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Welcome to the Mindavation online project management newsletter.
Our commitment is to share news about project management upcoming events, tips & tricks of the trade, recommendations for reference and inspirational materials, and Mindavation course offerings.
This month's focus is project complexity. Many companies, small and large, are now merging to create "giants". The resulting projects to merge the previously independent companies are typically very large with a high degree of complexity. Change requests introduced at any time in our projects are another way complexity sneaks into our otherwise "normal" projects. Enjoy this month's insights!
| Free Template of the Month |
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Each month Mindavation will offer a template from our Project Templates CD free of charge. Don't miss out on this opportunity!
This month's download is our Interface Tracking Tool template. This template can be used to help track complexities in projects. This "mapping" of what components interface with is a great way to identify change impacts quickly, as well as identifying impacted team stakeholders to create communication paths for project issues and concerns. This template is used in Mindavation's "Managing Integration Projects" course.
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| Book Recommendation of the Month |
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Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
As we are focusing this month's newsletter on complexity and integration it is fitting to recommend Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.
This easy read focuses on the realities of our competitive business environment that we often overlook, the changes that can and should be made to make a business more successful (or to survive!), and then provides an excellent "thought map" for preparing to make the appropriate changes in your business. The structure for a business model that Bossidy and Charan propose is well worth the cost of the book, and the preparations they discuss for initiating business change are insightful and crisp.
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| Coming Soon to a City Near You... |
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April 4-6, 2005 Denver, CO "Complex IT Project Management"
May 9-11, 2005 Colorado Springs, CO "Complex IT Project Management"
May 16-17, 2005 Richmond, VA "Intelligent Disobedience"
Looking for a class to attend? Would you like to meet us face to face? If we are in your area, feel free to contact us to schedule a meeting.
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| This Month's Article: Complexity in Change |
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By Bob McGannon, PMP
Successful project management involves the use of a fully utilized change management process. The vast majority of project managers know this, regardless if they work in an advanced or barely mature project management environment. Despite this understanding about change management, most change management processes are missing a critical element that is required to manage change in their project environments - assessing how a change will alter the complexity profile of the project and project deliverables.
What is the missing element in change management? A complexity change assessment!
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| Mindavation Project Templates CD Available |
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Mindavation offers 30 customizable project templates and tools to make your life easier! The CD includes full project lifecycle templates and tools.
Documents are in MS Word, MS Excel, MS Project 2000 (and Adobe). Modify each template to suit YOUR business and project needs.
Price (including shipping & handling): $100
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Mindavation Adds "Managing Integration Projects" to Available Courses |
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Systems and process integration projects are becoming the norm rather than the exception. Integration projects, however, are the most difficult and laden with traps to snag the unwary project manager. Students will learn tips and processes that come from years of experience that will prepare them to avoid the failures that plague integration projects. Techniques taught in the course are reinforced with thorough "real- life" case studies.
- Traps and Pitfalls of Integration Projects
- Risk Analysis - Integration Issues
- Complex Change Management Processes
- Managing Complex Integration Teams - Testing and Implementation
- Case Studies
PMBOK areas covered are the management of: Time, Risk, Procurement and Integration
For a more in depth description of this class, or any others we offer, please visit our course information page on our website. Please contact us to schedule this class in your organization.
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