premises of Touchstone Ltd. This followed the offer of the existing committee to stand for re-election and a request for members to nominate new committee members.
The Newsletter of ProgM
The Programme Management Specific Interest Group
November 2008
The ProgM newsletter contains interesting information about events and other areas of interest in Programme Management. This month we feature:
ProgM AGM - 08 October 2008
ProgM held its first ever formal Annual General Meeting and member’s “get together” in Central London on the 8th October at the premises of Touchstone Ltd. This followed the offer of the existing committee to stand for re-election and a request for members to nominate new committee members.
ProgM Achievements
John Chapman, the Treasurer, and Paul Rayner, the Chairman, presented their reports. In his report, Paul paid tribute to the hard-work of the committee, the sponsorship of companies, the support of the Association for Project Management, and the participation of ProgM members.
Adrian Pyne, the outgoing Secretary had overseen nomination and election arrangements. He explained that, in fact, no new nominations were forthcoming and the existing committee was re-elected.
Your Current Committee
Your committee thus stands unchanged as
Geoff Reiss is also a member of the committee in his role as Honorary President of ProgM. Geoff founded ProgM and chaired it for 14 years. He is not required to stand for re-election.
Portfolio Management
Members then unanimously voted in support of a proposal from Richard Renshaw that:
“Consideration be given that the scope of the ProgM SIG be expanded to specifically include Portfolio Management and that ProgM seek to promote both fields within the APM and lead the development of standards.”
Programme Management and David Beckham
Following the formal business of the evening, Geoff Reiss challenged conventional views by asking “What is the difference between David Beckham and a programme manager”. Geoff pointed out that, David Beckham earned a lot more than most programme managers. This was because he not only knew the rules but was an extremely capable and skilled practitioner of football.
By contrast, many who claimed to be programme managers only had knowledge of the rules of programme management (as exemplified by methodologies such as Managing Successful Programmes or PRINCE2) but not the practical skill and experience. Geoff felt that one reason for this was an excessive focus on “governance”, which he equated with procedures at the expense of delivery.
Before and after the meeting, those attending swapped views over a glass of wine and a slice of cheese.
Further Information
A copy of the presentations – including the Chairman’s Report - can be found on the ProgM website at www.e-programme.com
Portfolio Management: Call for Contributions
Portfolio Management has become an important topic for many organisations, while they struggle to ensure integrity of the entire business transformation through programmes and projects. Furthermore, because of its close relationship with programme management, ProgM agreed at its AGM to include this subject within its activities.
ProgM has been given an opportunity to produce an "Introduction to Portfolio Management", and would like to invite contributions, in the form of examples or case studies, from the members who may have some practical experience of portfolio management.
The document will be similar to the "Introduction to Programme Management", which many of you contributed to and which was published by the APM in 2007 (ISBN - 13: 978-1-903494-63-9 - www.apm.org.uk). It will not be an exhaustive study or a "how to" guide, but should give sensible answers to the key questions that most people have, in approximately 24 pages. However, we are keen that it contains real-world examples and case studies. All contributions will be acknowledged at the front and, where appropriate,next to examples and case studies.
If you do have something to contribute - experience, lessons learnt, report examples, case studies, articles - please send it to Tanya Durlen - before the end of November.
Also, please let us know if you would like to help by reviewing or proof-reading the final result.
Please help with programme management research
It is always useful to read the results of objective research into our profession. Sometimes it gives us new insights, other times it confirms what we always suspected, but it almost always helps us to be better at what we do. For this reason, ProgM conducts its own research and encourages others to do so.
Graeme Ritson is a practicing engineer studying programme management in the North East of England and he would like programme management professionals to help him. He is seeking to understand how programmes and projects align with strategy in the "real world" and he would like your help.
Below is a link and a password to a short questionnaire - it is simple and easy to understand and will take you only a few moments to complete.
Graham has promised to let us see the results - so please help Graham and paste the link below into your Web browser and complete the questionnaire today.
http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=7znl3y2o622w0b6508360
survey password: 12345
Reminder: ProgM Evening Talk: 'What are you worth, now?'
Date: 25th November 2008
Time: 18.00 – 20.00
Venue: Transport for London
Floor 5, Albany House,
Petty France
London
SW1H 9EA
To register for this event, please email Tanya Durlen to secure a place.
Your feedback is important to us
If you have any feedback on either wanting to participate in events or have views on which of these types of events would be most beneficial for you then can you please inform our Communications Officer, Tanya Durlen.