Written by Kay Abikoye

Presentation Overview

On March 24, 2021, the PMI Atlanta Governance Forum hosted speaker Abdul Badruddin, Senior Director of Governance Risk and Compliance at BeyondTrust. Mr. Badruddin delivered a presentation centered around the formation of a Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) at BeyondTrust and organizational challenges that could arise during implementation.

In the realm of Information Security many framework and regulations such as (ISO 27001, AICPA SOC- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Systems and Organizations and Controls; NST 800-53) assist in establishing the foundations of a solid GRC Program.

Mr. Badruddin provided insight to attendees on how to start and manage a GRC program and create adequate buy-in with leadership.

The key attributes of the Governance Model and a successful program include:

• Leadership Acceptance- supports the need and the basic functions of the Governance Model.
• Governance Committee- oversees the entire program and all respective units.
• Subcommittee- consists of functional leaders, performs risk assessment on an ongoing basis.

Mr. Badruddin’s discussed the organizational structure of a GRC which is split into four domains: Governance, Personal, Monitoring and Improvement. 

Takeaways

1. Subcommittees should be formed based on the industry standards and policies that support the GRC Program.
2. Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) must be implemented and presented to leadership on a regular basis to promote continued support of the program.
3. An Assurance and Auditing procedure must be in place in order to provide continued function of the GRC program.
4. The business should have an established process for obtaining a temporary exception to the Standards and Policies approval.

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta Governance forum on April 28th 2021.

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar

Written by: Lakisia Jones PMP, CSM

Presentation Overview 

Wait....Did I hear that right? There is a 3-Step Agile Transformation approach? Tell me more!!

Max Ekesi, Enterprise Agile Coach at Whole Foods gave a high spirited and engaging presentation on a 3 step approach to an Agile transformation. In the last 20 years, the world has changed faster than ever before. In this fast changing environment, it’s not the company with the most money or most educated workforce that survives. It’s the company, organization or team that is most adaptable to change that survives. The 3 step Agile transformation approach is a method that can be deployed to adapt to changes in an organization.

Takeaways

• The 3 step approach to Agile transformation include: Need -> Ways of Working -> Processes:
  • Determine what customer needs can be addressed with Agile values: Speed to Market, Iterative Product Delivery, Adapt to changing Roadmap.
  • Determine the team’s WOW (Ways of Working). Is the team distributed or colocated? What’s the team's communication pattern? Access the team’s maturity.
  • Determine which process framework to use: Scrum, XP, Safe, Waterfall, etc. OR dare to create something new
• In the case study, too many meetings took time away from team productivity. By deploying the 3 step Agile Transformation approach, the teams were able to utilize WoW for effective communication to get creative with meetings. They created Pods on Demand for part of the team to go and do chunks of the work.
• Utilizing Pods on Demand process, established expectations with backlog accessible to full team, same sprint cadence (2 week sprint), and return back to home team.

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta Agile Forum on Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Keynote Presentation: “Implementing GREAT Agile Project Management Across Different Levels of Your Enterprise” presented by Kelly Moncrief - VP Planning, Execution, and Automation of Equifax

About PMI

Atlanta Chapter serves the Project Management Community in Metro Atlanta, and we're an active resource to corporations, community and government agencies throughout north Georgia. With over 5,000 members, PMI Atlanta is among the top 5 chapters in the world. Our professional expertise span across industries; we’re the professionals building healthcare information technology systems, the engineers developing smarter public transportation, and the planners growing our communities more efficiently.

Written by: Mike Ososki, PMP

Presentation Overview  

For big time ticket sales, it doesn’t get much bigger than the Atlanta Braves. This is where Celeste works, specifically in “New Ticket Initiatives.” She grew up as a huge fan of baseball, so it’s a great fit with her sales and project management skills.

Like all the world, she’s striving to figure out how to best bring back people getting together in person. April 9 is a big date: Truist Field opens to the public again, at 33% capacity. Health protocols will be in effect, including 6’ spacing and masks. More here ... www.braves.com/LetsPlay.

Celeste has kept very busy with the details: A-List memberships, ticket accounts and packages, refunds, credits, groups, value plans, discounts, special events, mobile ticket sales, to name a few. Plenty of personal touch customer service conversations, too.

Flexibility is key, as they have “Plans B through Z” moving forward. It’s tough for the waterfall-style planning mindset, but we don’t know yet where we’ll be as the weeks unfold. Celeste says, “It’s crazy how many different scenarios there could be.”  Being optimistic and shooting high, the stadium is hoping to reach 100% attendance by the All Star Game in July, a big revenue stream. Go Team!

Takeaways

• One step at a time, keeping the fans safely engaged.
• Minimize physical points-of-contact.
• You can’t replace live events.

About PMI

Atlanta Chapter serves the Project Management Community in Metro Atlanta, and we're an active resource to corporations, community and government agencies throughout north Georgia. With over 5,000 members, PMI Atlanta is among the top 5 chapters in the world. Our professional expertise span across industries; we’re the professionals building healthcare information technology systems, the engineers developing smarter public transportation, and the planners growing our communities more efficiently.

Written by: Kay Abikoye

Presentation Overview

On February 24, 2021, the PMI Atlanta Governance Forum hosted speaker Eric Norman of Norman and Norman Consulting, LLC. Mr. Norman delivered a presentation on the challenges faced by PMOs due to varying organizational structures. He shared insight on current trends in PMO structures and the attributes of an effective value-add organizational component. In his role as a Management Consultant, he noticed that it is critical for the structure and the PMO construct to be well defined throughout the organization as many constructs may put communication at risk.

Challenges PMO’s face includes complex organizational structures and unsighted interpretation of issues from leadership or external pressures. These challenges pose struggles with human resource utilization, mission-critical performance, and delimited communication across functional offices. Mr. Norman highlighted four key value enablers found in successful PMO’s:

1. Decision Support- providing critical information to executives and management so that it can be used to produce effective outcomes that may affect the PMO and the organization.
2. Demand Management- implementing tools such as resource analysis, resource allocation, and initiative scaling; knowing the current state of the resources to allow for effective planning.
3. Governance- establishing a set of baseline criteria and holding the organization to those procedures; this includes project selection, approval /denial, and implementing performance measures. project selection, approval/denial, and tracking performance measures
4. Initiative Support-gathering tools, processes, methodologies, and resources that will lead to organizational success.

To centralize the PMO with the organizational alignment, Mr. Norman closed with strategies for practitioners to communicate effectively with executives and functional managers. By providing vital business intelligence to functional leaders and executives, the PMO needs to be a decision-making contributor within the organization. Mr. Norman provided practical guidance and answered questions throughout the presentation.

 Takeaways

• The four key enablers of a successful PMO include decision support, demand management, governance and oversight, and initiative support.
• The PMO should be a member of the decision-making team within the organization and should adopt other functions that contribute as a value-add to the organization.
• To meet the objectives, Mr. Norman suggested moving away from PMO and using a name such as Strategic Initiative Management Center, or the Business Intelligence Center of Excellence.

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta Governance forum on March 24th, 2021 Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar

Written by: Adam Gazaleh

Presentation Overview

Zorina Alliata, Senior Global Machine Learning Strategist at Amazon, introduced the AEC Forum to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and provided tips for bringing AI and ML projects and products to any company. Zorina started as a programmer and moved into the world of project and program management and became interested in AI and ML later in her career while working for Nasdaq. In her role at Amazon, she finds new and innovative ways to bring value to companies through AI based products. In her presentation, Zorina went over the basics of AI and ML. AI is the broader umbrella under which ML sits. She also emphasized the importance of using Agile or another flexible methodology when starting a project or developing a product that incorporates ML. The main point that she drives home is that AI and ML based products are only as useful as the value that they provide to the business.

Takeaways

• One must be flexible when developing an AI/ML based product and be prepared to throw away work and start over.
• Identifying the needs of the business, having sufficient data to start with, and being prepared for scope and schedule changes are key in AI/ML product development.
• Staying up-to-date with the latest in AI and ML requires constant research as it is a cutting-edge field that is ever changing.

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta AEC Forum on Tuesday, April 13th, 2021 featuring Tom McDonald, Consultant at Sherlock Resources; Peter Dumont, CEO of PrairieDog; and John Josserand, Partner Manager at Data Gumbo.