PMI SOC Greater Toronto
Information Systems Branch

UPCOMING EVENTS

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Thur. June 20, 2013

A Billion Dollar Project Blunder And The Eight Questions You Should Ask to Ensure Success of Your Project

 
Ninety Three Percent (93%) of projects over $10M fail completely or deliver short on scope, schedule, or budget. (The Standish Group, Chaos Manifesto 2012). If you have ever experienced the pain of a failed or challenged project, this presentation is for you. The presentation will explore: The eight most common root causes of project success (or failure); The questions you should ask to assess the risk associated with each root cause; The key issues underlying each of the eight root causes; The Billion Dollar Project Blunder Case Story and discussion.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Thurs. May 16, 2013

From the trenches - The successful and unsuccessful ways of bringing together off-shore, near-shore and local teams to develop various modules within a CRM product

 
In this session attendees will learn the successful, semi-successful & unsuccessful ways in which off-shore, near-shore and local teams were combined for the development of various modules within a CRM product.
Attendees will take away lessons learnt from 3000+ person day project that was successfully executed across 3 time zones i.e. Hyderabad, San Mateo & Toronto.In today's session our speaker will initially introduce the different combinations of the skills by location. He will then walk you through the successful, semi-successful & unsuccessful combinations. Finally he will wrap up his session with a list of reasons that contributed to these results.

For details please Click Here

 PAST EVENTS

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Sat. April 27, 2013

Critical Chain in Project Management

 
Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is an emerging methodology for planning, executing and controlling a project as a whole system and not concentrating on the deadlines of each task. Critical Chain was introduced by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, who also invented the Theory of Constraints (TOC), which is considered to be one of the paradigm shifting management philosophies in the recent history. Critical Chain addresses some of the shortcomings of the traditional Critical-Path Method (CPM) practiced by many project management professionals. A number of large organizations including Lucent Technologies, Israeli Aircraft Industry and United States Navy Shipyards have deployed CCPM in the recent past and have acknowledged high levels of project success.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Thurs. April 18, 2013

Utilizing SharePoint for Project Management

 
SharePoint has been on the market from 2001, and since then, matured into a very stable and popular business collaboration platform. The beauty of SharePoint is that it is relatively easy to customize and it provides an experience already familiar to users via Office suite. Most frequent use of the platform by corporations has been in the areas of web content management, information sharing and document management. In this presentation I will demonstrate how you can customize SharePoint to help you with your next project. You will walk away learning tips and tricks that you can implement literally in hours. Among other things, we will discuss how SharePoint can help you facilitate project team collaboration, integrate existing methodologies and empower your project team.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Thurs. February 21, 2013

Enterprise Architecture for PM

 
What is Enterprise Architecture? What does Enterprise Architecture have to do with project delivery? Is Enterprise Architecture another body of knowledge? Why should a Project Manager be interested in understanding Enterprise Architecture? This presentation will provide a basic understanding of Enterprise Architecture and its relationship to Project Management.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Thurs. Jan. 17, 2013

Changes to the PMBOK® Guide, 5th Edition, and What You Should

 
In early January 2013, The Project Management Institute (PMI®) will release the 5th edition version of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge® (PMBOK® Guide), the Project Management Institute's collection of published "generally recognized good practices". This new edition updates the current 4th edition standard. Project managers, those who manage project managers, PMI® members, and potential future PMP® and CAPM® candidates should all be interested in the changes to the PMBOK® Guide, since this new edition updates the standard and outlines good practices that directly affect them.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch, PMO and Healthcare Joint Event Thurs. Dec. 6, 2012

Beyond On-Time and Within Budget

 
The boundaries of a project have expanded more upstream and downstream. The upstream expansion moves projects into the strategic realm where a strong link to the strategic objectives of the organization has to be established. The downstream expansion is where a project’s success is assessed beyond the end date, where a project’s success needs to be measured by how well it met the objectives it was set out to achieve. These objectives are the ones linked to the strategy, where projects become an integral component of the Strategic knitting of an organization. Project management has become more results-oriented than process-oriented.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Thurs. Nov. 08, 2012

Better Projects through Better Business Processes

Enough is enough. Project success has been stalled for well over 20 years. And yet skills and knowledge have never been higher. So WHY are we stuck? We have, for the longest time, focused on methodologies. Methodologies focus on method, or steps. Lord knows we have enough of them, all useful for a given set of problems. This presentation switches perspective by focusing on frameology, or frameworks. In particular, we present the Relational Process Model (RPM), a framework for understanding, designing, deploying, and managing business processes for peak performance.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Sat. Nov. 24, 2012

Simple Rules for Leading IT Projects

The elements and rules of project leadership are simple and easily accessible to everyone. As project and program managers we need to live by these rules, continually seek to improve our own skills, and coach project staff to act as leaders. In this brief workshop, we will examine some simple rules within the context of an IT project and deepen our understanding of the role of purposeful questioning, positive perspective, language awareness, emotional intelligence, change leadership, ennobling visions, and shared values.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Sat. Sept. 29, 2012

Agile- Where the Wild Things are

Despite the consistent, rapid increase in the use of Agile methods for product development, most Agile implementations fall flat. The promise and initial excitement of fresh methods, engaged teams, and predictable value delivery quickly give way to .. business as usual. Or worse, a confusing mishmash of "best practices" and new lingo.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Thurs. Sept. 20, 2012

The Planning Phase and Project Success: A review of the research

Project planning is widely said to be an important contributor to project success. However, does the research affirm this? The literature points to a strong link between planning and project success. In addition managers who are better at planning may have more successful careers.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Thurs. Aug. 16, 2012

USERcentric Systems - Art and Science & Ethics & Integrity

This presentation will focus on the concept of “USERcentric Systems” (A trademarked methodology for Application Development in the Information Technology discipline). The topics discussed will enable the audience to better understand what is required for project success in the development of Computer Applications as well as discover if Project Management is an Art and / or Science or both.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Thurs. July 19, 2012

Adding Business Value through Project Delivery

This session will review opportunities to create business value through project execution. It will present sources of value that project management professionals can tap into on a daily basis in order to enhance a firm’s competitive advantage and to drive up operational excellence.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event June 21 , 2012

Bridge the Gap in Your People Skills

The Bridge Game is a generic soft skills tool for “People learning to work with People”, the greatest challenge facing most organizations today. Team Synergy, Personal Leadership, Change Management and Client Driven Focus are the key ingredients in this session. It’s a fast paced, non threatening learning environment with some “highly productive fun” enjoyed by all age groups, ranks and gender.

Purposely designed as a ‘mini-project’, the Bridge Game has a natural appeal for Project Managers getting their teams ready for the task. Numerous Learning Professionals in a variety of public and private sector industries around the world are already benefiting from this unique learning methodology. Please join us to assess how this could work for you.

 

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event May 17 , 2012

A Roadmap for Project Recovery

Are you faced with the challenge of turning around a "troubled project"? The Speaker will present a roadmap that has been successfully used for project reset and recovery. It is built around ten steps, namely: Accept the fact; Assess the project; Adapt objectives to business needs; Assign responsibilities and delegate; Achieve goals by setting targets; Act consistently and decisively; Advance the project through communications; Accomplish stability for turnover; Alter the business direction through effective transition; and Align for on-going execution of business or project strategies. Here's your opportunity to understand how to reset the baseline, coach your team for renewed confidence, and achieve a successful turnaround.

 

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event April 28 , 2012

Project Context Diagramming – a rapid discovery technique for Project Managers

Build a new kind of project map that supports you in moving your project forward with confidence. See your whole project on a page, and a complete picture of all your stakeholders with information flow. This half-day session provides an opportunity to explore this topic in more depth. In this workshop you will learn to:

1. Understand how a Project Context Diagram can help your project
2. Build a Project Context Map
3. Use the Project Context Map to support charter creation, and other process deliverables
4. Apply the method to a business case to develop a real project
5. Maintain the Map as the project evolves, and drive changes to other artifacts
6. Ideas on how to use the map to support the 9 knowledge areas

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event April 19 , 2012

Using Change Management to Drive Project Effectiveness

This is a time of tremendous change, opportunity and transformation in Ontario and across North America for the utility industry. The challenges facing the Ontario electricity industry are new and many. With the business world changing, the organization is now focusing on renewing Ontario’s Power Grid, accelerating changes in emerging technologies, creating higher expectations for quality, value and service, providing opportunities for innovation, collaboration and leadership, and striving to achieve excellence in a rapidly changing environment.

This session will explore a number of organizational transformation projects.  These complex, multi-year projects provide great examples of major change undertakings, and offer many lessons on the people and technological dimensions of change. 
 

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Feb 16 , 2012

Building Castles on Sand - Managing Change in Distributed Environments

Maintaining project sanity in an environment of ever-changing requirements is one of the main challenges of a successful completion of a software development initiative. While being tough enough to manage the changes while face-to-face with the end-users, distributed projects face the additional challenge of maintaining the users happy over long-distance relationships.

This session will explore several critical elements that are required for an IT project to achieve success while coping with multiple locations, diverse mentalities and various time zones.
 

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Jan 21 , 2012

How Smart PM's are Using Social Media for Stakeholder Engagement and Management in Large Projects

Social Media has expanded quickly in the last few years and many organizations all over the world rely on this amazing tool to communicate with their project teams; many of which are virtual and distributed all over the world.

Do not miss this opportunity to attend this workshop as Dr. Norrie will challenge our thinking about new and innovative ways of using social media for our project communications.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Jan 19 , 2012

Risk Management in Project Rescues

“Risk Management in Project Rescues” talks about how to leverage risk management techniques to save a project in trouble.

Handed a mess that another project manager could not handle? Risk Management in Project Rescues provides a method for understanding why a project is in trouble and a process for using risk to identify he key areas for remediation. It also covers how to track progress when saving a project and when to call it quits. A case study will illustrate the approaches.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC PMO-GTIS-HLIG Joint Event Dec 8, 2011

PMO Lifecycle: Quantitative Results

PMOs have been taking on a more prominent role in their level of authority, structure, reporting lines and mandate. Project Management Offices (PMOs) have been growing and going through change and transformation and today literature defines PMO types, roles, functions, as well as their impact on performance. The lifecycle journey that PMOs go through requires attention since there is little or lack of knowledge regarding PMO lifecycle (PMOLC) pertaining to set-up, build-out, and sustainability.

Due to the evolution of the PMO and there is a need to cover the lifecycle of PMO which would allow those interested in building PMOs to learn what is required in each phase of the PMOLC, the complexities associated with each phase, and the challenges and rewards.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Nov 17, 2011

Perspectives on Outsourcing

Business Outsourcing continues to remain a significant discussion topic in a company’s strategic planning process, irrespective of the industry. Recent economic downturn has further heightened the importance of this topic. While continuously evolving, it comes with myths, challenges, and complexities and yet it represents opportunities.

This presentation will cover various aspects on Outsourcing, including addressing some myths and perceptions, outlining key market trends, different types of outsourcing, and sound practices on areas such as transition, contract management, pricing, governance, etc. It will also touch on how Cloud is changing and impacting some aspects of traditional outsourcing and demonstrate how Project Managers have a significant role to play in the outsourcing cycle.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Oct 22, 2011

Project Manager and Business Analyst - Friend or Foe?

Business Analysis knowledge for project managers? Absolutely! While the Business Analyst position is still rather new to many organizations, their primary role — to define and document user requirements and thereby help bridge the gap between the client and the solution team, has always been an essential ingredient for achieving project success.

Participants will learn:
• Highlight the interrelationship between PM, BA, and SME roles
• Introduce BA Knowledge Areas
• Understand how business analysis benefits a project
• Introduce core BA tools
• Recognizing and resolving conflicts between PM and BA

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Oct 20, 2011

Evolution of the PM Methodology

Project Management continues to grow in many organizations around the world. Today, more businesses are injecting formal project management best practices into the central nervous system of their organization. As companies expand to respond to booming Market needs, or budget cuts to comply with an industry recession, the PM Methodology is always evolving.

This presentation will showcase the journey of a leading national law firm’s Project Management Office from its early beginnings to present day, while illustrating how a PM Methodology can evolve from a governance based model to an in-demand service oriented platform.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event June 22, 2011

Quality Estimation Through Function Point Analysis

Do you know how to compare two projects with respect to the user functionality they would each deliver? Are you writing a business case and must come up with a rough estimate of the size of a possible solution? Are you preparing a project plan and must provide more accurate estimates of the effort required to complete the project deliverables? Do you know how to utilize your hard-earned experience from past successful projects to more accurately estimate the effort at your current project?

Function Points are an established technique that can be used to provide answers to the above questions.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event April 30, 2011

Workshop: Innovative Techniques for Agile Estimating and Planning: Predictability in the Face of High Levels of Change and Complexity

The marketplace is showing keen interest in agile methods as a way of dealing with complex or high change projects. While the adoption rate for agile methods is increasing, people interested in trying these new approaches are struggling with a common challenge: How to estimate costs and schedules up front when using methods that break projects into iterations that uncover requirements and produce emerging solution designs throughout the Projects.

This session will present participants with some innovative and practical estimating and planning techniques that can help them cope with the uncertainty of complex projects while still helping them prepare reliable budget and timelines.

Participants will learn:

• Why we plan in the first place and what makes a good plan
• Why traditional planning fails
• The basics of agile planning

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC GT IS, Healthcare and PMO Branches Joint Event April 20, 2011

Communicating Change in Chaotic Times

In every country, not just in Canada, the ongoing recession is beginning to have a toll on people's optimism. Decreased budgets, sometimes decreased headcounts, but no decrease in expected productivity - if anything? There's growing pressure to produce significantly more with significantly less. How individual organizations will respond to these pressures will vary greatly from one organization to the next, but individuals will respond to this loss of control with less variation.

There are well defined Change Process Models which can predict how we respond to Change and that provides us, if we're paying attention, a set of guidelines for charting our course out of this mess.

For details please Click Here

PMI SOC Event March 5, 2011

PMI Southern Ontario Chapter Professional Development Day

PMI Southern Ontario Chapter is proud to announce the 2011 Annual Professional Development Day. An event filled with learning, networking and fun to be held on Saturday, March 5th 2011, and featuring 2 top level keynotes and a great line-up of industry experts and renowned speakers for track sessions.

From the 5 parallel tracks being offered 3 are held at the main location, Courtyard Marriott Downtown Toronto, and – for the first time – 2 tracks will be located at Georgian College in Barrie with live streaming of keynotes from the main venue!

For details please visit www.soc.pmi.on.ca and follow Professional Development Day logo to the event website.

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event February 17, 2011

Collaborating with Content: Empower your team with information!

Getting people the right information at the right time is half the battle in project communication. Due to information overload, project communication is starting to consume a good portion of Project Manager’s time and energy. Failing to address this situation can result in undesired project outcomes. Witness how Project Managers are addressing this project risk with their project teams.!
 

Sathi Vanigasooriar is the Managing Director at Governing Concepts Incorporated (GCI). Decision-making in today’s world is slowing down due to information overload. People are bombarded with information and therefore are struggling to effectively utilize it for decision making. GCI has become a pioneer in utilizing content management platforms such as SharePoint for getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

 
Click here for details.

PMI SOC GT IS Branch Event Jan. 20, 2011

Baselining The Schedule, What’s The Big Deal?

What do we mean by a schedule baseline?
 

Generally most PM’s discuss and present schedule baselines purely in the technical context. Those schedules are generally technically sound and contain all the appropriate technical attributes for success, yet the project runs into scheduling challenges!
 

Romeo discusses the non-technical aspects of baselining a schedule in order to facilitate a successful outcome to the project. He presents a perspective to project schedule development that is seldom given much thought, yet extremely critical!

 
Click here for details.

CPMP Event Sat. Dec 11, 2010

CPMP 5th Anniversary and 2010 Christmas Party
Romeo Mitchell

Saturday, December 11, 2010, 6-10pm
Early Bird Price: $30 for CPMP members; $35 for non-members

At this holiday season of the year, the CPMP is also coming to its special day - 5 years birthday! In the past five years, the CPMP has grown from seven people group to over four hundred member's professional organization (Including many non-Chinese). It has greatly contributed to our members and the professional communities through over 50 educational seminars and social activities. It has played pivotal roles and influences in the Project Management field and in the Chinese Professional Communities.

Click here for details.

GT ISLIG Event Nov. 18, 2010

The People Side of Implementing Technology

Mary Neff, President & Sr. Project Manager, PeopleSide Inc.
 

In today’s world, as the pace of change accelerates, the bottleneck for implementing new information technology is no longer technical, but is human adaptability. Fully deploying new technology is more than just building and installing a quality product. Understanding all the changes that the new technology imposes on the business and preparing and executing the transition journey for the business saves time, saves money and allows the end user to more quickly and more fully utilize the new technology
 

Click here for details.

GT ISLIG Event Oct. 30, 2010

ADR-Ontario, CMC-Ontario-GTA & PMI - GTISLIG Joint Event

Collaborative Contracting for IT Projects
 

IT projects have become very sophisticated and complex especially with the emergence of outsourcing and off shoring. Often, the implemented solution requires an ongoing relationship between buyer and seller that need to last decades. Additionally, project teams more frequently are virtual and geographically distributed made up of people from several inter and intra organizations. This seminar focuses on how to collaboratively build and administer contract to create win-win situations between all parties during (and post) project. The panel speakers consists of different professions having wide range of application and contracting experience which will make this seminar very worth while to attend.

Click here for details.

CPMP Event September 26, 2010

CPMP September Event - Practical Agile Project Management
 

In a world of high customer expectations, quick turn-around and tighter budgets how can projects sustain and deliver? Agile Methodology is touted to be one way of delivering projects in a world of expectations and in a tighter economic situation. This topic will explore what is Agile development? How to manage and deliver projects in Agile manner. Furthermore, this topic will explore some additional success factors for Agile methodology such as Leadership agility, Agile Spaces etc. In the later panel session, Larry will use a real business case to introduce concurrent product development system in the process engineering. Then Vijay, Larry, John and Shenyin will discuss agile related topics, such as, Change management and resistance, major challenges, Agile phases and Leading self-organizing team.

Click here for details.

GT ISLIG Event September 15, 2010

Coach's Corner: Your Share of the IT Job Market
 

TEKsystems will be hosting the PMI GTISLIG event on September 15th, 2010. This event will be a panel discussion where Project Managers will have the opportunity to speak with top industry professionals regarding topics such as current market conditions, hiring trends, resume writing, interview tips, as well as best practices in identifying suitable opportunities through the power of networking.

Click here for details.

With the widespread growth of agile project management and agile development methods, we face challenges when these projects don’t (or can’t) provide us with our standard performance metrics for project health assessment and project portfolio management. Proponents of agile methodologies, who tend to emerge from the development community, rebel against standard organizational processes for project tracking and control, and few in the project management world really understand these agile methods well enough to try and adapt traditional tracking mechanisms to these high-change projects. Many ask “how can I apply earned value measurements when the baseline keeps shifting?” Click here for details.

Risk management normally is overlooked by many companies and program/project managers, so the projects easily go over budget and behind schedule, thus how to utilize and balance the risk management to ensure project success is a more demanded topic. .... Click here to go to CPMP site for details.

Canadian organizations are continuing to adopt outsourcing strategies for many IT and business processes. Operating effectively in this complex process is challenging -- an area that project managers need to understand. This presentation will provide an overview of the entire outsourcing life cycle, providing participants with an appreciation for how outsourcing deals are structured, implemented and managed, giving examples of project management considerations and best practices.

After the session you will have a more comprehensive understanding of:
■ The lifecycle and key stages of outsourcing arrangements
■ How the focus of PM effort changes over time
■ How to manage for a successful outcome ? ..... Click here to see the details.
 

Keynote Speaker: Rowena Lamy, PMP, Program Manager in Royal Bank of Canada, specializing in Project Management, Procurement Management and Business Analysis. As an accomplished professional, she has a broad base of experience managing complex projects for multi-national companies in the Financial, Insurance, Telecommunications and Manufacturing industries.

Speech Introduction: The seminar “Managing your Projects- Managing your Life - the Synchronicities” present you the insights of the Project Management Practices in real life, and teach you how to apply the Project Management methodologies and skills to better manage your projects - career life and person life. You will find that you will be greatly benefited from learning the in-depth project management knowledge and more importantly from the interactive communication with a PM veteran.

Location: City Hall - Scarborough Committee Room 1 & 2
Date: Sunday, March 21, 2010
Time: 9:30 - 12:00pm
PDU: 2

Click here to see go to CPMP Registration site for details.

GT ISLIG Event on Jan. 21, 2010

 
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