Live Webinar Sept 19th, 2013 – 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT
Duration: 1 hour webinar Credits: 1 PDU Category A – Free PDU
Sponsored by: PMI Risk Management CoP (REP #S048)

Identifying the root causes of project schedule and cost risk requires that the risk to the project schedule is clearly and directly driven by identified and quantified risks. In the Risk Driver Method the risks from the Risk Register drive the simulation.

As a side note, Risk Registers are not complete – during the interviews to collect risk data the interviewees introduce important risks that are, surprisingly, missing from the Risk Register.

The Risk Driver Method differs from older, more traditional approaches in which 3-point (low, most likely and high) estimates of the activity durations are applied directly to activity durations.

The traditional 3-point estimate represents, often, the influence of several risks that impact the activity if they happen.

• Therefore the importance of each risk cannot be individually distinguished and kept track of.
• Also, since some risks will affect several activities, we cannot capture the entire influence of a risk using traditional 3-point estimates of impact applied to specific activities.

• The Risk Driver method allows us to specify the risks by their probability of influencing the schedule as well as the uncertainty of their impact if they do occur, and to assign the risks to all detailed tasks they influence.

3-point estimates have no clear way to represent the probability of a risks’ occurring so they miss one of the two important characteristics of the risks.

Correlation between activity durations is important in determining the possible date of completion if the organization wants a fairly conservative estimate, say at the 80th percentile (P-80).

With traditional 3-point estimates the correlation coefficients have to be estimated (guessed at) and applied between pairs of activities.

Using the Risk Drivers method correlation between activities’ durations is created during simulation based on a common risk (or common risks) affecting the activities. We no longer need to estimate the correlation coefficients with the possibility that the coefficients determine an inconsistent correlation matrix.

The basic benefit of the Risk Driver approach comes from the ability to identify, and hence prioritize the importance of risks (as distinguished from the importance of activities or paths in the traditional 3-point estimate approach). Hence Risk Drivers facilitates risk mitigation.

We do not mitigate activities or paths
We mitigate risks.

In order to determine which risks to mitigate we need to be transparent about which risks drive the results, hence the Risk Driver Method.

Note: You do have to be a PMI® member to register for this opportunity.

Click to register for Risk Driver Method in Monte Carlo Simulation of a Schedule

Live Webinar Sept 17th, 2013 – 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm EDT
Presented by the Corporate Education Group (REP 1011)
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 Category A PDU – Free PDU

Many business professionals struggle to write because they can’t clearly define what good writing is and then do it every time they write.

In addition, the skills they learned in school don’t match the way information-overloaded business readers read.

These written messages are grammatically correct, but fail to get results.

Write it Right provides five practical techniques to help business professionals get better results from written communication.

In this webinar, Diane will focus on techniques that anyone can implement to improve their writing skills as well as their credibility.

Diane will also demystify writing and make it easier and faster to write simple messages as well as more complex documents.

You will learn:

1. How information-overloaded readers read and why most writers don’t write that way.
2. What effective writing is (the recipe) so you can do it quickly and easily.
3. How to get crystal clear about your purpose.
4. How to create a purpose line subject line as well as a strong opening.
5. Six techniques to eliminate unnecessary detail and words.

About the Presenter: Diane Brewster-Norman, (LinkedIn profile), Ph.D, has more than 25 years of experience helping clients improve organizational communication in today’s hectic workplace where communicating more effectively and in less time is paramount.

Click to register for Write it Right

Live Webinar Sept 17th, 2012 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

Strategic change initiatives are profiling in organizations. To facilitate execution of these initiatives, firms are investing in business architecture to help assess and plan them.

Enterprise Business Architecture is quickly evolving into a mainstream business capability. Some would argue that it is already there considering 50% of the world’s top performing enterprises have embraced business architecture as a strategic differentiator.

The tools and techniques of business architecture should be foundational to strategy development, deployment and executive planning. This webinar intends to demonstrate the business architecture framework, describe the what, why, how and uses of some architectural blueprints.

Learning Objectives:

1. Purpose and benefits of Business Architecture to scope, planning and delivery.
2. Applicability of Business Architecture in the context of the rapid Change Agenda
3. Business Architecture framework and a variety of approaches to know when to use model types.
4. Different views of a business architecture framework and how analysis techniques will expose risk.
5. To think architecturally in the decomposition of the organization as a technique for defining organizational impact, scope and for Process Modeling & Requirements analysis methods.

Click to register for Visual Strategic Planning

Live Webinar – September 17th, 2013 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Presented by: Eclipse Project Portfolio Management
Duration: 1 hour 1 PDUs Credits: Category C 1 PDU- Free PDU

Establishing a PMO (Project/Program/Portfolio Management Office) is considered to be a best practice approach to improving the value an organization can receive from its project investments.

Why is it then, that a study, conducted in 2005, of 750 organizations worldwide indicated that over 75% of organizations that set up a PMO shut it down within three years because it did not demonstrate any added value?

Solution Q invites you to attend a webinar where you will learn key reasons why so many PMOs fail, and gain some valuable knowledge of the critical success factors required to ensure the survival of your PMO.

Who should attend this webinar?
Managers/Directors of PMOs, Project Managers

NOTE: You may have to hit the MORE… link to register for this session on the registration page.

PDU Category C (PMBOK 5) documentation details:

Process Groups: Executing, Monitoring & Controlling

Knowledge Areas: 4 – Integration 5 – Scope 6 – Time 7 – Cost

• 4.3 Direct and Manage Project Work
• 4.4 Monitor & Control Project Work
• 5.6 Control Scope
• 6.7 Control Schedule
• 7.4 Control Costs

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 Setting Up a PMO is Not for the Faint Hearted!

Live Webinar Sept 17th, 2013, 11:30 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Duration:1 hour Webcast – Up to 1 Category C PDU – Free PDU
Hosted By: Typemock

Unit testing is all the rage and more and more teams are beginning to unit test, especially with agile methodologies coming into play in many organizations.

True, it’s not always easy to change methods and work habits, but in order to maintain code quality by minimizing bugs and releasing clean working code to market, you need to incorporate developer testing into your daily routine, including unit testing.

In this interactive webinar Typemock will:

1. Difference between QA & developer testing
2. Pains of manual testing
3. Benefits of automated testing
4. Why unit test
5. xUnit frameworks
6. Difference between unit testing and Test Driven Development (TDD)

PDU Category C (PMBOK 5) documentation details:

Process Groups: Planning Executing

Knowledge Areas: 4 – Integration 5 – Scope 9 – Human Resources

• 4.4 Monitor & Control Project Work
• 5.3 Define Scope
• 9.4 Manage 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.’

Presenter: Gil Zilberfeld, (LinkedIn profile, @gil_zilberfeld) Product Manager, Typemock- Gil has been writing software since childhood (Logo Turtles) and hasn’t stopped since. As the product manager at Typemock, working as part of an agile team in an agile company, creating tools for agile developers. He promotes unit testing and other design practices, down-to-earth agile methods, and some incredibly cool tools. Gil blogs at http:⁄⁄www.gilzilberfeld.com on different agile topics, including processes, communication and unit testing. He also writes at the Typemock blog and presents locally and abroad on these topics.

Click to register for Intro to Unit Testing