The PMP certification is the unquestionable international standard for today’s professional Project
Manger. This intense workshop will benchmark the understanding of the PMBOK concepts and
processes for the beginner as well as the seasoned practitioner who is seeking this certification.
A thorough review of the correct answers and why they are correct, will lead you to understand
PMI’s standards for passing this exam. You will leave with a firm understanding of your needs for
preparing for and successfully passing the exam.

Learn how to:

• Develop a personal study plan for the exam preparation
• Master the nine Knowledge Areas of the PMBOK
• Effectively prepare for success on your exam

Jerry Brown, PMP, Principal, Project Methods

UML diagramming changes the way teams approach the entire software development life cycle. It affects the way Business Analyst's gather, analyze, and document the requirements. It also impacts the way the system is designed and the code is structured. This course shows how the key UML diagrams are used to support the requirements process. Attend this day and you’ll be modeling requirements in no time!

• Discover the benefits of modeling and analyzing requirements
• Standardize your modeling notation by using UML
• Know when to use each UML diagram (Context Diagram, Activity diagram, Use Case Diagram, Class Diagram, Sequence diagram)
• Walk away with practical tips to get you started with UML
• This course is endorsed by IIBA™

Vince Bordo, Senior Consultant, Advanced Concepts Center

The Value Proposition for Program Management

One of the fundamental objectives of the Program Management Standards is to help the business align projects with the business case and subsequently measuring the incremental value back to the business for each project. This workshop will look at tools and techniques to realize these gains and discuss the value of having Certified Program Managers and managing all projects as part of a program. It will also examine how to define common milestones at the program and project level so as to report consistent status and value for all project-related activities. The workshop will be structured around the new PgMP certification and the standards as identified by the Project Management Institute.

Dave L. Davis, PMP, PgMP, Program Manager, AT&T

The Communication Connection: Getting It Right

Working in teams presents multiple challenges. The demands placed on Project Managers and Business Analysts in the modern business environment increase daily. Managing an expanding client base and workforce requires exceptional interpersonal and communication skills. An understanding of behavior and communication is especially important in a project environment where it is necessary to gain commitment and cooperation from others.

This workshop focuses on creating the ideal team environment. This is the premise of “Communication Connection: Getting it Right”. Using the DiSC profile tool - an innovative approach to behavioral insight - participants will uncover unique traits of those profiled and learn to adapt to those around them. Objectives

• Understand the behavioral styles of self and others
• Discover how one’s own behavior impacts personal and group success
• Identify ways to adapt behavior to the internal and external stakeholders a
• Reduce conflict and stress
• Improve team communication and morale
• Create strategies to improve relationships and performance
• Identify effective ways to give positive and constructive feedback
• Develop listening skills to improve team performance

Claire Sookman, Principal,
Virtual Team Builders

Building an Effective Meeting from the Ground Up: A Facilitator’s Toolkit

Effective meetings rarely happen by accident – so why do we so often leave our meetings to the luck of the draw? With the right tools at hand, effective meetings become not only possible but surprisingly attainable. The purpose of this full-day workshop is to fully equip both new and experienced Project Managers and Business Analysts with the tools and techniques required to conduct effective meetings in a variety of contexts. Regardless of development methodology, welldesigned and well-run meetings are one of the best ways to accelerate productivity for your team and speed-to-market for your product(s). During this interactive workshop, participants will have multiple opportunities to apply and reinforce practical facilitation techniques during hands-on group activities and open discussion.

Are you ready to surprise yourself and your colleagues with the first productive meeting anyone can remember? Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be fully equipped and ready to:

• Plan effective meetings quickly and efficiently
• Facilitate unfamiliar topics with confidence
• Immediately implement simple ground rules and proven techniques to proactively address productivity hurdles and improve the quality of meetings
• Effectively navigate political pitfalls and hidden agendas
• Reduce the overall pain and waste previously associated with meetings

Kendra Vander Kamp, MBA, PMP, CSM, CQIA. Senior Business Consultant at
Idearc Media Corporation, Internet Division, Superpages.com

As a project manager of small projects, you are aware of the importance of using a methodology and tools to manage a single project. You have achieved a level success with managing small projects and have been awarded the opportunity manage more projects simultaneously. At first the single-project methodology applied over a few projects appears to work. After a short time, however, you become concerned. What do you do? You need more control. And you need a tool to communicate project interdependencies. The time has come to use a project management process designed to manage multiple small projects. By grouping projects, schedule impacts across projects become more visible.

And consolidated reporting allows the project manager to view the progress of the entire project portfolio.

• Discuss the challenges associated with managing multiple small projects.
• Use a project management process and tools specifically designed for managing multiple small projects.
• Review leadership skills essential for managing multiple small projects.
• Discuss Best Practices for Managing Multiple Small Projects.

Sandra F. Rowe, PMP, MBA, MSCIS, Author of Project Management for Small Projects

BA Centers of Excellence, the Cornerstone of Business Transformation

Centers of excellence are emerging as a vital strategic asset to serve as the primary vehicle for managing complex change initiatives, a business support function just as critical as accounting, marketing, finance and HR. According to Jonathan G. Geiger, in his article, Intelligent Solutions: Establishing a Center of Excellence, a center of excellence is a team of people that is established to promote collaboration and the application of best practices. Centers of excellence exist to bring about an enterprise focus to many business issues, e.g., data integration, project management, enterprise architecture, business and IT optimization, and enterprise-wide access to information. The concept of centers of excellence (CoE) is quickly maturing in twenty-first century organizations because of the need to collaboratively determine solutions to complex business issues.

This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of the issues that must be considered when implementing a BACoE, including:

• Scope Considerations Organizational Alignment Considerations
• Organizational Positioning Considerations
• Organizational Maturity
• Implementation Considerations

Kathleen (Kitty) Hass, PMP,
IIBA

If you’ve ever been involved in a project involving use cases, you’ve probably encountered some confusion about what should be in a use case, and how use cases should be used. In developing business-oriented systems, the success of the project will be measured by its usefulness after the system is in use by business domain specialists and end users. Because of this, the specification of requirements in projects needs to be done from the perspective of a user. User centered analysis places the focus where it belongs. Whether the user is considered a business decision maker or hands-on operator, Use Cases make an effective tool for the Business Analyst!

• Employ use cases to define, analyze, communicate, and document functional requirements
• Write use cases in a clear and unambiguous way
• Plan and divide up the project work based on your use cases
• Understand why Use Cases are a must have for your BA toolkit
• This course is endorsed by IIBA™

Vince Bordo, Senior Consultant,
Advanced Concepts Center

Techniques for Managing Remote Teams

Business environments are changing. Fueled by international competition, technological advancements and alternative work practices, organizations are embracing virtual team structures at an unprecedented rate. Virtual teams save costs, boost corporate productivity and bring about new levels of job satisfaction. Making and managing the transition from traditional models of organizational operations to a geographically-dispersed mode requires exceptional interpersonal skills, strong leadership abilities and the ability to deal with the challenge of technology… capabilities this course will teach you.  Participants in this 1-day session will learn how to communicate effectively within a virtual team setting and build a cohesive team that best facilitate communication among virtual team members. 

Course Objectives      

• Identify characteristics of highly effective teams
• Understand the similarities and differences between co-located and virtual teams        
• Describe the role that expectations play and how to manage them
• Understand how a Team Operating Agreement can help build a cohesive virtual team  
• Develop the guidelines your virtual team will operate by
• Determine the most effective way to listen to your team
• Clarify the role of the virtual manager and team members
• Establish best practices for email, web-based technologies, teleconference and videoconference.

  Claire Sookman, Principal, Virtual Team Builders

The problems that result from specifying ambiguous and incorrect requirements are a major source of software failure and customer dissatisfaction. This experience-based workshop shares effective, time-tested practices for developing requirements quickly without compromising quality. Attendees will learn how to define user requirements by following a requirements roadmap. The roadmap provides a useful framework for exploring requirements using multiple, interwoven models, various representations of requirements, and “just enough” explanation. For each model in the roadmap, participants will explore these essential elements: What is it? Why use it? What does it do? How do I develop it? Attendees will also study the links between the models as well as consider which models are appropriate for various types of projects.

Key learning points include:

• The requirements model roadmap – how to leverage it for your project
• Creating multiple requirements models and linking the models at the component level
• Ways to speed up the requirements modeling process without compromising quality
• When to lighten the requirements models and when to go deeper
• Good practices that provide an essential framework for effective requirements modeling

Paul Reed, Jr, Senior Associate, EBG Consulting, President,
Jackson-Reed, Inc.

Critical Thinking & Decision Making for Project Managers & Business Analysts

Project managers and business analysts are constantly challenged with an ever increasing level of complexity. The ability to solicit, analyze, and synthesize information from multiple stakeholders with varying perceptions, motivations and values are critical skills. We must be able to deal rationally and creatively with a diverse and dynamic work environment. This workshop focuses on developing our analytical ability and will equip attendees with tangible critical thinking and decision making tools to allow then to identify and solve project related risks, issues, and problems.

Objectives:

• Identify the elements of critical thinking (perception, assumption, emotion, fallacy, logic, etc…)
• Evaluate the necessity for critical thinking in a project environment
• Define a structured problem evaluation and decision making process
• Describe tools and techniques used in decision making
• Apply the concepts of critical thinking and decision making in a project team environment

Chuck Millhollan, Director of Program Management,
Churchill Downs Incorporated

Do you need to back to get the basics or are you new to Six Sigma and/or Lean?

Don’t miss this refreshing workshop designed specifically for individuals who have an interest in implementing these initiatives within their company or who need to go back and reevaluate their company deployment and make some adjustments. In this session, you’ll learn what it takes to deploy Lean Six Sigma for optimal results. Your workshop leader has years of practical experience to tap into having led the original implementation of Six Sigma at GE Capital Card Services. She also led the integration and deployment of Lean and Six Sigma at GE Aviation in IT and at GE Corporate Global Infrastructure Solutions, a shared services organization.

This workshop will cover:

• Getting started in Lean Six Sigma
• Why you need both Lean and Six Sigma
• Demonstrating the value and the results for management and employee buy-in
• Measuring your results and getting commitment
• Selecting the right people—developing champions and sponsors for your deployment

Pam Gladwell, Director, Center for Quality Management, a Division of GOAL/QPC

Capturing and Applying Lessons Learned

Documented lessons learned can provide an organization with valuable knowledge and a project manager with an opportunity for continued career growth. The challenge is not only in capturing meaningful lessons learned but also in analyzing the lessons and then applying them to existing and future projects. The real value obtained from lessons learned is the ability for the organization to establish and sustain a culture of consistent project management improvement.

During this workshop/presentation we will discuss the relevancy of lessons learned, an effective lessons learned process, facilitation tools for capturing and classifying lessons learned and the use of lessons learned.

• Detailed process for capturing and applying lessons learned
• Facilitation tools for capturing lessons learned
• Character qualities essential for lessons learned success
• Lessons learned best practices

Sandra F. Rowe, PMP, MBA, MSCIS, Author of
Project Management for Small Projects