PMO Accord

The PMO Accord projet has been chartered by the PMI Program Management Office Specific Interest Group in December of 2007 with the goal of authoring "an Accord of proven practices for building and operating a Program Management Office (PMO)". Over 140 members of the group have volunteered to contribute a collection of articles based on their experiences. So far, 16 articles have been collected into the first edition of the PMO Accord. A printed copy of over a hundred of pages of the result of over eight months of effort PMOSIG Bookstore for $20 including shipping. Select the "PMO Books" department to order a copy.

Dubai

So, it's been two weeks that I landed here, in Dubai, and I'm almost done with the settling stuff and all. You can't possibly imagine how difficult it is, but thank god, Tatweer provided me with an excellent relocation agency (thanks Veronica for your help in everything). Today, I should be done with the major things (i.e. getting a place to live, a car, etc), and then I will be able to concentrate solely on the job (so much to do).

PS: For those of you who wonder what that skeleton on the picture above is, it is a dead camel I ran into while driving off-road near the construction site. This place is damn hot :).

No Walk in the Park

Today was my last day at Interoute, and despite everything that's going on these days, I'm almost done with my books and magazines backlog, and while going through April's PM Network, I stumbled upon thebuzz column titled "No Walk in the Park". The article is really interesting and depicts the trend in theme park projects in various areas of the world, describing some of the big projects ongoing in Americas and Asia. However, I'm seriously questionning the numbers provided by the PWC study Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2007-2011, that ranks Middle East as the Top 5 spender in the amusement park segment by 2011, with "only" $200 million. That number has to be much higher if you look at megaprojects like Dubailand, which Universal Studios will be a part of.

Anyway, my point is that considering the amount of high end projects in that segment that are already ongoing, or due to be launched pretty soon, and the well known global shortage in project talents, it will be a real challenge to beef up my team overthere. If you are a top notch Project Leader, Program Manager, Risk Manager or Change Manager, if you feel like working for a big player like Universal Studios in a challenging geographical area like Dubai, please send me your resume and cover letter. If you know a top notch Project Leader, Program Manager, Risk Manager or Change Manager, who feels like working for a big player like Universal Studios in a challenging geographical area like Dubai, I would be grateful if you could foward this post to them.

Nicolas Sarkozy à Prague

Notre Président de la République, Nicolas Sarkozy se trouvait à Prague en début de semaine, et à cette occasion, il a convié un certain nombre de ressortissants français à une courte réception au Palais Buquoy. Au cours d'un discours bref mais intéressant, il a notamment annoncé sa volonté d'offrir la gratuité de l'enseignement dans les établissements français à l'étranger (la réforme a commencé par les terminales, et gagnera une tranche d'âge supplémentaire chaque année). Même si j'attends de voir quelles seront les modalités d'application de cette mesure (et ses conséquences potentielles), j'ai été séduit par l'orateur brillant et par l'aura de charisme qui se dégage du personnage, jusque dans sa poignée de main, solide et franche, tout comme son regard.

Managing Risk Attitude

On Tuesday, I was speaking on "Managing the Risk Attitude" at the Stamford Global Risk Management Forum. The forum was chaired by David Hillson, and I have to say that his presentation and speaking skills astonished me. I'm a regular reader of Bert Decker's blog, and I found in David's keynote speaks the same energy and passion. I thought I would share some elements of my presentation with the fellow readers of my blog, and hopefully start a discussion with you on that topic. Risk Attitude is currently on the leading edge of Risk Management, and is defined by David as "a chosen response to uncertainty that matters, influenced by perception".

Ecole de Management de Strasbourg

Elu à la direction de l'Ecole de Management Strasbourg - issue de la fusion de l'IECS et de l'IAE Strasbourg - en mars dernier, le Professeur Michel Kalika, a vu son plan stratégique de développement approuvé par les membres du Conseil d'Administration de l'Ecole, présidé par François Loos (fin avril) puis par les membres du Conseil d'Administration de l'Université Robert Schuman (fin mai). Le Conseil d'Administration de l'Ecole a également élu les 3 Directeurs délégués: Babak Mehmanpazir, directeur délégué Programme Grande Ecole; Jacques Lewkowicz, directeur délégué Master Management Universitaire et Pia Imbs, directeur délégué Executive Education.

Orlando, Day Eight

I flew back to Prague on Friday via Atlanta, but before going to the airport in the afternoon, we went to SkyVenture for two skydives in winds up to 145 mph (234 km/h). The instructor is a top notch guy, who really masters that sports, and I eventually got certified for my jumps (stability, left & right turns, up and down). This was a fantastic experience to finish this week in Orlando, and I was quite happy to take some rest before my flight in the Delta Crown Club Room.

Orlando, Day Seven

Thursday morning, we had a very interesting meeting with Mike Melhorn (Technical Services), Jeff Lind and Phil DiPaula, about the design of the audio systems across the park in Dubai. Another first for me, as I never went that deep into this aspect of technical discussions. Michelle McKenna took us to lunch at the Mythos restaurant (Best theme park restaurant for the fifth year in a row, click here for a full review). Two great meetings in the afternoon gave us an overview of the technical services software (work orders, assets management, etc) and of the datawarehouse project.

Meetings for the week finished, information overload ;).

Orlando, Day Six

On Wednesday, we had a deeper look at the PMO processes and framework (they are PMI aligned as well). Rod Schrag and Roxana Castillo took me through their PMO intranet, and I'm quite happy to have changed my mind about Sharepoint as a CMS, as this implementation is quite nicely done.

We took a break and did the Fury of Poseidon before having lunch at Thunder Falls Terrace, with a view on the splash zone of the Jurassic Park River Adventure.

After the lunch break, we met with Jeff Lind, from Creative Team, and visited the old Nickelodeon studios, and the Blue Man Group studios. We then met with Marcus Lopez, their ticketing systems guru.

In the evening, Tim Arnst (VP of Human Resources) took us to dinner at Seasons52 (very nice modern american cuisine) after a quick handshake with Tom Williams (chairman and CEO, Universal Parks and Resorts). Here I discovered the traditional Key Lime desserts of Florida, before going to the Première of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at midnight. Definitely not worth it, and this time would have been better spent sleeping...

Orlando, Day Five

Tuesday was another busy day. In the morning we went with the Infrastructure team, across the Parcs, the Back of House and CityWalk to understand how they built their network, and see how they answered to business requirements. As it is the season for lovebugs and thunderstorms, we got showered right before going back to the office. Despite still being wet, we had lunch at The Enchanted Oak Tavern, in one of the most fabulous decor I have ever seen, where I enjoyed a delicious smoked turkey leg.

In the afternoon, we met with Rita Sanchez and the TRM team, and Jackie Diaz and the PMO team (very instructive, and I'm glad to have the opportunity of interworking with them in the future). We had dinner at Shooters (quite close from where it all started in 1983), and after some very hot shrimps and chicken, and a huge hamburger, we enjoyed a couple of billard games in a nice typical bar, listening to country music.

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