Fabrice Bouchereau

Rick Gillis

NK Shrivastava

aNjuan Simmons

Kaizen Kanban: A Visual Facilitation Approach to Create Prioritized Project Pipelines
Fabrice Bouchereau

The goal of this workshop is to teach project managers a structured method to identify improvement opportunities and execute projects that elevate organizations to the next levels of safety, quality and profitability. We leverage best practices and minimize the unnecessary customization of well-known tools. Explanations are simple and clear. Emphasis is placed on low tech interactivity over PowerPoint sterility. We use an orthodox tool selection to combine various toolboxes and leverage the experience of meeting/workshop participants to identify improvement opportunities for entire Organization. We considered common failures and attempted to provide methods to avoid these pitfalls. In this course, students will learn:

• To use a PROCESS MAP to tell a story everyone can see
• To perform a VALUE ADD / NON-VALUE ADD ANALYSIS to identify projects stakeholders are willing to pay for and eliminate waste
• To build a SIPOC to understand handovers and interactions
• To clearly DEFINE REQUIREMENTS
• To identify Failure modes to identify opportunities for improvement
• To calculate the risk associated with each opportunities for improvement
• The difference between a problem statement and a business case
• How to write problem statements and business cases
• How to use a kaizen kanban as a prioritization and communication board.

JOB! Learn How to Find Your Next Job Today
Rick Gillis

Rick Gillis has been presenting this workshop to sold out rooms for PMI for several years. Updated on a continuing basis, only the very best and most current tactical and technology driven job search techniques are presented. Rick presents this in information with several illustrations from clients and his personal experience.

Metrics for Improving Project, Program, and Portfolio Performance
NK Shrivastava

One of the keys to successful project, program, and portfolio management is measuring that success in ways that support critical decisions. Planned vs. actual duration and cost, number of defects, and number of change requests are only a few of the powerful metrics that can help drive strategic decision-making. If you want to learn more about metrics that can help you make project decisions, this course is for you. RefineM’s course covers metrics at the project, program, and portfolio level and gives you tools and techniques to develop and implement effective metrics in your organization. You will learn how to develop and begin tracking metrics and how to communicate the data to stakeholders. You will participate in individual and group exercises to reinforce your understanding of project metrics. You will leave the course prepared to use powerful metrics right away on your projects, programs, and portfolios.

Course Objectives: After completing the course, you will be able to

• Explain why metrics are important to measuring the success of projects, programs, and portfolios.
• Identify key metrics to track at each level.
• Compile reports and communicate results to stakeholders.

Hands on Agile Project Management
Anjuan Simmons

Agile software development methods continue to be popular ways to build software. Agile principles have expanded to other industries such as car manufacturing and construction. However, while there are many books and courses that teach Agile, the principles have to be experienced to truly understand them. After learning the principles and practices of Agile development, the attendees will split into groups of Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Development Team members to complete the first exercise. This exercise will simulate the use of a Scrum planning board including breaking down work into cards and moving them along workflow steps. The next exercise will take one person from each team and make them into a group of Customers. The attendees will then play the MVP Game which simulates the difference between how requirements flow in iterative versus waterfall project management methods. The attendees will then play a game of Planning Poker which will illustrate how to rapidly plan and estimate work. This exercise will show how requirements can be further broken down and estimated by the entire team. Attendees will leave the workshop with direct experience using Agile development techniques and a head start on leading their next Agile project.

Anjuan Simmons is a technologist with a successful track record of delivering technology solutions from the user interface to the database. He has worked as an executive for Infosys, Accenture, and Deloitte, all multi-billion dollar technology services companies with hundreds of clients around the world. He's a Certified Scrum Master with a passion for agile software development. Anjuan is also an energetic and informative speaker who often presents at conferences, seminars, schools, and community events. He is a sought after thought leader for his opinion on project management, agile software development, diversity, and leadership. Drawing from his work experience as well as his educational background, Anjuan delivers presentations that focus on facts and provide simple explanations of complex ideas. Anjuan has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Texas A&M University.

From a Good Project Manager to a Great Leader
David Barrett

This is a one day workshop that will deliver a new roadmap to your career. Today’s organizations are looking for tomorrow’s leadership team.  As a good project manager the next step in your career could very well take you to this next level: senior leadership. But how do you get there?   What will it take to get your career to this next level?   How can you move from a management position to one of a leader: a senior leader within your industry or elsewhere? This workshop will put aside the skills and knowledge you need to have to be a good (project) manager and focus on what you need to be a great leader. Overview Over the course of the morning we will explore the gaps between our skills, knowledge and professional attributes and those of famous and local leaders.   In the process we will be develop our new professional strategic plan:

• Your Professional Strategic Plan
• Act Like a Leader Before You Are One
• What Does a Great Leader Look Like?
• Understand Your Leadership Style
• 9 Things Successful People Do In The First Week Of A New Job
• The Seven Seismic Shifts of Perspective and Responsibility
• Thinking Like a Leader

In the afternoon we turn to the tools of the leadership trade and develop out the rest of our strategic plan in order to address our weaknesses and leverage our strengths:

• Understand the Business
• Develop Your Business Skills
• Develop Your Business Acumen
• Understand CxO Language
• The Business Case
• The Strategic Plan
• The Business Plan
• Communication – Leader Style

The Winning Team
LaToshia Norwood

Let’s face it, whether you lead a team of all-stars or misfits, you are responsible for rallying your team to victory by completing projects on-scope, on-time, on budget despite the odds. The Winning Team workshop will challenge your way of thinking about leadership, communication, and problem solving. We’ll build on your knowledge and give you the opportunity to collaborate, learn and grow.

Who Should Attend?

The Winning Team workshop is designed for professionals who are responsible for managing teams, driving change, product development or moving new ideas forward.

What will this workshop cover?

• Project Manager Archetypes™
• Systematic Planning
• Maximizing Team Performance 
• Conflict Resolution
• Types of Motivation

What will you get out of it?

By the end of The Winning Team workshop, you will have a playbook of X and O strategies to: 

• Leverage the Project Manager Archetypes™ to better yourself and motivate your team to perform at an optimal level
• Foster critical thinking and collaboration
• Identify, manage and resolve team conflict
• Create and maintain team synergy in the midst of chaos

Organizations Are Crying For Transformation
Cecilia Rose

Change and transformation are buzz words these days. Buzz words tend to numb us and rob us of the real essence and meaning of words. For example, consider the difference between ‘change’ and ‘transformation’. It may seem simple, yet it is profound. When we understand there is a difference, we start to ask different questions, we open to alternate approaches, we look at things differently and with different eyes and we ourselves begin to transform. This in turn can enable us to be more effective in spurring and enabling transformation in the people, organizations and systems around us.

So what is the difference between change and transformation? The most powerful explanation I have heard is that of Lynne Twist, a global activist and award-winning author of The Soul of Money. This is an extract from the graduation speech she gave at Bainbridge Graduate Institute in June 2012, in which she talked about the distinction between change and transformation.

“Change can change back. (We can go from conservative to liberal, from disciplined to undisciplined, from brunette hair to blond hair…) Change is volatile. Transformation is completely different – though sometimes it is called Change. Transformation never makes the past wrong. It transforms it. It doesn’t deny it. It honors it in a way that you can move forward without making anything wrong, and having the past somehow now become complete, rather than wrong. Transformation has a permanence to it – where once you transform, once you awaken, once you see the stations you didn’t see before, you can’t go back. Transformation has the ultimate power of time, and what the world is crying for now is transformation, not necessarily more change, though some change may be a part of it, the route to transformation. Transformation suddenly makes the past make sense, and new futures open up.” ~ Lynne Twist

As you reflect on these words, pay attention when people are talking about change vs. transformation; pay attention to your own behaviors and the changes vs. transformations you seek to make in yourself or encourage in others. Notice what prompts real transformation (rather than impermanent change), and consider the broader implications for individuals and organizational efforts to change or transform.

So how do we do this?

Project + People = Problems
Matt Morey

Many people become Project Managers by accident. These people have the technical know-how for the jobs of the team; but for the first time, they need a completely new set of skills, both Hard and Soft. The Hard skills can be found in the PMBOK, through classes, or company training. For some reason the Soft Skills are harder to come by, as there typically isn’t a template or tool used as a shortcut. In fact, several studies in recent years have shown that the Soft Skills are the primary reasons for project failure. In this workshop we will work through different techniques, trainings, and even scenarios to improve the Soft Skills so desperately needed in Project Management today! 

Objectives / Focus:

• Focus on the Major Soft Skills of Project Management
• Leadership
• Teambuilding / Motivation
• Communication
• Conflict Management / Negotiations
• Time Management / Organization
• Expectation Management
• Facilitation
• Stress Management
• Identify basics tips and techniques within the Soft Skills area for immediate implementation on your project
• Role Play of common Project Management Scenarios to identify methods of resolution
• Work with your fellow attendees to continue the growth after the workshop is complete!