VALUELABS CLUSTER MEETING
In response to the PMI-PCC call for creation of knowledge clusters, the ValueLabs team has created the first ever cluster under PMI-PCC. The initiative at ValueLabs was spearheaded by seasoned ValueLabs veterans Mr. Sumanth Kumar Seelam, PMP And Mr. Vijay Bandaru, PMP. Both Sumanth & Vijay felt that the idea of knowledge sharing among the practitioners resonated well with ValueLabs internal culture and that the clusters would provide a platform to share the practical experiences both among practitioners and aspirants alike.
With this aim in mind, the ValueLabs cluster was formed. The introductory cluster meeting was conducted by Mr.Ravi Vurakaranam (Secretary General, PMI-PCC) and Ms. Suma Murthy (Manager, PMI-PCC) on 12th June 2009. The session laid out the goals and ideas of PMI-PCC and the thoughts behind the Knowledge Clusters initiative. The session was well attended by all the PMPs in ValueLabs and significant number of non-PMP practitioners as well. The introductory meeting was a resounding success with lots of positive feedback.
The second cluster session was conducted by Mr.Sumanth Kumar Seelam, PMP on 17th July 2009, focusing on one of the building blocks of projects, WBS. The session covered WBS extensively, including the need, various global practices, advantages and most importantly where and how they tie up to the project management practices. The session then proceeded to discuss various practical problems and hurdles faced by practitioners. The Q&A session concluded with an in-depth discussion on how WBS could be adopted with Agile methodology.
The third cluster session was conducted by Mr. Vijay Bandaru, PMP on 18th September 2009, on estimation techniques as part of a 2 session series. This session covered a wide variety of topics including
o Activity definition
o Activity sequencing
o Activity resource estimation
o Activity duration estimating
o Schedule development
o Network diagrams
o Critical Path
The session concluded with a discussion on some practical problems in project time management and working on a few examples brought up by the participants.
Profile of Mr. Sumanth Kumar Seelam, PMP
- Sumanth has an MCA and an MBA in Finance, both with distinction
- He is a certified PMP
- He has over 14 years of IT and Non-IT related work experience
- He has been associated with ValueLabs for over 10 years, starting as developer and currently working as a Senior Project Manager
- He has handled development and maintenance projects with a team size of upto 80 resources, in areas as varied as networking software, device drivers, POS systems, embedded systems and App servers among others.
Profile of Mr. Vijay Kumar Bandaru, PMP
- Vijay is a professional having 11+ years of IT experience in various domains that include travel, e-commerce, mining, real estate etc
- He has been managing multiple projects ranging from 5 to 25 resources
- He is a certified PMP
- He is a certified internal auditor at ValueLabs
- Currently working as a Senior project manager at ValueLabs
- He is a part of the Estimation Focus Group at ValueLabs that drives the estimation process being carried out for various clients and prospects at ValueLabs
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