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News Briefs
5th Annual Project Management Australia Conference, PMOz 2008: The Australian PMI Chapters are proud to be the conference partners to the 5th Annual Project Management Australia Conference, PMOz2008 being held in Melbourne 18th - 20th August. The conference is offering something for everyone applying the principles of project management as a business tool. PMI members are offered a discounted registration fee. For more information visit the conference web site at www.pmoz.com.au
Chapter Leadership Opportunity - Expression of Interest: The PMI Melbourne Chapter has been promoting professional project management since 1997, with more than 1300 members the Chapter is one of the largest and most proactive in Asia Pacific region. The Chapter is calling for nominations from interested Chapter members to fill a vacant Board position. Nominees must be financial members of both PMI and the Melbourne Chapter.
Good Scheduling Practice: Developing and maintaining a 'good schedule' is a key element in the efficient management of any project. PMI's Practice Standard for Scheduling expands on the PMBOK GuideŽ to define good scheduling practice and provides an effective way to measure if a schedule demonstrates 'good practice'. Copies of this standard can be downloaded as PDFs from the PMI website by members for personal use free of charge. Printed copies of the standard can be purchased from the PMI Melbourne Chapter for $77 (price includes GST and postage): email PMBOK_Orders for details. A complete list of the PMI standards stocked by the Melbourne Chapter is on our 'Home Page' (scroll down to view).
Website delivers tips, techniques, trends for project managers: Discover the latest university-based research in project management at www.PMPerspectives.org, an interactive research website created by researchers at Simon Fraser and Oxford Universities. The site is both a forum for dialogue between project and program professionals around the world and a dynamic resource to support the educational mandate of PMI chapters and PM groups. Unlike many professional resources, www.PMPerspectives.org combines the results of rigorous academic research with a strong focus on easy-to-understand practical applications. It is of particular interest to managers of information technology (IT) and IT-enabled business-change projects.
Is Return On Investment (ROI) Overrated? Return on Investment (ROI) is probably the most popular business case measure for assessing projects and initiatives. However, it is fraught with pitfalls and is the most overrated project selection method.
 Dr. James T. Brown PMP. is president of SEBAŽ Solutions Inc. a Registered Education Provider with the Project Management Institute and is the author of The Handbook of Program Management published by McGraw-Hill. He provides project management training and keynote speeches worldwide and may be reached at jtbrown@sebasolutions.com.
Join us at the monthly Chapter Meetings! The monthly Chapter Meetings hosted by PMI Melbourne, every last Tuesday of each month, cover a wide variety of topics. Topics of late have included - Agile
Methodology....
....and a panel discussion on Go-Girl Go for IT....
We encourage all members and interested parties to participate in these monthly events. They are worth 1 PDU, provide you with the opportunity to network with your fellow PMs and will keep you across the current trends and hot topics in project management and in the Chapter! The monthly event is featured in the bi-monthly newsletters and can be booked online.
Monthly Event; Getting, Giving and Gaming Service Levels: An overview of how to establish and negotiate successful service level agreements, and the dangers and effects of gaming behavior in service level regimes. Claudia leads Infosys' commercial negotiations in Australia and New Zealand, and has over 10 years experience in commerical transactions in the technology, defence and engineering industries.
Infosys defines, designs and delivers IT-enabled business solutions that help Global 2000 companies win in the flat world. |
 Help Wanted! - National PMI Project
Last month Todd Hutchison - Chairman of the Australian PMI Council (APC) was sent to members announced the development of a strategy to possibly move towards a single Australian PMI organisation based on single Chapter with Branches model (similar to New Zealand, Poland etc).
The APC see many benefits in this approach including:
- A National presence that will be recognised by the Australian Federal Government and major corporations;
- Members can move interstate and retain the same membership;
- The greater power and reach of a national body will increase the awareness of PMI chapters, their members and its certification leading to an advantage for PMI certified individuals when they are seeking employment.
A project manager has now been appointed by the APC to further develop this strategy and we are seeking a registration of interest from our members to volunteer and join the team on this National PMI project.
We currently need volunteers from our membership who have good finance, legal, marketing or change management skills. If you are interested in joining the team please get in touch with your local chapter president at http://www.pmichapters-australia.org.au/officers.htm
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International Standards Organisation 21500 Guide to Project Management
The Australian Delegation to the International Standards Organisation recently attended the Washington DC meeting of the ISO Project Committee 236 to further progress the development of ISO 21500 Guide to Project Management. PC236 meets approximately every six months at international locations to resolve the issues, comments and suggestions from the national committees of the member nations. The Washington meeting involved 78 representatives from 20 nations. The member nations in turn have their own project committees directed toward this effort. In Australia this is Committee MB12 Project Management - (also known as the national mirror committee). MB12 is a comprised of nominees of professional associations and other institutions recognised by Standards Australia as representing broad based entities with a stake holding in project management in Australia e.g. PMI, AIPM, DOD etc. This Committee is ultimately responsible for ensuring that Australia's views are heard in the international forum dealing with the development of ISO 21500 Guide to Project Management and also for adopting or adapting the published version of ISO 21500 as an Australian Standard. The Australian Delegation consists of the Chair of MB12, Dr Neveen Moussa supported by Deputy Chair Lloyd Carter.
The Australian Committee is currently comprised of approximately one hundred subject matter experts representing a diverse range of project oriented industries across Australia. Much to the credit of Australia, this is one of the largest national mirror committees involved in this effort. The immediate goal of the ISO committee is to develop a working draft which will be distributed to the broader international community via the national mirror committees for review and comment in mid year 2008.
The ultimate objective of ISO is to publish the ISO 21500 Guide to Project Management in the Summer of 2010. The next meeting of PC236 will be in Miesbash, Germany in November 2008. |
PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE 
Have you ever had to deal with managing or negotiating service levels? If this is of interest to you, then why not register and come along to the chapter's next monthly event - on 29 July. Details are at left. The Chapter's monthly events are held in the Telstra Building (corner of Lonsdale and Exhibition Streets). Once you are inside, the way to the conference centre is signposted.
