Professional Training Sessions

DAYTON/MIAMI VALLEY CHAPTER, PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE (PMI)

Returning to InfoTech for the third straight year, the PMI’s Dayton/Miami Valley Chapter will be presenting six interesting seminars revolving around the theme of “Practical project management techniques you can put to work tomorrow morning.”

307 | Requirements Management, Robin Horth, PMP | Tuesday & Wednesday, 11:00 AM
Does your program’s product seem like a moving target you can’t hit? Have you ever heard, “That’s not what I want”? Do your users say, “That’s not how we do things”? Good requirements definition, management and application to the project prevent these issues while producing success. This seminar will help you understand how you got into these situations or how to stay out of them.

307 | Risk Management, Brian English, PMP | Tuesday & Wednesday, 1:00 PM
How many times have you heard someone say, to everyone in sight “That’s a risk?” Now what do you do—worry at night, dream up something to type into a risk management application or deal with core issues? Risk management is an integral aspect of project management. In this training session we will explore methods, models and aspects of ensuring proper risk management applied to the life cycle of a project/program.

307 | Case Study – Critical Chain Method, Pat Shediack, PMP | Tuesday & Wednesday, 2:00 PM
While many talk of executing projects in an agile manner, few know how to do it without cutting essential tasks such as testing, change management or training. Others pad every task with unrealistic slack time as an alternative to risk management, proper estimating or schedule management, only to find their projects are still overdue and over cost. Our case study seminar reviews an Air Force project which applied the Critical Chain Method to deliver a pilot initiative far earlier than expected by senior leadership.

308 | Scope Management Meets Its Schedule, Cela Sweeney | Tuesday & Wednesday, 11:00 AM
Every project, regardless of business area, applies the Triple Constraint Theory of scope, schedule and resources. While the scope angle of this triangular theory is often set by the paying customer, the project team is left with many questions on when and where to apply resources to meet the customer’s expectations. Which tasks do you work in sequence and which in parallel? Who will do this task or that task? What controls do you have for your slack time? What is driving the lag time? This seminar outlines how you answer those questions and more when you introduce Scope Management to its schedule.

308 | Why Good Projects Go Bad, Tom McCann | Tuesday & Wednesday, 1:00 PM
Projects that start with the best intentions and expectations of success can turn “south” as the effort proceeds. Why do “good” projects go bad? There a few critical issues that have, over time, been shown to be the major contributors to a project going sour. We’ll look at some actual projects and some data to identify the critical issues and discuss some of the approaches to minimizing their impacts.

308 | Tricks of the Trade (tentative) | Tuesday & Wednesday, 2:00 PM
Have you ever noticed how some project managers always seem two steps ahead of problems? Did you catch how that project’s last decision meeting went so quickly and easily without a lot of arguing? How do you let so many people take time off near the New Year’s Holiday without delaying the project? Why do some project managers always have enough people to get things done while you’re juggling people and still running late? Our Tricks of the Trade seminar uses the techniques of our best PMs to answer these questions and more.

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY INTELLIGENCE CENTER

Although a newcomer to both the Dayton area and InfoTech, the Advanced Technology Intelligence Center brings a new operational perspective to our seminars.

309 | “So You Want to Be a Spy?” Dr. John O’Hair | Tuesday & Wednesday, 11:00 AM
The “So you want to be a spy?” seminar introduces the average technology or knowledge worker with the unclassified aspects of how the intelligence community applies computer systems to the creation, collection and use of exploitable information.

309 | Information Assurance Meets Operational Risk Management, Harrell J. Van Norman | Tuesday & Wednesday, 1:00 PM
Have you ever asked about using a piece of software or accessing a data source and before you finish speaking, you hear, “You can’t do that; that’s a risk”? Sure, you’ve heard that just like we have over the years. Unfortunately, that reflexive response is a poor technical tradition, not official policy and is operationally risky to the mission. ATIC’s “Information Assurance Meets Operational Risk Management” seminar focuses instead how to apply the mission-supporting ORM thought process in technology discussions.

INFOSCITEX CORPORATION

309 | Open Source Software in Government, Eric Baenen | Tuesday & Wednesday, 2:00 PM
In their first appearance at InfoTech’s training seminars, Infoscitex reviews how Open Source Software is no longer strictly in the realm of enthusiasts and hackers, but gradually expanding into the government sector. Today the quality, stability and security of many Open Source applications rival or surpass that of their commercial counterparts. Municipal, state and federal government organizations around the world are incorporating or in some cases even standardizing on Open Source Software and Open Data Formats in their information technology environments - and a US Department of Defense policy actually encourages its use where feasible. There is also an ongoing Department of Homeland Security project to improve the security of many popular Open Source applications. In a recent CIO magazine study - 53% of corporate CIO’s said they were already using Open Source Software in their environments and an additional 10% plan to do so in 2009. Even though the current Air Force environment is heavily single vendor centric, there are still niche environments where Open Source Software can be implemented to reduce costs, ease software management headaches and even improve security and IT environment situational awareness. Come see how Open Source Software might help your organization execute its mission.

DR. LONGENECKER SEMINAR

310 & 311 | “The Two-Minute Drill: Lessons on Rapid Performance Improvement from America’s Greatest Game,” Dr. Longenecker | Wednesday, 2:00 PM