News and Events
Despite Falling Leaves, Continue to Stay Green
The "Green Swish" indicates stories or ideas emphasizing our Division's efforts to be sustainable.
The fall weather and the Emory Temperature Policy: just a reminder that Emory has a standard setting for indoor temperature. Please know that during the heating season temps will be set at 68° (+/2°). Tis the season!
Best recycling link: go to www.earth911.com for all your recycling needs. It will give you the when, where and what for your area or your specific item, lots of cool tips on sustainability and ways to save money and use less/recycle more.
A FUN recycling link: "radical reuse at its coolest" - http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/recycled-gifts/
Did you know:
- Target recycles cell phones, inkjet cartridges & MP3 players
- Best Buy recycles cell phones, CD’s, computers, monitors, game consoles, inkjet & toner cartridges, office machines, telephones and televisions
- Staples recycles cell phones, computers, monitors, inkjet & toner cartridges and office machines
(NOTE: call ahead to be sure they are accepting your item(s) and confirm if there are any fees.)
E-Recycling Drop-off: there is a location change to the Electronic Recycling event. Beginning September 10, the Keep Atlanta Beautiful e-Scrap recycling drop off moves to the former Walden Middle School on 320 Irwin St., Atlanta, GA. Collection is every 2nd Saturday from 10 am - 3 pm. For details visit www.KeepAtlantaBeautiful.org.
- Dawn Francis-Chewning, Business Analyst, Academic Technology Services
Time To Start Cooking!
Once again, it's time to get out those crock pots! Last year's winner was Joe Head (Infrastructure).
It's that time of year...the Annual OIT Chili Cook-off and Dessert Bake-off. We'd love for you to participate as a contestant or just as our guest for good food and great fun. In order to make this a success, there needs to be between 16-20 chili and dessert submissions. Chili batches should be large enough to serve 10-13 people (usually one crock pot full).
The date for the cook-off will be 11:30-2:00 pm on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 (weather permitting) in the back parking lot of the 1762 Building. The parking lot will be roped off so you will need to park in the front parking lot, carpool or take the shuttle.
IT Finance & Administration is sponsoring this event so if you are interested in submitting your chili recipe, they will purchase the meat for your chili ($30 max per entry). They will also supply soft drinks, chili toppers, chips, eating utensils, and eco-friendly paper products.
We understand that since we are a 24/7/365 operation not everyone will be able to participate, however we will be sponsoring other events in the future to hopefully accommodate the different schedules.
There will be prizes to the winning chili and dessert participants. What a fun way to get to know others from different parts of the organization. We look forward to seeing everyone.
If you are interested in entering the contest, please email Kim Comstock or Christina Mazzella by Friday, October 7th. Make sure to tell us whether you are entering the chili or dessert competition (or both). UPDATE - we still need about five chili and eight dessert contestants.
- Christine Mazzella, Division HR Director, IT F&A
PM-COP Update
OIT recognizes the need for superior project management methodologies, and PM-COP is a great place to share ideas.
Project Management - Community of Practice (PM-COP) is a monthly meeting for Emory PM community to learn and share ideas regarding their craft. The following are excerpts from the September PM-COP meeting.
ServiceNow and PPM
Many thanks to those of you who joined us this month and asked some good questions. If you're already an "ITIL User" (the ServiceNow nomenclature for an IT support person already included in the set of licenses), go ahead and login to http://itsm.emory.edu and click on Project Portfolio Management -> PPM Overview to review what we looked at today.
PMP Study Groups
I was also reminded that several of you wanted to begin a PMP study group this semester. Please send me an individual email if you're interested in studying with others on a weekly basis. I'll help coordinate introducing you to each other and perhaps even finding a study room.
Meeting Schedule and Topics
With the start of a new academic year, it's time now to start thinking of topics for these monthly meetings. Let me know ESPECIALLY if you're interested in presenting something or even if you've just got a topic you'd like to see covered, either by someone here at Emory or perhaps by an outside consultant or trainer.
And now the quiz from B. Davis's book:
Q: My organization can't afford the pricey online methodology products for project management. How can we standardize a process at a reasonable cost?
Choose one:
A. You get what you pay for. Purchase the highest priced product you can afford.
B. Choose a product without a fancy website. It can sell products for less.
C. Spend your money on an internal team to develop your own processes.
D. All the methodologies are equally valuable as long as they are automated.
Answer C: Spend your money on an internal team to develop your own processes. Even though we talked about an online tool today, it's no substitute for an agreed-upon project management process in your own group.
The best way to do a project differs by organization and industry, so those with a limited budget may find great success with a set of processes they create themselves. Here are some basics, pegged to the PMBOK Guide:
Initiating
- Develop a project charter form for management signature to give you authority as a PM
- Create a preliminary scope statement form to capture early estimates for the project
- Produce a project management plan form for how PMs will approach all the processes of this project
Planning
- Design a scope statement form to show more definitive estimates for the project and a work breakdown structure (WBS) template that will outline all of the work for the project
- Develop a process to define activities, sequence them, estimate durations, estimate and assign resources, and develop a schedule and cost baseline. Decide if you'll be using an agile project methodology or a more traditional waterfall approach. Decide if you will display this information in a calendar format, on a Gantt chart or in some other automated tool
- Prepare a template for distributing the activities assigned to the resource who will do them
- Create a process to assess risk and decide on the triggers that will cause the PM to react. Develop a risk list document to capture this information for the team
- Conceive a form to help plan quality requirements. They might be more qualitative in a service organization and more quantitative if your deliverables are more tangible
- Construct a change control process for the organization, perhaps with a board that includes key stakeholders, and decide what level of changes will go through this process. Conclude what amount of variance from your budget or schedule will be significant enough that the PM should take action
Executing
- Author a communications plan form to map out what information will be sent to each stakeholder category during the project
- Develop a process for choosing outside vendors
- Devise a method for monitoring and controlling
- Prepare report templates for regular team updates on project status
- Develop report templates for the PM to use in updating the stakeholders about project progress
Closing
- Plan a checklist for contract closure with any outside vendors or contractors
- Fashion a questionnaire to capture lessons learned among team members and share the results
- End with developing a process to release the team and archive the lessons learned and other project documents
- Marisa Benson, Director, PMO