SNEC-PMI September 2010 Chapter Meeting        

Wednesday, September 15, 2010, 5:00pm - 8:00pm  

Don Black

Registration deadline:
September 12, 2010 at Midnight

Pre-Meeting Education Session

Microsoft Project Tips and Tricks
Want to use MS Project more efficiently and be more productive?  This session will provide you tips that will help you get more from the software.  It is intended for novice and experienced project schedulers familiar with MS Project.  The session will demonstrate functions of MS Project 2007, but the tips and tricks can be used in older versions of the software.  Although not required, we recommend you bring a laptop so you can follow along.
 SESSION CONTENT INCLUDES :

• Using Leads and Lags
• Applying Filters & Groups
• Generating Custom Reports
• Utilizing a Rolling Baseline
  

 
Presented by Darwyn Azzinaro, PMP, MCTS

Darwyn Azzinaro has 20 years of diverse professional experience in Information Technology and Business Process Redesign, including Project Management Office (PMO) development, project execution, solution consulting and formal PM curriculum development and instruction.  He is a Principal Consultant & Partner of PM Evolution.  Darwyn is an active member of PMI and SNEC and has attained numerous certification, including: PMP, OPM3 (Organizational Project Management Maturity Model), and Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS). 

Main Presentation

The Race to the South Pole: Ten Lessons for Project Managers
by Rick Brenner

Overview:

On 14 December 1911, four men led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Thirty-five days later, Robert F. Scott and four others followed. Amundsen had won the race to the pole. Amundsen’s party returned to base on 26 January 1912. Scott’s party perished. As historical drama, why this happened is interesting enough. But to project managers, the story is fascinating.

We’ll use the history of this event to explore ten important lessons about managing complex projects. From this story we can learn ten lessons in project management, including lessons about leadership, planning, scope creep, risk management, improvisation, discipline, organizational politics, team dynamics, technology management, and simplicity.

Each of these principles is illustrated with a story from the Race to the South Pole, comparing the approaches used by the two teams. The result is a lively, interesting program that deals with these ten topics in a memorable way.

This program is especially valuable for people involved in projects that are operating with thin safety margins — perhaps the project is late already, or unusually complex, or budgets have been reduced, a strategic partner has become difficult, or any number of complications are anticipated, but possibly unknown. Leaders, executives, managers, project managers program managers and project team members can all benefit.

Rick Brenner

Rick Brenner is principal of Chaco Canyon Consulting. He works with people in dynamic problem-solving organizations that are making products so novel or complex that they need state-of-the-art teamwork and stronger relationships among their people. In his 25 years as a software developer, project manager, software development manager, entrepreneur, consultant and coach, he has developed valuable insights into the interactions between people in complex dynamic environments, and between people and the media in which they work.

Mr. Brenner has held positions at Symbolics, Inc., and at Draper Laboratory, both of Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Symbolics, he was responsible for development of products based on Macsyma, a computer algebra system. At Draper, he was a principal investigator in a DARPA program, the Evolutionary Design of Complex Software, where he conducted research into advanced concepts for software development environments based on dynamic object-oriented programming languages. Since 1993, he has taught Spreadsheet Models for Managers, a course he devised, at the Harvard University Extension School. Mr. Brenner holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT. He is a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA), the Boston Software Process Improvement Network, and the Agile Bazaar Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. He has served in various leadership roles ranging from board member to vice president to chair (president) in local chapters of these societies. He was selected Chapter Member of the Year for NSA New England in 2001 and 2007.

His current interests focus on improving personal and organizational effectiveness in abnormal situations, such as dramatic change, enterprise emergencies, and high-pressure project environments. He has written a number of essays on these subjects, available at his Web site, http://www.ChacoCanyon.com, and writes and publishes a weekly email newsletter, Point Lookout, which now has just under 3,000 subscribers.