Anders E Jørgensen om elearning

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SKY News Australia interviews ILX Group founder Martyn Kinch

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Martyn Kinch, founder of technology based business training company ILX Group, is interviewed about how the company, who recently opened its first office in Sydney, is helping Australian businesses to adopt better project and programme practices through the use of digital technology. ILX has revolutionised the way learning is delivered by bringing multimedia learning to everyday devices like mobile phones and iPods. ILX delivers project and programme management training using PRINCE2® and MSP® methodologies and ITIL® for IT Service Management.

Mountainview ITIL V3 Mind Map DEMO ONLY

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A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

Misurata Telecom for Corporate Communication

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is a renowned organization of Dubai which is engaged in meeting high end communication needs of corporate and commercial establishments. Apart from international business firms, many local organizations have offices across the city. is primarily involved in rendering highly efficient Telecommunication, Structured Cabling and IT solutions. The need of secured and efficient channels for corporate communication is highly important. has been continuously helping various business organizations in running smooth and uninterrupted operations.

Based in the cosmopolitan city of UAE, lives through its core belief of delivering optimum performance by design excellence. The company is supported by a team of highly qualified, skilled and certified engineers who are capable to provide best-in-class solutions for any budget type. The company believes that its talent pool is the major reason behind its stupendous success.

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offers comprehensive range of services to its clients such as consultancy, wireless connectivity, project management, auditing and IT outsourcing. Furthermore, the company is also engaged in designing systems as well as setting up cabling infrastructure to enable hassle free business communication. The voice, video and data solutions that are delivered by the company match up the global market standards.

Moreover, is involved in rendering effective project management services to its clients. The corporate cabling projects that are undertaken by the company are accomplished within stipulated time frame by making optimum usage of resources. It has been efficiently serving clients in both public and private sector with its optimum quality services. Networking Installation has become a market leader for specialized services such as turn key services and installation and maintenance of data. In order to make all the services superior in terms of quality, the company strictly follows PRINCE2 Project Management methodology.

Another area in which offers its highly efficient services is wireless connectivity. With an aim to boost organizational productivity, the company provides wireless connectivity solutions to various small and large business organizations. Technical professionals of the company first visit the intended installation site. It is followed by a survey which is conducted by them in order to examine the exact number of users. This is a highly crucial step as number of access points to be set up directly depends on the number of users in a particular area. All the services rendered by the company are competitively priced so that the small and medium sized organizations can avail the benefits and advantages.

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pantha du prince 2

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Wystąpienie Tomasza Nędzi podczas spotkania Polskiego Towarzystwa Informatycznego.Tomasz Nędzi Ekspert w zakresie zarządzania projektami, PRINCE2® Approved Trainer, MoR® Approved Trainer, P3O® Approved Trainer, MSP®Practitioner, Noble Manhattan Practitioner Coach, MBA, Prezes Zarządu oraz Lead Trainer w skills sp. z oo PRINCE2® jest znakiem handlowym Office of Government Commerce zarejestrowanym w Zjednoczonym Królestwie i innych krajach M_o_R® jest znakiem handlowym Office of Government Commerce zarejestrowanym w Zjednoczonym Królestwie i innych krajach P3O® jest znakiem handlowym Office of Government Commerce MSP® jest znakiem handlowym Office of Government Commerce zarejestrowanym w Zjednoczonym Królestwie i innych krajach
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Article: What Is Project Management?

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Project Management is a group of processes in combination for planning and organizing activities that should be performed to achieve a goal, as well as scheduling who should perform them.

A Project is a temporary collection of the activities that should be performed to achieve the goal.
The project is in most cases connected to a start and stop in time but can also be continuous until the project goal is reached.

In a project you have a Project Manager who is responsible of planning the activities, connect resources to the activities and make sure to keep the project team together. It is also the project manager who is responsible for reporting project progress to whoever ordered the project or to any other stakeholder.

In smaller projects the scope of responsibility for the project manager is usually decided by the part who orders the project. The larger the project is, the more common it is that there are several groups of people between the original ordering part and the project manager.
The name Project Manager is used in most traditional approaches, but can be different in other methodologies.  

Depending on what kind of project you are running and how you wish to run a project there are different guidelines, also called project methodologies or project approaches.
Examples of approaches are:

Traditional Project Management

The traditional project management approach is something that most people have been in contact with at some stage.

In this approach you move through different stages, starting from the Initiation phase through different phases until you get to the Completion phase.

After the Initiation phase is the Planning phase. This is where a lot of time is spent to define what should be completed in the project. During the planning and also the execution of the project activities are in a lot of cases planned in a Gantt-chart where you can see dependencies between activities, length of activities and responsibilities in a nice graph.

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This approach is sometimes criticized since there can be long time from the planning phase to the completion phase. Due to the long time, reality of what should be delivered is therefore sometimes changed since a lot of surrounding parameters are changed.
Agile Project Management

An Agile project management approach is created from software development to make the software development project more flexible. In this case you set up the overall goal for the project and prioritize to do the most important activities first.

One of the most popular agile methods is called Scrum. In scrum you build up a backlog of activities and put the most important on top. Each phase are called sprints and after each sprint the project team should have some result to present. Each sprint is normally between 2 and 6 weeks which makes the project possible to switch focus quickly to be able to meet new requirements.

This kind of project management approach was initially designed to work for product development but is lately used for other types of projects, even outside the software department.

In Scrum the roles are called Product Owner, who is responsible for the prioritization of the product activities to be sent into a sprint, and Scrum Master, who is more like the Project Manager. A scrum master is the person making sure that the Scrum process is being followed and also protects the team from interruptions and having more work added, so called scope creep. A product owner represents the customer and can be said to be the “voice of the customer”.

There are several different project management methodologies, usually designed to have either the the traditional approach or the agile approach as base.
Among the traditional approaches you will for instance find RUP (Rational Unified Process), PRINCE2 and Waterfall.
Among the more agile approaches you will, besides Scrum, also find XP (Extreme Programming) and RAD (Rapid Applications Development).
For whatever approach you are choosing to work with it is hard to plan and communicate without having a Project Management Software. There are different types of project management software recommended depending on what kind of approach you are using. A few project management software support more than one project approach, but most are focused on trying to support one approach the best possible way.

Some functionality that is important when looking for the Project Management Software that is best for you is to understand what kind of planning you want to do, what the project structure should look like as well as how you wish to communicate in the project team and what sort of reports you wish to have from the software.

Video tour introduction to PROJECT in a box Personal Edition, fully portable psonal project methodology tool also providing reporting and email integration capabilities
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Would a P3o Training Course Really Benefit My Business?

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I was on the train travelling to London, reading the newspaper, when an article caught my eye about the launch of the P3O guidance from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), and P3O training courses. As somebody who had attended training courses from the OGC, such as PRINCE2, I was immediately intrigued as to what this new course could offer me and my business, so I decided to research around the topic.

It wasn’t hard to find information about P3O once I started to look, as the launch had been quickly followed by press releases and publications announcing the commencement of accredited P3O training courses. I decided to spend some more time looking into P3O and the P3O training courses because I had some questions I wanted answered: what was P3O? Were there any concerns about P3O? Would P3O become ‘just another’ accreditation on my CV? How would P3O benefit my business? And lastly; were there different P3O training courses suitable for all members of my staff?

My research found the answers I was looking for: P3O represents 3P’s for Portfolio, Programme and Project. The P3O model basically works at providing a support structure for all internal changes, and this was one aspect I was very interested in for my business. As I explored deeper into that aspect, I found the P3O guidance from OGC is a step to offer a single source of information, thereby enabling a universally applicable guidance. I felt this was an ambitious plan, because before P3O, there wasn’t a single definite source to seek assistance from. I knew from my training with PRINCE2 and Management of Risk that they do refer to the requirement of adequate support system, but nothing as robust as P3O.

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P3O aims to promote consistent governance, and impart an enhanced insight into the change initiative portfolio, which will lead to improved planning. A few other possible benefits of P3O guidance is: time and quality benefits; business outcome identification and realisation. Consistency, even across virtual work environments, and clarity in terms of support functions, are also among the desired outcomes for P3O. OGC intends to establish P3O so it can provide the backbone for integrated governance and escalation. It would seem a P3O training course is an important subject, especially for project managers.

The suitability and application of P3O will depend upon a number of factors, and this will vary from organisation to organisation. One of the concerns I found out about P3O, related to the practical acceptance of this new guidance, but this area was being covered with the private sector. The private sector will actually work towards the creation of a mature P3O environment for trained professionals to exercise their skills as imparted by the P3O training course.

As I came to the end of my research, I decided that a P3O training course presents a strong case in its favour. After all, the benefits are apparent; therefore investing in a P3O training course would be a wise decision for my business. I believe that my Senior Managers, Programme Managers, Project Managers and support staff would benefit from P3O training. Even though my staff are at different levels of knowledge and skills, I was please to see that the P3O training courses offer different instruction levels. Trainees can enrol for the foundation course (for those who have been working in a programme / project office) or a practitioner course (for those who have experience in the stated office) or an overview or conversion modules, depending upon the suitability and training criterion. I made a note in my diary to discuss this opportunity with my employees at the next staff meeting.

It would appear that P3O and P3O training courses are a subject currently enjoying ample limelight, and with the research I have completed on this topic, I would agree that P3O deserves all the attention.

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What are your Job Prospects with MSP?

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I have never yet encountered a student of Managing Successful Programmes who was on the course for fun. Everybody who trains in MSP wants a programme management career, and pretty much everybody who takes the MSP examinations is determined enough to get there.

Programme Management is an electric business. Programme Managers are responsible for implementing the strategies and visions developed at the very top end of the scale. Organisational, social and political change cannot happen without excellent Programme Managers. Individual projects would freewheel – or just never get started – without the guiding framework of the organised programme. Quite simply, Programme Managers are essential to the smooth running of Getting Things Done within an organisation.

Programme Managers are compensated according to their expertise, their qualifications and the irreplaceable function that they provide. The average basic salary of a Programme Manager is £60 – £100k per annum, at least £30k more than that of the average Project Manager.

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How necessary is the MSP qualification to securing a Programme Management position? In all areas of education there is a recognisable trend for qualifications to become standardised and therefore less useful to prospective employers as a recruitment benchmark. One result of the credit crunch has been the tightening-up of the job market, and the enforcement of more stringent job requirements for project and programme staff. Top recruitment agencies, such as Joslin Rowe, have observed an increase in the number of positions demanding the PRINCE2 Project Management qualification. While this means that the more basic PRINCE2 qualification is now almost necessary to secure a project management position, the MSP certificate is coming into its own as a way of making a CV stand out in the pile.

It might seem a paradox, but the MSP qualification is not only for Programme Managers. The MSP awarding-body (the APMG-UK) also specifies Business Change Managers and Programme Office Managers as people who would benefit from MSP training. Furthermore, a brief survey of advertised jobs requiring MSP certification includes not only Programme Managers, but also: Project Managers, Project Co-ordinators, Project Assurance Managers, Project Planners, Management Consultants, Implementations Managers and Project and Programme Directors.

No qualification can guarantee employment. However, the absence of a qualification may well guarantee unemployment. For experience project, and even programme managers, MSP may well be the way to beat the job-cuts and kick-start a management career.

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ITIL v.2 or ITIL v.3?

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ITIL v.2 was released in 2001 and lasted until 30th May 2007, when it was officially replaced by ITIL v.3. This essentially meant the publication of five new ‘core’ guides and the introduction of new, credit-based ITIL qualifications. However, the ITIL v.2 books are still available in print and online format from TSO (the official ITIL publishers), and the ITIL v.2 qualifications are still offered and recognised as industry standards.

So what is the difference between ITIL v.2 and ITIL v.3? Which is the version best for you? If you already have an ITIL v.2 certificate, do you need to upgrade or refresh your skills?

IT Infrastructure Library – the books
The ITIL books form the basis for ITIL qualifications and practice, and are designed as ‘best practice’ guides for providing IT services. They have been written by expert IT service managers, and contain input from professionals from a wide variety of industry backgrounds.

ITIL v.2 contained eight core titles, of which only two were commonly studied. Service Support (describing best practices for day-to-day IT service management) and Service Delivery (best practices for planning IT service provision) were not only the most familiar ITIL v.2 guides, but also formed the two fundamental streams of the ITIL v.2 Practitioner and Service Manager qualifications.

The six remaining titles are: ICT Infrastructure Management, Planning to Implement Service Management, Application Management, Business Perspective (volumes one and two) and Software Asset Management.

One aspect of ITIL v.2 that the ITIL Refresh Board wanted to alter was the process-based structure of the library. This led to the introduction of a new concept, the Service Lifecycle, around which the ITIL v.3 volumes were to be focused. The purpose of using a service lifecycle framework was to improve the design logic, through which specific process elements could be introduced at the appropriate stages.

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The five core ITIL v.3 volumes are:
•    Service Strategy (how to develop a business-driven strategy for IT service management)
•    Service Design (how to design a system to support the strategy of choice)
•    Service Transition (how to transition the new system to the production environment)
•    Service Operation (how to support operations in the long-term)
•    Continual Service Improvement (how to continually improve the IT services provided)

The chief purpose of restructuring ITIL was to provide more clearly-defined and specific guidance for IT service management best practices, and to ‘fill in the gaps’ that emerged through the earlier, process-based approach. In addition to the new structure, therefore, ITIL v.3 also introduced 12 new processes and 3 new functions to the library.

Using ITIL in a modern business environment
Another new feature in ITIL v.3 was the focus on IT service management within the real world – hence the emphasis on a ‘business-driven’ strategy. Like PRINCE2 and MSP, the new ITIL aimed at eliminating processes and practices that had ceased to provide benefit to the business or organisation.

The ITIL Diploma
The concurrent use of ITIL v.2 and ITIL v.3 has led to confusion over which version is ‘better’. As there is no date currently set for phasing out the old examination system, many individuals and organisations still follow the v.2 qualification pathway.

Individuals requiring ITIL qualifications fall into four main groups:

•    Qualified in v.2 and intending to continue training in v.2
•    Qualified in v.2 and intending to convert to v.3
•    Unqualified and intending to train in v.2
•    Unqualified and intending to train in v.3

For those already qualified in ITIL v.2 it is tempting to continue training in the same format. This has advantages in terms of immediate cost and consistency, but it does mean that students are not updated on the processes, functions and concepts new to ITIL v.3.

For this reason, ITIL has produced two ‘Bridging’ courses, one designed to enable individuals qualified in ITIL v.2 Foundation to study for ITIL v.3 Intermediate qualifications, and the other to enable individuals qualified in ITIL v.2 Practitioner to become ITIL v.3 Experts. There are clear advantages to IT service managers in gaining the most up-to-date qualifications for creating strong CVs and applying for new service management positions.

Individuals who have not yet qualified in ITIL v.2 are most likely to choose to begin with ITIL v.3, as the ITIL Successful Candidates Register indicates – there are already more than three times as many ITIL v.3 qualified students as those who have the ITIL v.2 certificate. This reflects the sharper focus on real-world business strategy, and the more logical structure of the ITIL v.3 course.

ITIL of the future
Just like PRINCE2 and MSP, ITIL strives to provide users with a methodology focused as closely as possible on practical management processes and techniques. The new ITIL is designed to draw together the best aspects of ITIL v.2, in order to develop a coherent, consistent and up-to-date guide to service management practice. While ITIL v.2 is a perfectly usable theoretical guide to service management, the improvements made to ITIL v.3 means that new students can only benefit from beginning with ITIL v.3.

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You Bet! – Prince Challenge

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(C) ITV LWT and Challenge