The articles in this newsletter do not necessarily express or represent the views of the PMI Central Indiana Chapter.

All copyrighted material has been republished with the permission of the author(s).

(c) 2012 PMI Central Indiana Chapter. All rights reserved.

PMI CIC Newsletter Editor
Ron Lacy, PMP, MBA

In today's world of Instant Messaging, Blackberries, and WebEx Meetings, one would anticipate that communications now are better than they ever have been and that managing communications in a project should be improving. However, what appears to be happening is that we are moving away from planning our project communications and into a world of all ad-hoc, last minute communications forcing decisions to be made with less clear information than what is otherwise available. My editorial this quarter provides a generic approach for communication planning that can be used on any size project and can still utilize today's tools, but establishes structure such that decisions are not only made more efficient, but are also made with better information.

PMI CIC Board of Directors
Alan Devney, PMP

The Monthly Programs are a very visible piece of each chapters overall presentation to the public. Over the past two years we have worked to make steady improvements to this element of the Central Indiana Chapter of PMI.

Women in Project Management: Socioeconomic Impact
Colleen Cullinan, PMP

The phone call from my daughter was unexpected. Most calls from our college age kids involve funding requests. So it was a rare pleasure to hear her ask for help with project planning.

She was pretty small when I started this PM business. There were some tough phone calls early in my career - calls to say good night to kids with bedtimes earlier than my last test run of the evening. There were a lot of incidents over the years of juggling schedules around kick off meetings, soccer games, status reports, scout activities and out of town trips. Frankly, I've always had that nagging guilt about the amount of time the PM life stole from my family. And then there were all those jokes the kids made about adding an "I" to my PMP certificate. I doubted that they were very happy about what Mom did for a living.

Women in Project Management: Women, Men, Decorations, Meat and Project Management
Lisa Sturgeon, PMP, MBA

At a recent Central Indiana Chapter meeting, a gentleman made a request for submissions for the 'Women in Project Management' column. The guidance for the article was that it should cover or discuss issues that affect women in project management. I was intrigued by the request. I am a woman in project management. What issues do I deal with? I deal with communication issues, scope creep, resource issues, schedule issues, and issue after issue.

But isn't that the same stuff men in project management deal with?

Fusion Alliance: What is "The Word"?
Kimberle Seale, PMP

"Lessons Learned". What is a "lesson"? What is "learned"? Webster's definition that applies to a lesson would be 2b: "a reading or exercise to be studied by a pupil." And the definition for learned is 1a(1): "to gain knowledge or understanding of a skill in by study, instruction, or experience."

Project Seminars: Real World Project Management - Closing Life's Projects
Joseph Phillips, PMP, IT Project+

Time is almost up.

Last January I vowed to treat this year of my life as a project - and I have. I've set goals, created plans to achieve the goals, and learned lesson after lesson as I close in on December 31. It's been a wonderful year chockablock full of lessons, pain, growth, and coming to terms with constraints, obstacles, and planning and planning again. On November 2 I'll present what I've learned, what's worked for me, and hopefully what will work for others in 2007.