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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. As the year draws to a close; take advantage of any decrease in workload to catch up on industry news and learn something new!
| 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 template is the Contract Review Checklist. This template contains an essential list of items necessary for any complete contract.
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| Book Recommendation of the Month |
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The Basics of Process Mapping by Robert Damelio
Book review by: Denise DeCarlo
Process Mapping is a technique used to graphically represent how a business is operating today and/or how they want to operate in the future. This visual representation of information is a key component to gathering requirements for projects effectively and efficiently.
This book covers three types of process maps: Relationship Maps, Cross- Functional Maps (also known as swim lanes) and Flowcharts. This is a small book (only 65 pages) but it's packed with practical information on how to create great process maps. It's easy to read, has lots of graphical examples, and provides insights on some of the problems inherent in creating "good" process maps. A must read for project managers and business analysts.
When working in organizations that are new to process mapping (or organizations that are struggling with process mapping) I've purchased several copies of this book (usually one per department) and gave the book to business personnel who would be participating in the process mapping activities. This helped prepare them for their role and greatly improved the results of the process mapping sessions. I hope you find this book as helpful as I have.
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| Coming Soon to a City Near You... |
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November 8th-10th, 2004 Colorado Springs, CO "Hard Truth About Soft Skills"
November 22nd-23rd, 2004 Minneapolis, MN "Intelligent Disobedience"
December 1st-3rd, 2004 Boise, ID "Hard Truth About Soft Skills"
December 6th-8th, 2004 Denver, CO "Complex IT Project Management"
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: "More than half of global business projects fail..." |
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Published by: Price Waterhouse Coopers
Many thanks to one of Mindavation's friends who shared this article link with us. The article discusses how more than half of projects managed by organizations with low project management maturity levels fail and explores why that is the case.
To read the Price Waterhouse Coopers view on this, read on. As consultants, we have seen this first hand!
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| Keynote Presentation at Red Earth PMI Chapter |
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Denise DeCarlo was the keynote presenter for the PMIŽ Red Earth Chapter on Monday evening September 20th in Oklahoma City, OK.
Denise engaged the audience of 30 participants discussing the challenges we have with projects today, techniques to get them back on track (or kill them if appropriate!) and how to reestablish buy-in throughout the organization once a project is on the road to recovery.
Shari from the Red Earth chapter summed up the presentation as follows; "The Red Earth chapter had a good turnout for the September Chapter meeting at 50 Penn Place. Denise DeCarlo did an outstanding job on her presentation 'Recovering Troubled Projects'."
Please contact us if your organization is interested in a keynote presentation from a Mindavator.
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| "Intelligent Disobedience" Executive Briefing |
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Watermark Learning welcomed Bob McGannon on October 15th, 2004 to present an executive briefing of "Intelligent Disobedience: The Difference Between Good and Great Project Managers".
Intelligent Disobedience - the ability to successfully counter the directions of management or challenge, pushback and make suggestions to management that defend the integrity of your projects against the expectations of your stakeholder - is pivotal to true success as a project manager. Like the seeing-eye dog training environment that embraces "Intelligent disobedience" as pivotal to success for these assistance pets, project managers need to know how to "disobey their masters" as a means of "saving the business" just as seeing-eye dogs "save and empower their masters" with their vision and behavior.
Mindavation offers a 2-day course on Intelligent Disobedience and has written an article on the subject authored by Bob McGannon. The article was featured in last month's Mindavation newsletter. For more information on the subject or to schedule training on "Intelligent Disobedience" please contact us.
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Mindavation Forms New Strategic Partnership |
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Mindavation is proud to announce a new Strategic Partnership that was finalized in September of 2004. Mindavation and Watermark Learning have "joined hands" in providing outstanding project management and business analyst training to our customers. In the future, Mindavation will now be offering select Watermark Learning courses to our customers - in addition to Mindavation courses - in an effort to ensure we're providing our customers a full suite of project management training offerings. Some of the new courses you can look forward to include: PMP Certification Preparation, Business Process Modeling, Software Testing and MS Project (hands on training).
Watermark Learning is a Minneapolis based organization that has served thousands of IT and business professionals since 1992. Mindavation is excited about this relationship and hopes to continue providing outstanding project management related training services to our customers worldwide. Look for detailed information coming to our website soon regarding these new offerings!
If you have an immediate need for some of the courses mentioned above - please contact Donna Palm at 1-866-888-MIND or dpalm@mindavation.com.
More on Watermark Learning... |
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