NYS Forum PM Steering Committee

Meeting Minutes

Held: August 17, 2009, 8:30 - 9:30 AM, at Keane offices
Next Meeting: September 14, 2009, 8:30 - 9:30 AM, at Keane offices

Attendees (members attending in person highlighted in bold, attending via phone in bold italic)

PM Committee Members
Brenda Breslin, State Co-Chair (DOH) (1),
Vivian Conboy, State Co-Chair (NYS Tax),
Chris Foster, CRT Co-chair, (CGI),
Jon Haverly, CRT Co-chair, PM COP Lead, (Keane),
Connie Benton (NYS OSC),
Jonathan Blake (Keane) (2),
Girk Cakmak (Bowne) (1),
Natalie Cole (NY State Police) (1),
Jason DiGianni, Repository Lead, (NYS DOB),
Susan Mardon (NYS DOT),
Melissa Morgan, Newsletter Lead, (TEK Systems) (3),
Ellen Peil (NYS DEC),
Bob Pennacchia (NYS DOH),
Diana Pinto (NYS Thruway),
Drew Prescott (NYS OFT),
Kelly Smith-Lawless (NYS DMV),
Linda Stella, PM Training Lead (Bearing Point)

2009 Initiatives

The following initiatives were generated from the Forum strategic planning session on Friday, July 10, 2009. They will serve as the initiatives for this program year.

Updates to the SDLC - Girk Cakmak:

Background: Several work groups (Security, Business Continuity, and Web Group) would like to work with the PM work group to update the PM Guidebook. There is also a desire to add the agile process as well as best practices from the work groups into the guidebook.
8/17 update: Meeting held on 7/24/09. Minutes from Brenda are as follows:

"We had a great discussion which went in many directions. I'm not much of a "minute" fan. I do meeting notes which document decisions and action items, so let me offer this summary and invite the others who were able to attend to add as they would like:

Decisions:
  1. After some discussion, we all agreed that putting the "hooks" into the NYS Guidebook methodology for Security and Business Continuity is really a separate effort from creating an Agile methodology that conforms to the Guidebook.
  2. Discussion of how to incorporate new sections in the Guidebook resulted in agreement to request copyright permissions. These permissions have been routinely granted to all who have requested them, both public and private sector, around the state, the country, and the world, so this should not be a problem. This will allow us to mirror the format, cite the book, etc.
  3. "Publishing" the workgroup products will be posting them to the NYS Forum's website and letting our constituent groups know they are there for their use.
  4. In discussing the effort required to write Release 1 and Release 2 of The Guidebook, it was acknowledged that writing an entire methodology is too large an undertaking for the volunteer efforts of these workgroups. Agile is a common topic in many state agencies, and many methodologies already exist. The PM Committee may put some agencies in touch with each other and find a shared subset, etc. There already is a local Agile Users Group and we will reach out through them to see what methodologies are in use we might leverage.
  5. If a shared Agile methodology is selected/developed, the PM group will reach out to the Security and Bus Continuity workgroups for their review and "insertion of security and business continuity checkpoints" before "published". We might consider developing a paper, etc. on the Role of a PM in Agile Development or something along those lines.
Action Items:
  1. Bus Continuity and Security groups will work together to define their methodology or touch points in project management and/or system development and then share it with the PM Committee for review before "publishing".
  2. A state representative (Deb Snyder? Call me if you need information. BB) will request copyright permissions to the NYS PM Guidebook. These permissions have been routinely granted to all who have requested them, both public and private sector, around the state, the country, and the world, so this should not be a problem. This will allow us to mirror the format, cite the book, etc.
  3. The PM Committee will take the topic of an Agile methodology definition to their next committee meeting for discussion. The priority for this task within the overall picture requires further discussion as to whether or not this is attempted at this time."

GOER Training - Natalie Cole and Linda Stella:

Background: There is an interest to assist GOER with the PM training (PM Fundamentals as well as more advanced PM training) they provide.
8/17 update: Natalie will reach out to Al Ross from GOER and see how we can assist.

BA Coordination with MATRIX - Connie Benton:

Background: The MATRIX group would like to continue the BA sessions that were kicked off with the PM COP on May 12th.
8/17 update: A meeting with the MATRIX folks was held on 7/31/09. It was agreed to hold a meeting once a quarter. Barb Ash from OSC is working with Mandy Herrington from CGI to see what her suggested next topics are. Barb just welcomed her first grandchild into the world so she will get info from Mandy ASAP.

Repository Lead to work with the MATRIX/Forum - Jason DiGianni:

Background: Based on feedback from the strategic planning session there looks to be a larger initiative to create an online repository for Forum work groups. Tied into this will be an initiative to create an acceptable networking option for the work group. Discussion at the strategic planning session included the possibility of leveraging something like LinkedIn.
8/17 update: Jon will send a follow up email to Greg Benson to see where matters stand.

PMO Roundtable Meeting
 
Upcoming PMO RT: How to Form and Maintain a COP within an Agency
Connie Benton from OSC and Carol Velesko from DOH will provide an overview of what they have established within their agencies.
8/17 update: Content is being finalized. There have been 7 responses to date and a follow up email will be sent. Vivian shared boilerplate slides once used for meetings
Owner(s): Ellen Peil
Action Plan: (Action - Assigned to - Status):
  • Determine date and time (September 10th from 1:30 to 3 pm) - Ellen - Done
  • Reserve room (Forum office conference room) - Ellen - Done
  • Create outline for speakers - Ellen - Ongoing
  • Identify and secure speakers (Paul McGuire from ESI) - Elaine and Brenda - Done
  • Provide materials to Mike - Ellen - Open
  • Work with Mike to send out email notice for sign up. - Ellen - Done
 
Consider the following topics for future meetings:
  • Working session on Knowledge Repository requirements
  • How to manage project budgets and contracts
  • How to maintain the PM momentum/ Marketing strategies for a PMO
  • PMO strategic planning and outreach
  • Portfolio Management and how to leverage software tools
 
PM Community of Practice Meeting
Q3 2009 GTC Panel Discussion on An Executive View of Project Management
8/17 update: The goal is to have 3 to 4 speakers, 10 minutes each. Diana Ritter will not be able to participate in the September 24th PM COP during GTC. She will tape a 5 minute segment that will be shown. Bob Megna from T & F will speak. If he is not able to stick around for the whole session Pat Mitchell will participate in the Q&A session for him. Kevin Belden from OSC will speak. Nancy Mulholland from DOT will speak
Owner(s): Brenda Breslin
Action Plan: (Action - Assigned to - Status):
  • Determine date and time (September 24, 2009; 2:20 to 3:30 pm) - Brenda - Done
  • Reserve room (Awaiting update from GTC) - Brenda - Open
  • Order a/v equipment (projector, bring own laptop) - Brenda - Open
  • Create outline for speakers - Brenda - Open
  • Identify and secure speakers - Brenda, Connie, and Kirk - Done
  • Provide materials to Mike - Brenda - Open
  • Work with Mike to send out email notice to all Forum committees for sign up. - Brenda - Open
 
 
Consider the following topics for future meetings:
  • Q4 - FOCAS/FMS joint governance possibly. POCs are Chris Gorka from OSC, Susan from DOB, and Melodie from OFT.
  • 2010 Q1 - look into OSC Retirement System Phase 2 Project
Joint Events
Event - Responsible - Status
  • Joint event with Upstate NY PMI Chapter - Brenda - October 21, 2009. Speaker is George Pitagorsky and his topic is "Sustaining Optimal Performance in Challenging Times: Applying Open-minded Mindfulness and Zen Thinking".
  • BA Discussion Joint Session with MATRIX Group - Connie - TBD
 
PM Committee Newsletter
3rd Quarter Newsletter
Distribution Date: Tentatively set for late September, 2009
Diana Pinto is willing to assist.
Owner(s): Melissa Morgan & Diana Pinto
Actions (Section - Assigned to - Status):
  • PMO Roundtable Recap - Ellen
  • PM COP/ GTC East Session Recap - Brenda
  • Recognize PMMP Grads
  • PM Scholars Picture
  • GOER Training Update - Natalie
  • SDLC Initiative Update - Girk
  • BA Session with Matrix Preview? - Connie
  • Repository Update - Jason
  • Joint Event with PMI - Chris

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 14, 2009 at 8:30 am. Moved up a week due to GTC being the week of September 21st.