Tag Archives: project management

About Us

RFP Development & Practical Interpretation Seminar

Northern Virginia Community College’s Workforce Development Division will host a one day seminar on Friday, May 20, 2016 from 8:30am–4:30pm titled: A Winning Perspective for Government PMs and Contractors RFP Development & Practical Interpretation

The world of federal contracts can be complex and confusing for Project Managers on both the government side and for the contractors.
  • Government PM’s are often left wondering how to I translate my requirements for goods and services to the best acquisition strategy and how much should I expect to spend?
  • For the contractor trying to decipher the RFP you are left to figure out if you should respond to government’s RFPs if you are awarded can it be performed with a profit for your company?
These considerations and many more will be the focus of this one day, pragmatic seminar on RFP “development” and “practical interpretation,” taught by a Certified Federal Contracts Manager and former Program Manager.
Participants will explore the full range of factors that drive business success in government related ventures. Information includes legal, program management and competitive marketing issues. At the completion of the program, participants will have a deeper ability to view bidding opportunities and risks from the perspective of general contractor and the government, from incumbent as well as new entrant to the process. Through lecture, discussion, and case study exploration, material covers:
Contract Structures, Methods, Strategy, and Cost/Pricing (both for the proposal and for the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) as well as developing trends and regulations that can make or break the success of your efforts.
Through lecture, discussion, and case study exploration, material covers:
  • Fundamentals of Estimating Cost and Price– PMBOK 7.1 and 7.2
  • Procurement Planning– PMBOK 12.1 and 12.1
  • Common Pitfalls that lead to failure
  • Risk Management in Procurement- PMBOK 11.
For more information call:703-450-2551 or email Veronica Ortiz -vortiz@nvcc.edu
You can also Register at our website https://nvcc.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=3745&int_category_id=1&int_sub_category_id=8&int_catalog_id=0
About Us, Classes/Workshops, Corporate Training

Stakeholder Partnerships: from conflict to collaboration

Dealing with stakeholders, especially difficult ones, can be among a project manager’s more frustrating responsibilities. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI) 2013 PMBOK, a project stakeholder is “an individual, group, or organization, who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.”

stakeholders_meeting
Most project managers depend on the old model of “managing stakeholders,” which entails keeping project stakeholders informed, updated, and monitored to ensure steady, efficient progress. As you can imagine, communication is key. So is consistent engagement:

Stakeholder management needs to focus more on engagement in order to move projects from installation to implementation. …Projects should start with the premise that identifying a range of stakeholders and engaging with them in a consistent and organized manner will improve project success. (Engaging Stakeholders for Project Success, pmi.org 2015)

In her insightful article How to Train Your Sponsor, Laura Barnard, PMP (PMOstrategies.com) indicates that “the number one factor in determining success or failure of your change initiative is…sponsor engagement.” Barnard goes beyond communication and trust to provide several ways that sponsors—who can be considered stakeholders themselves—can be motivated and engaged to become an effective part of project management.

But what about the difficult stakeholders?

Effective project management requires learning how to move beyond the traditional approach of “managing stakeholders” to a more modern approach: making stakeholders your partners. Partnership creates a sense of ownership that allows intuitive buy-in from all stakeholders on the project. Successful partnerships also mitigate risk.

There is a strong correlation between stakeholder management and risk management. Without the buy-in and full commitment from stakeholders, projects, regardless of their success factors, are at high risk for failure.  (7 tips to transform difficult stakeholders into project partners, by Moira Alexander, via CIO.com)

stakeholders_chalkboard

The Educational Alliance of NOVA Workforce Development Division and PMIWDC are presenting a Project Management Training Seminar for project managers and PMPs to discover a new approach of making stakeholders your partners.

Course Objectives:
  • Examine recommendations in the PMBOK Guide for providing foundational structures and processes that can save you and your organization time and money.
  • Introduce negotiating and conflict management techniques that have proven track records.
  • Provide tips for dealing with difficult stakeholders and situations.
You will have opportunities to learn from the experiences of all your classmates in exercises based on real-life situations, and you will develop a customized plan that will allow you to implement this new approach in your own organization.

This workshop is presented by Ron Taylor, an internationally-known leader, lecturer, author, and consultant, as well as the principal and founder of the Ron Taylor Group. He is a past President of the Washington D.C. Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMIWDC.org), the largest PMI Chapter in the world with over 10,000 members.

Stakeholder Partnership:
Moving from Problematic to Collaborative

New! Half Day Saturday
Saturday, November 21, 2015, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
4 PDUs; $220.00 per person
NOVA Reston Center
1831 Wiehle Avenue, Room 309
Reston, VA 20190
Metro Accessible: Wiehle-Reston East (Silver Line)
Refreshments provided!

For more information on this workshop,
call 703-450-2551 or email Veronica Ortiz at vortiz@nvcc.edu.
Ready to register? Visit MyWorkforce online to register for this course!
PMI_NOVA_alliance
Classes/Workshops

Risk and Change Management: July 2015 at NOVA

Space is still available:
Risk and Change Management (July 2015)

Register online or call 703-257-6630 for more information.

Risk and Change Management, Summer 2015 at NOVA Manassas Innovation Park
Risk & Change Management ( BUSC 1522-01M) | July 16 & 17, 2015, 9am–5pm | Manassas

Change must be expected in today’s business environment. Unmanaged change results in chaos. Understanding how to handle changes and risks, and how they are related, is both an art and a science. A good project manager needs the tools necessary to identify, quantify, measure and report on all aspects of a project, including these unknowns. This course embraces not only the technical aspects of risk and change, but also the human aspect. Technical topics include risk identification and assessment , risk response development and control, configuration management, and change control. Human factor topics include acknowledging change, strategies to reduce stress induced by change, and perception as a factor in evaluating risk.

Thursday and Friday, July 16 & 17, 9 AM to 5 PM
Manassas Innovation Park, 9485 Innovation Drive, Manassas
Instructor: Michael Van Dyke, PMP
For more information, call 703-257-6630

Classes/Workshops

New Online Course Offerings

Ed2go Online Courses are back! Update your skills, discover a new talent, or chart a career path at your own pace and at your own convenience with our instructor-led online courses. Each course runs for six weeks and consists of 12 lessons. The lessons are supplemented by interactive quizzes, assignments, tutorials, and online discussion areas. All lessons are available over the World Wide Web. Read your lessons and ask questions of your instructor at times that are most convenient to you.

Next month’s courses start on July 16, 2014. Visit our website below for current listings, and call 703-323-3168 for assistance.

http://www.nvcc.edu/wdce/annandale/courses/summer/ed2go.asp

About Us

Workforce Development Division Hosts Workforce Industry Building Learning Series Project Management Event

On Thursday, April 18 the Workforce Development Division hosted the 2nd Installment of the Workforce Industry Building Learning Series.  The purpose of this series is to build the Workforce Development Division business services brand with the Northern Virginia business community.  The theme for this event was Project Management.  Executives representing a cross-section of the Northern Virginia business community attended the dinner presentation, entitled “Making Implementation of PMP Best Practices Affordable,” at Annandale’s Ernst Center.  The keynote speaker was Matthew Weaver, who is PMP, CSM and UTIL certified.  Mr. Weaver is also considered one of the top authorities on the topic of Project Management.  He discussed detailed steps businesses can take to integrate project management methodology into their core business processes.   Based on a feedback survey 100% of the attendees found the event “informative and interesting.”

The demand for events like this is very strong as nearly 90% of attendees said they would attend future NOVA learning series events. Several attendees expressed appreciation to Workforce Development Division staff for producing this informative business outreach opportunity and would like to work with the Workforce Development Division in developing training programs for their organizations.   As a result of the strong interest generated by series attendees, the Workforce Development Division will continue to host Workforce Industry Building Learning events around topics of critical interest to the Northern Virginia business community.