Presidents Message
2007 PMAA
Events & Activities
Lessons Learned/Lessons Shared
Update your Details
New Members
More Upcoming Events
ACT Chapter Contact Details

Welcome to the September edition of the ACT Chapter Newsletter.

This month we celebrate the success and provide recognition to the most outstanding projects ACT has to offer.

Congratulations go to Defence Materiel Organisation for the HMAS WESTRALIA Replacement Project, the ACT winner for 2007 and to each of the category winners. The ACT winner and category winners will now compete at the National awards with the winners being announced at the National Conference being held in Hobart on 7-10 October 2007. Good luck!

A big thanks goes to EDS, Defence Materiel Organisation, Raytheon Australia, and the ACT Department of Treasury, our sponsors for PMAA 2007. Without their generous support the Awards would not have been the resounding success that it was.

Thanks also goes to the many organisations who invested their time and energy to put together their submission, as without these submissions there would be no Awards.

I’d like to also take the opportunity to publicly thank the PMAA Team, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to plan and coordinate the Awards for 2007. Without their dedication, commitment and perseverance, the event would simply not have happened.

Like all good project managers we pursue a continuous improvement approach and we encourage your feedback on PMAA 07. It is through this feedback that we capitalise on our strengths and build on our weaknesses to deliver an even more exceptional event in 2007.

It is also with pleasure that we begin the planning for the AIPM National Conference in 2008 which will be held in Canberra. We are calling for nominations for anyone interested in participating in a Steering Group to plan and govern the 2008 event. I look forward to seeing you at the AIPM National Conference in Hobart on 7-10 October 2007.

ACT Chapter Nominations for ACT Chapter Council  - Nominations for positions on the ACT Chapter Council are requested from local members. AIPM can only achieve the objectives of our members through the valuable contribution made by our passionate volunteers. There are 2 vacant positions available for Chapter Councillors: Events Coordinator and Corporate Liaison. If you are interested, and are able to volunteer approximately 8 hours per month to the chapter, please forward your expression of interest to the ACT Chapter Coordinator.

Yours in project management,

Michael Young
ACT Chapter President 

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 2007 Project Management Achievment Awards

As most of you are aware, the 2007 Project Mangement Acheivement Awards Gala Dinner was held on Wednesday 5 September, at Rydges Lakeside. The evening was a glittering success, with over 200 people attending. This year there were again a high number of awards presented over the different project categories. The 2007 PMAA Winners are:

Overall ACT Project of the Year
Department of Defence - Defence Materiel Organisation
Project SEA 1654 Phase 2A HMAS WESTRALIA Replacement

Construction and Engineering
High Commendation Award
Codarra Advanced Systems
Headquarters Joint Operations command C4I Systems Project

Defence and Aerospace
High Commendation Award
Department of Defence - Defence Materiel Organisation
Project Air 8000 Phase 3 - Heavy Air Lift

 Winner
Department of Defence - Defence Materiel Organisation
Project SEA 1654 Phase 2A HMAS WESTRALIA Replacement

Information Technology
Winner
IP Australia
International Patent Classification Reform Project

Organisation and Change Management
Winner
ACT Health
Incident Management with Riskman

Regional Development
Winner
Aspen Medical
Provision of Medical Services to Australian Customs Service in Remote North Queensland

Community Service and Development
Winner
GHD Pty Ltd
Canada Fund for Local Initiatives Western South Pacific

ACT Community Benefit Award
Winner
ACT Health
Incident Management with Riskman

Individual Achievement Award
Connell Wagner Pty Ltd
Defence Formal Messaging System Life of Type Extension
Mr Ray Peters

 Thank you to our generous sponsors

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Events & Activities  

Our monthly Forums are held on the last Wednesday of every month, commencing at 5:30pm until 7:30pm at the Canberra Club, 45 West Row, Civic. Drinks and cocktail food are served, and members are more than welcome to bring a guest. For all RSVP's please contact the ACT Chapter Coordinator.

Current and Future Issues in Project and Program Management Across the Australian Government

Presented by Mr Kim Terrell - Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Overview

Kim Terrell will provide a stocktake on current and future issues in project and program management across the Australian Government.  His talk will focus on specific areas of knowledge and capability maturity where project management professionals need to work with and advise government agencies.

Biography

Kim Terrell heads up the Cabinet Implementation Unit in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Mr Terrell was appointed to the role in March 2006 from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and, prior to that, the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA). Mr Terrell was the Acting Chief Executive of ASDA for much of 2005 and joined the organisation in 2001 after working for some 15 years in the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department and PM&C.During this period Mr Terrell played a lead role in a number of major law enforcement and national security initiatives, including heading up the Project Office that established the CrimTrac Agency. Mr Terrell has a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Masters Degree in Public Policy. He has a lengthy involvement in sport, representing Australia in swimming from 1981 - 86 (including at the 1982 Commonwealth Games and 1984 Olympics), and has worked as a nationally accredited coach in swimming and water polo.

About this Event

Date: Wednesday 26 September 2007
Time: Commencing at 5:30pm drinks/nibbles for presentation 6:00pm-7.00pm
Venue: The Canberra Club 45 West Row Civic
To Register Contact: ACT Chapter Coordinator –  Rachel Searl
Email: act_chapter@aipm.com.au
Ph: (02) 6258-3390
Event Prices: FREE for Members and Guests

This event is worth 5 CPD points. Members can log their CPD activities on the website http://www.aipm.com.au/html/cpd.cfm

AIPM 2007 Conference Update

The planning for AIPM’s 2007 National Conference is well advanced, our keynote speakers are:  

• Norman Gray, Managing Director, Thales
• Dr Ed Hoffman, Director of the NASA Academy of Program / Project Engineering Leadership (APPEL)
• Lieutenant General David Hurley,AO, DSC, Chief Capability Development Executive
• Ian McPhee,Auditor-General of Australia
• John Smyrk,Sigma Management Science
• Dr Keith Suter, Social Commentator

We have received 70 abstracts. A full list of speakers will be available in May.   AIPM is proud to announce that due to overwhelming support of our corporate members and sponsors our conference registration fees for the 2007 National Conference in Hobart from 7-10 October 2007 are the lowest ever for previous AIPM National Conferences or for any other Project Management conference being held in 2007. 

Prices have been significantly reduced; in detail:  

• Member early bird $895
• Member standard registration $1,095
• Non member early bird $995
• Non member standard registration $1,195

Take advantage of these great rates and best value for any Project Management conference in Australia. Register before the early bird deadline 30 July 2007   In addition and for the first time in AIPM’s National Conference history we will extend the Member rate to all staff of our Corporate Members, even if they are not individual Members of the Institute.  To check if your company is a Corporate Member and you qualify for this, visit the AIPM website.

A full registration does not only include access to all plenary, keynote and breakout sessions, but also gives you access to the Welcome Reception as well as to the prestigious PMAA Gala Dinner at Wrest Point and the pre dinner harbour cruise.  The conference registration fees are great value.

Click to REGISTER ONLINE NOW.   Sponsors and Exhibitors remember: We will look after you in the lead up and during the conference. We will make sure that  

Every day activity outside the sessions will take place in the exhibition area, this includes the welcome reception to maximise your exposure

Every service that delegates might require during breaks (e.g. email access, catering, networking, sit down and have a chat, read through poster sessions, etc.) will be provided in the exhibition area to maximise your exposure.

Our team will be there for you at all times to attend to your questions and requests.  We are offering exhibition opportunities at:

• Standard exhibition booth $3,000
• Double exhibition booth $6,000

AIPM is committed to maximising the benefit for you as a delegate, a sponsor or an exhibitor. AIPM being a non-commercial entity runs a conference that is focused on delivering a high quality event with any proceeds being returned to Members and the project management community.   We look forward to welcoming you to Hobart in October. Consider extending your stay in Hobart. To check out what the city and state has to offer, follow this link to the Tourism Tasmania website. 

Australian Computer Society
Meryl Morgan

Education across the Nation IT as a Business
Presented by Dave Thomas, Founder and Managing Director of Consultants Exchange (CXC) – a global IT contractor management company

Date: Tuesday 2 October 2007
Time: 6pm for refreshments and start at 6.30pm-7.30pm for the seminar
Venue: Canberra Southern Cross Club, Corinna Street, Phillip
To Register Contact: www.acs.org.au/act Meryl Morgan
Office Administration
Australian Computer Society, Canberra Branch
Ph: 02 6290 0711
Email: acscanb@acslink.net.au

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 LESSONS LEARNED and LESSONS SHARED
by Debbie Mazlin  

Thank you to all those project managers who submitted lessons learned on the topic of COMMUNICATION.The Project Manager who walked away with the $100 (wine) gift voucher as been contacted – and we respect his wishes not to publish.However, we can say – glasses up to the project team.

The following two submissions are those which the Council also thought were worthy of note.

Communication and Language

My example for a lesson learned comes from when I was Project Manager for the up-grade of an integrated business management system a couple of years ago :

I was discussing some of the problems we were having with the BAS provisions with one of the Accounting Clerks – he was the person that was most familiar with the system. While the concept of BAS is fairly simple, putting the various combinations of possible transactions can be quite complex.

I was talking about the program algorithm/s that determined from input information about the transaction and the purchaser/ destination, whether BAS was payable and to what accounts in the general ledger these would go.

After a bit I could tell by the change in his body language that he was simply nodding his head but was not following what I was saying.  I seemed to start when I mentioned ‘algorithm’.

I didn’t want to embarrass him, but finally I asked him if he understood what an ‘algorithm’ was – he replied “not exactly”.  After a brief explanation we were back on track.

I had assumed that the Clerk would understand some technical terminology of what I was talking about – As a result of this lesson learned I use simpler language and as a rule I ‘gently’ talk to the person about their background, previous jobs, courses they have completed so I can communicate effectively...

Know When to up the Ante

A project manager frequently communicates and negotiates with suppliers and contractors at the working level or middle management level.This is fine when all is going well, but when things start to go wrong – for example when delivery dates for contracted supplies start to slip and the normal line of communication does not fix the problem – then the line of communication needs to be reviewed.The supplier’s contact may not be in a position to do anything about it, or may be unwilling to expose the problem to his/her senior management.When normal communications don’t produce the desired result, the best idea is to up the ante as soon as possible and communicate directly with a higher level of management.If this doesn’t work, don’t delay – initiate a CEO to CEO approach.

This month we have a look at COMMUNICATION from another perspective – that of:

COMMUNICATION AND STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

We all know that stakeholder involvement and commitment to the project is paramount to success, and there are several ways of achieving and managing stakeholder involvement.One approach that should not be underestimated is the concept of power and interest[1] and the use of a power-interest grid which distinguishes stakeholders according to their power to affect the project, and their interest in it.This approach helps to determine which player’s interests and power base must be taken into account in order to address any problems … and … provide some information on how to convince stakeholder to change their views[2].

An additional stakeholder characteristic that should not be underestimated is that of ATTITUDE towards the project.

Stakeholders with power, interest (and/or attitude) will represent the most significant actors in the project, and each will ensure that the project manager deals with ‘their problem’ with a high level of priority.

How to choose a stakeholder management strategy to secure the support of stakeholders is a key question for all project managers.The approach of course, depends on a number of issues including interpretations and mapping of the situation (ie how stakeholders view the project) and then to recognise the respective power and interest - and attitude towards the project.

The following are two examples which highlight both ends of the spectrum of interest and attitude and how project managers involved their stakeholders and managed their projects accordingly.

Case Study 1 - The Goulburn Broken Catchment, Victoria.

Project Managers identified that high levels of enthusiasm and expectations were something that emerged as a lesson learned.

The Goulburn Broken Catchment project is a collaborative effort by a number of government and private organisations:The Myer Foundation, CSIRO, Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority and Land and Water Australia.The aims of the project were: to estimate the values of selected ecosystem services as a way to help the Catchment Management Authority take account of the interrelationships among a wider range of ecological, economic and social values at scales from local to regional; work with a wide range of policy makers, planners, land managers, industry and community groups to raise awareness of the values of maintaining ecosystem functions (communication); and develop and promote the project outputs for application elsewhere, as one possible national approach to assist sound resource management (modelling and scenarios).

A major commitment to the approach was two-way communication through-out the project.

In their report, managers identified that generating stakeholder enthusiasm to value ecosystem services needed to be balanced against the capacity of researches to estimate those values.‘Our communication effort, which raised enthusiasm among a range of partners and researches, moved faster than our research effort, and some unrealistic expectations were raised.We have learned the importance of managing expectations among stakeholders and researchers[3].

Case Study 2 – The Defence Formal Messaging System Life of Type Extension (DFMS LOTE)

Mr. Ray Peters of Connell Wagner, (winner of the Individual Project Manager award announced at the PMAA presentation night 5 Sep 2007) had the interesting stakeholder management aspect at the other end of the spectrum with the DFMS LOTE project.

The Defence Formal Messaging System Life of Type Extension (DFMS LOTE) project was established in 2003 after the E-Defence project had failed to deliver a replacement for the aging and failing Defence Integrated Secure Communications Network (DISCON).DISCON was the primary communications system providing Command and Control (C2) messaging to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) from 1980-2007.By June 2006 little had been achieved by the DFMS LOTE project, jeopardising ADF C2. Mr Ray Peters of Connell Wagner was engaged in August 2006 and delivered the DFMS LOTE roll out (DISCON replacement) by April 2007.

In describing the project, Ray commented that ‘Taking over responsibility for a project which had started three years earlier, and had a reputation for non delivery, presented many opportunities to learn quite a few lessons. The main lesson learned was the importance of communication and consultation with stakeholders. (Communication and consultation with stakeholders was a vital element in controlling the risk of deploying a new system to the whole of Australia and overseas on two separate networks).

Stakeholders had become apathetic toward the project as a result of the numerous false starts in the preceding years. Various judgements and concerns were raised, primarily the risk of a catastrophic failure of the primary means of command and control for Defence.

Techniques used to minimise the concerns included providing installation plans to the site managers prior to site migration. On completion of the site migration the managers signed off acceptance of system on site acceptance certificates.

Site acceptance certificates ensured that each site manager had some ownership of the quality and acceptance of the new system, and satisfied concerns of stakeholders who shared part of the positive outcomes of the risks.

Attention All Project Managers

If you missed last months Newsletter, you would have missed the launch of the LESSONS LEARNED and LESSONS SHARED initiative. All project managers are invited to email their experiences and lessons learned in to act_chapter@aipm.com.au (This is the email address for the ACT Chapter Administrative Assistant, Rachel).

Each month a ‘winning’ lesson will be selected by the ACT Chapter membership panel. The selection will be made not only on merit, but also on innovation, value to the organisation and how the lesson was shared within the organisation. The ‘winning’ lesson will be advised in the Newsletter (or as directed by the author) and the ‘author’ contacted by Rachel to arrange for collection of the wine (voucher to the value of $100).

Submission closing date for the next series of LESSONS LEARNED and LESSONS SHARED is COB Monday, 1 October, 2007.

Topic for the next Newsletter is COMMUNICATION and STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT.

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Contact Detail Update 

Could all members please ensure that their contact details are up to date. There is an ever increasing number of non deliverable emails, and we would hate for you to miss out on any correspondence the the AIPM need to send to you. Updating your contact details is as easy as 1 2 3 ...

1. Log onto our website, and click on the Update Contact Details link on the top of the screen.
2. Email ACT Chapter Coordinator and let me know your new details
3. Email the National Support Office and let them know directly of your new details.

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New Members

Welcome to you all.

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New RegPM

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Upcoming Events

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Chapter Contacts

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