By Alex Blench, PMP

The PMI Atlanta Governance Forum hosted a discussion with Kirk Talbott, Deputy CIO for the City of Atlanta. Kirk drove a PMO transition in Lake County, IL and brings his experience standing up PMOs to Atlanta and the Atlanta Governance Forum.

Overview

Building a PMO in an organization where siloes have established their own cultures is no small challenge. In culturally diverse organizations such as a city government, the PM cannot be the only person advocating for change. Kirk underscores the importance of a champion in upper-level management in achieving buy-in from your stakeholders.

• Keys to success
  o When dealing with large groups, cluster by area of interest. These clusters then elect delegates to represent their teams in the decision making process.
  o Benchmark project completions against prior years to demonstrate value and build consensus.
  o Remove ambiguity by creating criteria for success.
  o Limit Project Inductions to team capacity; keep WIP under control.
  o Gear your solutions to alleviate the pain caused by current processes.

“The cause of the pain that will get people in the room to talk about changing things”

Forum Highlights

Kirk stood up a PMO in 2 years by achieving high level support for his ideas and by adapting his solutions to the needs of the internal stakeholders. His tactics often focused on personal relationships, building consensus, and communicating the advantages of Project-based work over functional workflow. Successful sustainability is dictated by the extent to which internal stakeholders accept change and stick to new processes.

Special thanks to our presenter Kirk Talbott for an engaging discussion and sharing lessons learned from over 24 years of experience IT Governance.

If you would like to learn more about Governance and the value it brings to projects, please join us at a future forum. The calendar can be found on the PMI Atlanta web site at http://www.pmiatlanta.org

Thank you to our sponsors at Global Payments for making this event possible.

About PMI

PMI Atlanta serves project managers in Metro Atlanta, and we're an active resource to corporations, community and government agencies throughout north Georgia. With over 4,000 members, PMI Atlanta is the second largest chapter in the US and fifth largest 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 Lasondria Hill

PMI Atlanta’s October Healthcare Forum was treated to a fascinating tour of an operating room during construction. Deitra Erickson, Operating Room Manager at Grady Memorial Hospital, was the speaker for the evening and gave an engaging presentation detailing the challenges and processes involved with constructing not one but 18 new operating rooms at Piedmont Hospital, where Deitra formerly worked.

Founded in 1905, Piedmont Atlanta Hospital began as a 132-bed, five-story annex. Today, it’s a 488-bed acute tertiary care facility that has more than 4,000 employees and more than 1,100 physicians.
Deitra has worked in the operating room since 1993 and has held various leadership positions, both in the U.S. and abroad, since 2001. She has served as a clinical liaison for many construction projects, most notably a three-year reconstruction of the entire perioperative services at Piedmont.

Deitra began her presentation by identifying the challenges associated with the construction project:
    1. Started with 20 operating rooms
    2. Construct 18 new operating rooms
    3. Keep 19 operating rooms operational
    4. 36-month completion schedule
    5. Maintain the highest level of infection control
    6. Keep the peace

Written by Glenn Boylan, PMP

PMI Atlanta’s February Technology Forum was held on Tuesday, February 28th, where Sarah Ming Hsi presented a very informative and interesting talk titled "Concept to Reality – Successfully Sell Ideas and Secure Executive Funding".

Steve Kruger started the festivities at the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise office in Alpharetta. Once again the Technology Forum enjoyed the amenities of HP-E’s fantastic new café. Our thanks to HP-E for sharing it with PMI.

Steve reviewed PMI Atlanta’s upcoming events and reminded everyone about the many volunteer opportunities available for the Forum and the Atlanta chapter. For the full schedule of events and more details on how you can volunteer (and earn extra PDUs!), go to the chapter web site at PMIAtlanta.org.

Steve introduced Ms. Hsi, who is the Chief Information Officer for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transportation Authority (MARTA). Sarah started her career as a developer at AT&T. Her first job at MARTA was as an Oracle database administrator. She moved from databases to project management and program management, earning her PMP and PgMP certifications along the way. Being a program manager ignited her interest in a more strategic role, leading to the opportunity for her to become MARTA’s CIO.

In the first part of her presentation, Sarah shared some background on MARTA and an overview of what the agency is working on this year.

MARTA is the ninth largest mass transit system in the country, averaging 450,000 weekday boardings. These passengers use 338 rail cars, 565 buses, and 211 vans which are kept running by over 5,000 MARTA employees. All this adds up to a $2.1 billion input to the regional and state economies.

Security is vitally important to the agency, and to that assist in that they have over 12,000 cameras installed around the system, which includes 2,000 cameras at rail stations and major bus stops. That’s a lot of video, so MARTA is in the process of implementing video analytics software to help keep track of it all.

Looking to provide more than just transportation, MARTA recently introduced some amenities to their ride services – things like food trucks at stations, a bicycle sharing program, jazz events, and the popular Pianos for Peace initiative that placed pianos at several stations, inviting anyone to sit down and play. In addition, transit oriented development is in progress around several rail stations, including the Edgewood and Avondale stations.

Innovation and technology play important roles is keeping MARTA competitive. MARTA is teaming with City of Atlanta on smart city initiatives as well as working to incorporating the power of the Internet of Things (IOT) into the system. One of the key innovation techniques the agency uses is their “Hackathon” which invite teams from the public to come up with ideas to improve MARTA’s services. Last year’s Hackathon had over 197 participants. Hackathons have resulted in system improvements ideas ranging from train scheduling to waste receptacle management.

As CIO, Sarah is at the forefront of MARTA’s technology initiatives. The Breeze fare card program is completing a significant upgrade this year. The next step for fares is a purchase and ride application for smart phones. This app is in the pilot stage now, with 500 pilot users. So far MARTA has is getting an 88% approval rating on the app from these users.

A major technology initiative, and the focus of Ms. Hsi’s presentation, was the distributed antenna and Wi-Fi network being installed throughout the system. Sarah is responsible for the project from concept to reality, and as you can imagine, there were significant logistical, technical, and funding issues to be resolved.

Sarah stressed the importance of simplifying the scope – and therefore simplifying the messaging to stakeholders, including vendors and management. Previous projects to implement the Wi-Fi network at MARTA did not get off the ground, largely due to complicated scopes of works (and the resulting complicated RFPs) and confusing messages to the stakeholders.

By thoroughly analyzing the scope and requirements, the MARTA team was able to simplify the scope of the project without compromising the overall requirements. This was critical to providing clear, concise communication to MARTA management, government authorities, and participating vendors. Effective communication was the key, Sarah said, to getting project approval and continuing the successful project implementation.

The programs and initiatives Sarah shared with the Forum seem to be striking a chord with MARTA’s riders. A November ballot proposal for a half-cent sales tax increase within the City of Atlanta to help fund the transit programs passed with a remarkable 71% approval by the voters.

The Technology Forum appreciates Sarah taking the time to share her insights with us. The Forum attendees, which included both long-time riders and those not familiar with MARTA, learned a lot about the system and the successful project management techniques Sarah’s teams use so effectively.

The Technology Forum meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month except in August and December. The next Forum will be Tuesday, March 28th. Come join us.

Written by Glenn Boylan, PMP

As part of PMI Atlanta’s career month, the Technology Forum and Healthcare Forum combined in July to hold a recruiter panel discussion. The panel featured Brittney Schelich, Business Development Manager, Rezult Group; David Sheehan, Atlanta Branch Manager, Robert Half Technology and The Creative Group; Holly Bail, Talent Manager, OneSpring; and Boyd Christian, Director and Atlanta Office Leader, CapTech.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Alpharetta was gracious enough to host the two forums. Our thanks go out to HPE. Nancy Berlin and Steve Kruger started the festivities. They reviewed the upcoming Atlanta chapter meetings, and reminded everyone that both the Technology and Healthcare Forums, as well as the Atlanta chapter, have volunteer opportunities available. Volunteering is a great way to try out a “stretch” assignment to see if it’s something you’d like to pursue further. And you get PDUs for volunteering! For details on either upcoming meetings or volunteering, go to www.PMIAtlanta.org.

Nancy then introduced the panel who gave some opening remarks. Brittney told us that the Rezult Group started in 2001 and focuses primarily on healthcare IT. Holly said OneSpring specializes in rapid development and deployment of web apps. Boyd introduced CapTech, which has been in Atlanta for 17 years and is a management and IT consulting firm. David told us about Robert Half Technology and The Creative Group, which are strong on managed services.

The first question given to the panel was what hiring trends they were seeing in 2017. The answers included data scientists, implementation lifecycle managers, Agile transformation leaders and Agile coaches, network security, and big data opportunities. The panelists made a point of saying that no matter what the position, candidates that show overall intellectual curiosity, have credentials, and can show a history of positive ROI on their projects will have a leg up on the completion.

Brittney and David primarily answered the question of how to break into healthcare IT if you’re not already in that field. (It was noted that healthcare is the largest industry in Atlanta.) Having a clinical background, or showing awareness of clinical issues was an important step. There is training available for that for those who do not have clinical experience.

When Nancy asked the panel what was the best way to secure a job, Boyd answered it is best to be referred by someone you know at the company. Every other panelist vigorously nodded in agreement, settling that question.

Holly kicked off the discussion on resumes, emphasizing that resumes need to be visually appealing, with lots of white space. Studies have shown that a person reviewing resumes assesses it in about six seconds, so the need for it to be attractive is critical. A recent trend is to include graphics in the resume. One example is to show your strengths using icons, another is to use icons next to your LinkedIn URL or tools you use on your job. But it was noted that graphics can take up a lot of space and should be used judiciously.

It may seem obvious, but make sure your resume has NO ERRORS. Any errors in spelling, punctuation, or grammar send a very negative message. Fonts should be consistent throughout, and easy to read.

As far as resume length, it was generally agreed by the panel to try to keep your resume to two pages, but four pages might be OK for a senior level person if the content is compelling enough. Try to limit yourself to 3 to 4 bullet items per job, and include ROI information when appropriate.

Some final notes on resumes that everyone on the panel agreed on was to send resumes in pdf format and to customize the resume for the job you are applying to. And with regard to career gaps, such as due to unemployment or time spent with family, the panel agreed that it was best to “own it”. Put it on your resume and explain what was happening. (Unless you spent the time sitting on the couch playing video games. Don’t put that.)

If you are looking for an executive level position, they are out there, but the higher you go the fewer opportunities there are. Strong communication skills are a must for these jobs, and you should be prepared to relocate.

The panel was asked how to handle the “What is your current salary?” question that frequently comes up in interviews. (It was noted that several states have made it illegal to ask this question, but Georgia has not.) One good way to answer that is to do research on the position you’re looking to get, and answer the question with regards to what you expect to make if you are hired.

The panel also attacked the not insignificant question of how to maintain work/life balance. They all agreed that if you find a job you are passionate about, doing something that makes you happy, work/life balance won’t be an issue because you’ll be doing what you love – and loving what you’re doing. Constantly assess your work situation and realize that you have one life to live and it’s all (work and non-work) connected. Having 3 to 4 people in your life who you can counsel you can prove to be enormously helpful.

Be sure to view the photos from the event!

A big thank you from both the Technology and Healthcare Forum to Brittney, David, Holly, and Boyd for their time and some great career information.

The next Healthcare Forum will be on Wednesday, August 16th, at Philips Healthcare in Alpharetta. There will not be a Technology Forum meeting in August. The Tech Forum will, as The Happenings so famously sang, see you in September.