Author: Martin Härri, PMP, PMI-SP, PMI-ACP, DASSM 

The main target audience of PMI and the PMI Switzerland Chapter has always been project practitioners. There are also activities for academia, schools and social good organizations, but companies have never been a main target audience of our activities, apart from the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3), which died a quiet death some years ago.

On a global level, PMI maintains the Global Executive Council (GEC), which is composed of about 90 elite organizations, and advises PMI on its strategy. The GEC was also the inspiration for creating the PMI Swiss Corporate Networking Group (SCNG) in 2009. Here, the members are not project practitioners, but managers in charge of project management in their organizations, i.e. head of PMO, head of portfolio management, head of project community, etc. The kickoff was in January 2010 at the prestigious Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue near Zurich, with about a dozen participants, and since then the group has grown to 20 companies plus one university and has held more than 30 meetings all over Switzerland.

These meetings take a full day and are hosted in turn by one of the members. The topics are very different from those of a Chapter event: they focus much more on organization than on practitioner level. So, the presentations and discussions are about governance, benefits management, portfolio management, etc. Even during Covid times, the meetings continued online with the same level of engagement and participation.

Synergies between the Chapter and the SCNG however have been rather limited over the years; organizations and practitioners really seemed to be living in “separate worlds”. But finally, for the organization of the PMI Switzerland Conference, this network proved to be a huge benefit: half of the speakers are from SCNG members.

Very few other chapters have something like the SCNG. In fact, the PMI Germany Chapter is very interested in setting up a similar structure, and the model has been shared with several other European Chapters.

For more information about the PMI SCNG, please check out this new page on the Chapter website.

Martin Härri, PMP, PMI-SP, PMI-ACP, DASSM

Author: Florian Puschmann, PMP

After attending virtual events for more than a year, I was very excited when I saw the invitation to the in-person event held 31 August in Basel.

Agile - and how to make it work in different company environments, certainly relates to many project management professionals. One pain point was addressed straight at the beginning with a fitting Dilbert comic; Agile has become a hip business buzzword, but typically, not everyone involved is aware of its philosophy and methodology.

Presenters Anna Nestorova, PhD, PMP and Steffen Keller, PMP have hands-on experience at LIVEsciences AG, which focuses on helping organizations define if - and where, agile methodology implementation makes sense, followed by aiding its implementation in a tailored fashion.

Everyone very much enjoyed the interaction that followed:

• Where does Agile make sense on the Cynefin framework background that segments the work environment in clear, complicated, complex, chaotic, and confused areas?
• What does it take to build an environment that enables people to work at the intersection of autonomy, mastery, and purpose to tackle the "impossible" through intrinsically driven teams?
• What's the difference between "doing" (method) and "being" (mindset) agile?

The challenges of such self-organizing organizations were then further put in perspective with two case studies:

• Semco Partners – where a self-organized company was built in Brazil under the "leadership" of Ricardo Semler even long before the Agile Manifesto was born
• Burtzoorg – A low-cost, high profitability home nurse service that is organized through fully independent self-organized teams of nurses

Overall, I deeply enjoyed the content of this event and the vivid discussion and human connection that I was craving after the prolonged period of virtual events only. 

The best part was still to come though: A very enjoyable late summer apero with all participants! The apero was so much fun that I missed two train connections until I finally made it back to Zurich rather late. The only regret I had was not having stayed even longer.

Florian Puschmann, PhD, PMP

Author: Philip Springuel, PMP

Once again, your newsletter is full of helpful articles, event information and much to convince you to be involved, contribute and volunteer with your PMI Switzerland Chapter.

Claudia Rassalski, the Chapter's VP Finance, shares valuable advice to remind us of the critical importance of Project Status Reports. We’re also delighted to bring you an update from past President Martin Härri about our Chapter’s Swiss Corporate Networking Group.

With two articles this month we offer a focus on Open Spaces, PMI Switzerland’s unique online knowledge sharing platform, highly valued by participants for its innovative format for answering key questions collectively. With in person meetings now also reappearing on our schedules, this month’s newsletter offers a retrospective for a groundbreaking Basel event on the subject of Agility.

Don’t miss six profiles of new members, and if you always wanted to write an article in our Newsletter, read our call for submissions that opens the door with guidelines and suggestions.

Enjoy your October Newsletter and don’t forget to connect with your peers on our PMI Switzerland social media channels to keep up with all of our highlights about the Chapter.

Philip Springuel, PMP

PMI Switzerland Copy Editor

Author: Leandro Benda, PMP

On Tuesday 17 August 2021, our 7th PMI Switzerland Open Space took place on Zoom. In Open Spaces, each participant is able to freely ask questions and/or share his or her expertise and opinion.

The topic of this online event was "Planning for success in Agile delivery". The topic was presented with great talent by our volunteer Pia Henzelmann. On this occasion, 20 project managers joined from different sectors such as banking, food processing, IT consulting and more.

Different "virtual rooms" of 10 minutes each were created during the event in order to have various exchanges on themes of the participants’ choice. These virtual rooms were each managed by a facilitator to encourage engagement and ensure the best experience for everyone.

The questions selected for discussion on this broader topic announced for this Open Space included:

1. How to introduce Agile planning even if the company methodology essentially expects waterfall?
2. How to deal with small local initiatives, how to prioritize them?
3. How to respect project budgets in Agile?

Each participant was able to freely ask questions and share his or her expertise and opinion and interesting answers were provided on these topics.

We invite you all to register to our next Open Space which will take place online via Zoom on Tuesday, November 9th on the theme "PMBOK 7 Initiation". You will have the opportunity to share and learn more on the numerous and important changes that this new edition proposes.

All our events can be consulted via the PMI Switzerland events page.

Leandro Benda, PMP