Concurrent Workshop Sessions #1
Monday, May 5 @ 9:45 am
Stream: Strategic Project Management
Project Sponsor & Project Manager: Building the Partnership
The relationship between project sponsor and project manager is key to how well a project progresses to its goal. However, these leaders come together with different backgrounds, expectations, approaches, and terminology. Two seasoned professionals will draw on their experiences, good and bad, in forging a partnership to lead what are often difficult change initiatives. Their top lessons learned are directly applicable to all projects.
Speaker: James Lee and Jo Kucher
Jo Kucher is Capital Health’s Senior Director of Regional Patient Information Services and Library Services. Her staff is located across hospital and other sites in the Edmonton region. Dedicated to continual service improvement, Jo has sponsored information technology and other projects to benefit her clients and staff. Jo graduated from NAIT as a Health Information Management Professional.
James Lee is a senior Capital Health Project Manager, with extensive experience leading information technology projects and departments in the public and private sectors. James has a BSc in Engineering and a PMP.
Stream: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
PMI Project of the Year: The Fernald Closure Project: From Weapons to Wetlands
The Department of Energy (DOE) site at Fernald in Ohio produced uranium for the U.S. defense program, delivering 500 million pounds of uranium-metal products. Its mission came at a price: each pound of product generated 10 pounds of nuclear and chemical waste. Production stopped in 1989, and in 1992, Fluor began cleaning up the Site. Originally, the project was forecast to take 27 years and cost $12.2 billion. When completed in 2006, 12 years and $7.8 billion had been shaved from the predictions. In tearing down and digging up everything at Fernald, workers restored the 1,050-acre complex with 400 acres of woodlots, 140 acres of wetlands, and 33 acres of savanna. They also set records: DOE’s largest rail campaign for shipping radioactive waste, the world’s largest water-treatment facility for removing uranium, and over 7 million hours and 10 years without a lost-time injury. At Fernald’s closure, Secretary of Energy Bodman said, “…we have returned the land as a living tribute to all that has occurred here. This is a legacy of which we can be proud.”
Speaker: Con Murphy
Con Murphy is the President and CEO of Fluor Hanford, a prime contractor to the Department of Energy (DOE) at the Hanford Site in Washington State. Hanford is one the world’s largest environmental cleanup projects. Fluor Hanford employs 3,600 managerial, technical and craft personnel. The contract is funded at $700 million per year. Murphy came to Fluor Hanford in 2007 after managing the final stages of closing DOE’s Fernald Site in Ohio. The project was completed 12 years earlier and for $7.8 billion less than initially projected. Murphy has 32 years experience in engineering, nuclear-waste treatment and environmental operations at commercial and DOE nuclear facilities. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Engineering from Ireland’s Cork Regional College of Technology and a Merchant Marine Chief Engineer’s License. His career has taken him from working on offshore rigs and super tankers with British Petroleum, to managing environmental-remediation projects with National Energy Associates, IT Corporation (now owned by Shaw) and now to Fluor.
Stream: Project Leadership
Reaching New Heights in Leadership
What makes a great leader great? What is the role of leadership for people without leadership roles? Reaching New Heights in Leadership™ presents a new and exciting look at the essential role of leadership - for everyone - and how to create it. Master storyteller and successful businessman, Hugh Culver, will take your audience on an entertaining and educational journey from the South Pole to the Boardroom. The message is as simple as it is profoundly relevant in today's work world: business needs leaders, and we are all leaders. We just need to start acting like one! Step beyond motivation to an exciting, inspirational and often hilarious presentation packed with life lessons. Reaching New Heights in Leadership™ will have your audience laughing, listening, and learning!
Speaker: Hugh Culver
Hugh Culver is an athlete, adventurer, businessman, visionary, and someone who personally understands the incredible power of being passionate and inspired about your work. For the past 14 years, as the president of Marathon Communications Inc., Hugh Culver has been leading training programs and corporate retreats designed to foster human development in the context of work. His clients range from charter banks and credit unions to national retail stores, high technology firms, and government. As well, Hugh facilitates strategic planning/ senior management meetings for Corporations, Boards of Directors, and Municipal and Provincial Governments. Hugh spent 15 years as a professional whitewater guide and manager of the largest adventure travel company in Western Canada. He pioneered and marketed adventure tours to the South Pole, mountain climbing expeditions and even golfing at the North Pole.
Stream: Project Management Fundamentals
Project Kick-Off Meetings - Getting Past Kumbaya and Other Campfire Songs
For many projects, the kick-off meeting is often a session where the goal is to give everyone a “warm and fuzzy” feeling and as a result little of consequence occurs!! Seasoned project managers know the importance of shifting agenda and focus of the project kick-off meeting so that the essential process of alignment between the project team and the stakeholders about the project deliverables and the project processes begins correctly. This presentation will focus on identifying the project workflow, beginning with estimating , and then address key topics and issues that should be covered at every kick-off meeting.
Speaker: Ben Voivedich Jr.
Ben E. Voivedich Jr., PMP, is a long time project management (PM) practitioner who has been a writer, keynote speaker and presenter to groups and conferences all over the world on subjects related to project and construction management. Ben is president of PMCC Inc., a 15 year old PM firm with offices in Houston, New Orleans, Washington DC and Colorado that provides consulting, mentoring, teaming, and training services to clients worldwide. His company has won project of the year honours from several professional associations over the years; the most recent being from the Construction Rountable in New Orleans for the “Big Muddy” transmission project. He is past chairman on the PMI Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical SIG and was a contributor to the PMI WBS Practice Standard issued in 2002. He is currently a member of the PMI Lexicon Team. Ben splits time between his residences in Houston, Texas and Ouray, Colorado.
Stream: The Mixed Bag
Approaching Organizational Initiatives and Real Life with a PM Eye
Have you ever wondered why some business initiatives are successful and others are not? Are you tired of “committees” that don’t get anywhere? Or have you ever wondered why you just can’t get things done at home? Perhaps you haven’t thought of applying the logical approach you take with projects to these other initiatives. It works…really. Shaun Hammond and Marianne West will take you through how they’ve successfully applied the PMBOK approach to business initiatives and personal initiatives. You’ll hear how this can work in any environment…Government, private sector and your home life (real life). Once you get into using this approach it comes naturally…but it takes some practice…and we’ll give you a chance to try it in this session. Warning: they will make you think about your own job and personal life differently!!
Speaker: Shaun Hammond and Marianne West
Shaun Hammond is the Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for the Transportation Safety Services Division at Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation. He is responsible for the delivery of provincial programs in the areas of Vehicle Safety and commercial carrier safety, weights and dimension requirements, the safe transport of dangerous goods, and the oversight of provincial rail systems. In addition, he is responsible for all aspects of driver education, licensing and monitoring. Shaun has been extensively involved in the development of national strategies for chemical spills response and risk reduction related to hazardous chemicals transportation. He spent 2 years as the business representative in Infrastructure and Transportation’s Enterprise Program Office, acting as interim CIO for the Department. Before joining the Alberta provincial government, Shaun’s previous experience was with major chemical and petrochemical companies, responsible for the design, development and operation of chemical processing and distribution operations in Canada, Great Britain and Africa.
Marianne West has over 30 years business experience with 20 years specifically in Project and Program Management (PPM). Her roles have ranged from Project Manager on local projects to Canada National Project Office Leader and Global Leader roles. She has also been a PPM Mentor, Trainer and Methodology Developer and Implementer in both the public (Government of Alberta) and private sectors (ADC, EDS, IBM and her own consulting company). Always looking for a new challenge, just over a year ago she moved into a Sales Executive role with her employer, EDS Canada Inc. She has applied her strong PPM skills to the role and has found the approach to work very well. Marianne is the VP Communications for the PMI Global Women in Project Management Special Interest Group and has also served locally as PMI NAC VP Communications, President and Past President.