Time for an annual audit of local governnment project, programme and portfolio management capability?

Better connected is an annual survey of the quality of local government websites, conducted by SOCITM.  Every year local government web managers like Kathryn Halton cross their fingers and hope that their hard work will result in a 4 star rating, or even a coveted direct mention in the report for best practice.

No audit system is perfect and some feel that such reviews are misleading, however this process gives local authorities some sort of evidence based measure of the quality of their online services, and a means of comparing themselves to peers. Continue reading

#BarCampChelt, Sept 30th 2011

Dr David in the Skype Hotseat

It’s all over.  Or perhaps this is just the beginning!  The first #BarCampChelt happened last night in the lovely Monty’s cocktail bar.  Incredibly around 10 wonderful people turned up on a Friday night to talk business… in a fun kind of way.

Dr David's new book is called “Relationship Mastery: A Business Professional’s Guide” and is due to be published later in October.

The event kicked off with Dr David Fraser joining us as the Expert In The Skype Hot Seat (we didn’t expect him to travel all the way from Glasgow!).

Can project managers succeed without resorting to the dark arts

David gave an overview of his life’s work before each of the delegates took their turn to ask David a question. Questions included “Can project managers succeed without resorting to the dark arts?” and “How do I deal with jealousy in my team…. one of the team is far superior to the rest, and so gets the most challenging pieces of work… any advice?

Once the Skype Hotseat challenge was over, we all got stuck into the 2 for 1 cocktails and enjoyed a chilled out evening, sharing experiences, war stories and more!

I’d  like to thank all those who came along, and I look forward to seeing you at the next #pmteacamp… details will be published on www.publicsectorpm.com WATCH THIS SPACE.

Find out more about Dr David via his website http://www.drdavidfraser.com/. He would also love to connect with you via twitterlinked in, and facebook.  And finally, why not join his linked in group Relationship Skills for Professional, Business and Personal Success – I find the Sunday night articles truly thought provoking.

#pmchat

Rob Prinzo and Robert Kelly - the guys behind #pmchat

#pmchat is an awesome weekly tweetup of project management enthusiasts.  It starts every Friday at 4.30pm (GMT) with the pre-game radio show hosted by Rob Prinzo (@robprinzo) and Robert Kelly (@rkelly976).  After the 15 minute webcast, the interactive hour long tweetup kicks off.  Topics covered so far include managing scope, building strong project teams, and gathering requirements.

#pmchat enjoys active participation from a tight community of friendly and experienced professionals including @HELENSStudio, @dwrichy, @klkaz, @Project_Mom,@michael_greer, @irivera, @unlikebefore, @RailComm_Paola, @sewah_kram, @ColleenGarton,  and @BridgePM

I hope you can join us next week :)

South West P3M Season of Sharing

Merlin and I are very excited to announce the launch of the South West P3M Season of Sharing (SoS).  The SoS is a series of informal unconference style events happening across the South West UK between now and Spring 2012.

Bristol and Cheltenham have already confirmed that they will be hosting events, and the organisers Merlin and Jon are now looking for other organisations to step up and host events in their locality… Come on Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset… SHOW US WHAT YOU’VE GOT ;)   Venue nominations are needed by 7th October. Don’t be shy, get stuck in.

The Cheltenham event will focus on business change with sessions on systems thinking, portfolio management, agile project management and more.  If you’d like to host an event in your area, please get in touch so that we can help you make it happen.

Watch this space for details of dates, venues and how to get your tickets.

Agile business conference

If you’re into agile (or just curious), you can’t afford to miss the DSDM consortiums upcoming conference:  Agile Grows Up: Coexistence ~ Scalability ~ Governance.  It’s on in London on the 4th, 5th & 6th October at the Inmarsat Conference Centre.

The theme this year focuses on the maturity and acceptability of Agile – as evidenced by the recent significant successes and developments across the Public and Private Sectors.

  • Day One will provide low-cost entry to Training, Workshops and Clinics prepared for individuals, teams and organisations who are new to Agile or who have recognised the potential and are looking to “up their game”
  • Days Two and Three: UK Agile Business Conference and Exhibition incorporating Real-world Keynote presentations from experienced Agile Practitioners plus 4 Conference Tracks: Agile First Steps; Agile Inspect and Adapt; Agile at Enterprise Scale; Agile for Public Sector

The programme provides the choice of more than 30 sessions for organisations and individuals across the full Agile adoption spectrum – from those with little or no experience through to those with established Agile practices.

In this year’s specially extended 3 day Agenda, the 2011 Agile Business Conference provides the single source of information to understand how Agile will benefit you, your teams and your organisation.

Visit the conference website to hear interviews with inspirational presenters past and present.  Links to booking forms can also be found on the conference website.

Publicsectorpm.com has managed to secure a small discount for readers of this blog.  To obtain your discount, send me a message including your email address, job title, employer and the words ‘ABC discount’.  I will then forward your details on to DSDM so that your discount can be applied.

I look forward to seeing some of you there!

Sack the Prince2 fundamentalists

Seriously.  These guys (and girls) are costing you a lot of money.  The prince2 fundamentalist will:

  • agonise over superfluous documents such as: quality logs;  configuration management plans; configuration item records.
  • insist you employ a configuration librarian
  • generally fiddle around with doomsday-book-esque wads of documentation rather than do some management.  The only thing they are managing is the destruction of the rain-forest.

#pmteacamp, Cheltenham, UK

Dr David in the Skype Hotseat

The point is to share ideas, solve problems, learn something new

#pmteacamp is an informal gathering of business change professionals, digital communicators, web developers / designers, and social media specialists who are passionate about improving the way that organisations work.

Fabulous regular attendees include Sue Pritchard, Paul Naybour, Helen Reynolds, Tom Howlett, Chris Cox, Jane Stone, Emily Davis, Jonathan Pollinger and  me :)

Check out the write up from the September 2011 gathering.

We usually meet every two months in Monty’s cocktail bar.  Event tweets are on the #pmteacamp hash tag.  Keep an eye out for future event dates which will be published on www.publicsectorpm.com

We’re always on the lookout for new Experts for The Skype Hotseat.  If you’re up for it, please let me know.

Free project, programme and portfolio management event – May 10th 2011, Bristol City Council

Bristol City Council, Cheltenham Borough Council and the collective voice are working in partnership to bring you the Summer Project, Programme and Portfolio Management (p3m) forum.

Event organisers Merlin Jones and Jon Hyde invite public sector colleagues to join them in Bristol on May 10th to share p3m war stories and best practice. The event is 100% free of charge! Continue reading