ICPM

During World War II, the Allied forces occupied many of the Pacific islands.  Up until that point, the inhabitants of these islands had never seen manufactured goods.  With the military occupation, goods such as sunglasses, chocolate and coca-cola literally fell from the sky.  To islanders unfamiliar with manufacturing or powered flight this bounty was a delivery from the gods. 

The first step in building a PMO is getting the RIGHT people.  Let me say again THE RIGHT PEOPLE.  Without the right people, your PMO will be built on sand and you will have people problems to add to all the other problems that you are going to have anyway.  It’s easy enough to say this, but how can you get the right people, and who are they?   Here are some suggestions on how to go about building your team with the best. 

The feature story in the March 2007 edition of PM Network, titled "Bridging the Gap", is a look at some of the differences in style and communication that newer professionals and project managers have compared to veterans. I enjoyed the article and found some points to agree with and some in conflict with my personal experiences.

In the article there is a quote from Dave Davis, PMP, asserting that "the younger generation doesn't grasp the value of face time and the importance of building a team identity...They avoid social time and group meetings and end up identifying more with the tasks than the team."

Improving the accuracy of schedule estimates

There are a few ways that you can increase the accuracy of your estimates for task duration in your project schedule.
 
One way is to use your own past experience and the past experience of others who have done something similar in previous projects.   For example, you could ask questions related to past projects, such as:

Original Question: One of my friends is going for masters in project management from University of Calgary, Canada. Even though, the reputation of university is first-rate as it is one of the top universities in North America for Project Management. However, UofC is not among the accredited schools of PM from PMI perspective. What is your opinion about non-accredited schools of PMI? In addition, how do you see the graduates from UofC getting jobs in Canada & around the world?

I would appreciate your valuable advice.
Cheers
Naseem