The Best Practice Showcase
Over 750 people registered, and Alan Harpham, as Chairman of the APM Group, gave the delegates and exhibitors a multi-cultural welcome that reflected some of the many countries now adopting PRINCE2® and other Best Practice products. After that, delegates entered a whirl of their own as they tried to find the first of many 'Birds of a Feather' sessions. Melanie Franklin, our CEO, and Susan Tuttle, Lead Trainer, hosted five fully-booked BoF sessions throughout the day on where Project and Programme Management stand and what is happening next with these disciplines. Melanie also delivered her popular presentation on Interpersonal Skills for Projects and Programmes at the Best Management Practice stand.
Susan Tuttle said that the two questions that were most posed by the BoF attendees were: “Project Managers – to professionalise or not to professionalise?” and “I need a training course on how to manage my manager – managing up and how that affects the effectiveness of a Project Manager”. Tiffany Childs, another Maven Trainer who attended the event, shared her thoughts with us. “I was surprised at the level of interest/general appetite for P3O”, she said, “several government organisations were keen to discuss and debate their current situation and were particularly looking for suggestions on how to improve the structure of their Portfolio/Programme/Project Offices”. We noticed that, given the current economic climate, the focus of conversation was on the need to maintain the functionality and credibility of the support office(s) while working with reduced access to resource. Tiffany goes on saying that “there was little discussion on the upcoming launch of the P3O Practitioner qualification, but it would still be interesting to see what the uptake of this qualification will be”.
William Franklin, Client Relations Director at Maven Training, said that the subject of highest concern to delegates was “a desire for implementation services from companies that had the breadth and depth of capability to deliver methodologies, irrespective of source of the method. Maven Training was therefore delighted to be able to showcase our new Wheel of Delivery™, where regardless of the client maturity or project stage, they could benefit from a range of scalable implementation services”.
Overall, the 7th Best Practice Showcase delivered what it set out to – an opportunity for experts in the industry to share experiences and learn from each other to continue the development of Best Practice with project and programme management. We look forward to next year’s event!
