Through my company, Real-Life Projects, I will have access to on-line, web seminar facilities. I plan to use these to provide a series of free, web-based seminars, open to the general public. Each will be about an hour in length and will earn Professional Development Units (PDUs) or other educational credits for the attendees.
What topics do you want to hear about? Please comment on this post, or contact me with your ideas, suggestions, and requests. I want to provide topics that people are passionate about. Help me produce some great, free events by letting me know what you want to learn from me.
I might begin with some of my more popular presentations. Topics include:
- Strategic planning
- Aligning projects to strategy
- Project failure
- Project scheduling
- Microsoft Project
These web seminars will be for your benefit, though. Let me know what you want, using the comment form below.
I will do my best to come up with compelling, informative presentations to answer your questions and concerns.
October 14th, 2008 at 16:14
Alex,
Thanks for the great website. How about a web seminar about a weak, or non-performing Project Sponsor?
Stephen Seay, PMP
Projectsteps.com
By the way, will you be in Denver at the PMI conference this next week? I would like to meet you. Let me know if you will be there and where we could meet to chat.
October 14th, 2008 at 19:13
Great idea, Stephen. Sponsor can make a project manager’s life wonderful or extremely difficult. Unfortunately sponsors usually get even less preparation in their role than project managers.
I will add that to the list — “Difficult Project Sponsors”. I would probably include overbearing, controlling sponsors in the presentation, as well as weak and non-performing sponsors.
I will definitely be in Denver at the PMI Congress, from Thursday 16 October until Tuesday 21 October. I will contact Stephen privately about a time to talk, but anyone reading this is welcome to contact me so we can chat.
The best part about any conference is meeting new people and renewing old friendships.
–Alex
October 15th, 2008 at 04:15
Hi Alex
Great website and of course the web seminar is a great idea. How about doing a session on ‘Identifying and Managing Stakeholders effectively or Benefits of Change Control? Just a thought.
Femi Odekunle, PMP
October 15th, 2008 at 14:50
Great suggestions, Femi. Change control is something that often gets taken for granted. That is a great topic.
I am not sure if I will cover stakeholder management, at least not right away. There are some other experts that are really focused on that topic. Lynda Bourne has really specialized on tools and methods to identify and manage stakeholders. She also works closely with Patrick Weaver on this topic. I am always happy to cover a topic, but if there is an expert in the field, I will defer to them. You can find out more about Lynda and Patrick at http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/ or http://www.stakeholder-management.com/.
I will add “change control” near the top of the list — not just the benefits, but also some of the key how-tos. So many people talk about doing change control but they either become too bureaucratic when doing it or they do not do it at all.
Thanks again, Femi.
–Alex
October 16th, 2008 at 12:43
Hi Alex, your web site is great. I love the idea of web seminars. I liked the suggestions you have received so far. I would love to see something that relates to Estimating Techniques as well as Business Requirements Gathering and Management (which relates to managing the scope, both product and project). Thanks. Peg
October 16th, 2008 at 17:20
Peg,
Thanks for the ideas. I am so excited that we are getting some conversations going about these web seinars.
For business requirements, I would suggest going to the IIBA web site right away. International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA; http://www.theiiba.org/) is a great group for business analysts. It is a professional association like PMI, but focused on the needs of business analysts (BA). Personally, I have always done BA work as an IT project manager. I think any IT project manager will benefit from the IIBA web site, and most will benefit from IIBA membership.
Estimating is a tough topic, and one that is worth discussing. I would welcome people’s thoughts on what type of estimates they are interested in. IT estimating is very different from marketing, construction, new product development, and other types of estimating. I could talk about general skills or industry-specific skills. Let me know what type of estimating you would like me to help you with.
–Alex
P.S. All these suggestions are wonderful. It will take me some time to present even this starting list. I will set up a schedule for these soon, and we can add to it as we go. Keep the ideas coming!