PMI Atlanta is pleased to announce our March Volunteer of the Month. Congratulations, Chiquetta West! If you’ve attended a PMI Atlanta dinner meeting or networking event, you’ve probably had the pleasure of interacting with Chiquetta. She’s become known as one of our volunteers who we can depend on to service registration several times throughout the year with a smile. It’s no wonder volunteering with registration has been her favorite experience with the organization. Read on to learn how volunteering has impacted Chiquetta’s professional development and the PMI Atlanta initiatives she’s most excited about.

What has been your favorite or most rewarding volunteer experience with PMI Atlanta?
I have been volunteering with the Atlanta Chapter for two (2) years working the registration tables at various meetings. I enjoy working with registration because it gives me a chance to meet and interact with people that work in different capacities of project management. Through these interactions, I have met a lot of wonderful people that are more advanced in this profession and have provided a lot of information on how to manage my projects and advance in my career.

Due to the forecasted weather, the Governance Forum scheduled for February 25th has been cancelled.  We look forward to seeing you next month!

By:  Glenn Boylan, Technology Forum Volunteer

The January Technology Forum meeting was an interesting one – in fact it could more accurately be called the January meeting for all the PMI Atlanta Industry Forums. Titled “Your Industry … Your Forum", it brought together the Program Managers of the five forums to show what each of their forums offer.

Nancy Berlin kicked off the meeting thanking the Technology Forum volunteers and introducing Nara Acharya, a PMI Atlanta Board member. The program started with an introduction to the forums from Marcia Trajano, VP of Industry Forums. Marcia told the audience that the Atlanta Chapter puts on approximately 50 forum events per year in the five forums: Agile; Architecture, Engineering and Construction; Governance; Healthcare; and Technology. A sixth forum, Consulting, will be starting soon.

All the forums are designed to provide an opportunity for project professionals to network, learn, and share their experiences in a more intimate setting than the full chapter meetings. The forums enhance the attendees’ professional experience.

Written by Karen Powell, PMP, CSM

Are Carrots for Horses? Are metrics good motivators? Why use metrics?

As Matt Badgley from VersionOne explained in the February PMI Atlanta Agile Forum, the answers depend on your teams, the type of work being done, and the metrics you use. Per Matt, “Metrics are something that some to react with the proverbial angst. The reality is that everyone likes to know where they stand and good teams look for as many feedback mechanisms as they can to help them improve. Many people love metrics. Many cringe at metrics. Sometimes metrics drive really bad behaviors and cause bad results to happen.”

If all metrics aren’t created equal and some people like metrics while others don’t, how can your organization introduce metrics that will foster positive engagement, support your Agile team’s desire to continuously improve, and deliver the results you want?