Webconferences
Opening Conference (French)- Louis Roquet Cours de méthodologie pour les projets complexes : deux exemples intéressants
Conference 102 (French)- Brian Hobbs Les approches agiles dans les grands projets et les grandes organisations
Conference 201 (French)- Pierre-Majorique Léger Les neurosciences pour décoder l'expérience utilisateur : Le Tech3Lab de HEC Montréal
Conference 302 (French)- Guillaume Blum Gérer l’innovation par le design
Conference 401 (French)- François Morel et Pascal Villeneuve Mise en lumière du Pont Jacques-Cartier : Un projet d’envergure réunissant le génie de divers horizons
Closing Conference (English)- Evan Zelikovitz Management of project benefits
Mr. Zelikovitz will discuss the improtance of developing and implementing a culture and processes that enable an organization to align its projects with the strategic objectives of the organization through an effective Benefits Realization Management process. With a focus on PMI's 2016 Thought Leadership Series - Creating lasting value: Benefits Realization Management, Mr. Zelikovitz will highlight a number of key issues including, but not limited to:
- Strengthening benefits awareness within the C-suite and with project management practitioners;
- Who is responsible for identifying, managing and sustaining project benefits - establishing benefits ownership and accountability;
- How do you measure benefits (tangible and intangible), and how should they be prioritized.
BIOGRAPHY
Evan Zelikovitz is Corporate and Government Relations Manager for PMI in Canada. Evan is responsible for working and engaging with both government and private corporations in assisting them with their project, program and portfolio management practices and capabilities. Mr. Zelikovitz helps organizations and their project management practitioners better understand and recognize the strategc value of project management with the objective of helping organizations and individuals realize project and business success.
Located in Canada's capital of Ottawa, Mr. Zelikovitz holds a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New Brunswick.
Not only is the Jacques Cartier Bridge emblematic of Montreal, it is also an urban icon with unique historical and architectural value. It is one of the greatest technical achievements of the 20th century, and as such, its illumination will be a central element in the celebrations surrounding Montreal and Canada’s 375th and 150th anniversaries, respectively. A multidisciplinary approach has been key in creating a project this unique and innovative. The lights will reflect the dynamic character of the city’s seasons and citizens. The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated (JCCBI) are proud to pool their expertise in civil engineering and managing major projects by piloting this project that will let Québécois know-how shine. The project, which was conceptualized and designed by Moment Factory and six multimedia and lighting studios in Montreal, presents some interesting challenges. Discover how engineers from different fields have collaborated in creating this signature visual hallmark for Montreal.
BIOGRAPHIES
Pascal Villeneuve, Eng. , Project Director, The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated (JCCBI)
Pascal Villeneuve has a degree in construction engineering from ÉTS and has more than 15 years of experience in the engineering and Project Management fields. As a Project Manager, he oversaw civil engineering and road network projects for a general contractor for more than 8 years. He joined the JCCBI team in 2010 as the Director of Construction Services and has been their Project Director for 3 years. He has most notably overseen the replacement of the Honoré-Mercier bridge deck and the illumination of the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
Design is a rather young field that is often misunderstood by both the general public and professionals. Its approach marries aesthetics and functionality. A designer will often become involved the later stages of product and service development. Yet design is a method based on questioning what’s concrete, aiming to create and innovate within a given organisational, economic, technological and social context.
Design is most certainly relevant when speaking of innovation. It can even be considered a problem-solving technique for organisations that hit a wall when looking to innovate.
Indeed, for about 30 years, even though discourse on innovation has become more prominent in organisations like the academic community (research and teaching), it remains more present in theory than in practice.
Our presentation touches on main blockages related to innovation, and design as an approach to skirt these obstacles as a renewed management approach.
BIOGRAPHY
Guillaume Blum is a professor at Université Laval’s École de design, and is a specialist in knowledge management and innovation through design. He is interested in new practices in management and their effects on product and service development, as well as on people. He explores organisational transformations stemming from economic and societal changes.
Blum has a master’s degree in engineering from France and a PhD in administration from Montreal. He is also a researcher for three research groups: UQAM’s CIRST (Centre interuniversitaire de recherché sur les sciences et les technologies), LabCMO (laboratoire de communication médiatisé par) and LARAC (laboratoire de recherche-action sur les communs).
Researchers at HEC Montréal's Tech3Lab use the latest in neuroscience technology to truly understand the user experience during interaction with products and digital services.
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Pierre-Majorique Léger is a researcher, inventor and entrepreneur. His research seeks to improve the user experience while learning or using technology. He does this by analyzing massive amounts of bio-physiological data that are generated during human-IT interactions, which allow him to qualify emotion and cognitive responses in users. He is a professor of IT at HEC Montreal, as well as invited professor at the prestigious Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College and the Henry B. Tippe School of Management at the University of Iowa. He is the author of over 50 scientific articles, he holds at least 10 invention patents and has also been involved with several start-ups
Agile methods have taken software development by storm, but have been primarily applied to projects in what is referred to as the “agile sweet spot”, which consists of small collocated teams working on small, non-critical, greenfield, in-house software projects with stable architectures and simple governance rules. These methods are being used more and more on large projects, but this has not been well documented.
Yvan Petit and Brian Hobbs received a grant from PMI’s Sponsored Research Program to investigate the adoption and adaptation of agile methods for use on large projects in large organizations. The empirical study is based first on case studies, followed by a survey to validate and enrich the case study results. The research project is now complete. A detailed research monograph will be published by PMI and made available to members on their website at http://www.pmi.org/learning/academic-research/sponsored/published in the spring of 2017. An article will appear in the Project Management Journal later in 2017.
The conference will present the main results from the research in relation to the following four topics: 1) motives and strategies for implementing agile methods, 2) the impact of agile implementation on organizational roles, 3) the impact of agile implementation on project initiation, and 4) agile project organizations.
The results are somewhat paradoxical in that some features are common to almost all observations, while others show extreme variability. The common features include use of scrum methodology and agile coaches, as well as, the non-respect of the agile principle of emergent architecture.
Dr. Brian Hobbs PMP has been a professor at the School of Management of the University of Quebec at Montreal in the Master's Program in Project Management for more than thirty years. This program, of which he is a past director, is accredited by PMI’s Global Accreditation Center. He founded the Project Management Research Chair at the University of Quebec in Montreal in 2007and held the Chair until 2015. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering, an MBA and a PhD in Management. He has served terms on both PMI's Standards and Research Members Advisory Groups and is currently a member of the PMI-Montreal Board of Governors. He received the 2012 PMI Research Achievement Award and with his colleague Monique Aubry received the 2012 International Project Management Association Research Award for their work on PMOs. In 2013, he received the Research Career Achievement Award from the School of Management. In 2015, he became a PMI Fellow.
Yvan Petit, M.Eng., MBA (Insead), PhD, PMP, PfMP is an associate professor at the University of Quebec at Montreal (ESG UQAM) since 2010. He is member of Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec since 1981, certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2001 and Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) since 2014.
His research interests are on portfolio management, agile methods and uncertainty management. He has over 25 years of experience in project management, primarily in software development and R&D in the telecommunications industry. He has been a member of the Canadian committee on the ISO TC-258 on Project Portfolio Management and is now a member of the PMI Standards MAG (Member Advisory Group). He is the program director for the post-graduate programs in project management at ESG UQAM since 2014.
When it comes to managing complex projects, the last few years have been rather lackluster. Loto-Québec and Cirque du Soleil’s ill-fated project in Montreal’s South West borough comes to mind, as well as the oil port and terminal in Cacouna, also known as the Beluga Saga. Not to mention the ever-present orange cones in Montreal, pipelines, and more. We’ve developed highly effective tools to facilitate project management, yet we struggle to bring complex projects that might succeed under different circumstances to fruition. The problem may be that we are using approaches and methodologies that have a wide range of effects and are meant for simple projects, on complex projects.
Corporate planning classically uses a top-down approach, essentially an exercise in expertise: technical, financial and market expertise, to be precise. A goal is identified, experts are chosen to develop the project, its impact on the business on the environment is evaluated, the project is submitted to the Board, and it is set in motion. If it’s a simple project with little external impact, there are no problems. But what if the effects are too many, or too big? What if there are multiple advocates or stakeholders? What if their interests are different, or contradictory?
I wish to present a new perspective on how to conceptualise and plan these complex projects, which I will highlight through two starkly different examples: an urban revitalization project, and a reconciliation project in post-Apartheid South Africa. As social media become more efficient and powerful, as civil society’s demands to be heard increase, it is necessary for project managers to adopt a new strategy, or give in to standpattism, confrontation and repression.
BIOGRAPHY
Louis Roquet has held a number of positions as a civil servant throughout his career. He was the CEO of the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ), CEO of Investissement Québec, the secretary-general of the City of Montreal and Director General of the Montreal Urban Community. He was President at Mouvement Desjardins and Chief Operating Officer of Desjardins Capital de risque from October 2004 to October 2009. He was also CEO at Cevital, an Algerian multinational, from 2012 to 2014.
On top of speaking five languages, Roquet has a PhD in business administration from Harvard University and an MBA in finance and international administration from HEC Montréal.
Roquet is the President of the Mosaicultures International Montreal’s Board of directors and Vice-President of Université de Montréal’s Board of Directors. He is also on the board of directors for Birks Group, the Canadian Cancer Society and Centraide.
Roquet is the recipient of the Grand Prix Équinoxe Hommage 2007, awarded by the Société québécoise des professionnels en relations publiques for exceptional work in communications as a company manager and was named MBA of the year in 2004 by the l’Association des MBA du Québec.
