Workshop

PMP Exam Preparation

About the Workshops:

The chapter has acquired workshop materials that will be tailored to get the most benefit in a short amount of time. The workshop materials were created by Cyndi Snyder, President of the Orange County California Chapter, and are marketed by a Time-to-Profit company.

Several PMI chapters have used the workshop materials. The materials are revised and updated twice each year to reflect input from instructors in the chapters and feedback from students, particularly those who have taken and passed the PMP exam. Cyndi and other commercial instructors in both on-site and public classroom offerings also use the materials. To date, the materials have been used for approximately 300 students. The workshop materials strive to cover only topics that are on the certification examination.

Please forward comments, questions, and special dietary needs to Karen Sanders, PMP, Mid Missouri Chapter Vice President of Programs and Professional Development by e-mail: ksanders@mail.doc.state.mo.us.

Facilitator Biographies:

Lucy Watts, PMP

Ms. Watts has 18 years experience in information technology. She has 7 years in project management. Her experience has been in the development of large, complex application systems in both the private and public sector. She has experience in managing both application development and technical support.

Lucy started her career with Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC). Her accomplishments while working for SBC included tuning databases and resolving database problems in procurement, personnel, and financial systems, writing and publishing procedures for setting up and controlling database security, and completing other database administrator tasks. Lucy lead a team in evaluating several database management systems on the mainframe and Unix platforms. The results of this evaluation were used to set strategic database direction for the corporation. She was the lead DBA for the rewrite of the billing system. Her last accomplishment with SBC was the completion of a plan to build a data warehouse and putting a team together to complete the plan.

Lucy joined the Tier Technologies, Inc. team in 1996 as a consultant. She has been leading and managing teams at the State of Missouri. Her accomplishments at the State of Missouri include leading teams to successfully complete analysis, design, construction, and implementation of a transportation management system for the Missouri Department of Transportation and a system for managing financial assistance to needy families for the Missouri Department of Social Services. Lucy worked with the Missouri Department of Corrections to develop a plan for the rewrite of the Inmate Tracking System. She managed a team to complete analysis for the Department of Natural Resources' Total Maximum Daily Load project. In addition to completing the analysis, an implementation plan was developed to implement a software solution needed to meet the goals and objectives of the department in this business area. As a part of a two person team, she completed the analysis of the current processes related to a Driving While Intoxicated Arrest through disposition in the State of Missouri. From this analysis an implementation plan was developed for implementing a web services solution to track the events.

Lucy has a Bachelor of Science in Computers and Mathematics, a Masters in Information Management, and is a certified project manager. She is a member of the Project Management Institute.

Frank Cox

Mr. Cox is a project management specialist in the Missouri Department of Corrections, an organization of 11,000 employees that manage 90,000 offenders. Currently he is advising on the planning of, and is scheduling, a department wide Microsoft NT to Microsoft 2000 migration that includes four major sub-projects. He also presently is providing assistance on a departmental AS/400 Office Vision migration project that is deadline constrained. Frank also advises on a special superintendent task force that has been assembled to accomplish two key objectives in support of the DOC primary mission.

Frank has two undergraduate degrees and earned a master of science degree in information and communication sciences at Ball State University in Indiana. From 1994 to 1997 he worked as the university’s voice, data, and imaging technology labs manager. Later he was selected and served as an instructor on the graduate faculty, and also was selected and served as an associate in the university’s Applied Research Institute. He obtained and integrated $2.5 million in high-tech grants from corporate partners, designed theory based curricula and hands-on IT, IS, and telecom labs, and taught advanced courses in organizational communication, data communications, and telecommunications. He also consulted to the American Automobile Association of Indiana on Frame Relay technologies, and to the McDonald’s Corporation headquarters campus on network security and disaster recovery.

From 1974 to 1994, Frank served in the U.S. Army. As a paratrooper in the mid to late ‘70s, he participated in rapid deployments and sensitive allied airborne operations in Scandinavia, Central and Southern Europe. In the ‘80s as a military journalist he reported on activities in Europe, the Mediterranean, and Central America. In 1990, Frank was selected as the Army military journalist of the year. He wrapped up his uniformed career as First Sergeant of the accredited Defense Information School.

In his current position Frank has managed the planning, scheduling, risks, and cost performance of SAM II HR and finance system migration and integration projects. He has also advised on an AS/400 JD Edwards to SAM II interface project for a statewide profit center, and tracked a point-of-sale system IT equipment rollout covering 25 adult institutions. He also designed and applied a formal earn value management system to track and correct contractor performance, and he tracked a multi-million portfolio of outsourced application development projects. After normal working hours during the last two years he also helped establish the PMI Mid-Missouri Chapter, which was chartered by PMI in June 2000.

Frank is married and has a daughter and two sons. He enjoys spending as much free time as possible with his family.

Mitch Callis, PMP

Mitch works as an Infrastructure Project Manager for Hewlett Packard, where he has been employed since April 1996. His current areas of responsibility include voice, data, satellite, wireless LAN and all other IT infrastructure for production and sales offices for an area starting in the southern mid United States and extending to the Canadian border. In addition to this he developed, implemented, and maintains the organization's project management web site. Currently, Mitch is in involved with the merger of the IT infrastructure and processes between Hewlett Packard and Compaq. He is also involved with forming and moderating a PMI study group to help the group obtain their PMP certification.

Prior to joining Hewlett Packard Mitch worked for Digital Sound Corporation as Project Manager for Installations, where he developed the "Order to Install" process and implemented project management processes for equipment sales and upgrades.

Mitch has 22 years of experience in the IT community, the last 12 years being in project management.

Mitch spends much of his spare time with his two sons helping coach their soccer teams and teaching 4th grade Sunday School.

Ron Parker, PMP

Ron works as an Infrastructure Project Manager for Hewlett-Packard Company. His current areas of responsibility include voice, data, satellite, wireless LAN and all other infrastructure for production and sales offices in the mid-west and Tennessee. He serves as team lead of voice and data for Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures in North America. An additional assignment is mentoring fellow team members towards obtaining PMP Certification.

Prior to working at Hewlett-Packard, Ron worked as a Consultant-Project Manager for Sprint and American Century Investments in Kansas City. Projects during this period encompassed the implementation of wireless LAN, wireless Voice and VOIP. Ron has worked in IT for 25 years and has 15 years of Project Management experience.

Ron obtained his Bachelors and MBA degrees while working in the Data Networking and Telecommunications departments at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He served as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the UM System Staff Advisory Council.

Ron spends much of his spare time with his wife and son teaching, learning and enjoying the sport of soccer.