Launching of the @grupo_iso21500 web page (www.iso-21500.es) and the first chapter of the guide (risk management)

As we announced at the end of last year at the PMI congresses,  in which we participated using a new and original Prezi presentation  (which also helped us to learn how to use this amazing communication tool), our next milestone was to “move” from the blog towards a web page where we could develop all the ideas we already had in mind  (fortunately, we were plenty of them).

Other reason for the change in our communication plan was to be able to interact more often with our target public: all the people that, like us, are enthusiasts of Project management, well as future professionals, or well as already true experts on it, and who, like us, work to promote the development of the Project Manager profession.  

So it is great for us to give to you such awesome news, that we are now able to communicate that our dream has come true and we are launching our new web setting to share our Project with you all.  

For us, a team entirely composed by PMI international volunteers, it acquires a special value, for if managing a Project is always complex, managing a volunteer Project really needs the feeding of thrill and motivation for all the people who participates in it on a daily base. And this guides us towards the second part of this article…

In our Project Charter we planned to publish our guide´s first part (corresponding to scope 1: focused on projects) by the end of last year, making it coincide in time with the publishing of ISO 21500 Spanish version.

The delays on the publishing of that version (publishing that was necessary to align our guide´s language with regulation´s), joined to the impact economic crisis has had on the group @grupo_iso21500, (yes, it has reached us, and affected us in many different ways…) have slowed down the issue of our deliverable.

And it is right at this moment that we have given it a turn, analyzing once more the business case that used to supported it, and re-planning our deliverable to align its objectives with our new strategy. Project management in its purest state.

Following Ash Mayura´s inspiration in his highly recommendable “Running Lean”, a book that was written in an iterative way, with the participation of all its future readers (whom he called early adopters), we want to write our guide with the help and support of you all, so that we will capture all your requirements and expectations and will allow the final product to have a little bit of every person that has interacted with it during its development.

Following what was explained in the above mentioned book, we “pivot” from the initial solution towards this new proposal which, we think, fits better with @grupo_iso21500´s philosophy of sharing knowledge. In order to achieve such thing, we are going to start by publishing the chapter related to the knowledge group of risk management.

The chapter will include:  

ü  Basics, processes and metrics of risk management

ü  Templates for risk management

ü  A study case of risk management, courtesy from our collaborator and friend José Barato, Director of PMPeople and Member of the Direction Board of PMI Madrid.

To make easier the learning and comprehension of the concepts of project management included in the guide, we have used the technique of visual thinking, with a system of icons and images that we hope will make the reading more attractive and whose meaning we will explain in a brief user´s handbook.

Periodically (about every two weeks) we will publish a new chapter, till completing the guide. The order, as you have possibly appreciated already, might not be logical, but the structure of ISO 21500 regulation itself allows such “disorder”. At the end of the deliveries, there will be some surprise about the way of presenting the information, so that it will be possible to access to it according to the user´s needs (per process, per process group, per knowledge area).

So we expect your participation in the Project, by offering your feedback in every published chapter. That will be highly appreciated, for adapting the guide according to such feedback, as well as your “feeding” us with your support, will make us able to complete the product with the necessary quality.

The web page will also include other sections, like information about the implementing of ISO 21500 in Latin America, forums, articles, courses and other news we will communicate at the right time.

If you have read this article and share our point of view, thrill and dreams, we welcome you to our Project team, for we sure need you to guarantee its success. We so invite you to register in the page to include you in the section “About us”.

Presentation at PMI Madrid Spain Chapter´s 9th Congress

Last 22.11.2012, Mario Coquillat and María del Acebo Sánchez-Macián, coordinators of the development of the Helping Guide for implementing ISO 21500 Regulation, presented the initiative at the PMI Madrid Spain Chapter´s 9^th Congress, organized under the name of "9^th Project Manager Meeting. Project Management´s Double Dimension: Public and Private.”

The presentation, "Publishing of ISO 21500 Regulation, Guidelines for directing and managing projects and the impact on the profession” stressed as most relevant points:

- The impact that the publishing of the Regulation is expected to have on the professionalizing of Project Management.

- PMI as key driving force in the development, spreading and implementation of the regulation.

- The story of the group of volunteers that are working on the Project for the development of the Helping Guide.

The presentation can be reviewed at the following link.

  

We remind you to attend the Webinar Mario Coquillat will offer on the next 28.11.2012, regarding ISO 21500 regulation and the above mentioned project. For more information please select the following link.

Next Webminar “Publishing of new ISO 21500 regulation and its impact on the profession”.

Next 28th November 2012 at 20.00 (Madrid-Spain Time GMT+1) Mario Coquillat de Travesedo will perform a Webminar in which the following points of interest will be tackled:

First part of Webminar:

- Publishing of the new ISO 21500 regulation: Guidelines for directing and managing projects and its impact on the Project Manager profession. 

Second Part of Webminar:

-  PMI as key performer in the developing, spreading and implementing of the regulation. 

To see a teaser of the presentation to be performed on November 28th, please select the following link.

To attend Webminar online, please click here.

ISO 21500 Analysis Group: Conferences at PMI Congress in Puerto Rico and PMI Bolivia Southern Cone Tour

Mario Coquillat de Travesedo, coordinator, along with María del Acebo Sánchez-Macián of the ISO 21500 Analysis Group, is going to perform, as representative of this Group, two online conferences during the PMI Congress in Puerto Rico on November 9th and during PMI Bolivia Southern Cone Tour on November 23th.

The conferences will be entitled:

Publishing of new ISO 21500 regulation: "Guidelines for directing and managing projects and its impact on the project manager profession. PMI as a key performer in the developing, spreading and implementing of the regulation. “

A brief description of those conferences contents comes attached, and among the topics the following will be discussed:

·        The publishing of ISO 21500 regulation: "Guidelines for directing and managing projects" has created great expectations as a unifier element of the different methodologies and frameworks currently existing and as a driving force of the Project manager profession. Also, it will make easier for companies managers and Project sponsors the necessary understanding of the principles and good practices in Project management, necessary to give support to their Project managers.  

·        PMI has participated actively in its development by occupying the secretary of the Project Committee TC 236: Project Management, responsible of it, and having used, among other documents, chapter 3 and glossary of PMBOK®. In the same way, as a globally referenced entity in Project management, it is assuming a relevant role in spreading and implementing of the regulation, trough initiatives as the one performed by an international team of volunteers, leaded by the PMI Madrid Spain Chapter.

·        The ISO 21500 Analysis Group (http://grupoiso21500.blogspot.com.es/) has as an objective to facilitate and promote the use of good practices in Project management in any Project-oriented organization, through the development of a free guide for implementing the new regulation in organizations. In its first phase, the project will be focused in Spanish speaking countries, so to achieve this, a Latin American Committee has been created among PMI chapters in Latin American countries.     

The full program of Puerto Rico Congress can be downloaded from this link.

Online conference with members of PMI Puerto Rico Chapter

On Thursday, October 4th, an online conference was held with members of PMI Puerto Rico Chapter, to introduce to them the current state of the Guidance for Implementing ISO 21500 Regulation in Organizations, on the basis of its Project Charter. The following points were emphasized: 

- Introduction to Project Charter. 

- Guide´s double scope was stressed (a topic included in Project Charter). 
  
- The roles of Latin America coordinator for the Project and of the elected representatives of each chapter were explained.  
  

- The possibilities of support that might be given by the Puerto Rico Chapter, through its active participation in our Blog and also through getting us in contact with its regulating body, plus with the spreading of the Guide to develop, were reviewed.

There was a final time for questions, and during it arose the main query about the possibility of this regulation to be certifiable, to which the answer was that in the last draft of ISO 21500 the consideration that specifically mentioned that such regulation is not certifiable had been removed. 

ISO 21500 Analysis Group introduces its initiative at www.juntosalimos.com.

Juntosalimos.com is a platform whose main propose is to get 100 ideas to overcome crisis. Taking the pessimistic environment that surrounds us, the launching of this initiative intends to drive us towards positive thinking and the search of solutions for our dramatic situation in Spain.

The most voted idea will be sent to media and government, with the purpose of creating pressure to get it started. (For further information, press here).

ISO 21500 Analysis Group has introduced its initiative: Transforming ideas into efficient projects Vote for us!!

It would be really positive to be able to transmit that good practices in project management and managing projects with openness and integrity are key factors to come out from the crisis, especially when PMI and its volunteers are following such direction.

Launching of conclusions of the Survey performed in Spain about the knowledge of ISO 21500 Regulation and the interest that might arouse the development of a Guide for its implementation.

The summary of the conclusions obtained through this survey, performed till 31.07.2012, is as follows:

1. The responses obtained have a significant weight, for most of them have been given by people who have a long experience (more than 10 years) and dedicate their daily work to project management, and, additionally, most of those people have a certification or degree in Project Management, which provides our work with a “critical” value.

2.  Responses come from personnel from prominent companies or organizations, most of them with more than 1000 employees, IT & Communication as the outstanding sector. This aspect provides the obtained responses with a “formal nature”, for most big companies work with established procedures or standards inside their different departments. Otherwise, the fact of not counting with a significant presence of small companies makes us a little blind in our intention of elaborating a really universal guide.

3. The trend is that companies will tend to professionalize Project management inside their organizations, for nowadays there is less resistance against that, and, in addition, we have a nice percentage of them working under a formal framework. The quantity of PMO is still low and interest in creating them is scarce, so a possible objective or contribution of a Guide oriented to PMOs could be steered towards this aspect.   

4. The ISO 9001 is the most popular of regulations, having also a prominent seniority, and it will make easier the comprehension of  ISO 21500 Guides. Taking on account that the first motivation seems to be the recognition of the company rather than the continual improvement, we might think of a factor to help the organizations that are developing a Project management based in ISO 21500 to stand out (attractive), and maybe that factor should be based in the main benefits obtained from ISO 9001: costumer´s satisfaction and standardization of processes.

5. ISO 21500 regulation is known by nearly half of the survey responders, a number that becomes important, taking on account it is still a not very well known regulation, and has not become effective yet.

6.  It might be considered important to highlight at a certain point of the Guide which is the main contribution of ISO 21500 to Project management, for, though many people think it is a consolidation of Frameworks, a good amount of other people do not see clearly the contribution.

7. Though many people confirm the Non-certifiable condition of ISO 21500, another majority group, unaware of this aspect, thinks it should be so.

8. The making of both guides, one for PMs and another for PMOs, is a very well valued thing by the survey responders, so our effort  in such direction will be welcome, similarly as having an ISO, or specifically the ISO 9001, is understood as a help for implementation of ISO 21500.

For further information, you can consult the whole summary document through this link (Document available in Spanish). 

INTRODUCTION OF THE PROJECT CHARTER TO LATIN AMERICA

Last Saturday, 21st of July 2012, an online meeting between the representatives of ISO 21500 Regulation Analysis Group and representatives of Central America PMI Chapters was held as part of the activities of media diffusion of ISO 21500 Regulation´s Guidance for Implementation in developing organizations.

Thanks to the invitation issued by Gerardo Sierra and Felipe Nuñez, a Conference Call between Spain, Bolivia and Mexico could be held, and during it, María del Acebo Sánchez-Macián, who is, along with Mario Coquillat, coordinator of the ISO 21500 Regulation Analysis Group, offered an introduction to the Project Charter of such initiative, and asked the audience to collaborate in their project´s media diffusion.

Also, Cristian Soto (Volunteer from Bolivia) was appointed as the responsible for direct supervision of every action to be taken along with the representatives appointed by each of the Latin American PMI Chapters. 

For further information, please press here.

PMI MADRID SPAIN CHAPTER APRIL 2012 NEWSLETTER

Francisco Javier Rodríguez Blanco, Sponsor of this Initiative, includes a review of our Project at the last PMI Madrid Spain Chapter Newsletter (April 2012)

“In the previous newsletter, I developed a review about some of the most important proposals included in my candidacy for President.

Let me take this opportunity to focus on one of them, in particular, which concerned the promotion of volunteerism within our Chapter. Well, it is a pleasure for me to present the first initiative in this sense: The Group of Analysys ISO 21500, managed by volunteers, coordinated by Maria del Acebo Sánchez-Macián and Mario Coquillat. (http://grupoiso21500.blogspot.de/).

I want to emphasize that all activities of this group are being run by the volunteers involved. And our Chapter offers the media, contacts, platforms,…to help and to communicate their work. 

This is as an example of an initiative led by volunteers that generates knowledge about project management and promotes networking for the members of the Chapter. 

I want to use this initiative as an example in order to invite you to present other similar proposals.”

For further information press here