On October 22, 2013, PMI Atlanta Technology Forum was held at the HP campus in Alpharetta, GA. The forum started off with PMP Jeopardy Game (2nd time this year). Around 30 participants were in attendance. All attendees had fun and  won prizes, too.  The forum had a guest speaker, Mr. Sameer Bendre, who shared his views on Waterfall versus Agile practices.  He illustrated with a few real-life examples on “why do we do as what we do” in both Waterfall and Agile methodologies. He distinguished between both methods with pros and cons. The audience was engaged in participation throughout the session and a good amount of time was given for the Q&A to benefit the members.  The Forum concluded at 7:15pm with a huge expectation to bring back topics of this kind in the future. Thanks to all who attended, participated, and contributed.

Side Note: The original topic was announced as "Mobility – Evolve or Die" by Mr. Ben M. Johnson, who fell ill at the last minute. As a result, the forum changed the topic and speaker to Mr. Sameer Bendre (who accepted to speak with a short notice).

Presented by Larry Mead, PMP
Written by Juliette Johnson

Microsoft is looking to integrate project management across all its office applications according to Director of US Operations for Campana-Schott, Larry Mead, PMP and Six Sigma Certified since 2001. In an effort of providing workplace-driven solutions, the new MS Project 2013 has evolved to one roadmap linking all the Project Management knowledge areas with SharePoint, tasks, and tracking applications like excel into one user interface and personal workspace called MySite. Best of all, MS Project 2013 is set up to think and act like an enterprise project manager. Imagine going to MS Project to schedule and conduct meetings via MS Lync. Access and update project documents real time from anywhere via the cloud. All your tasks and events show in one shared overview. Collaboration and even resource time recording across projects has never been easier.

As a premier consultant for Enterprise Microsoft Project Management, Mead set a course to demonstrate the value and timesaving tricks of the new workplace project platform. He highlighted the strength of the collaboration feature which allows users to integrate multiple project teams into peer groups and social networking. “The trend is moving to a single user interface,” explained Mead, “where resources have insight and expertise in areas can be engaged for other projects as peers and contributors creating project workspaces migrating data pertinent to other projects.” While the preparation of reports was limited to templates and required Excel and Visio, project managers can now find these applications embedded. The Lync integration also offers project teams the ability to connect via SMS or VOIP calls. The collaborative benefits mean less time identifying resources and increased accuracy with reporting timelines. The bottomline results offer a holistic view of project management using all the knowledge areas as checkpoints and ticklers for other related and impacted tasks and deliverables.

PMI Atlanta has formed an Athens Committee to serve project managers and students interested in project management in the Athens area.   The goal of PMI Atlanta, Athens Committee is to serve the Athens business and academic communities by leveraging what PMI Atlanta has to offer, such as quality programs and opportunities for professional networking. In addition, Athens Committee wants to promote and support the growth of the Project Management profession in the Athens area and to provide a positive and significant impact on the Athens communities.

The PMI Athens Committee plans to host the first PMI Dinner meeting on Thursday, November 21.  Business leaders, professionals and motivated students are encouraged to participate in the dinner meeting.  Registration will be opening soon for this event.

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