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Friday, December 19, 2008
First Day of the Project Management - IT&T SIG Global Conference, 17-18 December 2008, Cairo, Egypt
Reported live from the PMI-IT&T SIG Conference in Cairo
To the first time in Africa, the PMI-IT&T SIG Conference is launched in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday 17 December 2008 with opening and keynote speeches. The 2-day conference is held at a luxurious 5-star hotel and corporate resort near the airport of Cairo.
The conference was opened by representatives of the three organizers of the conference: Mr. Emad Aziz, CEO of Brisk Consulting, Mr. David Prior, Chairman of the Board, PMI IT&T SIG and Dr. Gamal Nassar, President of PMI MENA Chapter. The three organizers welcomed the conference attendees and introduced the keynote speaker HE Egypt’s Minister of State for Administrative Development; the conference is held under his auspice. He appreciated PMI-MENA chapter efforts in providing the Egyptian and regional market with certified project managers (According to Dr, Nassar the number of PMPs is increased rapidly from 7 PMPs in 1999 to around 1400 PMPs by end of 2008). The minister indicated that government’s intentions to sign an agreement with the chapter and other bodies to train about 2000 PMs of government projects. Also, Mr. Philip Diab, Chairman PMI BOD welcomed the attendees.
(The opening ceremony of the conference)The first session was conducted by David Prior, Program Manager at EMC’s Consulting Services. The session was titled “Soft skills for software development PMs” and examined the advantages a PM can gain by deepening their understanding of, and practical application of soft skills. In the second session, Mr. Bob Tarne, Senior Program Manager at Lombardi Software, presented similarities and differences between the PMBOK® Guide approach to project management and some basic Agile practices. Discussions with the attendees showed how the two approaches are more complementary than it seems in the first look.
After the coffee break, Mr. Jose Pinto, Project and Operational Leader at IDP, delivered the third session about “Project management in Mobile Banking” addressing how project management can help mobile banking in better understanding of the customer needs and expectations.
Then Mr. Andrew Mammalian presented the forth session of the day addressing “Project management and 3G”, providing an understanding of the history and lifecycle of wireless networks as well as on how solid project management and configuration management can be applied to 3G network design, deployment, optimization and ongoing operation.
David Prior and Bob Tarne came to the stage again to present the last and fifth subject of the day on “PM Best practices for infrastructure Practices” and leaded a discussion after the lunch break.
(David and Bobe delivering the last session in Tandom)Organizers:
The conference is organized by two regional organizations in Egypt and one international organization:
The IT and Telecom SIG of the PMI
Brisk Consulting Services
PMI MENA chapter
The IT and Telecom SIG of the PMI targets highly knowledgeable and experienced project management and technology professionals in the Information Technology and Telecommunications industries. Its members are leaders of technically advanced projects that involve both Information Technology and Telecommunications. They help one another through scholarship, mentoring, and online information exchange programs.
For more information: http://www.pmi-ittelecom.org/
Brisk Consulting SAE is a Joint Stock corporation that aims at delivering operational professionalism to businesses operating in Egypt and the Arabian Gulf. Brisk Consulting services cover a wide range of operations, supply chain, total quality, and project management advisory services to meet the challenges of today’s world by ensuring achievable results and providing sustainable solutions.
For more information: http://www.brisk-consulting.org/
PMI MENA chapter is one of the PMI chapters existing in 90 countries all over the world and following the mother organization PMI (www.pmi.org/). MENA Chapter has been charted since October 1998 to enhance and develop the Project Management Professionalism in the Middle East and North Africa region. The chapter founders believe the only way out of the ever-rising competition of globalization is through the development of cooperation and mutual understanding between different cultures.
For more information: http://www.pmimena.org/.
P2P (Projects to the Point) Second Day
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Second Day of the PMI- IT&T SIG Global Conference, 17-18 December 2008 in Cairo, Egypt
Reported by Ahmed Saleh Mokhtar in Cairo
The conference continued to its second and last day with five sessions and one roundtable discussion targeting advanced and senior level audience. The day included also good news for the project management community in Egypt.
The first session was conducted by David Prior, Program Manager at EMC’s Consulting Services and Mr. Bob Tarne, Senior Program Manager at Lombardi Software. The session was titled “Implementing Scrum in Waterfall Environment”. It gave more details to the Agile Project Management handled in the first day and described how to move an organization from waterfall to scrum environment. The audience showed great interest and delivered a pro- and contra agile discussion. In the second session, David Prior addressed “Emotional Intelligence for PMs” and provided a through background on key concepts of the EQ vs. IQ in project management.
After the second session, the conference audience became witness of the signature of Partnership Agreement between The Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD), represented by Mr. Sameh Bedair, the PMI IT&T SIG represented by Mr. David Prior and PMI-MENA Chapter represented by Dr. Gamal Nassar, through which PMI IT&T SIG and PMI MENA Chapter will help the MSAD in building and improving PM Competencies of the government project managers responsible about delivering public projects. More on the cooperative details will be provided in a special article in the next PM World Today eJournal.
(Ceremony for signing the Partnership Agreement)
Then a round-table discussion was held in presence of the four speakers from the PMI IT&T SIG: David Prior, Bob Tarne, Andrew Maximilian and Jose Pinto addressing “What Value Can PM brings to my IT Organization”. The audience participated actively in the discussion and many real-life project situations were discussed. The future of PM in light of the current economic recession was one of the subjects that raised differing views between the speakers themselves and the audience as well.
The last session of the conference is presented by Andy Maximilian, Senior Consultant at Blue Wing Services and Jose Pinto, Project and Operational Leader at IDP, on the subject of “on-boarding Project Management in my Organization” including the challenges of introducing PM into functional organizations.
Organizers
The conference was organized by two regional organizations in Egypt and one international organization:
The IT and Telecom SIG of the PMI targets highly knowledgeable and experienced project management and technology professionals in the Information Technology and Telecommunications industries. Its members are leaders of technically advanced projects that involve both Information Technology and Telecommunications. They help one another through scholarship, mentoring, and online information exchange programs.
For more information: http://www.pmi-ittelecom.org/
Brisk Consulting SAE is a Joint Stock corporation that aims at delivering ‎operational professionalism to businesses operating in Egypt and the Arabian ‎Gulf. Brisk Consulting services cover a wide range of operations, supply chain, ‎total quality, and project management advisory services to meet the challenges ‎of today’s world by ensuring achievable results and providing sustainable ‎solutions.‎
For more information: http://www.brisk-consulting.org/
PMI MENA chapter is one of the PMI chapters existing in 90 countries all over the world and following the mother organization PMI (www.pmi.org/). MENA Chapter has been charted since October 1998 to enhance and develop the Project Management Professionalism in the Middle East and North Africa region. The chapter founders believe the only way out of the ever-rising competition of globalization is through the development of cooperation and mutual understanding between different cultures.
For more information: http://www.pmimena.org/.
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