10 Reasons Why You Can’t Miss PW&WCBA in Seattle

ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts is an event for all those needing to take charge, reduce risk and deliver results in a changing work environment. Learn how to elevate your skills, deploy technical innovation and collaborate across functions to become a more effective project manager or business analyst from industry leaders

Here are the top 10 reasons you can't miss PW&WCBA 2015:

1.       Project Portfolio Management - New Secrets Revealed
Barb Hurst, Manager, Project Portfolio, Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company, will help you uncover secrets on how to plan, communicate and rollout portfolio management as a valuable service in the real world (including the best day/time to present a new idea and influencing the influencers.

2.       Build Your Brand as an Emerging Leader
Uncover the three essential elements of an effective leadership brand and how you can scale up  your brand and advance your career with best practices from Jo Miller, Founding Editor, BeLeaderly.com, CEO, Women's Leadership Coaching, Inc.

3.       Decrease Project Risk
Drive project success through active risk management and get a better understanding of the relationship between project risk management and project success. Plus, Scott Reynolds, VP Senior Technology Project Manager, Bank of America will also share how you can increase your projects probability of success.

4.       Become a Change Leader            
Project Managers will come together with Lou Russell, CEO & Learning Faciiliator, Russell Martin & Associates to experience project collaboration and competition in real time. You'll learn how to complete difficult projects with and in spite of other teams, just like in the real world.

5.       Navigate Your Own Career Journey
A career in project management can take on many paths and is dependent on an individual's goals, interests and limitations. Join Rick Radice, VP, Federal Regulatory Exam Liaison, Prudential Financial as he shares different PM career paths and how to select what's right for you.

6.       Build a Project Management Centre of Excellence
CIBC Bank's Lindsey-Ann DePeri leads you through the journey of creating a CoE for Project Management, including establishing a value proposition, aligning staff and projects into a shared services portfolio, application of best practices and more.

7.       Master Your Presentation Skills
One of last year's top rated speakers, William Greenwald, Founder & Chief Neuroleaderologist, Windsor Leadership Group, returns to the PW&WCBA with the goal of helping you construct a great story while holding mastery of the stage.

8.       Explore & Analyze Data in 3D
3D data exploration is a new and promising field. Igor Peev, Senior Program Manager, Power Map for Excel, Microsoft Corporation will talk about how interacting and animating the data gives the user additional insights which are not available in the traditional methods of exploration.

9.       Scale Agile to YOUR Organization
Forrester Research examines new roles required to make a transition to Agile, address limitations that require a hybrid approach and talk about shifts that need to be made in budgeting and planning.

10.   Manage the Rate of Change in a Digital Driven Economy
Fredrick Redd, CEO, ASSAI Management Consulting reveals leadership strategies to keep pace with the rate of change that is ideal for leading projects, programs and organizations.

Download the brochure for full session details and speaker line up: http://bit.ly/1G6UIFN

Join us next month to explore what the future of project management and business analysis will look like. As a valued reader of our blog, you get an exclusive $100 off the current rate with code PW15BL. Register today: http://bit.ly/1G6UIFN

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Uncover the Promise of a PM/BA Partnership at PW&WCBA, Save $200 Today!

Earlier this year, ESI's Top 10 Trends in Business Analysis projected that BAs would become the common thread between business objectives and the projects designed to achieve them.*

The challenge, for both project managers and business analysts, now lies in the collaboration between the teams throughout the project phases. Are you prepared to managing complex projects with your peers?

PW&WCBA arms you with the skills you need to work across the project lines.

New Session Just Announced!

Understanding the Role of Business Process Management within Projects
Gurpreet Kanwar, Senior Project Manager, Information Management, NAV Canada

Business process plays an important role in successful project delivery and vice versa. We will identify how business process and project management relate together. We will review:

·         The difference between Project Management and Process Management

·         How projects can help in creating and improving the business processes

·         How Business Process helps projects to align with the organizational strategy

·         How Change Management plays a very important role to institutionalize the business process across the organization

·         How Project Methodology can be used in executing business process

·         Plus, don't miss Kathleen Hass, Principal Consultant, Kathleen Hass & Associates as she explores the New Project Leadership Model: The Promise of the PM/BA Partnership in a Complex World.

Download the brochure for full session details: http://bit.ly/1ULwTdg

$100 Early Registration Savings Expire today, September 11. Plus, as a valued reader of our blog, you get $100 off the current rate – That’s a total of $200 savings: Secure Your Spot & Save: http://bit.ly/1ULwTdg

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PW&WCBA 2015 Full Program Now Available

The Fusion of Technology & Innovation

We've got news. ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts is coming back to Seattle in 2015! Download the just released brochure here: http://bit.ly/1GySTAo

As always, PW&WCBA has been designed to deliver the skills and knowledge you need to take charge, reduce risk and deliver results in a changing work environment. Hear how to elevate your skills, deploy technical innovation and collaborate across functions to become a more effective project manager or business analyst from industry leaders including:

·         The Walt Disney Company

·         Clark County NV

·         The Boeing Company

·         Champs Oncology

·         SUNY ITEC

·         Windsor Leadership Group

·         Bank of America

·         Prudential Financial

·         Mutual of Omaha

·         Forrester Research

·         Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas

·         Russell Martin & Associates

·         Microsoft

·         Assai Mangement Consulting

·         Women's Leadership Coaching

·         Farm Credit Canada

·         Denab Quality Systems

·         Kathleen Hass & Associates

Download the full 2015 PW&WCBA West Program for the full agenda and speaker lineup: http://bit.ly/1GySTAo

Join us in October and you'll walk away with tangible lessons to implement immediately upon returning to the office, increasing your value to the organization.

Plus, register by Friday, July 10th and save $300: http://bit.ly/1GySTAo

Cheers,

The PW&WBCA 2015 Team

@ProjectWorld

#PW15

Pwwbcablog.iirusa.com

What Does the Digital Economy Mean for PMs & BAs?

The digital driven economy has not only altered the way we manage projects and programs, it has fundamentally changed the way we conduct business across all industries and sectors and the way we live. In today's economy, any project, program or organization whose internal rate of change is slower than the external rate of change will be headed for difficulty.

Project managers and business analysts are our leaders for tomorrow - do you have the skills necessary to Manage the Rate of Change in a Digital Driven Economy?

Fredrick Redd, former Director, Project Management Office, Port Authority & New Jersey will take the stage at PW&WCBA to share the principles and strategies you need to keep pace with the rate of change that is ideal for leading projects, programs and organizations.

PW&WCBA East

March 23-24, 2015

Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort

Lake Buena Vista, Florida

Plus, check out new sessions from Verizon (Risk Management on the Edge: Tips, Tools & Techniques) and Vertex, Inc. (Process Improvement Insights Gained while Watching Reality Television).

Download the brochure for the updated agenda: http://bit.ly/17qgkla

We hope to see you in Orlando as we help you prepare for the digital driven economy.

Register by Friday, February 20th and save $200: http://bit.ly/17qgkla

All the best,
The PW&WCBA Team

@Project_World

#PWEAST

pwwbcablog.iirusa.com

P.S. - Are you a PMI or IIBA member? You can save an additional 20% off your conference registration. Contact Kacey Anderson at kanderson@iirusa.com for more information.

ESI’s Top 10 Project Management Trends of 2015

ESI International, a project management training company, recently released its top 10 trends in project management for 2015. This year’s trends reveal that project managers (PMs) will be impacted by many changes this year including more hybrid environments, an increasing demand for talent management, and a growing need to align project outcomes with organizational strategy.

In 2015, the PM’s role will continue to evolve, according ESI VP of Marketing and Strategic Intelligence Mark Bashrum. Improving interpersonal skills, learning the discipline of strategic execution, and becoming well versed in change management practices should be on every PM’s list of New Year’s resolutions.

“All too often people talk about strategy and execution independently,” said Bashrum. “In the coming year we will see a heightened focus on managing the critical links connecting the two, as more organizations begin to view strategic execution as a core discipline.”

ESI’s top 10 trends for project management include:

Lofty Expectations: PMs need to become adept at managing gaps between the constraints of cloud-based platforms and the business’ expectations.

Out-of-Whack: Talent management within the PM community comes back into focus.

Fuel for the Hybrid: As the pace of change continues to accelerate, hybrid project methods will become the norm.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short: The ability to find and hire top PM talent is dwindling.

Bottom’s Up: Organizations must build bottom-up processes to link project outcomes to organizational strategy.

Ignore Them at Your Own Peril: Project managers will continue to be ignored and not get the coaching and mentoring they are screaming for.

Run!: Project managers continue to sacrifice project transparency as they flee from conflict and avoid difficult conversations.

Change is Coming: The disciplines of change management and project management continue to merge as PMs become responsible for delivering project and business outcomes.

Knocking at the Door: Project management and business strategy better align to the benefit of the organization.

Culture Shock: Organizational culture becomes a bigger consideration in risk management practices.

“The impact on project management is substantial,” he added. “Project managers, who are typically held accountable for delivering project outcomes, will now also be responsible for how those deliverables impact the business. This will require a retooling of their skillsets, but in the end it elevates the PM’s role as a critical enabler of business strategy, and that’s a very good thing for project managers who can make the jump.”

About the Author: Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the Marketing Division at IIR USA, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR’s blogs including Next Big Design, Customers 1st, Digital Impact, STEAM Accelerator and ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts, and a regular contributor to Front End of Innovation and The Market Research Event,. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the technology industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.

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Leadership Lessons: William Greenwald

In our next episode of the Leadership Lessons interview series brought to you by ProjectWorld &World Congress for Business Analysts, I sat down with William Greenwald of Windsor Leadership Group to discuss how to stand out in leadership,  what it takes to be a great leader, and the biggest challenges facing leaders today.

Today, ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts is the premier conference for advancing collaboration through practice. This year, PW&WCBA has not only changed locations but also drastically changed how the program is delivered- more than ever focused on practicality and tangibility, through visionary speakers, and focus areas that matter to you and your role and help accelerate future success.  At PW&WCBA, you will have the opportunity to join industry thought leaders as they re-examine how to identify opportunities and track their success, understanding what it means to be an effective leader in a virtual and multicultural world, and explore the future role of project managers and business analysts with the corporation.

Greenwald whole-heartedly believes in Gandhi's quote, "Be the Change that You Want to See.” According to him, too many leaders worry about uncontrollables or trying to change others such as peers, bosses, and spouses.

“Great leaders lead themselves before others...hence, by simply taking responsibility for your own behavior and being an exemplary role model in your corporation, community, and family, you will, by default, STAND OUT.”

Greenwald recommends that all new leaders start every conversation (at home and at work) with: "How can I serve you today?” This will begin to build a strong foundation of Servant Leadership that will ably guide decades of success as a great leader.  

Check out my full interview with William here: http://bit.ly/1rAY9MQ

If you’d like to hear more from William, don’t’ miss his sessions, “Creating Magic: Leadership and Service Excellence” on Monday, September 22nd at 10:45 am and “Story to Stage: The Art Behind the Science of Presentation Excellence” on Wednesday, September 24th at 2:00 pm. ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014 is taking place this September 22-September 24, 2014 in Seattle, Washington. For more information and to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1wf3eOV

About the Author: Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the Marketing Division at IIR USA, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR’s blogs including Next Big Design, Customers 1st, Digital Impact, STEAM Accelerator and ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts, and a regular contributor to Front End of Innovation and The Market Research Event,. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the technology industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.  

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Leadership Lessons: Benjamin Locwin

I recently interviewed Benjamin Locwin of lonza Biopharmaceuticals to talk about the ins and outs of leadership in today’s competitive business landscape.  Locwin is speaker at the upcoming ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014 conference in Seattle taking place next month. He will be presenting a session entitled, “Using Evidence-Based Practice for High-Impact Messaging.”

At PW&WCBA, you will have the opportunity to join industry thought leaders as they re-examine how to identify opportunities and track their success, understanding what it means to be an effective leader in a virtual and multicultural world, and explore the future role of project managers and business analysts with the corporation.

Check out what Locwin had to say:

IIR: How do you, as a leader, stand out in a crowd in this competitive business world?

Locwin: For this, leadership branding is critically important; I have my own leadership brand, and this constancy of message carries through all of the work I do with my teams.

IIR: What are characteristics of a GREAT leader?

Locwin: Listening, being empathic, and not being afraid to make the big decisions. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, an expert in a field has seen enough to be able to quickly appraise a situation and know what’s important to focus on.

IIR: How does a successful leader communicate?

Locwin: One word: Often. If a leader isn’t developing a strategy and communicating a vision, and then communicating frequent progress checks, no one knows what the status is of their achievement work.

IIR: What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization or team?

Locwin: As an organization gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening? By disentangling the chaos of the entire big picture and making the smaller teams still feel like critical cogs in the whole machine; It’s really a sense of scale in this case that demotivates. By making the goals and achievements real, tangibility can be felt.

IIR: How do you encourage creative thinking within your team or organization?

Locwin: Much of this is derived from Edward de Bono; Lateral thinking requires tools and techniques to encourage it often. I have developed these systems so that they frequently call upon the experts to continuously refine their work in new, bold, and creative ways.

IIR: How do you help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?

Locwin: Culture can only be felt or measured on a very broad scale; it’s how the business functions as a whole and in the context of its own unique ‘corporate memory.’ You can’t ‘train’ a new employee on the culture of the organization, he or she learns by interacting within it.

IIR: What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?

Locwin: An understanding of behavioral psychology and fluency with statistical variation.

IIR: What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?

Locwin: Diversity in the workplace with respect to different fluencies with technology and media. Being part of the ‘next-five-minutes’ forecasting model (which is to say that long-term forecasting as had been done for many decades in business is no longer relevant with such short time horizons now).

IIR: What is the one behavior that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers?

Locwin: Believing that natural variation doesn’t occur.

IIR: What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?

Locwin: Stop. Look. And listen. Don’t go out and make decisions until you’ve taken stock on how the status quo is running; You’d be more likely to make things worse than better.

IIR: What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

Locwin: Continuous learning. It’s all about adaptability.

Locwin will be speaking at ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014, taking place in Seattle, Washington September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with courses for all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you even more valuable to your organization. To learn more or register for the event, click here:  http://bit.ly/1p8VOGT

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Leadership Lessons: Silvanus David

I recently interviewed Silvanus David, SITA SOUTH AFRICA, to talk about the ins and outs of leadership in today’s competitive business landscape.  David is a keynote speaker at the upcoming ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014 conference in Seattle taking place next month. He will be presenting a session entitled, “Cyber Security.”

Check out what David had to say:

IIR: How do you, as a leader, stand out in a crowd in this competitive business world?

David: I am a project management subject matter expert. I add value to the scientific knowledge base. I have something to offer that will make this world a better place than I have found it.

IIR: What are characteristics of a GREAT leader?

David: Humility is key. Focus as well – knowing how to keep the team focused and what is important.

IIR: How does a successful leader communicate?

David: Successful leaders communicate honestly. Good and bad news must be communicated.

IIR: Can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Maybe someone who has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life?

David: My CEO, Mr. Freeman Numvalo. He arrived at the organization when it was at its lowest from an employee satisfaction perspective. His engagement with staff and his ability for getting people to start believing in themselves was “messiah” like. His focus on the vision and objective of the organization was always core and he was “outcome” and “impact” driven.

Image via Plexxi.com

IIR: What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization or team?

David: Strategic direction of the team. Ensuring that the outcomes of Government are adhered to and supported.

IIR: As an organization gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening?

David: Whatever we do has an impact on the service delivery for the citizenry of the nation. My team is inspired by knowing that the value they add makes the nation a better place for all.

IIR: How do you encourage creative thinking within your team or organization?

David: All for people to make mistakes within a controlled environment. Reward employees whose ideas thru creative thinking has added value to the organization.

IIR: Which is most important to your organization or team? (mission, core values or vision?) How do you communicate the “core values” to your team? 

David: Vision, Mission and core values are all important. The best way to communicate “core values” is by visibly demonstrating it.

IIR: How do you help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?

David: The best way to help a new employee is to have a comprehensive induction program for the new employee. Also, the new employees should be assigned to a mentor for a period of time.

IIR: What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?

David: Every leader must know the end-game. And he must be able to change direction mid-flight.

IIR: What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?

David: Staying relevant to customer needs.

IIR: What is the one behavior or trait that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers?

David: Arrogance and the false belief that it is all about themselves.

IIR: Can you explain the impact that social media has made on you as a leader?

David: It depends on what interests you and what you are exposed to. Social medial can be very beneficial.

IIR: What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?

David: It’s not about you.

IIR: What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

David: Think hard about business and people.

David will be speaking at ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014, taking place in Seattle, Washington September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with courses for all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers attendees 36 PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary to maintain your certification in just one place.

To learn more or register for the event, click here: http://bit.ly/VPs7Ua

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Associated Bank Reveals Visual Thinking & Creative Problem Solving Processes for Project Management

FACT: 75% of the brain's neuroreceptors are devoted to processing visual information. That's 60x more than are devoted to hearing!

Project Managers and Business Analysts alike are accountable for understanding, and helping others understand, all aspects of a project. When planning, designing and communicating a project, sometimes words alone aren't able to provide a clear picture - that's where visual thinking and reporting tools can help.

Next month, at ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts, Paul R. Williams, former Vice President, Operations & Technology PMO Lead, Associated Bank, NA will share how you can leverage visual thinking in project management. He'll provide you with the tools needed for creative problem solving, task planning and reporting project-based metrics and results.

PW&WCBA

September 22-24, 2014

W Hotel

Seattle, Washington

In addition to Paul's presentation, check out these featured sessions:

 ·        Making Innovation Work: New Directions Behavioral Health

·         Story to Stage: The Art Behind the Science of Presentation Excellence: Windsor Leadership Group

·         How to Best Take Advantage of Cloud Computing, Microsoft

·         If It's Creativity You Want, Then Creativity You Will Get! Expert Facilitation that Fosters Creativity: Kathleen Hass & Associates

·         Reinventing Global Project Management - A Transformational Journey: 3 Tenants You Should Always Employ for Success: AT&T Business Solutions

Download the brochure for the full program agenda:  http://bit.ly/1l2GbGj

PLUS, PW&WCBA still has the PM and BA sessions that you've come to expect year over year.

Mention code PW14LI & Save 15% off the standard rate. Register today:  http://bit.ly/1l2GbGj

We hope to see you in Seattle!

All the best,
The PW&WCBA Team

@Project_World

#PW14

pwwbcablog.iirusa.com

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Find Out What’s New at PW&WCBA This Year

Have you heard the news?

PW&WCBA 2014 is making a move to Seattle. And the location isn't the only thing that's changed. We've added more in-depth workshop options (including Agile PM Training, Requirements Management Best Practices, Cyber Security, Emotional Intelligence and more!) and ALL NEW offsite learning sessions at the headquarters of Boeing and Starbucks!

PW&WCBA

September 22-24, 2014

W Hotel

Seattle, Washington

But have no worries, ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts still has the PM & BA foundations that you've come to expect:

·         3 Days Jam-Packed with Session Addressing Your Project Pain Points: We've heard your needs and have designed the 2014 program around YOUR specific challenges. PW&WCBA covers it all - including a new Project Scheduling Lab with Russell Martin & Associates, a focus on Leading High Performance Teams from NASA and Becoming a Person of Influence from Women's Leadership Coaching.

·         40+ Speakers sharing their best practices and lessons learned from deep in the project trenches. Find out what works (and what doesn't!) from some of the best in the industry. You'll hear from: AIG, Allstate, Bank of Montreal, Erie Insurance, IIBA, Kindred Healthcare, Microsoft, Quest Diagnostics, Starbucks & more.

·         A Look to the Future: PW&WCBA prepares you not only for the changes taking place now in project management and business analysis, but also what's coming. IIBA's Kevin Brennan and Clark County NV's Ricki Henry will share What the Future of Business Analysis will look like, while Kathleen B. Hass explores what the New Project Leadership Model looks like.

·         36 PDUs and CDUs to Maintain Your Certification. That's more than half of what you need in just one place!

·         Unparalleled Networking. PW&WCBA Connect allows you to see who's attending the event and begin networking before you arrive in Seattle. Plus, we've added 2 networking receptions to continue the conversation and learning after the conference day ends.

And that's just the beginning. Download the conference brochure for the complete agenda: http://bit.ly/X57epm

Check out the 2013 Executive Summary for a recap of last year's event: http://bit.ly/1zJL238

Join us at PW&WCBA 2014 and invest in yourself and become even more valuable to your organization.

Mention code PW14BL & Save 15% off the standard rate. Register today: http://bit.ly/X57epm

We hope to see you in Seattle!

All the best,
The PW&WCBA Team

@Project_World

#PW14

pwwbcablog.iirusa.com

Go Behind the Scenes at Starbucks for PM Best Practices at PW&WCBA 2014

Have you ever wondered how a company like Starbucks handles complex projects in a world-wide organization?

ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014 is revealing those best practices.

PW&WCBA

September 22-24, 2014

W Hotel

Seattle, Washington

Jan Asbjorsen, Program Manager, Law & Corporate Affairs, Starbucks Coffee Company will lead attendees on A Behind this Scenes Look at the Starbucks Corporate Headquarters. In addition to a private tour of the Starbucks world headquarters, attendees will hear from a cross-departmental panel of project managers (including store development, IT, retail operations, law and more), as well as walk away with a checklist of things to consider when determining how to size your projects, tools, organizations, success factors, etc. 

Download the brochure for full details: http://bit.ly/1jlRmZL

Plus, you'll also hear:

·         From Leading a High Performance Team to Landing on Mars - Adam Steltzner, Lead Landing Engineer, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Project

·         Benchmarking Risk Management: What Good Looks Like - Dr. Alicia Aitken, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Human Systems International

·         Becoming a Person of Influence - Jo Miller, CEO, Women's Leadership Coaching, Inc. 

·         Big Data: Getting Past the Hype - Meta S. Brown, Author, Data Mining for Dummies

·         The Past, Present and Future of Business Analysis - Kevin Brennan, CBAP, PMP, Chief Business Analyst, Executive Vice President, IIBA

·         How to Best Take Advantage of Cloud Computing - Ben Armstrong, Principal Program Manager Lead, Microsoft

·         Debugging the Myths of Agile - The True Value of an Agile Process for You and Your Workplace - Bryan Winsko, Agile Project Manager, PMI

Mention code PW14LI & Save 15% off the standard rate. Register today: http://bit.ly/U1vWFa

We hope to see you in Seattle!

All the best,
The PW&WCBA Team

@Project_World

#PW14

pwwbcablog.iirusa.com

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The Silver Bullet to Project Success – Sponsor, Project Manager and Business Analyst

Are organizations looking for that silver bullet to avoid another project failure?   Could these roles in your organization be the silver bullet to cure a major prevailing problem?  Let’s look at a snapshot of each role to better understand how the role and key tenets help sets the stage for project success.

Role	Key Tenets
Sponsor: Your role has always been identified as a key role for project success; it’s time to elevate your commitment to provide necessary guidance for the project manager and business analyst.	Support, coach/mentor, communicates with stakeholders, escalates issues to senior management, remove barriers and approves resources for the project
Project Manager:  Your role is shifting from project management to project leadership.  It’s time to step out of your comfort zone to coach sponsors, lead change, effectively manage your projects through the entire lifecycle and lead distributed global teams.	Leadership, coach/mentor, define project scope, communication with project team, stakeholders and sponsor, stakeholder expectation management, soft skills
Business Analyst: Your role is taking a front row seat where you belong alongside your business partner; the project manager.  BAs can really help move the needle forward to align projects for success.	Engagement with business, business analysis tasks i.e.: define solution scope and business requirements for alignment with business and project objectives

Pairing these three leaders together in partnership will help ensure your project will be successful throughout the lifecycle to completion. In a nutshell, the executive sponsor, PM and BA; all play leadership roles;

>The Executive Sponsor owns the project and is responsible for benefits realization to create value for the business case, 

>The PM leads the team and delivers the solution and,

>The BA ensures that the solution meets the business need and aligns with business and project objectives.  

ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014, is taking place in Seattle, Washington September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with courses for all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers attendees 36 PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary to maintain your certification in just one place.

To learn more or register for the event, click here: http://bit.ly/1jtZtxB 

Related References:

Project Managers are From Mars and Project Sponsors are From Venus 

The Project Manager vs. the Business Analyst

Project Manager as a Leader

The 5 Best Free Project Management Tools

There are effective free project management tools out there - some are more robust than others, but all of them provide ways to collaborate and complete projects quicker. According to Digital Trends, here are the best free project management tools:

Trello: Trello is a project management tool designed to organize every component of your project into task cards. This tool is valuable in just about any environment, providing a simple means of creating checklists and assigning tasks to team members in real time. The tool allows users to share projects and attach documents to task cards, each of which syncs across compatible devices via the cloud. Also, users can adorn cards with photos, colors, and deadlines, and the software keeps a record of all activities for future.

Asana: The app, available on both Web and mobile platforms, provides an iTunes-esque workspace housing a navigational sidebar offering projects, a user inbox, and features like Focus Mode and Milestone. When the state of a  project changes, users receive updates in their inbox, and can view which tasks still need to be completed using the Milestone component. 

Evernote: This tool is basically note-taking software formatted into different notebooks, serving as a personal project management utility as opposed to a collaborative one. However, as outlined in our guide on how to use Evernote, the software is capable of doing more than making a rudimentary list. The free service comes bundled with an enormous ecosystem of integrated apps. The tool lets you format notes into a visual presentation, or publish to a blog, allowing you to include photos and voice memos in the process.

Basecamp: The tool has an impressive track record with known companies, including Nike, Twitter, and National Geographic. Basecamp’s Web portal features a discussion board, and a to-do list, allowing members to comment on specific tasks, while serving as a streamlined hub for file sharing that you can integrate with your email. Basecamp features a calendar to stay on top of deadlines, and tracks progress on specific tasks. It also gives you the ability to upload collaborative files, and tweak the site’s granular controls to include information relevant to each individual user.

Google Drive: Every feature the aforementioned project management tools offer is available with Google Drive in some form. Considering that many people have registered a Google account, this makes sharing calendars, documents, spreadsheets, and maps easier than doing so with the other tools on this list.

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• Handy Project Management Tools (keithpwilliams.wordpress.com)
• 11 Web Tools to Effectively Manage Your Business Calendar (smallbiztechnology.com)

Causes of Conflict in Project Management

There will be times when a project doesn’t run as smooth as you had planned. When you put together a group of intellectuals that all have the same goal, but have different ways to achieve that goal, is when you’ll run into problems in project management. Team conflict is challenging for project leaders but it is not necessarily bad. Conflict can lead to new ideas and approaches and facilitate the surfacing of important issues between team members if it is managed well.

In fact, according to various research studies on team conflict, the major sources of conflict among project teams are project goals not agreed upon, disagreement of the project's priorities and conflicting work schedules. This is no surprise since most organizations today run multiple projects and employees often find themselves serving on a variety of project teams.

Here is an infographic from Visual.ly that highlights the key causes of conflict in project management teams today:

Explore more visuals like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Heartbleed is About to Get Worse - How Do Companies Handle the Internet Disruptions?

ProjectNews - April Edition: Heartbleed is About to Get Worse - How do companies handle the Internet disruptions?

We would like to invite our ProjectNews members to connect, collaborate and knowledge share in the real-time. If you are interested, please join in the conversation via our
LinkedIn group here.

Challenge:
How do we tackle the major Internet disruptions as companies scramble to repair encryption systems on hundreds of thousands of websites?

Stakeholders:
500,000 affected sites - from mom-and-pop retailers to big conglomerates

Overview:
Efforts to fix the evil Heartbleed bug threaten to cause major disruptions to the Internet over the next several weeks as companies scramble to repair encryption systems on hundreds of thousands of websites at the same time.

In fact, estimates of the severity of the bug's damage have drastically increased almost daily since researchers unveiled the discovery of Heartbleed. What first seemed like an inconvenient matter of changing passwords for protection now appears more serious. New findings suggest that hackers can use the bug to create fake websites that mimic legitimate ones to trick consumers into handing over valuable information. The scale of the work required to fix this aspect of the bug, which makes it possible to steal the "security certificates" that verify that a website is authentic could overwhelm the systems designed to keep the Internet trustworthy.

Heartbleed has put many consumers' user names and passwords at risk as it was undetected for two years. The bug quietly undermined the basic security of the Internet by leaving a gap in OpenSSL, an encryption technology used widely by businesses to protect sensitive data. Reportedly, it has affected as much as two-thirds of the Internet; the flaw prompted Web users to change their passwords on Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other major services.

Finding an effective way to manage cybersecurity chaos is daunting; however, the effects of not properly managing this can be more so.

Join the Conversation!
Share your thoughts on how companies can manage the disruptions Heartbleed is causing.

What do you think companies can do to retroactively handle this disruption?

How can companies implement a solid plan of protection for future attacks?  

Have you been affected by Heartbleed? What have you done to protect yourself or plan for future cybersecurity attacks?

Conclusions based on the April 14 article, "Heartbleed is about to get worse, and it will slow the Internet to a crawl" on Washingtonpost.com.

Want to have discussions about topics like this that affect the project management and business analysis industries today? Join us at ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014 in Seattle this fall! Learn more about the event here: http://bit.ly/1nVF08l

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How The C-Suite Can Become Better Project Managers

These days, senior management is seeing its isolation disappear, which is creating a positive development towards a more agile business. Now, the CFO and the CIO must now work closely together on projects to ensure ROI and long-term value, while COOs and HR heads need to unite across change projects.

These new challenges have placed senior management in an area that is crucial for business advancement; Project Management. Here is advice from BusinessExcellence on how the C-Suite can become better project managers.

Understand the Objectives
Now, project management knowledge is essential for everyone, especially as senior executives hold the budgetary and operational keys to success. They are often the main stakeholders or if not, they know who to influence to drive project success. Put an achievable strategy in place, outline the objectives and explain what needs to be done by whom.

Create Two-Way Communication

Never block constructive suggestions as it helps highlight areas of concern, especially for individuals suffering from over-exposure. Project Managers should bear in mind that C-Level stakeholders might have had less exposure to management and need reverse management. The C-Level need to give project leaders space to work and trust their judgment.

Define the Project
Begin by defining the project’s scope, analyze the available resources and potential costs, identify risks and then build a business case that will guarantee commitment from relevant stakeholders. Benefits have to be realistic, measureable and classifiable otherwise return on investment will appear unachievable. These are classified in four ways; direct monetary benefits; direct non-monetary benefits; indirect benefits like reputational enhancement or improved staff morale; and dis-benefits i.e. what will happen if the project does not take place.

Create a Plan
Balance development time and the available resources against quality constraints and management involvement. Schedule time within the plan for review periods so feedback can be provided and concerns aired. Consider creating a critical path, a mapping of the longest route through all dependent activities. This prepares staff and the C-Suite for possible complications and establishes realistic timescales to keep to.

Stay in Control

Project managers should communicate the project’s roadmap to everyone involved and then share progress at significant points. When communicating progress, ensure people actually take it onboard. Ensure people know what is being communicated, rather than just speaking at them. Then,  implement a change process to ensure input is actioned to those in charge.

Maintain Sustainability
If effectively planned and managed, the project will be successful. But, post-launch there are areas to address to guarantee the success of future projects. Highlight what went well and what could have been better, and reflect on failure objectively and without assigning personal blame. 

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