Message from the Chair

In keeping with the tradition of our previous Chairperson, Bill Craddock, I will continue providing a Message from the Chair. Rather than coming into the New Year and the Chairperson role, with the notion of easing myself into Bill's shoes I find that what has happened has been closer to the exchange of a baton in a relay race. The 2008 CSIG Board is hitting the ground, running. In 2007 the CSIG Board had set itself a series of challenges, not the least of which was to build a virtual space in which our members could "meet" and exchange ideas. After all, the currency of consultants is thought leadership and we project management-focused consultants needed a currency exchange. That was not to be the case last year due to new data to consider.

There has been a sideways drift in our intent, provided by the crosswind of our parent organization. PMI's approach to addressing the original objectives of what is known as the Virtual Communities Project or VCP has raised some concerns. If you are unfamiliar, the details of the VCP may be found appended to the most recent edition of the CSIG quarterly journal, "RoadMap," arriving shortly. The PCP's key objectives, derived from component leader input, were to:
     1. Provide a common infrastructure, and,
     2. Establish a well-developed global knowledge strategy for members to enable them to access information          wherever and whenever they need it.
The assumption that many in the SIG community made was that the response to these objectives would be a solution that was technological. Instead the response that we were presented at the Atlanta Leadership Institute Meeting by PMI was governance-driven.

The governance models on the table, at present, do not provide for member elections of component leaders. In effect you will lose the right to vote for a Board of Directors for the CSIG. Instead, PMI will identify and appoint a Board. As such, while our mission remains to provide a platform for collaboration that will serves the needs of our nearly 4000-strong global community of practice, we find that we must also reflect on and address this PMI-driven need to change our governance. This change, when it occurs, will affect the PMI virtual components profoundly, the CSIG included. What remains to be seen is the extent of the change required.

Your CSIG Board met recently in Chicago to discuss our plans for the year. We reviewed our successes in 2007 and identified ways in which we could improve. We also saw that our success in the present year will depend entirely on how effectively we can deliver value to you, and each other. After all, the Board is comprised entirely of volunteers who are CSIG members, too.

With these concerns in mind, the CSIG Board is focusing on two core objectives this year:
     1. To seek out and deliver a sustainable, rapidly-deployable, community-driven, online solution to meet our          members' collaborative needs, and,
     2. To ensure that the CSIG community continues to have a direct voice in determining who leads them each          year through an election process.
We look forward to serving you, our community. We look forward to delivering the online forum we all need to exchange our ideas and support each other in advancing our capabilities and, by extension, more effectively meeting our clients' needs through the application of leading project management and consulting practices.

In meeting these objectives we will continue to seek ways to meet PMI's goals. Our desire is to continue to build a vibrant group that upholds the mission of PMI: To advance the practice, science and profession of project management throughout the world in a conscious and proactive manner; and, that meets the goals outlined in the Performance Management Framework, our PMI-defined measure of success.

Should you have questions about our intent, or a desire for more information, please don't hesitate to contact me, or any member of the Board.

Best regards,


Andrew "Drew" Marshall
Chair, Consulting SIG
chair@pmiconsultingsig.org

We're Looking for Webinar Presenters! The CSIG has partnered with the Metrics SIG to sponsor a track at the MetSIG's second annual Global Online Congress in April 2008. This year' Congress will feature over 200 live webinars from presenters around the world. The month-long event will also include webinars from dozens of participating PMI SIGs. Present a Webinar and Support the SIG! The CSIG is looking for presenters to deliver one-hour webinars to fill the CSIG's track. The topic of the presentation should be metrics related and of interest to project managers in the consulting field. The webinars will be recorded in advance of the Congress, but presenters will need to be available by telephone to respond to live Q&A discussions (on average, 5-10 minutes). If you are interested in presenting a webinar during the MetSIG Global Online Congress, please send us an email with your proposed topic to administrator@pmiconsultingsig.org. More details will be provided to interested presenters. Please respond by February 8, 2008. "This was the best webinar I've seen since I've been watching webinars. Very nicely done. I'm telling other project managers to watch the recorded version when it comes out. Thanks!" - 2007 MetSIG Congress attendee

2007 MetSIG Congress It's a Hit! Nearly 12,000 people registered for the 2007 MetSIG Global Online Congress live webinars. 21,000+ annual passes were sold and we barely scratched the surface! "Great job on the Congress. Congratulations to the MetSIG on a really good program!" - 2007 MetSIG Congress attendee

How tightly defined are the work processes at your organization as projects move from 'a good idea' to a completed project?

Could your organization could do a better job of defining the work as it moves through various stage gates?

What happens to project work if priorities change or further investigation of the opportunities determines that the benefit or proceeding is no longer viable?

It's time to register for our next great webinar. It's interesting. It's viewable at the time of your own choosing…AND PMPs can earn 1 PDU for listening to the presentation.

Abstract: Programs are chartered; work is authorized, planned, funded and done. It may be baselined and carefully measured. Perhaps the work is done but "authorized unpriced." Along the way work may be subject to deferral, engineering changes, contract changes, or even rejection. This presentation introduces a framework for understanding the various states work goes through during the life of a Program.

Complete details and registration are available by
logging in to the "Members" area on the CSIG web site.

Checkout Job Postings on CSIG Web Site