The NYS Forum PM Committee Newsletter
2nd Quarter 2008
Mark your Calendars!
Visit www.nysforum.org for upcoming Meeting Announcements
Monthly Quote
"I couldn't wait for success, so I went ahead without it."
-Jonathan Winters
PM Artifacts
The PM COP information repository is hosted by OFT to share assets across the State.
To access the repository please visit https://ws04.nyenet.state.ny.us.
Questions? Email your request or questions to pmo@oft.state.ny.us
Growing a PMO?
Then the PMO Roundtable is where you need to be!!
The PMO Roundtable was originally established by a handful of agencies as a grass roots effort to support each other in their Project Management implementation efforts. Since its initial inception, it has been formally established as a workgroup of the NYS PM Standing Committee. So whether you are in need of support for your PMO or want to share your knowledge and experience with others, joining the PMO Roundtable is an invaluable resource. Anyone interested in joining the PMO Roundtable may contact Jonathan Blake at Jonathan_A_Blake@Keane.com.
The PMO Roundtable met on March 27th and discussed the evolution of a PMO from a departmental to an enterprise level. The session included a panel discussion that consisted of; Barry Solomon (Department of Motor Vehicles), Carol Velesko (Department of Taxation and Finance), Kirk Schanzenbach (Office of the State Comptroller) and Brenda Breslin (CIO/OFT). The session was facilitated by Jonathan Blake (Keane, Inc.) who also gave a presentation on "Organic Development of a PMO".
Congratulations!
By the time you read this, David Adkins, PhD will have accepted his new diploma. Congratulations, Dr. Adkins, on your accomplishment! The NYS PM Community of Practice is pleased to have contributed to his research.
"The Use of Social Network Analysis to Measure Knowledge Sharing in the New York State Community of Practice" not only completed David's doctoral studies, but has also provided us with some interesting insights and improvement opportunities. While in all honesty, I doubt many of us would want to study the entire 250+ pages, the Steering Committee will find many of the results useful in planning for the Community of Practice going forward. It is interesting to see our network diagrammed, and note how many nodes are in various roles such as central connector, boundary spanner, information broker, and peripheral specialist. Opportunities identified include the need to strengthen the community by engaging peripheral members and the need to increase the number of key members.
David asked that we once again relay his thanks to all of you who took a few moments this past February to respond to the survey which provided data for his dissertation. We look forward to having him attend a future meeting and present some of his findings to the group and we think you'll find it fascinating.
May PM COP Meeting
Overview of New York State Projects
Tuesday, May 20th from 2:30 - 4:00
Huxley Theater - New York State Museum
The next Project Manager Community of Practice Meeting will be held on May 20th. The session will be the first in a series of meetings that will provide an overview of major New York State projects.
Mahesh Nattanmai, from Division of Budget (New York Financial Management System), is the Project Manager for the Financial Management System Project (FMS). Mahesh will be providing an overview of the background, challenges and status of this major undertaking in addition to reviewing how Project Management is being applied to the project.
In March of 2007 legislation was signed initiating sweeping reforms to the Workers' Compensation system. Jon Haverly, from Keane, Inc. will provide an overview of how the Workers' Compensation Board has applied Project Management to meet this challenge.
This is a great opportunity to learn about current New York State projects and how Project Management techniques are being applied!
Pre-registration is required and available at http://www.nysforum.org/events/nysprojectsoverview-5-20-08/.
Anyone interested in Project Management is welcome to attend!
PM Training Options
There are a number of options available to government employees for both project management training and acquisition of PDUs for certification listed below:
The Upstate Chapter of the Project Management Institute sponsors monthly dinner meetings on a range of project management related topics. Additionally, the chapter offers a PMP examination preparation workshop in the spring and fall. For more information, visit the chapter's website: http://www.pmi-uny.org/index.html
The NYS FORUM sponsors quarterly events for both a PM Community of Practice and a PM Roundtable. The PM Community of Practice is a forum for interactive exchange for project managers in New York State government. The PM Roundtable supports project management implementation efforts and PMO establishment for government entities: For more information, visit the committee's website at: http://www.nysforum.org/committees/projectmanagement/
The CIO/OFT office now offers project management training available to employees of all state agencies. Courses currently offered include work breakdown structure, estimating and cost, and effective scheduling. Registration for courses is through the New York Government Learning Center: https://ws04.nyenet.state.ny.us/
ESI and IIL provide extensive course offerings in both program and project management, contract management, and business analysis. Both vendors also offer a number of Master's certifications. The vendors will offer a course at a government entity as well as their usual training sites. For additional information, view their websites.
ESI: http://www.esi-intl.com/public/index.asp
IIL: http://www.iil.com/
New York Government Agencies, Leaders Honored
The following is from a March 18th press release from the Center for Digital Government (www.centerdigitalgov.com)
Eighteen of New York's top technology innovators from state and local governments were recently selected by the Center for Digital Government, a division of e.Republic, to be the recipients of its esteemed Best of New York awards. The annual awards recognize superior contributions and distinction in the information technology arena.
This year's winners were chosen from dozens of entries submitted for the 2008 Best of New York awards program. Final selections were made based on criteria that included collaboration among organizations, innovative uses of technology and projects that best advance services provided to the public.
"This year's Best of New York portfolio reflects another harvest of technological innovation that makes cyberspace more secure, communities safer and more connected, and commutes shorter," said Paul Taylor, chief strategy officer for the Center. "The public sector IT community solved some hard problems, helped green government operations and made a difference in the residents' experience with their government."
"New York can be proud of the innovation, creativity and collaboration evident in this year's award winners and nominees from both state and local government. This is an area of public service that gets far too little recognition, so it is particularly gratifying to see the spotlight shinning on these information technology professionals who make government work, and make it work better," said Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, chief information officer and director of the Office for Technology for the state of New York.
Among the Best of New York recipients who were honored by the Center at a formal awards ceremony on March 19 was:
Excellence in Project Management
Brenda Breslin, director, NYS Enterprise Program Management Office, NYS CIO/OFT
Project Best Advancing Department/Agency Business Objectives
CIRIS - Critical Infrastructure Response Information System, NYS Office of Cyber Security & Critical Infrastructure Coordination
Project Best Advancing Service to the Public
Traffic Ticket ePlead, NYS Department of Motor Vehicles
Project Demonstrating Best IT Collaboration among Organizations
NYSVoter Statewide Voter Database, NYS Board of Elections
Congratulations all!!!!
March PM COP Meeting Recap
The March 2006 Project manager Community of Practice Meeting was held on March 6th at the Empire State Plaza. The session focused on various processes for performing Project Reviews.
Claude Ryan from Keane, Inc. began the sessions by reviewing how Project Audits are completed at Keane. His review covered the different types of audits that are performed along with an overview of the process for each audit type. Claude also reviewed the scoring process along with the various categories that are scored during an audit. Finally Claude reviewed sample audit templates and provided many useful tips for how to establish an audit process in an organization.
John Druke from KPMG then presented "Project Quality Assurance". John's presentation covered the
following topics:
Steve Sossei from the New York State Office of State Comptroller concluded the session by presenting the process OSC uses to audit the development of systems. Steve presented some real life examples by sharing some of the audit results from recent audits. Finally Steve reviewed the benefits that the CIO/OFT Project Management Guidelines has provided to their audit process.
Special thanks to Claude, John and Steve for sharing the Project Review experience and insights!
PMI UNY - 2008 Annual Professional Development Day Recap
Leadership through Effective Relationships by: Aileen Ellis, PMP
On Wednesday, May 7, 2008 the Upstate New York Chapter of the Project Management Institute presented a day-long professional development day "Leadership through Effective Relationships". The session was led by Aileen Ellis, PMP, PgMP, president of AME Group Inc.
"Leadership through Effective Relationships" focused on the methods project managers can use to build leadership skills and tips and techniques for identifying their own leadership style. "Leadership and management is more than an executive title and a corner office," said Ellis who has presented the program around the world. "It is communications skills, better understanding of the people on your teams and what they need in order to be more successful. This is what leads to effective management."
Note: All NYS Forum Meetings and events comply with all relevant laws and regulations associated with ethics and lobbying in New York State.