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Agile Vancouver Society, Van. BC - Estimating: The Sociological Effects In A Group (6:00 pm - 7:30 pm)
Estimates are required multiple times in a project. Project members need to make estimates for a variety of reasons, these include:

•  The amount of time for a task;
•  The cost for resources;
•  The cost of software, hardware and other materials;
•  The time required to finish a task.

However, there are many problems with estimates.  This presentation focuses on the sociological and psychological aspects of doing estimates.

It teaches attendees the environmental issues that affect estimates and how to deal with their impact. Through class interaction, it shows both the psychological and sociological factors that affect how estimates are given and provides leaders with tools to help avoid the common pitfalls. By avoiding these situations, estimates become more representative of the project and more variation more predictable. Controlling both of these, help the Project Manager avert trouble.

This a very interactive presentation. It has a short exercise and throughout the presentation, attendees are required to make estimates on doing the exercise again under a number of situations.

This presentation/workshop takes an hour and a half and part of the Back From Red Lecture Series on project recovery.

Url: http://www.agilevancouver.ca/

PMI Vancouver Roundtable (7:15 am - 8:20 am)
PMI's Roundtable held for members and non-members at the Clark County PUD Community Room. Check the PMI Portland site for last minute changes.

Contact Info : Registration not necessary. Url: http://pmi-portland.org/events/meetings/roundtables.htm

ASQ 3rd Annual SoCal Quality Conf - Improving Quality Before The Project Starts (9:45 am - 10:45 am)

Poor quality in projects results in increased costs and late deliveries. In most cases, Poor quality can be traced to events that happened prior to the project commencing.  Long before Quality Managers and Project Managers are involved, expectations get set and slowly diverge among the various stakeholders. This presentation focuses on a number of techniques learned while recovering projects that greatly improve the chances for success. It introduces the concept of a Guidance Team that gets involved with the project at the customer’s inception stage.

The presentation covers:

• Implementation of a Guidance Team to focus the customer.
• Project team involvement in the customer's initiative inception.
• Setting customer expectations early to help define critical to quality items.
• Ensuring the right team is involved to meet expectations.
• Tools used to monitor stakeholder alignment.

It focuses on the customer interaction. This method is very effective in controlling expectations and making sure the project does not wander.

Contact Info : This presentation is part of the ASQ 3rd Annual SoCal Quality Conference (SCQC) 2010 in Pomona, CA at the Kellogg West Conference Center. For registration information, please visit their website. Url: http://www.socalqualityconference.com/

FENG Phoenix - Finding Gold In Red Projects (3:30 pm - 8:30 pm)

The ability to deliver initiatives that make breakthroughs in the business is the differentiator of a truly successful IT department.  However, the project success rates are very poor.  Estimates range from 40-75% of project are over budget, late, or fail to deliver the required functionality.

Failing projects are prevalent in all industries and, although the actual failure rates are very subjective, the incidence of troubled projects is easily more than half of all projects. Finding the Gold in Red Projects looks at the value in performing a formal recovery on a red projects.  It uses current and historical data, case studies and the presenters twenty-five years experience of recovering projects to illustrate the process.

Finding the Gold in Red Projects has four major goals:

• Defines the state of today’s project management success/failure ratio.
• Shows how a formal recovery process can reduce or eliminate failure reoccurrence.
• Examples of some common problems and their solutions.
• Outlines next steps in improving project performance.

At the end of the presentation, attendees will understand some of the factors that influence continued project failure and a number of steps that can be taken to improve success rates and minimize reoccurrence.

Contact Info : This is a Phoenix FENG Alumni Mixer presentation. To learn more and register, please contact the FENG Phoenix group for more information. Url: http://www.thefeng.org/chapters/chairmen_local.php