NEW NATIONAL PRESIDENT

The national Executive Election saw the following officials take office at the AGM in Melbourne on 10th October :

National President: David Dombkins
National Vice President: Lesley Bentley
National Secretary: Chivonne Watt
National Treasurer: Stuart Hughson (unopposed)

You will be pleased to hear the new President, David Dombkins, has a very healthy agenda of improvements to the AIPM, the certification process and intends to offer all members more opportunity to participate in these activities.

David is spending his first two months of office, working in the National Office in a voluntary capacity to better understand the day to day activities of AIPM and determine where areas of improvement may be found.

NEW AIPM Administration System

David is actively assisting with the implementation of the new IT system, which is a quantum jump in technology, removing a great deal of double handling, multiple entry of information etc.

The benefits to us all will be great, as you might expect the degree of difficulty in achieving this leap forward are also not small, if you are experiencing any delays please be patient for a few more weeks, it will be worth it!

PMAA 2006

Event Planning has Commenced

The PMAA 2005 event was simply fantastic, much of the credit is due to a small band of enthusiastic volunteers which we hope to retain and add to. We would love to see YOU put your hand up and offer to assist in the coming year. The work is not arduous, track a few targets, a few follow-up calls, summarize the status of your activities, particularly for the critical months prior to the event. We also have a regular meeting in a convivial environment, for you to extend your networking opportunities and make new friends

Sponsor PMAA 2006!

We need you! We hope to retain our existing sponsors and always have room for a few more.

Sponsorship can be as little as organizing your boss to agree to securing a table and send you and nine workmates to the event. Hopefully, you will be impressed and ……

Submit a project!

If your projects at work are subject to audit, they are pretty much ready to be assessed. This year the submission process will be even easier, and we have mentors who can tell you what the judges are looking for, and what to trim out.

Projects can be sterilized to remove your organization’s identity and security of course is not compromised.

Membership

Keep renewing! It is not too late, if you have any problems we could assist with, please call. Your Membership includes attendance at Monthly Forums where you can ‘renew’ and increase your knowledge on project management issues, meet new contacts and build up your network.

Monthly Forums

Your suggestions: your suggestions for topics you would like and whom you would like to have in the future for Presenters are most welcome. Members input is important in ensuring that making the Forums the best way of transferring the latest knowledge and concepts on project management. Please contact the Chapter Administrator and make your contribution to continuing the best AIPM Chapter in Australia.

Paul Black

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The AIPM National Conference in Melbourne proved to be a well managed event with interesting keynote and major presentations and a good array of seminar sessions in four different streams. At times I would have liked to have attended up to three of the session presentations being held concurrently. A nice problem to solve! Yet again the point was reinforced that no matter what industry you are in, the issues, risks and problems to be solved are similar in nature. Plenty of networking opportunities were available from the initial welcoming drinks, morning and afternoon teas and lunches.

The gala awards night at the Melbourne Town Hall was sponsored by the Melbourne City Council and controlled by the entertaining and dry witted Eric Goblet. In true PM fashion, the introduction to a recital on the famed Town Hall organ covered some of the project management aspects of the recent overhaul and renovation. One interesting fact is that there is over 487km of wire involved. A very pleasant evening was had by all and some were observed to be a bit socially confused at the end of the evening. Congratulations to all the winners of awards.

The new National Committee is now in place and I believe they will lead the AIPM into being a more corporately aware Institute. Data from the recent members’ survey will be used to improve existing members’ services and guide the way on providing additional products. The new database, just installed, will greatly enhance the management of the AIPM and minimise duplication of data entry.

I attended the National PMAA Closure Meeting on Saturday 8th October, with Paul Black, the ACT Chapter President. The ACT Chapter contributed greatly to the overall success of the Awards through out Australia. The number of submissions received and the attendance at the ACT’s Awards Night exceeded the numbers in each of the other states and territories. Well done to Phil Stevens and the ACT PMAA team.

I also attended the Assessors Day on Wednesday. The prime focus on the day was to provide input to and form a new Committee to provide the National Committee a way ahead for assessing and verification. David Dombkins sent out an email on Friday 14th October outlining the form and function of the Committee and calling for interested persons to register their interest and participation.

These are just some of my initial impressions of the conference. Overall, I found the Conference to be a very rewarding experience and recommend you consider attending next years Conference in Sydney in September 2006.
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Our monthly Forums are held on the last Wednesday of every month, at the Canberra Club, 45 West Row, Civic, commencing at 5:30pm until 7:30pm. Drinks and cocktail food are served, and members are more than welcome to bring a guest. For all RSVP's please contact the Chapter Administrator.

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Membership continues to increase. At the National Conference we were congratulated for the fastest growing Chapter in Australia. The prime reason for new members joining is to attain recognition of the Project Management expertise by achieving RegPM status – RPM or MPD.

The AIPM Website continues to be updated – do you have this site in your list of favourites?

Continue the great work of spreading the benefits of joining AIPM. Each and every one of us is an ambassador for the AIPM and as such can spread the word on the benefits of membership in our professional institute. Prospective new members should be directed to the AIPM Website for benefits and joining details. Don’t forget you can bring a mate/friend/prospective to the monthly forum to introduce them to the benefits of AIPM membership.

See you at the Forum on Wed 26 October, John Jacobi
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Background

The AIPM National Council is implementing a number of initiatives to directly engage members in the shaping of our profession and to tap the wealth of knowledge and experience that exists in our membership. Two pilot projects are the development and implementation of the AIPM’s Assessment and Verification Systems.

Rationale

The robustness, reliability and credibility of the RegPM Assessment System is central to its acceptance and level of recognition in industry and government. The extant system, introduced almost 10 years ago, has been through many iterations and lacks consistency. The intent is to establish a scaleable, repeatable and trusted Assessment System that will ensure that the RegPM is maintained in the future as the premiere project management certification. This is critical for members of our profession if we are to maintain credibility in the workplace.

The Verification System is our quality control. With the rapid growth in RegPM candidates and re-certification it is also time to develop a scaleable, repeatable and trusted Verification System.

Initiative

National Council is inviting members to nominate for membership of either the Assessment or the Verification Committees in the following categories:

• two members not involved in assessment;
• two assessor-nominated representatives; and
• two corporate members.

Both Committees will be chaired by Dr David Dombkins, AIPM National President and Program Leader Standards and Certification.

Schedule

The schedule is very tight, with the intent being to have the outcomes distributed to National Council members for consideration by 24 Nov 05 and approval by the Council at its 3 Dec 05 meeting. This will necessitate intensive input from committee members.

Outcomes

The outcomes from both Committees will be a proposed systems and an implementation plan. In addition, it is intended that the knowledge gained from these Committees, e.g. structure, operation and performance, will be used to expand the initiatives to ensure broad membership involvement in all AIPM program areas.

Participation

If you would like to participate in these very important committees please email your details to national_president@aipm.com.au, stating which committee you would like to join and a short statement of how you will add value to that committee.
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The ACT Chapter held another successful evening with 38 members and guests attending the Forum. Shane Kingston, Project Manager of the Defence Materiel Organisation Project JP 2008 MILSATCOM Phase 3E provided an interesting presentation on “the Commonwealth as a Prime System Integrator”. Shane was still grinning from collecting two prises from the local Chapter PMAA awards night. The project represented the ACT at the National Awards in Melbourne.

The presentation focused on the Opportunities and Challenges associated with the planning and delivery of a complex project. Shane used the nine elements of Project Management as the framework for the presentation with the following lessons learnt discussed:

Process

• Do not take on the role of Prime System Integrator as there are just too many challenges and opportunities.
• A lot of the success of a project is based on upfront planning, a good WBS and traceability of requirements.

Scope and Requirements Management

• Do not underestimate the importance of requirement traceability

System Engineering

• Where possible work with industry to ensure a mutual and thorough understanding of the requirements before getting into contract.

Cost and Schedule

• Planning is everything and one needs a very good scheduler
• The Project Manager must manage the integration of WBS and schedule.

Contract Management

• Ensure all intellectual property and technical documentation is owned.

Resource Management

• Celebrate the major wins with some downtime

Risk Management

• If possible always attempt to employ two mitigation treatment paths doe high risk elements

Communications Management

• Good public relations can gain trust from stakeholders and line management
• Do not be afraid to advertise

Overall

• Planning is the key
• Project Management can be fun if you do not have problems and issues!!!

Thanks to Shane for an entertaining and frank insight into management of a complex project in the public arena.
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The Knowledge - Publication Committee (KPC) met late-Sep 05 to, inter alia, consider the future format and style of the Australian Project Manager (APM) magazine and to progress the introduction of a Learned Journal. The Committee, chaired by David Baccarini, was joined by the National President Elect - Dr David Dombkins.

The Committee agreed the need to review future format/purpose/content of the APM, particularly with the advent of the Learned Journal. The thinking was that a light, topical and fun approach might be more appropriate, with heavier, more academic articles being directed to the Learned Journal. The National Corporate Services Manager, Markus Meier-Lindner agreed to bring forward a suitable Proposal by the end of November 05, with a progress report to the Committee by the end of October 05. If you have any thoughts on the topic, please send an email to Markus soonest.

The Learned Journal has been somewhat dormant for the last two years. To expedite the launch of the Learned Journal the Committee agreed to propose David/s Baccarini and Dombkins as Foundation Editors to the National Council at its meeting in October 05. It was thought that the focus of the Journal might be a more strategic PM. If you would like to become more closely involved in the development of the Learned Journal please contact either of the Davids. Contact details can be found on the AIPM Website.
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APOLOGY

In our September 2005 newsletter, it was shown that member Mr Ian Anderson had achieved certification status of Qualified Project Professional. This is incorrect, and Mr Anderson has achieved the status of Registered Project Manager. AIPM sincerely apologises for this error.

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Thriving in a Risk-Averse Culture – PowerPoint Deck
Microsoft

Guest Speaker: Mr Charles Russell - Product Solution Marketing Manager for Information Worker

This presentation provides tools and methodologies to help understand and manage risk and provides examples of how these tools can be implemented using Project Standard 2003.

Charles Russell is the Product Solution Marketing Manager for Information Worker at Microsoft, including responsibility for Project & the EPM business. Previous to Microsoft, Charles has 8 years experience in product management in the Telecommunications Industry working for both Telstra and Optus, and has had a good deal of hands on programme and project management experience in his past life. On a personal note, Charles is originally from North Carolina in the US and immigrated to Australia in 1997 with his wife and now has two Australian daughters and a brand new Australian son.

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Please be advised that our National Office has undergone a technology refresh program, and as part of this, the phone system has been upgraded. The new phone and fax number are:

Main Phone Number - (02) 8288-8700

Main Fax Number - (02) 8288-8711

For individual contact phone numbers of the National Office staff members, please click here.

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