Live webinar Tuesday January 25, 1:00 am EST
Presented byConstrux Software (REP 1424)
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 PDU Free

“Technical Debt” refers to delayed technical work that is incurred when technical short cuts are taken, usually in pursuit of calendar-driven software schedules.

Technical debt is inherently neither good nor bad. Just like financial debt, some technical debts can serve valuable business purposes. Other technical debts are simply counterproductive. However, just as with financial debt, it’s important to know what you’re getting into.

In this one-hour webinar, Steve McConnell explains in detail the different types of technical debt, when organizations should and shouldn’t take them on, and best practices in managing, tracking and paying down debt. You’ll gain insights into how to use technical debt strategically and how to keep technical and business staff involved in the process. Seats are limited, so sign up for this in-depth webinar today!

Professional Biography

Steve McConnell is CEO and Chief Software Engineer atConstrux Softwarewhere he writes books and articles, teaches classes, and oversees Construx’s software engineering practices.

Steve is the author ofCode Complete (1993, 2004) andRapid Development(1996), both winners ofSoftware Development magazine’s Jolt award for outstanding software development books of their respective years. In 1998, he publishedSoftware Project Survival Guide, in 2004 he publishedProfessional Software Development (2004), and in 2006 he publishedSoftware Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art. Steve blogs on professional topics at10x Software Development and also has apersonal blog.

Click here to register for this opportunity.

This chapter, from the book, The Art of Project Management,
By Scott Berkuns is a Category C (formerly) 2 SDL opportunity.

This chapter is titled “How to Make Things Happen” and is an excerpt from Scott Berkun’s book The Art of Project Management. In this book, Scott provides lessons from his experience as a project manager at Microsoft. The second edition of this book was renamed to Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management. Both editions cover project management topics organized into three sections – Plans, Skills and Management.

In the 16 pages of this chapter, Scott gives practical advice on Management and How to Make Things Happen.

Contents of this chapter include:

1. Priorities Make Things Happen
   • Priority 1 versus everything else
   • Priorities are power
   • Be a prioritization machine
2. Things Happen When You Say No
   • Master the many ways to say no
3. Keeping It Real
4. Know the Critical Path
5. Be Relentless
6. Be Savvy
   • Guerilla tactics

“Of the 3 sections of this book – Plans, Skills and Management – I found Scott’s insight into Management issues the most useful. Scott describes the building and losing of trust.This book helped shape my focus on trust, transparency and accountability. I have seen too many teams of smart people falter when the project manager or other teams members couldn’t be trusted to complete their commitments.” EdmontonPM

Summary

• Everything can be represented in an ordered list. Most of the work of project management is correctly prioritizing things and leading the team in carrying them out.
• The three most basic ordered lists are: project goals (vision), list of features, and list of work items. They should always be in sync with each other. Each work item contributes to a feature, and each feature contributes to a goal.
• There is a bright yellow line between priority 1 work and everything else.
• Things happen when you say no. If you can’t say no, you effectively have no priorities
• The PM has to keep the team honest and keep them close to reality.
• Knowing the critical path in engineering and team processes enables efficiency.
• You must be both relentless and savvy to make things happen.

This book is 400 pages. Reading this book would qualify for up to 15 Category C Self Directed Learning PDUs (formerly Category 2 SDL PDUs).

The NEW Category C increases the limit of PDUs allowed in a recertification cycle to 30 from the previous level of 15. Category C PDUs are an excellent way to Increase your Knowledge and Skills as a PM in your time frame.

As a Category C ‘Self Directed Learning Activity’ remember to document your learning experience and its relationship to project management for your ‘PDU Audit Trail Folder’

(PDF) Book Review of The Art of Project Management by Craig Murphy
(11 Pages) Book receives 5 Of 5 stars – A MUST READ.

Purchase this book from Amazon Canada – Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management

Purchase this book from Amazon USA – Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (Theory in Practice)

CLICK HERE for the CHAPTER of the book The Art Of Project Management

This Chapter is 18 pages. Reading this Chapter would qualify for up to 1 Category C Self Directed Learning PDUs (formerly Category 2 SDL PDUs).

Live Webinar January 31, 2011 – 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm EST
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 PDU Free (REP 2161 Activity ID WS01311)

Like an author experiencing writer’s block, the underlying competency of Creative Thinking (or lack thereof) can stop the best of us in our tracks. Learn what Creative Thinking is and discover opportunities to blow away your paradigms and move your analysis forward. Then enhance your BA value by defining ways to complement that recharged creativity with Critical and Strategic Thinking skills.

Presented by:
Bonnie Baldus, PMP, has 13 years of experience in project management, leadership, and business analysis training and 16 years of experience in the project management and business analysis field. Bonnie is an alumni of Iowa State University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree and pursued advanced studies in English and Technical Communication. Bonnie is a member of both PMI®, the Project Management Institute, and ASTD, the American Society of Training and Development, taking advantage of the networking and educational opportunities those organizations provide. She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (PMI®).

Click here to register for this opportunity.

Keys to Success in Using Agile Practices
Presented by Construx Software (REP 1424)
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 PDU Free

Agile development has now been in use for almost a decade. Why use Agile methods? What are the strengths of Agile? What are some common failure modes? What other lessons has the software industry learned about Agile development? In this talk, Steve McConnell–author of Code Complete, Rapid Development, and other software industry classics and CEO of Construx Software–draws on Construx’s extensive consulting work to dissect Agile development. McConnell names the Agile practices that have worked well for Construx’s clients, describes the failure modes of Agile practices that have failed to live up to the hype, and explains how to right size Agile development for your organization.

I have followed Steve McConnell since the first edition of Code Complete in 1994. Code Complete is required reading for every developer on my team.

This is an excellent opportunity to learn about agile practices based on Construx software and Steve McConnell’s experience with companies implementing agile practices. – EdmontonPM

In this course Steve covers

1. Why Agile? – Basic Motivations
2. What is Agile?
3. Lifecycle Models and Agile – Lifecycle Modeling
4. The Most Useful Agile Practices: Active Management – Integration/Testing
5. Determining Your Agile Profile: Personnel – Impact – Requirements – Culture – Team Size- Team Dispersion

Professional Biography

Steve McConnell is CEO and Chief Software Engineer at Construx Software where he writes books and articles, teaches classes, and oversees Construx’s software engineering practices.

Steve is the author of Code Complete (1993, 2004) and Rapid Development (1996), both winners of Software Development magazine’s Jolt award for outstanding software development books of their respective years. In 1998, he published Software Project Survival Guide, in 2004 he published Professional Software Development (2004), and in 2006 he published Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art. Steve blogs on professional topics at 10x Software Development and also has a personal blog.

Steve has worked in the desktop software industry since 1984 and has expertise in rapid development methodologies, project estimation, software construction practices, performance tuning, system integration, and third-party contract management.

Steve also served as Editor in Chief of IEEE Software from 1998-2002 and is a member of IEEE Computer Society and ACM.

Steve earned a master’s degree in software engineering from Seattle University and a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

Click here to view this opportunity.

Online Live Webinar January 26, 2011 – 11:00 am to 12:00 pm EST
Presented by the Corporate Education Group (REP 1011)
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 PDU Free Course Id: MDW1254

A project is a temporary endeavor, with a distinct beginning and end that is undertaken to create a unique product or service. Projects are everywhere, regardless of your industry or profession, and an effective project management process can benefit anyone. If you are looking for non-technical tools and techniques to successfully manage your projects and project teams, this webinar is for you!

What you will achieve:

• Greater confidence in defining, planning and managing projects
• Reduced stress and greater sense of control of your multiple projects and daily work load
• Increased effectiveness and efficiencies by using simple, step-by step processes for project management and communications

Who should attend:
Managers, supervisors, and individual contributors who struggle with balancing the complex demands of project work while maintaining their daily workloads.

About the presenter: Eileen Twichell (LinkedIn profile) instructor and consultant for Corporate Education Group, has over twenty years of project management training and design experience. An accomplished and dynamic presenter, Eileen is highly regarded in the project management community for her expertise and knowledge of the field. Leveraging her breadth of expertise, Eileen develops and facilitates classes in project management, time management, presentation skills, coaching, and communications for her clients.

This is now available as a recorded opportunity – register to view..

Live Webinar Friday, January 21, 2011 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM CST.
1 PDU Cat 3 Free.

Please ensure you link from this article to Register for Free as other links to this course may request a charge.

The creation of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for a project is an often-misunderstood and daunting project activity. Project teams often misunderstand the purpose and uses of the WBS, confusing it with the Project Plan or Project Schedule. The WBS and the Project Schedule do have a relationship, but they are not interchangeable deliverables.

During this free Solutions Cube Group webinar, De-Mystifying The WBS, attendees will gain an understanding of the characteristics of a WBS and understand how this project deliverable is a vital blueprint for reducing project failures associated with missed or misunderstood project requirements.

Join us to learn about the uses of the Work Breakdown Structure and how to ensure it clearly represents the full scope of the project effort.

In this webinar participants will learn about:

• Characteristics of well defined Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• The relationship between a WBS and a Project Schedule
• Methods for progressively elaborating on the content in the WBS
• Components that help ensure the WBS developed for the project is complete
• Clearly differentiating between “What” outcome is being built as a result of the project versus “How”to build it

Solutions Cube Group webinars are presented by experienced staff members and partners who have over 30 years of experience managing projects and developing and running facilitated project meetings and delivering project management training courses.

Creating a solid WBS is one of the critical success factors to a project’s successful outcome. This course is useful in defining the success factors you will require while creating the WBS. EdmontonPM

Who Should Attend This Webinar:

• General Managers
• Team Members
• Project Managers
• Portfolio Managers
• Project Leads
• Program Managers
• Business Stakeholder
• Business Leads
• Facilitators

Click here to register for this webinar for FREE