What makes a Project Management Office Effective and Why it’s Important

Speaker presentations

See attachments at the bottom of this page.

Registration

Free. Space is limited. Registration is required.      REGISTER NOW

Where:

Saint Martin’s University, Worthington Conference Center
5300 Pacific Ave., Lacey, WA 98503
360-438-4488

Intended Audience

This seminar is for project managers, program managers, portfolio managers, CIO's, project sponsors, directors and assistant directors, project team members, and anyone interested in projects and making them more successful.

Abstract of Seminar Contents

Many agencies have recognized a need to improve their project management, and have implemented a Project Management Office (PMO).  All PMO implementations, however, are not equal.  An effective PMO, aligned with the organization’s strategic goals, is a powerful tool to make project team members and management alike proud of their accomplishments.  When an effective PMO is combined with best practices for program management and portfolio management, the teams are even more powerful.

This seminar will help you understand what a PMO is and what it is not.  It will explain what makes a PMO effective and why it’s important.  It will discuss best practices and how to make your PMO second-nature to your staff; just part of how you do business.  The emphasis will be on the lessons learned from successful – and not so successful – experiences of panel members with PMO implementations and operation. The format of the seminar will encourage audience questions of the panel members.

In addition, the seminar will present the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model, second edition (OPM3), the latest and most comprehensive global assessment framework from PMI, providing an organization an in-depth view of portfolio management, program management, and project management to support achieving best practices within each area.

Speaker Bio's:

Sharon Sikes PMP, SSC, OPM3-CC President of Evergreen Project Management Solutions has over 34 years experience in project, program and portfolio management for a wide range of large public and private projects in oil & gas, construction, IT, financial and insurance industries. She has spent the last ten years developing and implementing project, program and portfolio offices for IT security information projects within State Farm Corporate in Bloomington, IL and Bank of America Corporate in Charlotte, NC.  She is a certified Six Sigma Champion, and a Certified Cost Engineer. She has presented papers at several PMI Congresses in the United States, Canada and Europe.  She received the PMI Distinguished Contribution Award in 1999 and has served on numerous PMI Global Operations Center committees. She has served on several Chapter Boards, including Los Angeles Chapter, Central Illinois Chapter and is currently president for the PMI Olympia Chapter. Contact information: Sharon.Sikes@DoGreatThings.net  (360) 412-0225

Bob Miller PMP, OPM3-CC has 34 years of experience in IT with an emphasis in project management.  He has served as project manager, project management team member, PMO developer and manager, enterprise application architect, IBM marketing representative for Professional Services, manager of data warehousing, CIO, and director of business applications.  He has worked in federal, county, and state governments including Washington, Alaska, California, North Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama and private sector concerns in semiconductors, banking, retailing, wholesaling, shipping, and direct selling.  He began his project management experiences in 1981 and first encountered the PMBOK in 1998.  He initially used the PMBOK to (1) help develop the requirements for a multi-national project management system based on SAP’s Project System and (2) build and run a PMO with six full time project managers.  For the last 2 ½ years he has been in mid-level leadership positions on Level 3 projects for the state of Washington. Contact information: BobMiller3@comcast.net  (360) 456-8560

Panel Discussion

Moderator:  Bob Miller PMP, OPM3-CC

Panel Members:
Sharon Sikes PMP, OPM3-CC
CJ Walker Waite, Ph.D., PMP
Baird Miller Manager, State Labor & Industries, IT PMO
Verne Smith, Certified Management Consultant
Cass Tang, PMP

Panel Member Bio's

Sharon Sikes, see above.

C.J. Walker Waite, Ph.D., PMP, is a Managing Consultant for IBM.   Dr. Waite has over 20 years experience both domestically and internationally for corporate clients such as Nortel, EDS, Disney/ABC, Pasteur Merieux Connaught, Discovery Communications, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, NJDOT, and Saab Automotive - where she served a two year assignment in Trollhätten, Sweden.  Dr. Waite guides organizations to attain sustainable performance through establishing criteria for balanced decision models (economic, environmental and social considerations), conducting organizational assessments and designing and leading organizational transformations, creating program and project management performance guidelines (including the development of a Program or Project Management Office), enhancing leadership performance, defining process re-design, establishing communications strategies and creating strategic positioning within a global business setting.  Dr. Waite is also past president of the Washington DC PMI Chapter. Contact information: CJWalkerW@us.ibm.com  (240) 401-7817

Baird Miller, Ph.D., is the Manager of L&I’s Information Services Project Management Office.  Baird has over 20 years experience managing biological systems and technology projects in higher education, healthcare and industrial insurance.  Over the last 11years, Baird has been leading information technology, application development and business process improvement projects.  Baird leverages his systems, business process management and Lean process improvement experience to mature L&I’s enterprise project portfolio management methodology and support the successful delivery of projects.  Contact information: MIBA235@LNI.WA.GOV (360) 902-6236

Verne Smith Certified Management Consultant with Sierra Systems.  He has over 20 years’ experience focusing on managing business structure optimization projects with Canadian and US government agencies.  Through the analysis and alignment of vision and strategy (including e-government strategies), financial cost management, business systems (IT), business process management structure, information management (reporting, performance management), and customer relationship management, he has worked with agencies’ management teams to develop a roadmap to achieve their business objectives.  Verne has advised, developed and implemented PMOs and the organizational changes they required for success in both the private and public sector.  He has also performed audits on PMOs involving the associated PM methodology and PMO structures for the identification of continuous improvement opportunities. Contact information: VerneSmith@SierraSystems.com  (250) 881-2530

Cass Tang PMP President Synergy Corps is a certified professional to coach and empower IT resources in project management and ITIL processes.  Cass is an experienced manager who trains, coaches and advises C-level, Director and Management staff on organization, processes and best practices. She is also a workshop facilitator and keynote speaker for project management professional development and certification, career building, and management.. Cass’s specialties are in project management, program management, construction prime contracting, engineering implementations and design, team organization and skill building, people skills development, finance application implementations, data center migrations and consolidations and design, Service Desk and Help Desk design and implementations, sales and marketing, board leadership, audit procedures. Cass is past president of the Puget Sound PMI Chapter. Contact information: Cass.Tang@synergycorps.com  (206) 304-2655

Agenda

Welcome, Announcements	IPMA	8:30 - 8:40
The PMO Dissected: What Makes It Tick?	Sharon Sikes	8:40 – 9:15
Panel: PMO Experiences and Questions Moderator:  Bob Miller, PMP, OPM3-CC Panelists:    Sharon Sikes, PMP, OPM3-CC    CJ Walker Waite, PhD, PMP    Baird Miller, Manager L&I IS PMO    Vern Smith, CMC    Cass Tang, PMP	Panel	9:15 – 10:15
Break		10:15 -10:30
OPM3: PMI’s Little Known Crown Jewel	Bob Miller	10:30 – 11:15
Wrap up	IPMA	11:15 – 11:30

For more information . . .

Contact Thomas Bynum, Pam Derkacht, Ron Seymour  or Christy Ridout
IPMA Professional Development Committee Co-Chairs