Live Webinar October 19 2011 – 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Offered by IAG Consulting (REP 2858)
Duration 1 hour 1 PDU or 1 CDU 1 Category A – Free PDU

This session is for project managers that sometimes need to contract externally for requirements discovery services in order to make their project a success.

This session shares hard facts, case studies, and a wealth of experience in successful – and not so successful – contracting approaches for the senior project manager. Supercharging a project by accelerating the requirements discovery phase is a solid strategy – but how do you ensure the company will get solid business value from the activity?

3 Learning Objectives from this Session:

• Effective analyst engagements models that drive value
• Red flags in your review cycle: clear signals that you have, or will have, issues with your requirements discovery team.
• Setting targets for timetable and turnaround: what should you expect from a top notch analyst team?

You will have to register – then the webinar will load in the page
Please be patient this may take a min or two to load.
(You may have to use the side scroll bar to place the webinar on pause)

Click to view a previously recorded version of Outsourcing Requirements Discovery.

Click to register for the Live Presentation of Outsourcing Requirements Discovery

Live Webinar – October 26, 2011 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Presented by: Training Magazine
Duration: 1 Hour 1 Category C PDU – Free PDU

The lecture method is the most ridiculed training technique because it involves passive learning on the part of the participant. In contrast, Interactive Lectures involve the participants in the learning process while providing complete control to the instructor.

These activities enable a quick and easy conversion of a passive presentation into an interactive experience. We will explore different types of interactive lectures that incorporate built-in quizzes, interspersed tasks, and teamwork interludes.

Speakers:

Thiagi (Sivasailam Thiagarajan, Ph.D.), (LinkedIn profile) Resident Mad Scientist at the Thiagi Group. The Thiagi Group is an organization with the mission of helping people improve their performance effectively and enjoyably. Thiagi has published forty books, including Thiagi’s 100 Favorite Games (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals) and Teamwork and Teamplay: Games and Activities for Building and Training Teams, as well as numerous games, simulations, and articles.

Tracy Tagliati (LinkedIn profile), CLO The Thiagi Group

Tracy knows how to engage the learner. As the training manager at Move, Inc. and an associate at the Thiagi Group, Tracy works directly with key executives and managers to conduct performance analyses and develop customized programs using a rapid instructional design approach. Her specialty is activities-based training in both instructor-led and web-based environments. She has co-authored two books with Thiagi on topics relating to interactive learning techniques including the bestseller Jolts! Activities to Wake Up and Engage Your Participants. Her mission is helping people improve their performance effectively and enjoyably. She is active in ASTD, ISPI and the North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA).

PDU Category C documentation details:

Process Groups: Executing

Knowledge Areas: 9 – Human Resources

• 9.3 Develop Project Team

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’

Click to register for Interactive Lectures is not an Oxymoron

Live Webinar October 26, 2011 – 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Duration: 1 hour webinar Credits: 1 PDU Category C – Free PDU
Sponsored by American Management Association (REP 1294)
Presented by: Michelle Tillis Lederman
Although the AMA is an REP this opportunity may not have a course number Contact the AMA for further information.

• Have you ever had a conversation you wanted to follow up on but didn’t?
• Do you find yourself wishing you had a reason to get in touch with a colleague, customer, or old acquaintance?

Often we are too busy to focus on building and nurturing our relationships. Some of us may find follow-up awkward, uncomfortable, or even unwanted. Thus we find it difficult to move from one conversation to the next, to build upon the initial contact and turn it into a real relationship.

And even if you do this with ease, there are a variety of powerful approaches for increasing your contact with and the value you provide to your network.

During this Webcast, Michelle Tillis Lederman will take you through tips and tactics that will help you convert your conversations into stronger and longer connections.

At the end of the day it is the strength of your relationships that leads to your success.
What You Will Learn

• Learn how technology can help you recognize reasons to connect
• Leverage social media in simple ways to increase familiarity
• Realize there are many ways you can GIVE to others—no matter what level or rank you are
• Discover specific ways to increase your value to your network

While attending this program is FREE, reservations are required.

Presenter: Michelle Tillis Lederman is founder and CEO of Executive Essentials, which provides customized communication and leadership programs. She is also an adjunct professor at NYU Stern School of Business and a faculty member of the American Management Association. Lederman has delivered seminars internationally for corporations, universities, and nonprofit organizations, including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Columbia Business School, and the Museum of Modern Art. In addition, she is author of The 11 Laws of Likability: Relationship Networking . . . Because People Do Business with People They Like, published by AMACOM.

Click to register for Relationship Networking: Converting Your Conversations into Connections

Project Simulation – Online Access
Duration: Project Simulation Access Time: Up to 180 days
Credits: 10 PDUs or 1 CEU Category A – $359.00 USD
Presented by: Lambert Consulting Group, Inc. (REP 1358 )
Simulation Creator/Designer: MindEdge, Inc

Challenge Yourself – Grow your Skills! An In Basket Project Simulation will allow you to test your current skills and build new competencies. This may be an excellent opportunity to challenge yourself by applying Project Management skills to the highway project – an environment that may be unfamiliar to you!

Target Audience: This simulation is designed for adult learners with project management experience. Learners who successfully complete this simulation will be awarded 10 PDUs/contact hours.

Level: Intermediate – This simulation does not have any prerequisites. This course does not require any additional supplementary materials.

Estimated time to complete: 10 hours of online course work. This course has an “Ask the Expert” feature, which submits your questions directly to an expert in the field you are studying. Questions are answered as quickly as possible and usually within 24 hours.

“This simulation is a winner! I would highly recommend the Allerton Connector Project Management Simulation to anyone looking for a capstone experience to test their knowledge and judgment in a real world project management environment.”

— Lee R. Lambert, PMP, CEO, Lambert Consulting Group,
Project Management Institute Fellow, 2009

Through this simulation, the learner will play the role of a project manager on a highway construction project in the small city of Allerton. This project is considered to be a “major project” by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which means it has a budget of $500 million or more.

Learners will be asked to make a series of decisions during the simulation. Each decision will impact the project in different ways. The goal in the simulation is to optimize positive scores across the following project management factors (as identified by the PMI® 2011 role delineation study):

• Initiating the Project
• Planning the Project
• Executing the Project
• Monitoring and Controlling the Project
• Closing the Project
• Cross-cutting Skills

Expected Learning Outcomes

This simulation is meant to sharpen your understanding of key project management skills. Including:

1. Leading a project team
2. Balancing competing interests, such as project scope, quality, schedule, budget, resources, risk, communications, and procurement considerations throughout every project phase
3. Dealing with controversial decisions and the potential for negative team or customer outcomes
4. Analyzing schedule, budget, and quality data and using that information to make educated decisions
5. Addressing issues related to project procurement

PMBOK Guide® Alignment

This simulation is designed to align with the PMI® PMBOK® Guide and the 2011 role delineation study. No prior knowledge of the PMI® framework is required, but feedback will refer to PMBOK® Guide sections where they are relevant.

Certificate of Completion

Many sections will have quizzes, and your score on these quizzes will determine whether you can receive a certificate of completion, and Project Management Institute professional development units (PDUs) for completing the simulation. If you average a cumulative 70% or above on the quizzes, you will receive the certificate. Successful Completion Requirement for IACET CEU: Learners must achieve an average test score of at least 70% to meet the minimum successful completion requirement and qualify to receive IACET CEU credit. Learners will have three attempts at all graded assessments.

Get an edge: Here are some pointers for doing your best in simulations:

• Know the background material. You cannot do well in a simulation if you haven’t studied the background material.
• Keep a positive attitude. The assessors are not trying to trick you, they want you to do well.
• Take breaks when you need one. Just like a project walk away and think a bit if you need to – don’t rush through.
• Avoid extreme or unusual behaviors while role-playing. Don’t get defensive, remember it is a role playing exercise.
• Be confident but not arrogant. Too much confidence could be read as not taking the exercise seriously.
• Get through the all the material. You will find important information that you will be able to use in the other simulations. Take notes, make lists, and write out a calendar. Making notes may be very helpful in the same way as in your projects. Whatever you write may be collected and included in the scoring of the exercise. Remember that the assessors can’t read your mind. In a simulation/exercise it is especially important to document your thinking.
• Expect conflicts. Simulations often assist you in determining how to resolve conflicts and issues. Uncover and address the conflicts.
• Be flexible. Sometimes the assessors will give you hints over the course of a role-play. For example, “Have you considered the possibility of acquiring one of our competitors?” Sometimes you will come into a role-play with a plan and learn something that requires you to change that plan. Don’t get stuck on one strategy if the simulation demands flexibility.

Click to purchase the Allerton Connector Highway Project Management Simulation

Online Webinar
Duration: 1 hour webinar Credits: 1 PDU Category C – Free PDU
Sponsored by American Management Association (REP 1294)
Presented by: Tom Kendrick
Although the AMA is an REP this opportunity may not have a course number Contact the AMA for further information.

Optimizing Your Risk Management Effort

One ongoing project management debate concerns whether risks can really be “managed” at all. Assuming that project business risk can be managed, should it be, and if so, when?

In this Webcast you’ll discover ways to understand when it’s a good idea to manage a risk and when it may not be.

It’s obvious that doing something about a risk that actually occurs makes sense. Doing nothing for a risk that does not happen is also sensible (or perhaps just lucky). However, some risk management we undertake will ultimately prove to be unnecessary and some risks we choose to accept may lead to disaster.

As with any analysis, errors in risk assessment are of two types: “Type 1,” (false positive) errors, and “Type 2,” (false negative) errors. In the context of project risk management, Type 1 errors are the risks we choose to manage unnecessarily. Type 2 errors are the risks we ignore that then happen.

Project managers must use qualitative and quantitative assessment techniques to rank order risks, and then work out responses to deal with the ones that warrant the effort.

To improve the effectiveness of your efforts, you must carefully consider each identified project risk in terms of history and impact, and particularly in consideration with your tolerance for consequences.

What You Will Learn:

• How to identify key criteria to use in determining which risks to manage
• Tips for determining when it is prudent to manage what appear to be mid-range severity risks
• Advice for justifying project schedule and budget reserves for use in dealing with risks lacking explicit risk responses

Featured Speaker: Tom Kendrick (LinkedIn profile), PMP, is Program Director for the University of California Berkeley Extension Project Management curriculum. He is author of Identifying and Managing Project Risk: Essential Tools for Failure-Proofing Your Project, The Project Management Tool Kit: 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right, and 101 Project Management Problems and How to Solve Them: Practical Advice for Handling Real-World Project Challenges.He regularly conducts classes and presentations on program, project, and risk management for conferences, associations, and universities. He also spent over 20 years with Hewlett Packard in its Project Management Initiative and has almost 40 years of worldwide PM experience, including work for Visa, DuPont, General Electric, and as an independent consultant.

PDU Category C documentation details:

Process Groups: Planning

Knowledge Areas: 11 – Risk

• 11.1 Plan Risk Management
• 11.2 Identify Risks
• 11.5 Plan Risk Responses

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’

Click to register for How to Identify and Manage Critical Project Risks

Online Webinar
Duration: 1 hour webinar Credits: 1 PDU Category A $5 USD
Presented by: Solutions Cube Group (REP 2451)

Agile is one of the latest techniques sweeping the Project Management profession. Many traditional project managers have heard the name Agile, but do not truly understand the practice yet.

Solutions Cube Group’s Webinars address many relevant project issues. In this webinar, we have partnered with with Brian Rabon, President of Braintrust Software, to learn what agile project management is and what it is not.

Learn when to apply this new style of project management and when not to. Also, pick up a few tips and tricks for implementing the practice in your environment.

In this overview level recorded webinar participants learn about:

• The Case for Agile Project Management
• The fundamentals of Agile Project Management
• Project Scoping and Requirements gathering in an Agile environment

EARN 1 PDU after viewing this webinar

Click to purchase An Overview of Agile Project Management (This link will place the course in your shopping cart)