Greetings!
Welcome to the second September issue of our regular newsletters. Some of the articles of this edition are: - President's statement about the disputes against the Chapter
- An article from the Risk Doctor on 'Asking the Right Questions'
- Details for a breakfast event on 'Project Effectiveness'
- Feedback request on the new framework for Program Managers from GAPPS
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A summary of our training courses and upcoming Chapter events -
Last but not least, our regular white papers provided graciously by our Training Partner, Patrick Weaver. This issue's topic is about Critical Chain Planning.
Remember your feedback is always welcome, we like to hear back from you. Thanks for being part of the PMI Melbourne Chapter community. |
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President's Statement
Lynda Bourne, the President of the Melbourne Chapter, read the following statement during our September monthly event:
Statement to Members for the September Meeting
In April, I reported on the progress of the disputes raised by Mr Bond against the Chapter, and at the last chapter meeting the Vice-President reported that one of the disputes was being heard in the Melbourne Magistrate's Court - and it was in its 9th day.
I am pleased to report today that a settlement was reached on the 10th day with Mr Bond withdrawing all grievances and disputes and issuing an apology.
Rather than incurring more costs by continuing the court process and in order to help the settlement process, the Board has agreed to assist Mr Bond with his legal fees up to $25000. The Board also agreed to: - A review of the new chapter (2010) rules and to include one nominee of Mr Bond in the sub-committee and to have the first meeting in October 2010 and a final report in June 2011. The Board is obliged to review the Chapter's rules on a regular basis and this will be the first of the reviews for the new rules.
- Modify the membership of the 2011 Nominating Committee so that there are no Board members whether current or past on the 2011 Nomination Committee. The IPP will chair the committee. This is in line with the Board's practice over the past 2 years of constructing a nomination committee made up of eminent Chapter members and those who are not current (non-retiring) Board members.
This statement has been approved by the Board members and cleared by our legal team so I cannot take questions from the floor. However, if you do have questions you can send an email to president@melbourne.pmi.org.au |
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Project Effectiveness Breakfast Seminar
 Imagine you are responsible for delivering the complete portfolio of projects conducted across the resource and processing industries in Australia. What are the key issues you will face and how do you go about effectively delivering this portfolio? IPA is hosting a Project Effectiveness Breakfast Seminar at the Park Hyatt on October 4th, (7:00am - 9:00am). For more information and to register please click here.
The seminar consists of three 20-minute presentations and discussions followed by a presentations Mr. Bill Leimbach, producer of the Australian feature film Beneath Hill 60. For full details, visit Events by IPA. |
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Upcoming Courses
Training Committee have finalised the 2011 training schedule and started publishing at our website for January next year. The rest of the program will be available to book very soon. Here is a summary:
PMI Credential Courses:
Short Courses:
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Upcoming Chapter Events
October Event, 26/10/2010 - "Outsourcing agreements; traps and pitfalls."
Speaker - Dudley Kneller, Partner - Middletons
Areas to be covered include:
- Reasons for outsourcing;
- The RFP process - either releasing the RFP (for the customer) or responding to an RFP (for suppliers);
- Vendor assessment (for customers);
- The outsourcing contract - outlining provisions such as service levels, timings, liquidated damages, quality and liability;
- The importance of the schedules to the outsourcing agreement.
This presentation is aimed at both legal and non-legal professionals who deal with outsourcing transactions. Middletons has significant experience in presenting to non-legal audiences and will keep the presentations as simple and "non-legalese" as possible.
November End of Year Event, 30/11/2010 - "Solid Proof - The Future Will Be Expensive"
Speaker - Rob Gell
Chapter's end of year events are always a great opportunity to have fun, to connect with others and to celebrate our achievements and the coming of the holiday season. Rob Gell will be the speaker for the event. Rob has been quoted as "... an outstanding communicator and a passionate environmental campaigner who is respected for his approach to sustainable development". Please mark your calendars that the Melbourne Chapter's end of year event that will take place on Tuesday, 30th of November at the Chapter House. Bookings will be open very soon.
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Feedback Sought for GAPPS Draft Program Manager Standards 
As program management has become a more widely recognized management approach, governments, individuals, and both public and private sector organisations have become interested in frameworks and standards that describe levels of acceptable workplace performance for program personnel.
The Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS) is a volunteer organisation working to create such frameworks and standards by providing a forum for stakeholders from differing systems, backgrounds, and operating contexts to work together to address the needs of the global project and program management community. The GAPPS frameworks are intended to be used by businesses, academic institutions, training providers, professional associations, and government standards and qualifications bodies globally. Frameworks may be used "as is" to speed the development of local standards, or they may be adapted to local needs. The GAPPS Program Manager standards have been finalised and released in exposure draft for public review. The details are on GAPPS website. To provide feedback, please click here. The feedback is in three parts:
- General Comments
- Comments on the role description (section 3 of the exposure draft standard)
- Comments on specific Units, Elements or Performance Criteria
The survey will be open until the 11th October 2010. |
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The Risk Doctor: Asking the Right Questions. 
One of the most common symbols used to represent risk is a question mark ("?"), reflecting the uncertainty associated with all risks. Since risk is defined as "uncertainty that matters", there will always be at least four important questions to answer about every risk:
- What is the uncertainty?
- How uncertain is it?
- Why does it matter?
- How much does it matter?
But there are many other questions raised by risk, and the link between risk and questions means that everyone with responsibility for managing risk needs to know how to ask and answer the right questions. Of course asking and answering questions is part of everyday conversation for all of us, so we might think that questioning is a natural skill that we all possess. But perhaps it is not as easy as we assume.
There are a range of question types that can be used for different purposes. Some questions provide structure, others direct flow, and some help us to reach closure. Question types include:
- Open questions, to gather information and facts, for example "What are your concerns and worries about this situation?"
- Probing questions, to gain additional detail, e.g. "Can you explain why that matters?"
- Hypothetical questions, to suggest an approach or introduce new ideas. An example might be "If you could get additional funding or resources, how might that help?"
- Reflective questions, to check understanding, such as "So would you prioritise the most critical areas for attention first and make sure that everyone knew what was most important?"
- Closed questions, to bring agreement, commitment and conclusion, e.g. "When will you talk to your team and the client about this?"
These questions are often used in a structured "question funnel". The funnel starts very wide, with open questions to consider a broad range of possibilities, then it uses probing and hypothetical questions to fill in missing information, increase understanding and suggest additional ways of thinking about the situation. Finally the question funnel focuses things down by using reflective questions to ensure that all the main issues have been considered, and ending with closed questions to produce an agreed way forward.
The question funnel can provide a framework for a risk interview, starting with broad concerns and ending with well-defined risks and ideas for how to address them. It can also be mapped more widely to the risk process: risk identification uses open questions to find the areas that need to be considered risk assessment uses probing and hypothetical questions to determine which risks should receive priority attention risk response development uses reflective and closed questions to help us to decide what actions to take.
The risk process is about exploring the risks that we face, trying to understand them, and considering what responses might be effective in ensuring that risks are managed properly. Each of these steps involves answering questions, but to get the right answers we must ask the right questions.
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The Melbourne Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI) is part of an international not-for-profit professional organisation dedicated to the advancement of project management excellence through professionalism. With more than 500,000 members in over 170 countries, PMI is the leading membership association for the project management profession. PMI is recognized for the advocacy programs conducted with governments, organizations and industries around the world as they recognize and embrace project management to achieve business results. |
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Chapter Meeting
Tuesday 26 Oct
Subject:
Outsourcing Agreements: Traps and Pitfalls
Speaker:
Dudley Kneller
Venue:
Telstra Conference Room 1, Level 1,
242 Exhibition Street
Timing:
5.30 pm to 8.00 pm
5.30 pm refreshments for a 6.30 pm start
Cost:
PMI Melbourne Chapter Members
Free! Guests & Other PMI Members
$35.00
Register Here
Members - If you login first and then register, you can see the event under your bookings.
Please tell us if you have registered but are now not coming! It saves expense for the Chapter (and you).
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Our Sponsors
 2011 Gold Sponsor PMI Melbourne Chapter thanks its sponsors |
Critical Chain applies the 'theory of constraints' to resource and activity scheduling. The concepts can add value to any project schedule.
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