WebConnect

14 January 2012

The PMO Leader of the Year Award will be presented to the PMO Leader, nominated by their PMO team, who shows the most excellent leadership and understanding of what a PMO can deliver to a business.

A panel of independent judges will review all submissions to consider how each nominee has led their PMO over at least the last 12 months and how they plan to grow the PMO under their stewardship in the coming months. The judges will look at the key PMO leadership skills in the areas of:

Flexibility How effectively does your PMO leader respond to the changing needs of the projects, your PMO and your organization? How does he or she manage the balance between the requirements of project processes and the people delivering those processes?

Resilience How effective is your PMO leader as a negotiator? How well does he or she negotiate changes to how things are done whilst maintaining the core objectives of the PMO? How well does he or she enable the PMO to respond to unexpected requests for resources or support?

Setting Example How successful is your PMO leader is an example to everyone within the PMO and the project organization? How well does he or she express or demonstrate the standards of the PMO and champion these in the face of misunderstanding, conflicting interests or politics. How good an example is your PMO leader as an agent of change?

Professionalism How professional is your PMO leader is his or her approach to their work. How does the PMO leader demonstrate their knowledge, expertise and understanding of, for example, the commercial needs and constraints of the business or the technical aspects of project and programme management? What commitment does the PMO leader demonstrate to developing skills and a capability for themselves, the PMO members and the wider organization?

Support How well does your PMO leader communicate with everyone within the PMO; to establish and articulate needs; support the team or individuals within at times of pressure or conflict?

How to enter If you would like to nominate your PMO leader as PMO Leader of the Year, then please write in no more than a total of 1,000 words:

Why you think he or she deserves this award and how they fulfil the judging criteria we have identified above.

Please make sure that you seek the approval of the PMO leader before submitting his or her name.

Include the following information with your entry:

1. Your contact details: name, role, organization, address, telephone and e-mail, along with the contact details for your PMO leader; 2. An indication of the size of your PMO (number of full time or part time members); the date it was set up as well as for how long your chosen nominee has been leading the PMO.

You may, if you wish, include endorsements or comments from members of the PMO or others inside (or outside) the organization, who have worked with your PMO and its leader. Please send your entries by post or email to: Melisa Young, Gower Publishing, Wey Court East, Union Road, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7PT, UK e-mail: MYoung@Gowerpublishing.com Telephone: +44(0)1252 736600

Timescales All entries should be received by Gower by 31st March 2012. The shortlist for the ‘PMO Leader of the Year (2012)’ will be announced on 31st May 2012. The winner of ‘PMO Leader of the Year (2012)’ will be announced on 29th June 2012

Prizes The winner will receive.

- A library of Gower project and programme management books with a list price of over £600.00 (see attached) - A written award from the judges underlining the reasons for the award - A ‘PMO Leader of the Year 2012’ electronic icon to use on any of the winners electronic profiles, web pages and so on - An interview with Mark Perry on The PMO Podcast - Publication of the winning submission through the websites www.leadingsuccessfulpmos.com and www.gowerpublishing.com/projectmanagement

The judges

Darren Dalcher Professor Darren Dalcher is founder and Director of the National Centre for Project Management, a Professor of Software Project Management at Middlesex University and Visiting Professor of Computer Science at the University of Iceland. Professor Dalcher has been named by the Association for Project Management as one of the top ten "movers and shapers" in project management. He has also been voted Project Magazine's Academic of the Year for his contribution in "integrating and weaving academic work with practice".

Professor Dalcher is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management and the British Computer Society, and a Member of the Project Management Institute, the Academy of Management, the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Association for Computing Machinery. He is a Chartered IT Practitioner. He is a member of the PMI Advisory Board responsible for the prestigious David I. Cleland project management award, and of the APM Professional Development Board.

Jonathan Norman Jonathan Norman is Publisher at Gower Publishing Company where his responsibilities include managing and commissioning for the Gower project and programme management books list. The list is made up of over 80 titles covering every aspect of project management and including some of the recognised definitive texts for both practitioners and students such as Dennis Lock’s Project Management, now in its ninth edition, Rodney Turner’s Gower Handbook of Project Management in its fourth edition and the two project management series: Advances in Project Management and Fundamentals of Project Management.

Mark Price Perry In 1999, Mr Perry founded BOT International, a boutique firm that specializes in PMO Setup. As a servant-leader in the PMO domain, Mr Perry is the host of the “The PMO Podcast,” a podcast for PMOs off all shapes and sizes with over 200 PMO podcast episodes to date, a regular contributor to gantthead.com, and the columnist for the BOT International PMO “Tips of the Week,” a ten year running column that provides weekly management tips for PMOs. Mr Perry is also the author of the books, Business Driven PMO Setup; Practical Insights, Techniques, and Case Examples for Ensuring Success, 500 pages, 2009, and Business Driven Project Portfolio Management; Conquering the Top 10 Risks that Threaten Success, 300 pages, 2011, both published by J. Ross Publishing.

James Simon James Simons is Editor of Project magazine – the Association for Project Management (APM) title for professional project managers. He is a trained journalist with over 10 years’ experience in B2B publishing and Internal Communications. Since taking on the Editor’s role, James has overseen a major redesign of Project and led its expansion into digital platforms – including the launch of a fortnightly e-bulletin, eProject. The new-look Project now boasts an average net circulation of 19,713 and is recognised as the UK’s best read project management magazine. As a respected voice on PM matters, James is a regular contributor to the magazine and APM website, writing articles and blogs on a range of industry topics. He is also an active member of the online project management community with over 200 followers on Twitter.

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor is a dynamic and commercially astute professional who, over the last 26 years, has achieved notable success in project management. His background is in project management across three major business areas using MRP/ERP systems with various software houses culminating in his current role with Infor, and including Business Intelligence (BI) with Cognos, and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) with Siemens. He has spent the last seven years leading PMOs and developing project managers and is now focusing on project-based services development with Infor.

Peter is an accomplished communicator and leader; he is a professional speaker as well as the author of The Lazy Project Manager, The Lazy Winner, Leading Successful PMOs and (forthcoming) Project Branding.

Chris Walters Chris Walters, Chairman of the APM special interest group on PMOs: PMOSIG, is currently working for Vodafone, forming and delivering a programme of capability improvement for project delivery in the Technology division. Having moved into PMO management 6 years ago, Chris got involved with PMOSIG and has been chairing the committee for the last 5 years, driving the organisation, and working with volunteer committee members to design and deliver two conferences per year.

Prior to this, Chris worked as a project manager, primarily of IT and telecommunications projects, with highlights including replacing the IT infrastructure for a power station without missing a single second of power generation, managing the technical integration of a new cable TV operator to deliver a working TV service, internet infrastructure and back office systems in record time, designing and deploying internal project management information systems before EPM became popular, and rescuing a pan-European ERP software system implementation at a pig breeding company.