PMI Eastern Iowa Chapter

The next PMI breakfast meeting will be held on Tuesday April 13th, 2010 from 7:15 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the Clarion Hotels and Convention Center, 525, 33rd Avenue, Cedar Rapids SW. The Clarion Hotel and Convention Center phone number is (319) 366-8671.

PROGRAM: The April 13th presentation will be “Decision Making and Critical Thinking Skills?”, presented by Jamie Ward.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: Logic and deductions are used to make everyday decisions. Decisions arrive from an unpredictable combination of insight, intuition, wisdom, feelings, hunches, timing and binary solution devices (the coin toss.) Decisions are easy, the right decision much harder and great decisions, nirvana. Exploring the path to a decision provides useful, usable insights. Jamie is an artful weaver of verbal images with practical ideas. This upbeat session focuses on how decisions are made, types of decisions, a fun look inside your brain and decision making tools.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Beginning with a computer science major, W. Jamie Ward has journeyed through Software, Quality and Process Engineering, seeing every aspect of many diverse programs. With confidence and a vision, he completed the biggest item on his “life list.” Through his cooperate sabbatical he has added anthropological insight to his skill-set as he transitions to life’s next step. With an uncertain economy, Jamie and his partners are confident this is the right time to launch two separate companies, another check-mark on his life list.
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Cost: Chapter Members, $10; Guests, $15

RSVP: Please confirm no later than Thursday, April 8th, to programregistration@pmieasterniowa.org; use APRIL REGISTRATION in the subject line. Cancellations must be received by COB, Friday, April 9th to avoid being charged as a no-show for this chapter event.

Program Schedule:
7:15 - 7:30 Registration, breakfast, and social time
7:30 – 7:40 Ice Breaker – Meeting your Colleagues
7:40 - 7:50 Opening by chapter president / chapter officers
7:50 - 8:40 Presentation / Discussion
8:40 - 9:00 Final announcements and wrap-up

Buffet Breakfast Menu (subject to change):
French toast w/ maple syrup and whipped butter
Golden scrambled eggs w/ cheddar cheese
Fresh fruit
Regular / Decaf Coffee/ Hot Tea
Fruit Juice

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Successful candidates are typically goal-oriented leaders who are able to balance IT and business needs while at the same time meeting program timelines and objectives.

Detailed Description
• Accountable for the successful execution and implementation of 2 to 3 concurrent tracks on a high complexity program.
• Responsible for understanding dependencies between tasks, tracks and/or projects, creating documentation and proposals to support trade-off decisions.
• Ensure business requirements are met, while at the same time balancing IT standards and preserving system/data integrities.
• Collaborate with Business and IT sponsors to ensure project decisions are made and issues are escalated and resolved appropriately.
• Create a collaborative and cohesive team atmosphere that facilitates successful project execution.
• Responsible for maintaining overall project reporting (status, budget, resourcing, etc.)
• Accountable for ensuring accurate portfolio-level project cost tracking and compliance to all PMO processes.
• Provides coaching and project level guidance to the project team members.

Job Requirements
• 3 to 5 years experience managing complex IT programs, with significant responsibility for business components or activities.
• 2 to 3 years project management experience in a consulting environment (Big Four strongly preferred) or enterprise-level IT service organizations required.
• 7-10 years in IT project management.
• Demonstrated experience managing and tracking projects using critical path, triple-constraints and earned value techniques.
• Experience managing diverse project teams, including full-time employees, part-time, contractor and off-shore resources.
• Excellent communication skills with senior leadership polish and delivery. Ability to communicate effectively with all levels in the organization.
• Strong systems thinking.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Ability to interact at a ‘peer’ knowledge level with a wide variety of functional areas - development, QA, business, etc.
• Pragmatism and a can-do attitude.
• Development background is preferred.
• Candidate must be prepared to show a portfolio of project management artifacts (schedule, project plan, change matrix, etc.) produced/authored by them.

MUST be able to work PERM, willing to RELOCATE to NE and have EXCELLENT communication skills.

Linda Coe, Coe Recruiting
402-721-0082, clinda9@earthlink.net

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• Five years Project Management experience leading infrastructure-related projects. Experience with projects relating to the mainframe, telephony, network, database, server, desktop, and web infrastructures is required.
• Four year degree in Information Technology, Computer Science or related studies.
• Minimum of 8 years business and/or system analysis experience, preferably in the financial services industry.
• Minimum of 4 years experience leading moderate to large projects using an established project management methodology.
• PMP designation required or must demonstrate progress toward imminent achievement of PMP designation.
• Demonstrates leadership and teamwork skills as well as ability to work effectively with associates at all levels of the organization.
• Ability to manage and monitor multiple initiatives concurrently.
• Excellent oral and written communication and listening skills.
• Demonstrates strong analytic and problem solving abilities and strong organizational skills.
• Effectively carries out duties and responsibilities in a professional and tactful manner.
• Demonstrates customer service soft skills.
• Associate is expected to pursue ongoing education as outlined in annual performance plan.
• Ability to support an enterprise with diverse technical environment and business environment.
Contact:
Linda Coe
Coe Recruiting
402-721-0082
clinda9@earthlink.net

communications

NEW IN 2010
PMI EASTERN IOWA CHAPTER SCHOLARSHIP FUND

Beginning in 2010, the PMI Eastern Iowa Chapter is providing an academic scholarship to be administered by the PMI Educational Foundation (PMIEF) Scholarship and Awards Program. PMIEF, a charitable nonprofit organization, supports development of the best and brightest future project management professionals worldwide by providing over 40 academic scholarships to college and university students studying project management and related fields.

The PMI Eastern Iowa Scholarship Fund is not only an excellent way to help a student realize their dreams through education, but it is also an opportunity for the chapter and its members to engage local academic institutions and to help promote the chapter’s work as well as the project management profession. Also, the chapter has endowed the scholarship so that it will live on in perpetuity.

Applications are due by June 1st.

In order to be considered eligible for a scholarship, applicants must be enrolled in or applying for an accredited academic degree program in project management or a related field benefiting from project management with the following order of priority:

A child (or a step child) of a member of the PMI Eastern Iowa Chapter
A resident of the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids or Eastern Iowa area attending or planning to attend any accredited college or university
A resident of Iowa attending or planning to attend any accredited college or university
An individual attending or planning to attend an accredited degree program at a college or university in the tri-state area (Iowa, Missouri, Illinois) or
Any individual attending or planning to attend an accredited degree program at any college or university.

Please forward all questions regarding the scholarship and the application process to the PMI Educational Foundation at pmief@pmi.org. For more information on the academic scholarship program or for those who wish to APPLY ONLINE: http://www.pmi.org/pmief/scholarship/scholarships.asp

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The March 9th, 2010 chapter meeting was from 7:15 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the Clarion Hotels and Convention Center, 525, 33rd Avenue, Cedar Rapids SW. The Clarion Hotel and Convention Center phone number is (319) 366-8671.

PROGRAM: The March 9th presentation was “Inclusive Teams: How many doors are you leaving open?”, presented by Ken Bozer, PMP.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: Ken’s presentation provides examples of how your current communication approach may be hindering the efforts of your team members. Audience members will also be challenged to discover new facets of workplace diversity. Everyone who attends should leave with new ideas and useful tips for getting the most from their project teams.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Ken has enjoyed being a project manager for more than 10 years and has worked in a wide variety of industries, such as not-for-profit, telecommunications and avionics. He started his career as a customer support technician and was also a software engineer for several years. Ken has managed or been a part of very diverse teams for most of his career and is a passionate supporter of workplace diversity.
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Cost: Chapter Members, $10; Guests, $15

RSVP: Please confirm no later than Thursday, March 4th, to programregistration@pmieasterniowa.org; use MARCH REGISTRATION in the subject line. Cancellations must be received by COB, Friday, March 5th to avoid being charged as a no-show for this chapter event.

Program Schedule:
7:15 - 7:30 Registration, breakfast, and social time
7:30 – 7:40 Ice Breaker – Meeting your Colleagues
7:40 - 7:50 Chapter End of Year Report/Opening by chapter president / chapter officers
7:50 - 8:40 Presentation / Discussion
8:40 - 9:00 Final announcements and wrap-up

Buffet Breakfast Menu (subject to change):
French toast w/ maple syrup and whipped butter
Golden scrambled eggs w/ cheddar cheese
Fresh fruit
Regular / Decaf Coffee/ Hot Tea
Fruit Juice

communications