Tools Tuesday - Six Ways I Use Webinars

I view online and recorded webinars.  Carefully selected webinars give me great value for time spent.

Six ways I Use Webinars:

1. To maintain my credential (PMI-PMP).  It is easy to find webinars offered by PMI Registered Education Providers (REPs) so that the PMI-PDU bookkeeping is easy.  If you pony up for a PMI membership, there are several good webinars offered by the various Communities of Practice via the PMI Site (Look in myPMI).
2. For "Just in Time" training when I undertake a new or less-familiar task.
3. To ensure that my organization's processes and procedures are industry best practice and sometimes to find opportunities to improve processes and procedures.
4. To entertain myself during those rare times when I've done everything I can for my projects (See maintaining my credential above).
5. To test drive areas as I consider taking additional in-depth training.  For example, do I want to study for, and sit for the ITIL foundation certificate?
6. To introduce myself to thought leaders in my industry.

I also plan to present webinars to share my unique knowledge and perspectives and to increase my network's reach.  Wish me luck!

Add webinars to your Professional Development Plan and use them to fill in the slow times while gaining information, insights, and qualifications.

Look Who is Featured in PMI's PM Network!

I just got around to reading the December 2012 issue of PM Network (PMI's Glossy Monthly Mag) and found this on page 25.

Yes, I'm the one with the silly smile.

My 15 minutes . . .

An editor for PMI's PM Network magazine reached out and asked for my input for the mag.

Here are the questions and my responses:

What do you expect will change the most about the profession in 2013?

Look for continued movement towards self-organizing teams in 2013.  I expect to see project managers moving away from command and control techniques as they embrace collaborative techniques like coaching, coordinating, and cheerleading.

What would this change mean for project professionals?

We need to strengthen collaborative skills.  Some Project Managers will remain in a coordinating role – especially in very large organizations.  Others will migrate to other roles such as Product Owner or Scrum Master.

Why do you think this change will happen (what signs point to it)?

The success of scrum teams and the resistance to command and control project management is apparent in the IT industry.  Younger workers reject and resist old school command and control.  Agile/Scrum teams run circles around traditional waterfall shops in software development – and we know what happens to dinosaurs.

Did I get it right?  Let me know what I missed in the comments.

PMI Agile COP Webinar on July 24

I just received an "eBlast" message from PMI announcing a webinar.  Note that you must be a PMI member to register and participate . . . 

This is part of the same series that Charles mentioned in "Agility in a Fixed Price Environment" earlier this week.  If you are a PMI member - just click on the register link in the message below.

Agile Community of Practice 

 

Webinar with Johanna Rothman

24 July 2012 at Noon PM ET (UTC - 0400)

Agile Portfolio Planning: Managing Your Project Portfolio

Whether you’ve been agile for a while or still thinking about it, I bet you have one thing in common with all other software teams I know—you have too much work to do. Agile will make that transparent. But what do you do about it?
The best choice is to manage the project portfolio. And, not only can you use agile and lean approaches to your projects, you can use agile and lean approaches to your project portfolio.
But, when you think of project portfolio management, do you think of dog-and-pony shows? Or, crazy math? Or, are your managers so accustomed to thinking that you should multitask when you tell them you don’t have enough people to staff projects? Do you see value-less pet projects that you would like to eliminate? With agile, you don’t need any of these. All you need is project demos and a straightforward discussion of business value.
In this presentation, Johanna will show you how an agile and lean approach to the project portfolio can help both technical staff and management see what’s going on, how to apply agile and lean to the project portfolio, and how to collaborate to make great portfolio decisions.

Register for the Webinar

About Johanna Rothman: Johanna Rothman works with managers and leaders to identify problems and seize opportunities around how they manage their product development. She focuses on removing management and technical staff impediments. Johanna was the Agile 2009 conference chair. She is the current AgileJournal.com technical editor. Johanna is the author of these books:
-Hiring Geeks That Fit
-Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
-The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
-Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management
-Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People
She is working on books about using agile practices to find a new job, and agile program management. She writes columns for Stickyminds.com and on agile project management for Gantthead.com, and writes two blogs on her web site, jrothman.com, as well as a blog on createadaptablelife.com.

PM sessions about the Energy Sector

For those of us in mid-Michigan here is an opportunity.

A week from tomorrow (Tuesday 5/15) the Michigan Capital Area Chapter of PMI is hosting two talks about managing projects in the energy sector.  I just registered and will be there - I'm working with an energy utility firm right now.  Here is a link and a description from MCAC-PMI:

http://www.pmi-mcac.org/

Register Now for our May Green event!

Featuring the GM Volt project and how Home Energy LLC delivers renewable energy projects for clients such as Valparaiso University.

First learn how software helps Home Energy LLC deliver renewable energy projects,

Then learn how the GM Volt project was managed during a huge time of change - the GM bankruptcy and restructuring. Between the two presentations there will be proud Volt owners from the Lansing area showing off their Volts and answering questions about the vehicles.