Day 2 - Tuesday, July 7

MX5 = Meetings Times Five

It's been a few weeks since my first day on campus; however, I was excited to get back into the swing of things... and we certainly swung for the fence today! I had the opportunity to sit in on a variety of conferences and observe my first surveillance audit.

Here's today's agenda:

• Import Schedules from MS Project to OP
  
• PPMP Playbook Meeting
• Virtual Audit
• IDT Threshold Meeting
• LCS Conference
• MS2 Users Group

As I continue to sort out the various duties of the intermediate PPM Team, I recognized that they need to wear alot of different hats! For example, the PPM Team are experts and administrators of the tool suite (OP, Cobra, WelcomHome), trainers of these programs, help desk support and resource and it's important to have a foundation in master planning & finance in order to get the job done! A new experience today revolved around a virtual audit which required the use of an internal rubric to check performance management standards. The idea is to improve PPMS across the board in case of a DCMA Center for Excellence corporation audit. The survelliance audit provides detailed constructive feedback for the PM and planners based on whether or not their PPM process meets specific standards. Detailed feedback is provided for each criterion.

Quick Reflection Video - Day 2


Observations:

• PPM team members are constantly "multitasking" to help end users for all tool suite elements.
• Identified manpower as an issue regarding workload and coming up with ways to create a healthy balance.
• PPM team gathers feedback from all group members (in this case the IDT Threshold participants) and will come back together in the future to come to consensus.
• Gathering input and feedback from all stakeholders requires a certain level of compromise across all teams and/or divisions.
• PPM team must work together as a team and cover for each other when on travel, vacation, etc...
• PPM team members are responsible for a specific task or component of PPM; however, all team members can complete each others duties (as needed) -- the team is made up of interchangable members who specialize in all areas, but may focus on one specific area when all team members are available
• PPM team and LM in general have their own workplace jargon based on their divisions, scope of work, etc... (more acronyms then I can count!!.....)

Reflection

As the day progressed, I thought about all of the skills/tools that the PPM team needed in order to succeed in their positions. Here is a list of THINGS THEY CANNOT SUCCEED WITHOUT:

1. Multitasking
2. Collaboration
3. Technology
4. Processes
5. Communication
6. Leadership
7. Logic
8. Compromise
9. Accountability
10. IM
11. Acronyms
12. Each Other!

...I will continue to add to this list....

Classroom Ideas

• Students need to learn how to work as a team player in order to succed in the corporate environment.... and for future education, as well. It's so important to provide students opportunities to develop their skillsets and learn how to be a contributing, supportive and accountable team member. What better place to learn... then in the classroom.
• Develop discussion, analysis and compromise skills using real world scenarios ---backing up with my experiences at LM
• Classroom Audits! - Dept Chairs, Colleagues or Administrators conduct quick and simple informal (unannounced) classroom audits based on a defined checklist. Outside auditors provide a quick glimpse at student performance in the classroom based on their informal visits... either teacher or auditor provides feedback depending upon timeframes.