Project support unit to conduct training in project management

As reported at SKNVibes.

Roadtown, Tortola - The Ministry of Finance’s Project Support Service Unit (PSSU) will conduct a series of training workshops on the Basics of Project Planning and Management beginning on July 22.

The training, to be held at the PSSU conference room located on the third floor of RFG Building at Road Town round-about at 10 a.m., will introduce participants to the basic need-to-know concepts of managing projects.  Participants will be exposed to standard forms and tools developed for use throughout the public service.  The topics to be covered during the training will include an introduction to the PSSU; What is Project Management? and Project Planning and Management.

During the training session participants will also be introduced to the revised British Virgin Islands Government Project Management Guidelines and will be shown how to utilise the document to achieve optimum results when managing projects.

According to the unit the principal purpose of the guidelines is to support the efforts of ministries or departments to more effectively plan, implement and monitor capital investment projects in a manner consistent with stated objectives, and within the limits of financial and other resource constraints.
Manager of PSSU Ms. Shaina Smith told the Department of Information and Public Relations in a GIS Radio Report interview that project management allows the Ministry of Finance and the Government on a whole to “achieve value for money”.

“By planning projects out we are able to properly assign a cost, as well as a schedule, so that we will know how much time it would take and how much money it will cost and this can help us make informed decisions,” she said.

Ms. Smith added, “In keeping with Government’s desire to achieve a more targeted and results-oriented expenditure programme, the guidelines seek to achieve value for money by more consistently realising project objectives with optimal results.”

… read more..

Safran’s new Product and a PM Job

Project Manager – Digital/Online Projects
Our client, voted Digital Design Agency of the Year for 2007 and 2008, an ideas driven, design focused and strategically minded design agency is looking for talented Project Managers with Account Management experience for their growing Johannesburg office.

They specialize in the creation of digital campaign solutions for all sectors of business making their clients stand out from the crowd. Services include strategy, design and the technical development of solutions across all digital media space.

Do you like a challenge – being hands on? You will be involved in all matters from client briefing, budgets, traffic and project management?

• Experience working on digital projects is an absolute must!
• Knowledge of digital design as well as knowledge of digital front and back end is essential.
• Experience of working in a creative agency environment (beneficial)

Requirements:
• At least three years Digital Project Management experience
• At least three years of client facing experience
• Understanding of digital design and creative website development and functionality
• Knowledge of digital front and back end
• Running complete online to mobile to integrated campaigns
• Must have technical knowledge (how a website can work & different platforms it can be used on)
• Basic understanding of online and offline.
• Experience producing, trafficking and seeing through the development integrated digital campaigns that involve:
- SMS campaigns.
- Websites, Mailers, online banners (flash, gif and rich-media – must have been exposed to this from a non-technical side.)
- Processes of working with social networks like Facebook, Twitter and mobile marketing.
- Knowledge of programming languages and what is best used in various situations.
- Knowing the difference between an intranet and a portal (for example)

Apply here..

Safran North America Releases Proteus Product into North American Market
Market-tested Project Integration and Intelligence Product introduced to new market

Albuquerque, NM (PRWEB) July 2, 2009 — Safran North America (SNA), one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of project management applications, announced today that it has added Proteus to its product offerings to serve the North American market.

Over seven years in development and proofing in the most demanding project management environments in transnational corporations, Proteus is an integration and intelligence application that connects to project and/or enterprise information regardless of location, database system or underlying application. It is based on .NET it can access geographically dispersed data sources over the web as well as secure networks. In summary, Proteus is a virtual multi-application smart client operating across an organization with security attributes for each user or group of users in addition to any security acquired from the database.

“We are extremely excited about the capabilities that Proteus offers to our market ,” said Safran North America CEO, Nicholas Pisano. “We expect that Proteus will be a game-changer, particularly since it leverages the next generation of tools, by-passing the dead-end reliance on OLAP or Cubes to achieve data integration. Turning data from disparate systems into corporate information aggregated as appropriate based on a user’s role in the organization.”

read the full article here..

SQE Better Software Development Expo Findings

I had the pleasure of attending the Expo portion of SQE’s Better Software Development Conference & Expo last week.  The slant was definitely toward Agile Software Development which, in part, prompted my post last week about Agile vs. Waterfall software development and the costs associated with each process. 

During the Expo, I had the opportunity to speak with representatives from each of the following organizations:

• Rally Software
• QSM
• SQE
• InnerWorkings
• TechExcel
• Net Objectives
• VersionOne
• VMC

I’d like to take some space here to give you some brief info about each of these great vendors and their offerings.

Rally Software

Rally is the leader in Agile application lifecycle management (ALM) dedicated to making distributed development organizations faster and leaner by dramatically cutting the time, cost and effort needed to deliver high quality applications.  According to a study by QSM Associates, software-driven companies that rely on Rally’s Agile ALM products and services are 50% faster to market and 25% more productive than industry averages.

It was a Rally Software rep that I first presented my question concerning Agile vs. Waterfall development costs and two of their individuals have commented on the article so far.  For more information on Rally Software, visit www.rallydev.com.

QSM (Quantitative Software Management)

Quantitative Software Management was established in 1978.  Their principle business centers around helping organizations reduce the overall expense of software and systems development projects.  QSM’s SLIM software tools and consultative approach enable organizations to effectively estimate, track, and benchmark their software projects.  For more information on QSM, visit www.qsm.com.

SQE (Software Quality Engineering)

SQE assists software professionals and organizations interested in improving customer service, boosting productivity, and improving the return on IT investments through better software quality practices.  Beginning in 1986 with professional consulting services, Software Quality Engineering has acquired the largest portfolio of software quality information in the industry.  For more information on SQE, visit www.sqe.com.

InnerWorkings

InnerWorkings offers Enterprise software development organizations a complete solution for integrating Microsoft .NET skills learning and software process training.  Using InnerWorkings, individual developers and .NET teams build skills through practice writing actual code, including preparation for Microsoft Certification examinations.  For more information on Innerworkings, visit www.innerworkings.com.

TechExcel

TechExcel unifies the enterprise by bridging the gap between product development and service/support.  This end-to-end environment empowers companies to optimize the relationship between these important organizations without sacrificing autonomy or business processes and provides a collaborative environment that significantly saves time and resources.  For more information on TechExcel, visit www.techexcel.com.

Net Objectives

Net Objectives focuses on achieving scalable and effective software development – without the suffering.  Net Objectives’ clients prove that this is an achievable goal for any development organization regardless of size.  Utilizing the 3 P’s of Lean Principles, Agile Processes and Best Development Practices, development organizations ranging in size from single, small teams to large global enterprises can achieve their goals.  Net Objectives can help individuals with their analysis, design and coding practices.  They can help teams use agile processes, including Scrum, effectively.  Finally, they can help organizations scale their agile team approach to be effective throughout the enterprise.

Net Objectives helps organizations be effective not only in how efficiently software is developed, but also how to be effective in choosing the proper work for each team at the proper time in order to maximize the business value being delivered.  For more information on Net Objectives, visit www.netobjectives.com.

VersionOne

VersionOne is recognized by Agile practitioners as the leader in Agile project management tools.  By simplifying the process of planning and tracking Agile software projects, they help development teams consistently delivery software faster.  Since 2002, companies such as Adobe, BBC, Siemens, CNN, Disney, Dow Chemical, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Sony, 3M and Business Objects have turned to VersionOne to help provide greater value to their customers.  Today more than 10,000 teams and 70,000 users in 50 countries use VersionOne’s Agile project management tools to streamline and standardize their agile development efforts.  For more information on VersionOne, visit www.versionone.com.

VMC

VMC is a technology consulting company providing flexible and scalable development and integration, IT outsourcing, and customer care solutions for business.  Using an integrated PMO methodology and world-class talent and resources, VMC delivers targeted solutions for the unique business needs of their customers, with focus on long-term relationships with their customers, delivering quality, trust and value.  VMC’s focus on people is a key differentiator from other technology consulting companies.  From customers to partners to employees, VMC understands that the relationships are critical to the company’s success.  It’s these relationships that drive VMC to be the leading global partner in providing superior business solutions, enabled by technology, that accelerate our customer’s success.  For more information on VMC, visit www.vmc.com.

CAT, CMCS tie up to boost project monitoring

The Contracting and Trading (CAT) Group has entered into a partnership with Collaboration, Management & Control Solutions (CMCS) to help enhance project monitoring and control processes throughout its Middle East and global operations.

CAT is a leading general contractor providing integrated procurement and construction services in the Middle East, African and European regions.

The partnership, which seeks to meet the highly demanding nature of complex construction, infrastructure and oil & gas projects of CAT Group, is a strategic move that complements the predicted 33 per cent growth in the oil & gas sector by the end of 2009.

Under the terms of the agreement, CMCS will help provide vital project management software like Hard Dollar Cost Estimation, Control and Management, Primavera Project Portfolio Management and Primavera Contract Management for CAT Group projects that commonly utilize heavy machinery, diverse multiple resources and run over a long period.

Implementation of the different software will be complemented by special training sessions, licensed accreditations, and consultancy services to be administered chiefly in CAT Group’s headquarters in Beirut and its other branches spread across the globe.

The company is currently ranked 95 in Engineering News Record’s (ENR) international list of top 100 contractors.

Read the story here..

How I Became a Project Manager

I thought this might be an interesting topic to write about.  Really…how many of us said that we wanted to be Project Managers when we grew up?  I was going to be a baseball player, then a racecar driver, then a lawyer and when I first entered college – a pharmacist, believe it or not.  I switched to the MIS track and came out of college as an application developer.

The Beginning

My first 3 or 4 years were spent coding in COBOL and writing proposals for long-term government contracts.  After one of those contract wins, I took the role of Configuration Manager on the project.  I’m really dating myself here, but in the early 1990’s I switched to Project/Program Management when I was offered a key position on one of the contracts we were performing on with the US Department of Education.

Couldn’t Code Forever

I recognized early on that I wasn’t truly interested in coding forever.  I needed the interaction with the customer and to lead projects and oversee tasks from beginning to end from a higher viewpoint.  I jumped at the chance to become the Configuration Manager on the Guaranteed Student Loan project we had just won.  I managed all change control for the project including leading the formal Change Control Board and managing a small staff.  Switching to the Project Management path came a couple of years later but was still more like Program Management than Project Management because it was really overseeing on-going activity on a five-year government contract, not running multiple engagements from beginning to end like I think of more traditional project management roles.

My first taste of performing the type of project management that I perform now came in 1998 when I went to work for Rockwell Collins handling their internal internet, intranet and extranet projects and leading a small team of web developers on these efforts.  I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of overseeing those projects from beginning to end – even handling the ‘sales’ side on these internal projects and sometimes managing up to 10-15 live projects at a time.

Except for a stint as a Corporate Applications Development Manager for a large gaming/hospitality entity here in Las Vegas, I’ve pretty much stayed in the project management track handling usually 4-6 projects at a time.  I like the challenge, I love the customer handling and interaction, as well as the oversight responsibilities for the delivery team.  I’ve found my niche…I’ve found what drives me.  When I need a taste of innovation, I’ve been able to get that from consulting work with smaller organizations helping them either organize their PM practices, incorporate new or better practices, fix problems they are having with customers and solutions and in some cases just help them figure out a better way to do business.  These activities don’t really follow a PM path so they tend to feed the entrepreneurial spirit in me.

Early Mentor

My real career turn from developer toward project manager came from my early mentor/manager who discussed my career path at great lengths with me on many occasions.  From my answers could tell that I was aligning more with a project management interest.  He helped guide me in that direction and helped me to find roles on proposals and other projects that would get me the experience and the foot-in-the-door situation to be able to move into those types of roles.

Your Feedback

That’s my story in a nutshell.  I welcome any questions you might have and I’d also like to hear how some of you became project managers.  I still haven’t had any of my kids say they want to be a project manager when they grow up so I know it’s a discipline you really just ‘happen into’ more than choose, for the most part.  Go ahead…send me your stories.