|
|
 Speakers
 |
Executive Director of Information Technology
ManTech International Corporation
Cheryl-Ann Cohen is the Executive Director of Information Technology
for ManTech International Corporation. She has strategy and execution
responsibility for enterprise systems, web development and customer
support for ManTech. In addition, Ms. Cohen has oversight for the
integration of acquired companies, of which there have been seven since
2002.
Prior to joining ManTech in 2000, Ms. Cohen spent 3 years with DynCorp,
a government contractor with over 20,000 employees. She implemented the
company’s first ERP system and subsequently managed the IT organization
including business systems, networks, infrastructure, and messaging
technologies. Ms. Cohen has over 23 years of IT experience, having begun
her career as a systems engineer with IBM.
Ms. Cohen founded the Oracle Government Contracting Special Interest
Group in 2003 and has served as its Communications Coordinator ever
since. She is certified as a Program Management Professional and is a
graduate of Georgetown University.
Ms. Cohen’s presentation detailed how ManTech is utilizing the Dekker
PMIS to attain its goal of increasing the company’s share of the
government contracting market space. ManTech’s chief objective toward
attaining this goal involves becoming an Earned Value Management (EVM)-certified
contractor. “Ideally, we’d like to use EVM organization-wide, not only
to gain EVM certification, but for the added benefit of providing value
to all of our customers,” remarked Ms. Cohen.
She went on to state that ManTech has implemented the Dekker PMIS™ across
many of its projects and programs, including those not subject to EVM
compliance, as a way of enhancing project management and performance
reporting. Additionally, ManTech has taken full advantage of the project
management and EVM training offered by Dekker, Ltd.
“Just because you have the tools doesn’t mean you have EVM in place,”
observed Ms. Cohen. “You still need to develop the processes and
procedures, as well as the organizational and cultural mindset. The
training that Dekker has provided for us supplements our own in-house
activities and procedures, and ultimately will serve to foster the
disciplines set forth by the Project Management Institute (PMI), as well
as give our executives and managers real-time visibility into project
performance.”
Click here to view the presentation in .pdf format. |
|
 |
Pamela Metz
Project Manager
United Space Alliance
Pamela Metz has been in the business of space travel and exploration
for more than 20 years. From training astronauts to leading
enterprise-wide projects, she has experienced the full spectrum of
technical project management from both a government and industry
perspective.
A design engineer by training, Ms. Metz began her career path at NASA’s
Johnson Space Center, providing design, analysis and real-time flight
control support for the Space Shuttle Program. She was certified as an
astronaut trainer, where she developed curricula and worked directly
with astronauts, supporting eight successful Shuttle missions.
Ms. Metz moved into technical project management, managing
multi-million-dollar budgets and supervising teams of hardware and
software engineers to develop unique training simulators and specialty
facilities. After successfully managing a challenging Space Shuttle
upgrades project involving cockpit avionics upgrades, Ms. Metz earned
one of the industry’s most prestigious leadership awards.
She continues to develop business for both commercial and government
space endeavors, utilizing her unique project management and leadership
experience. Additionally, she uses her training and coaching skills to
mentor students and professionals in the technical arena.
Ms. Metz holds an M.S. in technical management from Embry Riddle
Aeronautical University and a B.S. in family life and human services
from Louisiana State University.
Topic: Traversing Cultural Roadblocks
In her presentation, Ms. Metz described the project management
challenges United Space Alliance (USA) faces in light of the fact that
the Space Shuttle Program terminates in 2010. Because of this, and to
ensure the long-term viability of the company beyond the Shuttle
Program, USA plans to transition from a one-contract organization to a
multiple-contract, multiple-customer organization.
Ms. Metz noted that this transition has already begun with the
establishment of a Project Management Office (PMO) and the
implementation of an enterprise-wide EVMS through the use of the Dekker
PMIS. The big challenge, however, has been managing the cultural change
necessary to make the PMO and EVMS successful.
“Fear is the biggest roadblock to change,” explained Ms. Metz. “As USA
transitions into the multi-contract, multi-customer realm, we [the PMO]
must figure out a way to minimize the fear that prevents some employees
from embracing the PMO and understanding why it helps USA in the long
run.”
Ms. Metz said that without managing the cultural change required, USA
cannot build its project management capabilities nor execute those
critical projects that move the organization toward its future state as
a multi-contract, multi-customer company.
To traverse these cultural roadblocks, Ms. Metz outlined four critical
approaches that have put USA on the correct path to affecting cultural
change: 1) Communication from the top down; 2) Mandating enterprise-wide
policies; 3) Ongoing project management training; and 4) Effective
in-house consulting.
With these approaches in place, Ms. Metz has found that USA’s corporate
culture is slowly changing for the better. “Patience is the key to
affecting any sort of change,” she remarked. “At the end of the day, we
must continue to understand the culture and evaluate and mitigate the
cultural roadblocks so that we stay on course to our goal.”
Click here to view the presentation in .pdf format. |
|
 |
Vince Marcello
Filmmaker
Vince Marcello has directed for both stage and film, staging over 25
professional theatrical productions and directing more than a dozen
films. Most recently he worked in New York City writing, producing and
directing commercials, promotional films and industrial videos.
For five years, he served as the Executive Director of Film and Video
Productions for Ethan Allen, Inc. overseeing the management of dozens of
film projects and live events. Mr. Marcello has also worked as a public
speaker, conducting seminars and workshops throughout the country on the
subjects of sales training, management, peak performance consulting and
video/film production.
Currently, he works in Hollywood developing various feature films,
commercials and music video projects as a director and producer and
continues public speaking and training through his company, MARCELLO
CONSULTING.
Mr. Marcello holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of
Florida and a master’s degree in filmmaking from the University of
Southern California.
Topic: Project Management in the Film Industry
Mr. Marcello’s unique and insightful presentation demonstrated how
project management practices and principles are applied within the film
industry.
Although not specifically classified as such, Mr. Marcello explained
that a film project has a definite four-phase project life cycle of
defining, planning, execution and delivery. These phases correspond to
the more traditional filmmaking terms of development, pre-production,
production and post-production, and marketing and distribution.
Mr. Marcello delved further into each phase of a film project, using his
award-winning short film Zombie Prom as an example of how a film makes
the journey from script to screen. He also demonstrated how the film
project would have been tracked using the Dekker PMIS™.
“I wish I had access to the Dekker PMIS™ on my last project,” pronounced
Mr. Marcello. “The way you can easily manage changes to a schedule, not
to mention being able to look at everything [resources, schedule,
budget] in one glance...this [product] would have been enormously
valuable to me as a producer.”
After listening to Mr. Marcello’s presentation, Forum attendees realized
that, in terms of the project management paradigm, film production is
extremely similar to the more conventional industries in which they are
involved.
Click here to view the presentation in .pdf format. |
|
 |
Simon Dekker
President and CEO
Dekker, Ltd.
Simon Dekker is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Dekker,
Ltd. He has broad based experience in the relationship of project
management to finance and cost-schedule integration. Mr. Dekker is the
original author of the Dekker PMIS™, which continues to lead the project
portfolio management market in providing a complete project, program,
portfolio management and EVM solution. Additionally, Mr. Dekker has
consulted on contemporary management disciplines and system applications
in government agencies and commercial business units.
Prior to founding Dekker, Ltd., Mr. Dekker engineered and developed
scientific, defense and business systems for a wide array of customers.
Mr. Dekker has published various articles on project management, EVM,
and project portfolio management, and he appears regularly as a guest
speaker at various trade associations throughout the United States and
Europe.
Topic: Business Intelligence and Project Management
Mr. Dekker’s presentation underscored the Forum’s theme of the
importance of business intelligence in an organization’s overall
corporate strategy.
“In order to develop a strategic plan,” Mr. Dekker said, “the
organization must scan its business environment.” This “scan” is done
primarily through PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technology) and
TOWS (Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Strengths) analyses. The
PEST analysis serves to reveal the important and changing factors that
affect a business from the outside, while the TOWS matrix not only
ascertains factors external to the organization, but internal to the
organization as well.
Mr. Dekker explained that once these external and internal factors have
been identified, the organization has the business intelligence it needs
to develop sustainable objectives that can be measured. These objectives
are most commonly implemented via mission-critical programs comprised of
numerous mission-critical projects. To ensure these projects are
contributing to the overall strategic plan, some formal method of
evaluation and control is necessary.
For the most effective control, Mr. Dekker said, the project manager and
other project stakeholders need a single project management information
system (PMIS) to collect data and report progress on cost, schedule and
specifications. The data collected for business intelligence purposes
are determined by which key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics
would be used for project control, as well as by the threats,
opportunities, weaknesses, and strengths identified through the PEST and
TOWS analyses. The KPIs selected should provide answers to questions of
scope, schedule, resources, cost and financial performance, and these
answers should result in the quantification of organizational goals and
objectives. Mr. Dekker went on to clarify his thesis with a case study
of the remodeling project underway at the nearby Silver Gate Yacht Club.
Mr. Dekker concluded his presentation stating, “By monitoring KPIs, a
company can assess the present state of business and prescribe actions
that will either maintain or alter its course.” The statement summed up
the ultimate goal of business intelligence – sensing data from the
external business environment and internal business operation in such a
way as to turn an organization into one that learns from its current and
past experience.
Click here to view the presentation in .pdf format. |
|
