Schedule for the Managing Projects & Programs Conference at Portland State University in Portland Oregon and the Metro area of OR and WA

Time	Activity
7:30 – 8:30 am	Check In / Registration Continental Breakfast and Networking
8:30 – 8:45 am	Welcome and Introductions
8:45 – 9:45 am	Keynote Presentation Quality Leadership, Team Building, and Timely Communication Presenter: Marv Serhan Quality leadership, thoughtful team building, and timely communications are increasingly more important in today’s highly competitive and complex business environment, particularly in the realm of "project management." All corporate professionals with program or project management responsibilities play a critical role in shaping the organizational culture necessary to achieve mission success. Their professional example, understanding of the corporate mission and vision, attention to detail, commitment to excellence, and ethical decision-making behavior ensures that all aspects of business strategy, process development, and project management function in harmony to achieve a desired outcome and to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. That success begets even more success, which in turn enhances not only corporate profitability but staff morale. As such, the organization is "doing it right and having fun in the process."
9:45 – 10 am	Break
10 – 11:25 am	Concurrent Sessions Creativity Track Creativity In The Balance Presenter: Bob Lieberman Innovating, working smarter, having better relationships, anticipating trends, developing special talents... our most fervent desires all require the creativity to discover and embrace something new. In this session creativity is modeled as a developmental process driven by the interplay of polar opposites, the impulse to explore and the impulse to produce. The impulse to produce is an expression of fear and practicality. The impulse to explore is an expression of trust and idealism. Attendees will learn how to use the creative process model to identify and remove obstacles to creativity in themselves and their project teams. Music, video, and lively exchange make the presentation vivid and compelling. PMI Track Managing Quality in Projects according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge Presenter: Fred Robinson Designed to assist registrants in their preparation for the CAPM®/PMP® certification exams, this session will focus on the processes and techniques of managing quality within a project. Understanding how to link overall project requirements to quality management activities will be outlined. The inputs, tools/techniques and outputs of Quality Planning, Perform Quality Assurance, and Perform Quality Control processes will be discussed. Tools such as Cost Benefit Analysis, Design of Experiments, Control Charts and Pareto diagrams will be used to demonstrate how to ensure successful quality management within a project. People Skills Track Speak, Align, and Execute: How People make Programs Succeed Presenter: Jerry Zygmuntowicz TB Many of the best conceived programs and projects fail to deliver their intended results - even those with mission-critical objectives, large budgets, major staffing commitments, and strong executive sponsorship. What is often missing is mutual communication, clear commitments, the ability to work through conflicts, collaboration across groups and functions, and defined decision-making authority. This session presents tools and practices that improve communication and result in clear commitments from multiple parties. A model for working through conflicts and finding alignment allows for more effective coordination of action. A participative decision making model can accelerate issue resolution. The use of these approaches is shown in relation to achieving the stated objectives more quickly and with greater commitment from all constituents. Case Studies Track Putting in a new Facility from the Ground Up: 10 Keys to Success Presenter: Roger Parish There is nothing like having a successful project and no better way to learn how to do it right than to emulate success. Even better, whether it’s building and moving into a new facility, redesigning your business processes, or implementing a new software-based patient records system, many of the lessons learned are universal. This is an inspiring story of how Venture Bank, a regional bank in Washington State, managed a project to move their corporate headquarters without missing a single transaction—a situation similar to patient care challenges faced by hospitals and clinics. It is an inspiring story with many lessons that can be directly applied throughout the healthcare profession. So come learn 10 keys to success that are guaranteed to make any project perform better.
11:25 am – 12:40 pm	Lunch Keynote Business and Leadership Challenges in Implementing Electronic Health Records at OHSU Presenter: John Dunn
12:40 – 2:05 pm	Concurrent Sessions Creativity Track Visual Tools for Building Effective Teams Presenter: Christine Martell Do you need to get people aligned and working together quickly? Christine will show you a process based on photographs you can use to spark conversations, which lead to a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences in your team. This experiential process can also be used to work with conflict or strategic alignment by adjusting the way the exercises are structured. PMI Track Time Management Techniques in the Project Management Body of Knowledge Presenter: Patricia Kelly This session provides a review of PMI’s approach to Time Management. The primary focus is to instill the level and awareness of the Project Management knowledge and language dictated by PMI and the effort required to pass the certification exams (CAPM®/PMP®). The six process areas of Activity Definition, Sequencing, Resource Estimating, Duration Estimating, Schedule Development and Schedule Control will be covered. Use of templates will help gain continuity across sequencing, estimating and schedule development, whatever the project may be. People Skills Track Evoking the Intelligence of Groups for Making Wise Decisions Presenter: Susan Eliot Groups are smarter than the elite few at coming to wise decisions. In fact, grouping individuals together makes them smarter than the smartest one in the group. But not just any group will do. Groups must meet certain criteria for the information they generate to be valid and useful. Groups are widely used by program officials and decision-makers to generate information needed for designing programs, evaluating effectiveness, solving problems, and improving quality. But all groups are not equally effective at producing good information. Session participants will learn about different types of groups and when to use each. They will also discover the four criteria that characterize“smart groups” and how they might incorporate these criteria into groups they convene. Case Studies Track Project Management Strategy for Inpatient Electronic Health Records at OHSU Presenters: Aaron Lance and Sean Johnson The general strategy for Project Management on this multi million dollar project will be provided. Information on what went right, surprises they didn’t expect and how they adjusted the strategy and the implementation tools to compensate for those surprises. Tools to be discussed will include MS Project Server, Crystal Enterprise, Excel, SharePoint, and the MS Office suite.
2:05 – 2:20 pm	Break
2:20 – 3:45 pm	Concurrent Sessions Creativity Track Wicked Problem Projects: Creative Approaches for Apparently Unsolvable Problems Presenter: Brad Hermanson “Wicked problems” are problems so complicated you basically cannot even define the problem. A formal definition for a wicked problem is that it is “unsolvable by classical, linear problem-solving processes”. Project managers are dealing with projects that appear to increasingly be inherently wicked. Yet there is very little information in the literature on approaches or best practices that project managers can take to successfully address the projects. The discussion provides practical perspectives on managing wicked problem projects. It addresses underlying issues of problem and decision framing, and then works through basic issues of both tame and wicked problems. Finally, suggestions and approaches are provided to best manage wicked problem projects. PMI Track Project Management: Going from Good to Great Presenters: Connie Plowman and Mark Poulin In 2001, Jim Collins captured the spirit of long-term organizational transformation in his iconic hit, Good to Great. But the application of Good to Great extends beyond building success at the highest levels of corporate structure. Companies that embrace the Good to Great model in project management are capable of the same level of excellence, driving a culture built around delivering project results that is sustainable. This dynamic session outlines key Good to Great concepts and how they apply specifically to today's project manager. From finding Level 5 Leadership in Project Managers to ensuring the right team members are "on the bus," attendees will walk away with new ideas to help transform their project management initiatives from Good to Great. People Skills Track How do I Tell Them What They Don’t Want to Hear?: On Managing Work Overload Presenter: Pamela Cournoyer Nowadays, everyone is being asked to share the extra work which turns into OVERLOAD. Do you feel badly because you sense that others are also under the same overload you are and there seems to be no way out? Taking on the extra work turns into extreme stress, which manifests itself in many negative ways. How are you managing those requests? Are you the one who ends up saying, “OK, give it to me, I’ll see what I can do to help?” Is that really working for you? If not, then this short but powerful discussion on assertiveness – let’s talk about ways that will work on slowing down or managing the work overload. At the end of this session, participants will have at least one tool to manage their own personal frustrations, conflicts and pressures. Case Studies Track Working with Critical Vendors to Ensure Success: A Case Study in Deploying a Physician Practice Management System at Providence Health and Services Presenters: Sicely Donaldson, John Convery, and Robert Brock Delivering successful projects takes the best an organization can give, in skill, processes, discipline and management support. But what happens when you must also depend on a vendor to deliver the critical component to your project? How does the Project Leader facilitate an organization’s selection of a vendor, or more yet, how does a project team work with an incumbent vendor that is structurally part of the existing solution through an existing contract? What are the effective practices, project leaders need to employ, to successfully deliver complex projects using critical vendors? This workshop will provide project leaders with a solid framework that has immediate value on their current and future projects.
3:45 – 4 pm	Break
4 – 5 pm	Afternoon Panel Presentation Current Approaches to PMO Presenters: Jeff Crow, Jeff Oltmann (Moderator), Jo Anne Long, Rachel Paulson, and Jerry Zygmuntowicz You've probably heard and read a lot about PMOs lately. This approach to connecting project management to the needs of the organization has gained traction in many different industries but its implementation varies widely. We have assembled a panel of speakers who have in the trenches experience creating and running PMOs and who understand the value that a PMO can bring to an organization. Join our panelists for a lively discussion about PMOs ranging from what word each letter stands for and why you should care to some of the typical challenges faced by all organizations adopting this approach.