NYS Forum PM Steering Committee

Meeting Minutes

Held: January 25, 2010, 8:30 - 9:30 AM, at Keane offices
Next Meeting: February 22, 2010, 8:30 - 9:30 AM, at Keane offices

Attendees (members attending in person highlighted in bold, attending via phone in bold italic)

PM Committee Members
Brenda Breslin, State Co-Chair (DOH),
Vivian Conboy, State Co-Chair (NYS Tax),
Chris Foster, CRT Co-chair, (CGI) ,
Jon Haverly, CRT Co-chair, PM COP Lead, (Keane),
Connie Benton (NYS OSC),
Jonathan Blake (Keane) (1),
Girk Cakmak (Bowne),
Natalie Cole (NY State Police) (6),
Jason DiGianni, Repository Lead, (NYS DOB) (1),
Susan Mardon (NYS DOT),
Melissa Morgan, Newsletter Lead, (TEK Systems) (1),
Ellen Peil (NYS DEC),
Bob Pennacchia (NYS DOH),
Diana Pinto (NYS Thruway),
Drew Prescott (NYS OFT),
Kelly Smith-Lawless (NYS DMV),

Additional Topics and Action Items

Jon will check in with Natalie to see how things are going.

Drew brought up the potential of assisting OFT with an update to the PM Guidebook. The idea would be for OFT to serve as the primary on the initiative and volunteers assist with making revisions to the guidebook. Brenda suggested reaching out through the PMO RT list serve to see what updates people feel need to be made and also ask at the February 11th meeting. There was also a suggestion to look at the OFT generic inbox for any suggestions that have been submitted.

2009 Initiatives

The following initiatives were generated from the Forum strategic planning session on Friday, July 10, 2009. They will serve as the initiatives for this program year.

Updates to the SDLC - Girk Cakmak:

Background: Several work groups (Security, Business Continuity, and Web Group) would like to work with the PM work group to update the PM Guidebook. There is also a desire to add the agile process as well as best practices from the work groups into the guidebook.

The updates to the guidebook will be a huge undertaking. The Security and Business Continuity work groups would like to add touch points to the PM Guidebook elaborating on best practices. Deb Snyder is reaching out to OFT to seek approval to make updates. These two workgroups will share with us their revisions and seek our insight. Girk will attend the next planning meeting on February 4th to see where matters stand. He will also check with Deb to see if they are in need of PM volunteers to assist with reviewing updates.

GOER Training - Natalie Cole:

Background: There is an interest to assist GOER with the PM training (PM Fundamentals as well as more advanced PM training) they provide.

Drew mentioned that he and Charlene were making revisions to the course so it would cover two days. There is a meeting on February 9th from 9 am to 12 noon at GOER (Building #2, 7th floor, need security access so contact Drew if you want to attend). He also spoke with Allen Ross and he welcomes any help that can be provided. Drew will check with Allen Ross to see if the PM work group can help in any particular way. Based on where there is a need for help he can share with the PMO RT.

BA Coordination with IT Skills Development Work Group (ITSWG)- Connie Benton:

Background: The ITSWG would like to continue the BA sessions that were kicked off with the PM COP on May 12th and another joint session held on December 15th. Chris has held discussions with the ITSWG to see where the BA subject matter would fit into the current Forum work groups. Chris does not see how the PM work group could take on another initiative and the attendees agreed. Chris and James Nicol spoke with Greg Benson to see how best to proceed. It was agreed to put out a survey of the latest attendees to gauge their interest in leading a work group dedicated to BAs. Depending on the responses we may assist with a transition to a new work group or continue to co-lead with the ITSWG.

Repository/Social Networking - Jason DiGianni:

Background: Based on feedback from the strategic planning session there looks to be a larger initiative to create an online repository for Forum work groups. Tied into this will be an initiative to create an acceptable networking option for the work group. Discussion at the strategic planning session included the possibility of leveraging something like LinkedIn.

Jason was not able to attend but shared the following update in an email:
"...the Web 2.0 sub group is still collecting information from other Forum workgroups - Accessibility, Security, etc. - to put them in a better position to make a recommendation to the Forum on the use of social media. The Co-Chairs of the Emerging Technologies Work Group thought project management could help with the process, and asked Jon to reach out for volunteers. (I believe he already sent out an e-mail about this.) Finally, the group decided to focus on the internal use of social media rather than external, public relations type use of social media. They felt that any public outreach efforts could wait."

A request will be submitted to the CIO Council on behalf of the Forum to determine a best solution for the social networking need. Drew will check with Greg to see where matters stand.

PMO Roundtable Meeting (PMO RT)
Attendance was low for the latest session. Vivian suggested seeing how the attendance goes for the next session to determine if it is just an aberration. A couple suggestions were made which included sending out a save the date and then when the formal invite goes out to ask for RSVP's. Ellen and Chris will cross reference the Matrix latest PMO RT distribution list to update based on feedback from meeting attendees. Chris will share the updated list with all meeting attendees for another review and feedback. Brenda has tracked down the PMO charter and Connie got the OMH PMO point of contact that will be added in. Once the list is revised Ellen will send it out to the PMO RT list serve to seek additional feedback.
 
Q1 2010 How to manage project budgets and contracts
Scheduled for February 11th at Keane
Owner(s): Ellen Peil
Action Plan: (Action - Assigned to - Status):
  • Send out a save the date reminder to attendees - Ellen - Done
  • Send reminder emails to attendees on January 29th - Ellen - Open
 
Consider the following topics for future meetings:
  • How to communicate PM/PMO value to Agency Executives (strategies, briefing books...)
  • Working session on Knowledge Repository requirements
  • How to maintain the PM momentum/ Marketing strategies for a PMO
  • PMO strategic planning and outreach
  • Portfolio Management and how to leverage software tools
 
PM Community of Practice Meeting (PM COP)
Vivian will speak at the next session scheduled for March 18th. She suggested we all look at slide decks we have done in the past to see if we could speak at a future PM COP session. Jon suggested we look into training sessions as an option for PM COPs and everyone liked the idea. Ideas included MS Project or SharePoint.
 
Consider the following topics for future meetings:
  • Look into OSC Retirement System Phase 2 Project
  • Statewide Financial Management System. POCs are Chris Gorka from OSC, Susan from DOB, and Melodie from OFT. Connie will reach out to Chris to see if he would be willing to speak in the late June timeframe.
Joint Events
Event - Responsible - Status
  • Joint PMI Session - Brenda and Chris - Working with the PMI chapter on a speaker and date.

Since the October 21st, 2009 joint session with PMI generated a low turnout. There was discussion on the potential of taking a year off from a joint session. It was decided to go back to the regularly schedule PMI meeting time and inform our members of the event.

PM Committee Newsletter
1st Quarter Newsletter
Distribution Date: Tentatively set for late March/early April
Owner(s): Melissa Morgan & Diana Pinto
Actions (Section - Assigned to - Status):
  • PMO Roundtable Recap - Ellen - Pending
  • PM COP Recap - Jon - Pending
  • Joint Event with PMI Chapter - Chris - Pending
  • SDLC Initiative Update - Girk - Not needed
  • Interview Vivian Conboy - Diana - Pending
  • TBD PMO Director Article? - TBD - Pending
  • Repository/Social Networking Update - Jason - Pending

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 22nd, 2009 at 8:30 am.