PMI R@bta

Quarterly Journal of the Islamabad Chapter.

July Sept 2012

This Issue Includes

O&Cs, About PMI Islamabad P.1
Beyond Horizon P.2
In Focus: Shafqaat H. Shah P.3
Events & Seminar Highlights P.4
My PgMP Experience P.5
Colombo Conference 2012 P.6
Guest Pass & New Members P.7

PMI Islamabad Chapter

NPM Conference: Opportunities & Challenges

PMI Islamabad Chapter has the honor to be

2nd National Project Management Conference was organized by PMI Islamabad Pakistan

the PMI global chapters & SIGs. The Islama-

Chapter on May 12th 2012. This year theme of the conference was Dynamics of Project
Management in Pakistan: Challenges and Opportunities.

actively engaged in public & private sector

the first chapter in placing Pakistan among

bad Chapter has been driven by officials
projects. Project Management (PM) as a

The event brought the professionals and executives from various walks of life together under
one roof where they were able to share their best practices of the Project Management
discipline and discussed the way forward considering the explicit environmental factors in
Pakistan resulting into business growth. The speakers engaged for the event were the industry
experts either from the multinational companies or renowned universities.

discipline is increasingly recognized locally

The conference was attended by delegates from 36 different corporations and universities. The
audience attendance was 165 plus. The diversified mix of professionals from IT, Telecom,
Defense, Civil Engineering, Government, Development Sectors, Academia and Students made the
event remarkable.

zations actively addressing planning & PM

Did You Know >

due to its vital importance and is making

headway at the grass root level as a primary
skill for the development and social projects. The growing awareness of project
management has lead a number of organidimensions before launching themselves
into medium to mega scale projects. Feeling
the need of the hour foundation of
Islamabad chapter was laid in early 2002.
A need was being felt to organize the

>

Total Audience participation: 165

project managers of Pakistan under the

>
>

PMI Islamabad Pakistan Chapter holds 145 active members.

auspicious of the PMI. It was proposed to

80 of these members are Certified PMP and 02 of them are Certified

PgMP.

open its Pakistan chapter in Islamabad. The

Institute was accordingly contacted via email on 23-3-2002 followed by first submission of a Letter of Intent on April 5, 2002.

Beyond
Horizon

Beyond Horizon
The New Shape OPM 3 Is Taking
Organizational Project Management Maturity
Model (OPM3) standard is being revised and will
soon be released as 3rd Edition. Since its first edition,
OPM3 has really evolved into a more mature and
stable standard. Like A Guide to Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), every
new edition has always brought welcome changes
and always made more sense. PMBOK 5th Edition will
be released in January 2013 and it is very likely that
2nd Editions of Standard for Program Management
and Standard for Portfolio Management will also be
released alongside it. We can always expect OPM3 3rd
Edition coming out with these three standards as
these four standards of PMI have been grouped together as Core Standards and were released last time
together.
OPM3 is one standard which is affected by all three
standards mentioned earlier. Without a framework
for projects, programs and portfolios in place, we
cannot start talking about the maturity of
organizational project management. OPM3 Best
Practices and Capabilities incorporate the processes
contained in:

A Guide to the Project Management Body of

Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Fifth Edition
The Standard for Program Management Third
Edition
The Standard for Portfolio Management Third
Edition

In addition to above mentioned core standards, OPM3 also leverages the other two core
standards, including:

Project Manager Competency Development

Framework (PMCDF), PMIs Project Management
Lexicon.

The concept of Organizational Project management is

better defined in 3rd Edition and the relationship with
operations and product development is also hinted
upon. Although I feel, more emphasis could have
been laid in clarifying these two relationships, but
OPM3 quickly steers clear of these linkages and focuses on the core subject of maturity in projects, programs and portfolios with strategic intent. The standard relates them by saying,
OPM advances organizational capability by supporting project, program, and portfolio management
principles and practices with organizational enablers
(e.g. structural, cultural, technological, and human
resource practices) to support strategic goals. An
organization measures its capabilities, then plans and
implements improvements towards the systematic
achievement of best practices.

An attempt to link OPM with Organizational strategy

exists where the standard mentions:
Organizational strategy is a result of the strategic
planning cycle, where the vision and mission are
translated into a strategic plan. The strategic plan is
then subdivided into a set of initiatives that are influenced by market dynamics, customer and partner
requests, shareholders, government regulations, and
competitor plans and actions. These initiatives establish strategic and operational portfolios for execution
in the planned period.
As you can see, the standard halts in its tracks after
saying this much about strategic and operational
portfolios and never explains this linkage any further,
leaving much to the desire. It is also important to
mention here that this is the first time PMI has ever
made a mention of operational portfolios and we do
not really understand the mechanism by which these
operational portfolios link with project portfolios.
Strategy is a much wider subject and cannot be covered by addressing project portfolio management
alone, until and unless we are clear about what happens at organizational strategic level.

This new experiment of introducing processes for OPM3 may be a good idea but
enough time should have been given to
establish proper
process flow. In present status,
these processes are self contradictory in
certain cases. At many places, OPM3 standard does not remain consistent with other
standards as far as
convention for use of ITTOs is
concerned in the newly formed
processes.
In light of the observations, it was recommended to PMI that they SHOULD NOT
publish OPM3 standard in current form.
They should either extend the date of the
project and work more on OPM3 processes or simply exclude them from standard
for the time being.
Soon, when this standard will be in your
hands, you would be able to see the validity
of my concerns and observations made to
PMI. I hope they would accept some or all
of my suggestions.

About the Author: SOHAIL IQBAL

My observations as a Subject Matter Expert for the
new edition of OPM3 are as under:1. In the whole standard a very slight mention of
operational processes like product development,
operational effectiveness, and better customer services was made. Where OPM3 claims to be addressing the Vision, Mission, Strategy and Objectives of the
Organization, it fails to justify its useful to Organization's Operation in so many words. The missing link is
between OPM and the Operations of the
organization.
2.
The Best Practices table, which is several
pages long) unnecessarily distracts the reading of
OPM3 standard by being situated right in the
middle of the standard. It could be much better if
it could be moved to the end as an Annexure.
3. Like processes in PMBoK and other standards, PMI has introduced processes with ITTOs for
OPM3 also. Unfortunately they are not consistent
at all and no process flow diagram has been prepared to show the linkages depicted amongst the
processes. Many outputs produced as output of a
process are never seen to be used elsewhere, indicating the output must have been redundant as it
was not needed by any other process.
4. Several inputs in these processes could have
been accommodated in Organizational Process
Assets or Enterprise Environmental Factors but
are taking up useless space by being mentioned
separately, thus increasing the number of I/Os to
as much as fifteen in certain cases.

PE, PgMP, PMP, PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP,

CAPM, PME, MCT, PRINCE2 Practitioner
Project Management Trainer, Consultant and
Researcher with an experience of over 30 years,
last 10 years specifically dedicated to the discipline
of project management. Had been involved in
development of OPM3 2nd Ed as Quality Lead and
SME Lead, OPM3 3rd Ed as SME, PMBOK Guide 4th
Ed as Configuration Manager and 5th Ed as Author
of Chapter 1, Program Management Standard 1st
& 2nd Ed and Portfolio Management Standard 1st &
2nd Ed. Served as PMI Islamabad Pakistan Chapter
President, Component Mentor Asia, PMI Member
Leadership Institute Advisory Group, Chairman
APFPM, and Vice President Education Islamabad
ToastMasters Club. Currently Regional Director
PRMIA Pakistan Chapter, Vice Chair Mensa Pakistan and Director-at-Large with PMI Pakistan
Islamabad Chapter. Associated with PMI EdSIG,
Consulting CoP, Quality CoP and many other CoPs.
Research Scholar at SKEMA Business School. Lille,
France with over 12 publications to his credit.
Specialize in Organizational Maturity, OPM3
and Creative Leadership.

EXCELLENCE AWARD
Shafqaat H. Shah from Pakistan Telecommunication Company, Ltd., wins the

10th Teradata National IT Excellence Award

(Excellence in Project Management) for PTCLs 3G Evo Wireless Broadband Internet project!
Shafqaat H. Shah an ardent member of PMI
Islamabad Pakistan Chapter work is employed
at Pakistan Telecommunication Company, Ltd.,
wins the 10th Teradata National IT Excellence
Award 2012 in category of Excellence in Project Management for PTCLs 3G Evo Wireless
Broadband Internet project.
Teradata National IT Excellence Awards are
the most prestigious IT awards in Pakistan
since their launch in 2000. These awards have
become an integral part of the IT industry,
recognizing various professionals associated in
the field of Information Technology (IT) be it
software developers, researchers, project
managers, electronic and print media journalists, university students, exporters, educationists, pioneers in the disciplines of IT and life
time achievers.

To maintain neutrality and transparency in the nomination and evaluation process, Teradata engaged their independent auditors,
KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co. to receive and compile nominations. A panel of 10 judges included experts and leaders in education, IT and
related fields.
The winners this year were awarded at the grand gala event held on March 17, 2012 at Golf and Country Club, DHA Phase 8, Karachi.
The Honorable Chief Guest William Martin, U.S. Consul General in Karachi, and Khurram Rahat, MD Teradata for Pakistan, Afghanistan
and Bangladesh handed the awards to the winners.
By customizing the world's best Project Management practices specifically for Pakistan's unique market and work culture, Shafqaat was
able to effectively program-manage the product launch of one of Pakistan's strongest brand names in the Telecom world - PTCL's 3G
Evo Wireless Broadband Internet! This project resulted in the fastest and the most comprehensive product launch in the history of the
organization! This innovative product "revolutionized" the work and personal lives of Pakistani nation! His role has been pivotal to the
successful product launches and product support of the subsequent EvDO-based products, including EvoTab Tablet PC, EvoDroid
Smartphone, EvoCloud Wireless Router, Evo Nitro 9.3 Mbps, and the list shall continue. Evo service has now spread to over 170 cities in
Pakistan, and continues to grow.
Shafqaat studied in Michigan, worked in Chicago, and came to Pakistan to give back to the country. He has over 12 years of Global Project Management experience (USA, UK, Poland, India, and Pakistan.) He has a strong blend of expertise in Telecom, IS/IT, Technical, Development, Commercial and Customer Care Domains. He is active participant of the PMI Islamabad Chapter events including conferences and regular seminars and had been event panelist at PMO Roundtable Workshop May 2010.
Shafqaat says this is a great honor and a humbling moment for him. Like any good project manager, Shafqaat attributes his success in
PTCLs 3G Evo launch project to his talented and dedicated team. He also says that none of this would have been possible without the
prayers and support from his family!

EVENTS AND SEMINARS

Training is one of the main activities related with Professional Development of the Community. It is one of the objectives of PMI to bring
awareness among the community and empower them with Project Management tools. PMI Islamabad Chapter being a REP (Registered
Education Provider) has an edge over other training institutes, besides having an excellent team of trained and professional trainers. PMP
Workshop and MS Project 2010 Hands-On Trainings were arranged in the last few months. The trainings organized by PMI Islamabad Chapter
are subsidized and on non-commercial basis. The minimal fee collected from the candidates compensates Instructors fees and candidates own
expenditure like food, stationery, etc.

PMP Workshops
A number of PMP Workshops were held early this year, i.e., Jan, Mar, Jun and Jul-2012. Jan & Mar sessions were based on weekend models
(two consecutive weekends and one weekday) and were conducted by Mr Asad Naveed, while Jun session was based on Weekdays Model (Mon
-Fri) and was conducted by Mr Suhail Iqbal. The Jul session was recently completed as weekend model, by Mr Sauood and Mr Waseem.
MS Project 2010 was also announced, scheduled in Jun-2012 but due to low registration, it was cancelled.

HIGHLIGHTS

Group Activity (PMP Mar-2012)

Group Activity (PMP Mar-2012)

Group Photo of PMP Mar-20112 Session

Certificate Distribution Ceremony (PMP Mar-2012)

Certificate Distribution Ceremony

Left: VP Marketing & Communication (Jun-2012)

EVENTS AND SEMINARS

Candidates feedbacks:

Over all, am very satisfied with it, although I didnt have the high expectations from this training. I would congratulate
Mr. Asad for conducting such a nice training and I liked his professionalism and dedicated effort. Job well done!
Overall good learning and collaborative training that I will remember for a long time.
Overall Good experience.
The presentation finally convinced me to go for exam. When I joined I was not convinced.
It was very good training but too broad for five days. A longer training could give the opportunity of deepening further
discussion on contents and have more practice on tools. Thanks so much. I am very satisfied
Friendly Environment, More Participated, No Chance To Sleep, Instructor Has Command Over Subject.

Trainings Planned for Near Future:

PMP Workshop (multiple times in every quarter)

MS Project
Primavera
Soft Skills (Leadership, Stress Management, etc.)
PMO Setup
PMI-RMP
PMI-ACP.

PMI Outreach Activities

PMI Islamabad Chapter planned to visit MAJU in Apr-2012
with the objective to provide awareness among MAJU students & faculty regarding Project Management and PMI
activities. Mr Asad Naveed, VP Professional Development
delivered a seminar of two hours, elaborating the structure
of PMI Islamabad Chapter, highlighting the importance of
the professional of Project Management and motivating the
alumni and students to participate in the activities of the
Chapter. Some of the feedback responses were as follow:

PMIs Monthly Seminar at CASE (Mar-2012)

Left: Mr Yusef Al Bashir, Middle: Mr Asad Naveed, VP Professional
Development PMI Islamabad Chapter, Right: Mr Ahsan Mumtaz, President,
PMI Islamabad Chapter

Informative
Good session
Looking forward more for seminars
Good exercise
Time Management and arrangements should be
adequate
Keep it up.

The seminar was followed by a short talk by MAJU Dean, Mr Ansir Rajput, who not only thanked PMI Islamabad Chapter
for enlightening their community, but also encouraged his students to prepare themselves for the practical life ahead,
by participating the professional development activities of PMI Islamabad Chapter.

In the future, similar sessions are planned for academia

and corporate world.

EVENTS AND SEMINARS

PMI Monthly Seminars
PMI Islamabad Chapter invites guest speakers from different walks of life, including academia and industry, to deliver a
professional talk of up to 2 hours in the evening of a weekday. The objective is to improve the education of our Project
Management community, especially the Certified Project Managers (PMP, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP, PMI-PgMP, etc) so as to
award them PDUs. Typically 2 PDUs are awarded in such events.
The Monthly Seminars held in the last few months are as follow >

Date

Event Topic

Presenter / Moderator

22-Feb-12

Stress Management

Aisha Javed

13-Mar-12

Procurement Management

Yussef Ali Basheer

25-Mar-12

PMP Training Workshop

Asad Naveed

11-Apr-12

Agile Project Management

Humayun Zafar

23-May-12

Cracking PgMP

Sajid Latif

19-Jun-12

Preparing for PMI-RMP

Suhail Iqbal

18-Jul-12

Applications of Earned Value

Management
Improving Customer Relationship
Management
Dynamics of PMO & EPMMS Project
Server 2010

Asad Naveed

07-Aug-12
26-Sep-12

Abdul Basit
Syed Ali Raza

Picture
Highlights
Mr Sajid Latif, VP Strategy

Mr. Naeem Iqbal

VP Membership & Registration

PMIs Monthly Seminar at SINA (Jun-2012)

PMIs Monthly Seminar at SINA (May-2012)

Left: Mr Sajid Latif, VP Strategy, Middle: Mr Sauood
Rauf, VP Finance, Right: Mr Asad Naveed, VP
Professional Development.

My PgMP Experience

A colleague and a good friend of mine Asim, motivated me to go for PgMP citification and Iinformed that an ex colleague and a friend Sajid Latif
has recently completed his PgMP certification. Sajid was delivering a session PgMP certification
arranged by PMI Islamabad Chapter. We both went to attend the session and it was very informative and started to find out more and study for the exam.
I have completed PgMP certification today and it really feels like an accomplishment. The
process is long and it requires a lot of commitment. I would like to summarize the steps I went
through during this certification process.
Preparation
I didnt use many different books and/or materials for preparation. I only used following resources:
Standard for Program Management 2 (available at PMI website for members): I consider this a must read and develop
understanding of concepts in it.
PgMP Exam Practice Test & Study Guide Third Edition: by Dr. Ginger Levin & J. LeRoy Ward. This is available at Amazon
and includes an Exam Simulator that is very helpful.
PMBOK 4.0 (available at PMI website for members). A Must read with good understanding.
Revision of My PMP knowledge and specially the cheat sheets that summarizes most of the concepts related to EVM,
quality, etc.
If I have to summarize I would say that the above resources bring you very close to reality for PgMP exam. They cover everything one needs to know about program management and the Exam simulator from Dr. Ginger gives you a fair evaluation to
help you gauge where you stand. If you are scoring more than 85% the probability of passing the exam is very high.
Exam Experience
I was at the Prometric center about 30 min before the exam as recommended by Prometric center notification. They set me
up and in about 25 min.
The exam:
Required a lot of concentration on the question to read and understand and to select the right answer. Sometimes right
answer from more than one right answers as it seemed to me.
I took two breaks of about 10 minutes each to relax my eyes :)
The questions, unlike as mentioned in some blogs, were mostly not very lengthy but did require concentration. Most of
them were 3 to five lines. There were about 30% questions that were really lengthy and had scrollbars.
The questions were mainly about:
Program Lifecycle and their processes. (read and read and read the table in SPMV2)
Governance
Benefits management
EVM, ROI, Payback (few about 5 questions if I remember correctly)
No direct questions on project management but there were few questions on project management within context of program management.
PMI ethics (very few questions about 4 or 5 I think)
Some questions on Program manager skills e.g. Leadership, Communication, Political Skills etc.
MRA
After I passed the exam MRA, the final evaluation, started. In this phase they sent a survey to all the references I mentioned
to provide feedback about my program management related capabilities. It consisted of 74 questions. One survey was sent
to me too for self-evaluation. After all the responses were submitted, it took about two days for PMI to get back to me with
confirmation of my PgMP certification.
Thats it! You are done if you have completed all of the above.

P M I I S L A M A B A D C H A P T E R PA R T I C I PAT E S AT

President Meeting and Regional Conference Colombo 2012

The scenic spot of Biera Lake Colombo was the location setting for PMI region 11 chapters Presidents Meeting and Regional
Conference 2012 hosted by PMI Colombo Sri Lanka chapter from 25 29 April 2012. The chapter presidents from PMI regional
chapters participated from Bangalore, Chennai, Colombo, Pearl City, Islamabad, Karachi, West Bengal, Lahore, Mumbai, North
India, and Trivandrum presented the SWOT analysis of the chapters. The PMI team including regional mentor Tejas Sura, Chapter Member Advisory Group (CMAG) Ramam Atmakuri and PMI India representative Raj Kalady were also present at the occasion. The strategies for chapter member activities were discussed along with the ways to have activities for members.
The host PMI Colombo chapter had selected the Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo hotel as the
meeting and conference venue which was situated at the lake part of downtown slave island Colombo. Special cultural presentations along with cocktail evening were arrange at 80
the hotel floating banquet hall. The site was close to the Sir Lankan Air force and Army
headquarters and many buildings of the colonial era from Portuguese and English time surround the locality. The lake was used for defense and transportation, including the
much-admired cinnamon.
According to historians, the Beira Lake probably took its name from De Beer, who is believed to have been an engineer in
charge of the Dutch water defenses. Some say it was a Portuguese engineer by the name of Beira who first discovered it
nearly 480 years ago.
The presidents SWOT session was followed by the Regional Project Management
Conference organized by PMI Colombo Sri Lanka Chapter and PMI from 27-29 April on the
theme Accelerating National Development through Best Practices of Project Management.
The conference was inaugurated by Honrable Chandima Weerakkody , Deputy Speaker
Sri Lankan Assembly and Nivad Cabral the Governor of Central Bank Sri Lanka. Mr. Hugo
Wisidagama President PMI Colombo Sri Lanka Chapter welcomed the participants and
expressed his satisfaction on the project management progress in the country.
Mr. Lalith De Silva the founding president PMI Colombo Sri Lanka Chapter and CEO Mobitel Sri Lanka also graced the occasion
along with Mr. Eugene Bounds, PMI Board of Director 2102.

After the morning session the conference afternoon was split into mutli sessions on day 1 & 2.
Mr. Ahsan Mumtaz President PMI Islamabad Pakistan Chapter conducted the session on
Project Leadership- Driving force for success which was participated from multi background
seasoned military, civilian and young professionals. The session was duly enjoyed by the participants and vote of thanks was present by the PMI Colombo Sri Lanka Chapter.

PMI Islamabad Chapter has been regularly participating at the regional events
including the recent Presidents Meeting 2011 convened at Sri Lanka and PMI
Global Conference 2010 Australia. The objective is to gain the first-hand knowledge
of the regional chapters working and establish network with the fellow volunteer
leaders.

PMI Islamabad
C h a p t e r Guest Pass Program
PMI has developed a new program, the Chapter Guest Pass Program. The program is meant to
introduce PMI members, who are not chapter members, with an opportunity to join a chapter
for the remainder of their PMI membership.
We are, therefore, offering a Free Guest Pass for individuals that are already PMI members but
not yet members of the chapter to recognize the value and benefits of chapter membership. In
order to participate in the program, the following criteria must be met:
1. The prospective participant member must be a PMI member in good standing. (PMI members in good
standing have paid their PMI membership dues).
2. The Chapter Guest Pass is valid for one time use from the point of initiation through the end of the
members current PMI membership cycle.
3. The participant in the program is responsible for participating in, and attending, local chapter events such
as the Monthly Seminars, Networking Events, Symposium, and Learn Events to benefit and value the
delivery of core services by the chapter.
4. Any member whose membership with PMI is set to expire within 90 days must renew their PMI
membership to participate in the program. Because chapter membership is tied to PMI membership, PMI
does not allow members to join chapters within 90 days of expiration unless the member chooses to renew at that time.
5. On 15 December 2012, and yearly thereafter, each participant will be required to complete an analysis of
the program to provide feedback for assessment of the Chapter Guest Pass Program. Additional instructions for collecting feedback will be provided in the future.
To be a participant of the program and receive a promotional code for a Free Guest Pass, Please E-mail
council@pmiislamabad.org and membership@pmiislamabad.org with your name, PMI #, e-mail
address and phone number.

New Members >

Membership retention and growth trends
PMI Islamabad Chapters activities have been enhanced including
conferences, seminars, workshops etc. activities has created visibility of the chapter helping in retaining members and alluring new
members with the passage of time.
Student Chapter Initiative
PMI Islamabad Chapter has embraced new rules to incorporate
Student Chapters.
Chapter representatives have planned to visit universities shortly to
communicate the way forward by establishing student chapter in
one university as pilot project.

New Members in Month of June, 2012

We welcome on board the following
new members: (July 2012)
Muhammad Inam ur Raheem
Idrees Ramzan
Rizwan M. Saifullah
(August 2012)

Faisal A. Malik
Muhammad Taha Masood

Join us on >
www.facebook.com/pmiislamabadchapter

http://www.linkedin.com/Group/
PMI-Islamabad-chapter

http://www.pmiislamabad.org

Project Management Institute

Islamabad Chapter
For General Inquiries, Reach Us @
council@pmiislamabad.org

Get Registered with us. Email Us @

membership@pmiislamabad.org