have agreed to be part of this session have considerable experience and excellent perspective and oversee billions of dollars of the types of projects they will discuss. These panel members are:

• Terry Manning (VP, Husky Energy)
• Pieter Diedericks (VP, NEXEN)
• Harry Sambells (Sr. VP and General Manager SNC Lavalin)

Dr George Jergeas and Dr. Jenny Krahn from the University of Calgary will facilitate the 2011 Panel.

Scott Diehl, Senior Project Management Consultant and Executive Associate at Pathfinder, LLC, has 26 years of experience in Project Management. He has worked on large capital projects as part of Owner teams, for EPCs and Vendor companies. Scott is committed to creating value through scope development, project cost and schedule control, and effective project team management. Scott currently delivers project management consulting and training in his role at Pathfinder for many owner companies within Alberta.

Scott has managed complex, interdisciplinary projects with a high degree of success and has diverse experience in numerous industries such as Oil and Gas Production, Electric generation and transmission, gas transmission pipelines, water and wastewater utilities.

Scott is a past Board of Director of PMI Southern Alberta Chapter and graduated in Mechanical Engineering from University of Waterloo. He received a Masters of Engineering from University of Calgary.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

Project Monitoring, Control and Forecasting The Future presented by Lee Lambert

Once a project has established its Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) the “real” work of the Project Manager begins in earnest. Tools and techniques that enable the PM to determine the project progress compared to the PMB must be utilized in order to quantify AND determine the effect of Baseline Divergence. Once the Expectation-to-Actual comparisons have been made the PM must be able to capitalize on the available information and use that knowledge as a basis for analyzing the past AND predicting the future while making beneficial “action” recommendations to decision makers. In this session you will learn what tools to use and how to use them to truly “make a difference”

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 9:45am - 10:45am

A Window Seat: Cultural Intelligence Meets Project Management presented by Monica Semeniuk, M.Eng. (PM), PMP

Projects have gone “global.” We have clients, sponsors, suppliers and team members from many countries, and they all bring their values with them. In addition to the usual work of planning, implementation and communication, how do we bridge the cultural gaps in project management? Cultural intelligence (CQ) brings a process to working with international stakeholders that can easily be applied to projects. This presentation will provide an introduction into CQ as another tool in the kit of savvy project managers.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

EPC Panel Part II presented by Scott Diehl

As we move into 2012, the Alberta Energy Industry has planned a number of capital-intensive energy projects. Together, those working in the industry are facing a wide range of challenges. Some of these have been experienced before and some are relatively new – in all cases innovative approaches and ideas will be needed to address them.

The 2011 EPC Panel will bring together senior executives from owner companies and EPC firms to share their perspective about how we do business together in a large project environment.

The agenda will cover a range of topics, including an overview of foundational concepts, such as what differentiates mega projects from other large projects, and tools and techniques used during the main phases of the life cycle of mega projects. Expert panel members will also consider key success factors and challenges related to people and teams on these large projects, risks and uncertainty, and external issues. They will also consider organizational issues and emergent topics such as construction productivity, labour availability, front end loading, uncontrollable risks, convertible lump sum contracting and predictability. Finally, the panel will look to the future of projects and share their perspective on upcoming opportunities and challenges associated with mega projects and the organizations seeking to deliver them successfully.

The senior executives that have agreed to be part of this session have considerable experience and excellent perspective and oversee billions of dollars of the types of projects they will discuss. These panel members are:

• Terry Manning (VP, Husky Energy)
• Pieter Diedericks (VP, NEXEN)
• Harry Sambells (Sr. VP and General Manager SNC Lavalin)

Dr George Jergeas and Dr. Jenny Krahn from the University of Calgary will facilitate the 2011 Panel.

Scott Diehl, Senior Project Management Consultant and Executive Associate at Pathfinder, LLC, has 26 years of experience in Project Management. He has worked on large capital projects as part of Owner teams, for EPCs and Vendor companies. Scott is committed to creating value through scope development, project cost and schedule control, and effective project team management. Scott currently delivers project management consulting and training in his role at Pathfinder for many owner companies within Alberta.

Scott has managed complex, interdisciplinary projects with a high degree of success and has diverse experience in numerous industries such as Oil and Gas Production, Electric generation and transmission, gas transmission pipelines, water and wastewater utilities.

Scott is a past Board of Director of PMI Southern Alberta Chapter and graduated in Mechanical Engineering from University of Waterloo. He received a Masters of Engineering from University of Calgary.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

Design, Construction and Commissioning Regional Pipelines

Details to come…

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

New Thinking in Project Management presented by Jim Duggan, Robert Gerst and Anne Macleod

Business Improvement Consulting Services Inc. (BICS) has partnered with Converge Consulting Group for the last five years to test various practices in project management and business process improvement. During this period we have worked extensively with multiple operational areas within The City of Calgary in the practical application of these practices. The focus will be on the new approaches to improve project success where the project ambiguity is high - particularly in IT and process improvement initiatives. The presentation will include the following.
1. Brief background/history of the parallel development of project management, business process improvement and Lean Six Sigma.
2. Intersection points between project management, business process improvement and technology.
3. Future directions for Project Managers.
4. A workshop on one of the PM tools and techniques, adapted from Lean.
5. Future directions from The City of Calgary’s Corporate Project Management Centre (CPMC).

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

Sustainable Teams - 12 Steps to Growing a Sustainable Team presented by Tyler Hayden

* steps to engage team members in your project. * understand the seasons of team and how to best maximize them. * explore the weeding and maintenance jobs of a project leader. * and loads of little tips to building the "green" team.

If you want to make more out of the people you have without too much heavy lifting, its time to get strategic and build a sustainable team.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 11:00am - 12:00pm

Lessons in Estimating: Agile vs. Waterfall Part II presented by Ethier Associates

Many PMs have experience estimating in either Agile or Waterfall projects, but very few have experience in both. This workshop will review project estimating techniques, contrast the approaches taken by Agile projects versus Waterfall projects, identify differences and similarities, and help you discern when to select the appropriate approach. The two hour workshop format will allow for hands-on practice of the techniques and lots of opportunity for Q&A and discussion.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Birds of a Feather

This session is unique at the conference. Groups of like-minded people gathered around a table to discuss a topic, led by a facilitator. Once again this year, we are happy to have facilitators who are also speaking at the conference, or who are also volunteers at the conference facilitating the conversations.

How to participate? Select a topic from the list below being facilitated at the session. Come to the session and share your thoughts, and learn from the others at the table. At the end of the session, facilitators will share the key themes coming out of the discussions.

What happens when the project is no longer relevant to the business?

• You are part way through your project, but something has changed in the business. The project is no longer meaningful. Now what?            Peter McCurdy

Project Risk Management, how do YOU do it?

• Share your experiences on managing risk on your projects and hear how others do it.            Louise Chalupiak

The Soft Part is the Hard Part

• Much of the job we do is related to communicating and managing people. It is also something that many of us struggle with (does the phrase ‘herding cats’ sound familiar?).            Wayne Rambow

My Favourite Project Leader, who was your favourite, and why?

• What are the qualities of your favourite, how do you try to emulate and adapt those qualities to your own style?            Scott

Managing unmanageable expectations, how do we bring them back to reality?

• I want it all and I want it now! It’s time for a reality check to make your project successful. What techniques do you use to bring the expectations to a level that can be met?            Yogi Schultz

How can you use program management to align priorities within business streams and the interdependencies between initiatives?

• There is a lot going on, how do you make sure it all works together?             Laurel Sim

Stakeholder management for corporate alliance initiatives

• How do you get stakeholders engaged in corporate alliance initiatives, and how do you manage them once they are engaged?            Kirk Graham

How can a Project Manager find out what they need to know and don't know when they don't know that they don't know?

• First day on the new project and the information is coming hard and fast. How do you know you have it all, and what if you missed something?            Monica Semeniuk

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Surviving a Catastrophic Project Failure presented by Michael Gaccioli, P.E., PMP

Survival of a project failure, and worse a catastrophic one, isn’t just about how the project will end, but how the challenges and stress of a failing project affect the team and their ability to think clearly or make sound judgments. This session will discuss and hopefully provide some insight and tools on: how to deal with the slow or sudden collapse of a project, maintaining the other necessary aspects of the project while dealing with the failing portion, holding the project team together and buffering them against the stress of the failure, and then stepping back from the brink and becoming the informer rather than the solution provider. From the project perspective discussions about how to identify the underlying issues around the project failure, development of a detailed recovery plan, formation of a project tactical team to deal with the failing aspects of the project, and executing the recovery plan.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Using Pilot Project Techniques for Innovations and Advancement presented by Shane Zbrodoff

“Using Pilot Project Techniques for Innovations and Advancement” provides an entertaining and indepth discussion of the exciting and challenging world of deploying new technology and concepts using pilot project techniques. This presentation examines various stages and approaches in an effort to define solid practices and recommendations applicable to nearly all businesses, governments and individuals.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Privacy by Design presented by Sharon Polsky

The heightened attention and focus on data privacy and information risk management has made it increasingly important for project managers to understand the advantages of incorporating fair information practices at the outset of every project. Privacy by Design is a way to build Fair Information Practice principles into information technology, business practices, and physical design and infrastructures.

Explore the foundational principles of Privacy By Design and how they link to the essential elements of accountability. Discover how adopting Privacy by Design as the default strategy offers expediency, cost savings, and long-term advantages while reducing risk and enabling compliance with governing privacy laws.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011- 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Successful Stakeholder Engagement in the 21st Century: Art? Science? … or Both? presented by Stuart Culbertson, MA, CMC

Technology has transformed many aspects of modern society – not the least of which is the breadth and depth of the stakeholder network than can be expected to mobilize on interests and issues. Public and shareholder value is increasingly created by organizations and individuals working together in common cause across space and time. While the goals and objectives of effective stakeholder engagement remain constant, the means and techniques of planning and delivering successful engagement initiatives have changed dramatically. Sierra Systems is in the vanguard of helping our clients get the results they need in proactive stakeholder engagement by deploying sophisticated stakeholder engagement planning and delivery processes. Some of these processes optimize the use of technology to both engage a broader group of stakeholders and erase costs, time and distance. Stuart Culbertson, Sierra’s Vice President, Management Consulting will review this experience and leading practices in the field.