Champion Designate Graduation Ceremony

PMI India Champions, CAC members, PMI India Staff & PMI Bangalore Chapter Board Members

The PMI India Champion program continues to grow to reach out to new industries and geographies. The program had its first graduation ceremony where new champions were formally inducted into the program. It also saw continued advocacy efforts by volunteers in their respective domains.

The PMI India Champion Program is an initiative to advocate project management across industries with the help of project professionals who act as PMI ambassadors within their own organization. PMI India Champions promote the project management profession through advocacy sessions, by sharing best practices, and by facilitating an organization towards standardization and enhancement of PMI standards.

The champion designate graduation ceremony, organized by PMI India, was held on 24-25 May at Angsana Oasis Spa & Resort, Bangalore. While it was a program, oriented towards the graduation of designates, it also served as a gettogether for champions and Champion Advisory Council (CAC) members to review the program?s developments and strategize the way ahead.

Day one began with a series of discussions between CAC members and PMI India staff, led by Mr. Raj Kalady, managing director, PMI India. Participants shared their expectations from the program for the current year and discussed a strategic plan to achieve the same.

The day continued post lunch with a unique experiential learning workshop that was organized for champions and champion designates. Participants were tasked to form groups and make movies on random topics. While the exercise served as an ice-breaker for the participants, it also left them with a sense of belonging and charged them for the rest of day.

The ceremony started with an address by associate CAC member, Mr. Visukumar Gopal, PMP, who formally welcomed everyone to the event. Mr. Kalady delivered the keynote address, which was followed by a session by chair, PMI India Champion Program, Ms. Shagufta Inamdar, PMP, and co-chair, Mr. Vivek Sonar, PMP, which set the theme for the evening.

Mr. Kalady and the CAC members announced the graduation of champion designates in a small ceremony in which the PMI India Champion badge was pinned on them. A series of photographs were taken to capture this moment of joy in the lives of champion designates, who have now become PMI India champions.

The ceremony also acted as a platform to present the Champions of the Quarter awards to the following champions who with their passion for project management excelled in their performance for the first quarter of 2014 (Jan-Mar 2014):

• Mr. Krishnasamy V., PMP
• Mr. Roopesh K. P., PMP
• Mr. Deepak Singh Chauhan, PMP

The ceremony continued with a session by Mr. Roopesh K. P., PMP and Mr. Sundeep Jain, PMP, that enlightened the audience on work done by on-boarding committee. A few new champions also shared their experience with the program.

This was followed by sessions by distinguished speakers Mr. Murali Santhanam, president, PMI Bangalore Chapter, and Mr. Basu Dutta, director, PMI Bangalore Chapter. They spoke on the activities by Bangalore chapter and the avenues available for PMI India champions and the PMI Bangalore chapter to collaborate.

CAC member, Mr. Partha Ghose, PMP, proposed the vote of thanks that marked the closure of the first day of the graduation ceremony. The celebrations, however, continued with an evening of music and cocktail dinner.

The second day began with a guiding session by Mr. Sonar, which showed the way ahead for the PMI India Champion Program and laid the strategy for 2014. The presentation provided the audience clarity on the program?s goals and inspired them to give their best towards meeting those goals.

A formal introduction session followed in which old and new champions, and CAC members spoke about their organization, the industry they belonged to, and their areas of expertise.

Ms. Suvarna Naikdesai, PMI India Champion program administrator, later assigned mentors to the new champions who will guide them further in their journey as a PMI India champion. The ceremony concluded with a question and answer session by Ms. Inamdar and Mr. Sonar.

An event management committee, consisting of Mr. Visukumar Gopal, PMP; Mr. Roopesh K. P., PMP and Mr. Sunil Telkar, PMP, MIMA, conducted the entire event, with the help of Ms. Naikdesai, Ms. Leena Gupte, and Mr. Roger Rodrigues from PMI India.

Program Updates

In the west region, PMI India Champion, Mr. J. V. Rao, PMP, delivered a session on "Project Management and PMI Credentials" on 4 April at the Essar Learning Center, Hazira. The objective of the program was to enlighten the Essar ELC team about PMI and the benefits of the PMP® credential. The session was attended by 11 faculty members from ELC who have experience of 12-20 years in teaching in various fields like mechanical, electrical, utilities, and projects. Faculty members have shown interest to organize another session for trainees and project engineers of Essar.

PMI India champion Mr. Ashish Digikar, PMP, conducted an awareness session on "PMI, PMP®, Certifications and 35 PDUs" for members of the engineering research center and product planning and project management departments of Tata Motors, Pune.

On 29 April, PMI India champion, Ms. Dipti Trivedi, coordinated a workshop on agile project management techniques that included agile innovation games at Cybage Software, Pune. The workshop was targeted at middle to senior level managers from pre-sales, process, quality assurance, and documentation departments.

PMI India champion, Mr. Jaimin Jani, PMP, with the help of his organization?s head of learning and development rolled out a unique program, "100 days to PMP®" at Black & Veatch. Its objective is to facilitate a structured development plan and get PMP® certification in 100 days. The pilot batch started this month with 16 nominated professionals from two offices - Mumbai and Pune. The entire program has been divided into seven stages with each stage designed to maintain focus and momentum of aspirants in achieving the PMP® certificate.

In the south region, PMI India champion, Mr. Vijay Narayanan, PMP, hosted three sessions on "Project Management and PMI Credentials" at L&T Infotech, Bangalore on 16 May. The sessions were conducted by Mr. Basu Dutta, director, PMI Bangalore chapter, Mr. Vijay Paul, Secretary and Treasurer, PMI Bangalore chapter, and Mr. Jacob Varghese, head- IT, defense, and aerospace markets, PMI India. There were over 50 participants from the middle management.

Associate CAC member, Mr. Visukumar Gopal, hosted a session on agile project management techniques on 11 April at Syntel Pune on "Project Management in Agile World". It was delivered by Mr. Murli Reddy, senior vice president, healthcare and life sciences, Syntel. Mr. Gopal also conducted a webinar for the Confederation of Indian Industry on "How PMI can play a crucial role in delivering organizational value/strategy" on 20 June. The webinar was attended by participants from various industries, with a particularly large attendance from the small and medium enterprises sector. It focused on the basics of the "Project Management Office (PMO), A3 Model, PMO Frameworks and Value creation through PMO".

Associate CAC member, Mr. B. Sai Prasad, PMP, PMI-SP, delivered a two-day session on MS Project to five students. The fees from the students was donated for charitable causes while the venue, food, and other expenses were sponsored by Mr. Prasad.

On 22 June, PMI India champion, Mr. R. Manikandan, PMP, conducted an awareness session on "Project Management and PMI Certifications Path Forward" for seven students of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli.

In the north region, PMI India champion, Mr. Ajay Kumar, PMP, conducted a one-day session on 26 May on "Project Management Fundamentals" at IBM, Noida. The session was aimed at providing an introduction to basics of project management to team leaders and PMO officials.

(Champion update is contributed by PMI India champions, Mr. Kiran Rajeshirke, PMP, Mr. Sundeep Jain, PMP, and Mr. Sunil Telkar, PMP, MIMA.)