9:00am-10:00am

Lee

IT Leadership: How to Build and Leverage a Successful PMO 
Jason Lee, Partner and Founder, Maven Wave Partners

 

According to industry analysts, 62 percent of IT projects fail to meet their defined schedules.  25 percent of all projects get canceled prior to completion.  In an era where every internal investment is being closely monitored how can IT leadership improve the success rate of their portfolio of projects?

 

The Project Management Office (PMO) can help significantly reduce the rate of project failures.

 

In this session attendees will learn how to build and/or refine their current PMO

• Topics that will be covered include:

• How to build the PMO based on standard methodologies

• The differences between an enterprise PMO, organizational (departmental) PMO, or special–purpose PMO

• How standardize project management practices and facilitate IT project portfolio management

• How to make sure the PMO aligns to company culture 

 

10:00am - 10:30am - Refreshment Break

 

10:30am-11:30am

Mech

Preparing for Launch:  How to Fine-Tune Your Company’s PM Methodology to the Project

John Mech, Vice President, Application Development, Océ North America, Inc.

 

The decision on how to apply a project management framework is a critical success factor of a large project and a key deliverable of the project’s preparation phase.  There are dozens of well-known project management methodologies in the public domain.  In addition, all tier-1 consulting firms and most large companies have created their own.  For the most part, they all work.  But how well they work for you is dependent upon how well you adapt and apply them to your project. 

 

In this session attendees will learn:

• How to establish an effective project steering structure

• How to sift through project toolkits and choose the tools that are right for your project

• Techniques to communicate important project events and to keep senior management engaged

• A summary of the elements needed to launch a large IT project

• How to assess if your preparations are complete

 

11:30am-12:30pm

Shaikh Layok

Target Business Modelling – How to Mobilize Large IT Projects

Munzoor Shaikh, Senior Manager, West Monroe Partners
Greg Layok, Director of Technology Integration, West Monroe Partners

 

It is estimated that 85% of defects in software originates from faulty requirements (Young, Ralph R. Effective Requirements Practices. Boston: Addison- Wesley, 2001.). Large IT projects face a difficult challenge of mobilizing and aligning resources, understanding complex dependencies and adjusting for dynamic business changes. Often, in an effort to identify requirements perfectly, such projects stall. At other times, such projects start without sufficient requirements only to stop in the middle of the project, reassess requirements and undergo costly course corrections. A Target Business Model (TBM) is an accelerated method to quickly and accurately gather requirements from a cross functional team. TBM helps to align and mobilize large IT projects that can evolve with the dynamic needs of the business.

 

In this session attendees will learn:

 

·        How to structure a winning cross-functional team

·        How to conduct Target Business Modelling sessions

·        The key tasks for leadership and how to manage such tasks

·        Identify key risks and their associated mitigations

·        Learn which artifacts to produce for maximal effectiveness

·        Ongoing management and leverage of such a team

 

 

12:30pm - 1:30pm - Luncheon

 

1:30pm - 2:30pm

Susina

How to Identify and Manage Project Risk                                                       
Steve Susina, Director, Marketing, Laurus Technologies

 

Project management teams spend so much attention focusing on risk identification. Important projects pose significant hurdles including time constraints, technical challenges, and a lack of adequate resources.

In this session, attendees will learn how to identify and manage their project risk.

 

Content that will be covered includes:

• How to being a project risk planning process

• How to reduce scope creep, hardware and software defects

• How to handle schedule risk

• How to handle the impact of unexpected legal and regulatory risks

• How to manage resource restraints and risk

• How to handle non-quantifiable risks for the project

• How effective closure of current projects can affect the success of future projects

 

2:30pm - 3:00pm - Refreshment Break

 

 

3:00pm - 4:00pm

Crawford

How to Leverage Metrics to Measure the Results of Your Projects

Richard Crawford, Consultant, UMT
 

Successful projects start with a results driven process and there should be specific benefit measures to demonstrate success.  Project metrics are in- project execution measures that are collected, analyzed with the goal of driving project process improvement.

The reasons for effective metrics include:

 

·        clear project status information

·        identifying areas for process improvement

·        showing results of improvements efforts

·        showing trending information for historic comparison

 

 

4:00pm - 5:00pm 

McClain Verma Wimmer Stefano

Getting on the Same Page: How IT and Business Can Drive Project Success
Moderator: Tony McClain, Client Partner, Geneca

Panelists will include:

Anoop Verma, Director (Programs-IT), CNA Insurance

Randy Wimmer, IT Portfolio Manager, Allstate Insurance Company

Kiko Stefanov, Director, IT Program Management, CDW and other

professionals from enterprise IT departments sharing experience and lessons learned

  

Although the economy and marketplace continue to throw us curveballs, most economists agree the recovery has started. With a positive outlook ahead, organizations are now turning to growth strategies fueled by technology. Indeed, IT teams in most organizations have the opportunity to deliver the productivity improvements and innovation required to stimulate growth.

The ability of the business to effectively communicate its needs to IT directly influences successful project outcomes. Unfortunately, a productive dialog between business and IT is often not the case. In reality, many IT projects are delivered surprisingly out of alignment with business expectations resulting in million-dollar projects considered as failures.

This panel of IT Executives will talk about action they've taken to get on the same page as an organization. The will discuss lessons they've learned in getting clarity on roles and accountabilities for the organization's initiatives, resulting in a true partnership to achieve the desired results.