What's New in October

Capstone Attends ESWG Meeting in Ottawa

Last week, our team was invited to the Emergency Services Working Group (ESWG) meeting held in Ottawa. Emergency service agencies and partners from across Canada came together to discuss the Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) transition. The NG9-1-1 project continues to require everyone's input, so this face-to-face meeting of the minds led to insighful conversations that were both on the agenda as well as those that took place "off speaker" allowing attendees to delve deeper into new ideas to investigate further.

The group disussed topics such as Geographic Information System (GIS), mapping, public safety answering points (PSAPs), NENA Standards, network outage notifications, priority action lists, change management, handset-based location, emergency subscriber information look-up and more. As you can see, this project is not only massive but also complex requiring expertise from a variety of stakeholders.

Want to learn more about how Capstone is working with provinces and municipalities across Canada with their NG9-1-1 transition?

Visit: https://capstoneprojectsolutions.com/services/911-modernization

Reverse Trade Show for Atlantic Small Businesses

Procurement Assistance Canada (PAC) – Atlantic Region, in collaboration with the Province of Nova Scotia (Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services) is hosting their annual Reverse Trade Show on November 1st and Capstone will be there.

This event gives us the opportunity to meet with buyers from multiple federal, provincial and municipal governments to learn what types of goods and services they purchase. .

The Reverse Trade Show is an efficient way for us to market our services to many government buyers in just a few hours.

We're Finalists for a DNS Tech Forward Award!

We are so excited to be chosen as a finalist for the Digital Nova Scotia Diversity and Inclusion Champion Award. This award recognizes an organization that actively promotes the importance of diversity and inclusion in Nova Scotia’s tech sector by implementing strategies for welcoming workplaces, diverse hiring practices, and inclusion initiatives. A big congrats to all the finalists. The DNS Tech Forward Awards will be held on November 9th, wish us luck!

Show Stopper: Project Management

Project management, program management, portfolio management and consultant services include practice maturity and process assessments, project planning and delivery as well as specific issue resolution for project rescue. Capstone team members have a range of experience across a multitude of industry types. Our business analysis professionals support all project engagements with thorough requirements identification, tracking and testing.

Project Planning & Execution, Deliverables Tracking, Performance and Progress Reporting
Benefits Identification, Measurement, Tracking and Realization
PMO Broker
Maturity Assessments

Check out all of our services available to you through Capstone-on-Demand by clicking HERE.

Shout Out: Chile Frank-Udemgba

As a certified PMP^® with over 12 years of experience in both Agile and traditional project methodologies, Chile has a keen understanding of organizational goals and business requirements which enables her to envision optimal solutions for complex challenges. She excels at bridging the gap between technical teams and business stakeholders to create successful business strategies. Chile’s ability to conduct market research, analyze data and collaborate with cross-functional teams allows her to identify and prioritize our clients’ needs while remaining aligned with business goals.

Chile has been engaged in several key projects in her first few months with Capstone. Her acute organizational and project management expertise as well as her professionalism and amazing interpersonal skills have made her a key asset on our team.

Capstone Knowledge Centre:

Project Management 101

So you want to be a Project Manager? You think you have what it takes? The Capstone team has expert Project Managers with years of experience to share. Below are 7 essential skills we think are needed to be a successful Project Manager, aka a Professional Cat Herder.

Effective Communication From project kick-offs to stakeholder meetings, project managers are constantly communicating. Researchers have found that project managers spend a whopping 90 percent of their time communicating in some way. As such, project managers must have excellent communication skills in order to successfully lead projects to completion. Project managers should prioritize learning how to communicate effectively which includes knowing how to approach people, create meaningful relationships with co-workers, and articulate a clearly established vision of what you wish to achieve. Taking the time to think about what you want to say—and how you want to say it—prior to communicating is a simple and productive first step toward honing this skill set.

Negotiation From managing resources, to engaging suppliers, to dealing with team conflict, leading a project means constantly being involved in negotiations. An effective project manager is often a skillful negotiator with the ability to keep involved parties content and working toward a unified goal at all times. Unavoidable discussions about budgets, scope creep, resources, and timelines can easily become adversarial if not handled tactfully, and savvy project managers instinctively know when—and how—to apply persuasive techniques that will encourage solutions and avoid damaging workplace relationships.

Scheduling and Time Management Naturally, scheduling is a core facet of the project management function. However, if you’re adept at juggling multiple schedules and can anticipate roadblocks before they occur, you’ll increase your chances of delivering successful projects. The most common causes of project failure involve poor planning, and include changing priorities within an organization, inaccurate requirements, changes in project objectives, and undefined project goals. As this shows, time management is clearly a valuable project management skill to attain.

Leadership When managing a team or project, it’s crucial to have strong leadership skills. By effectively coaching, guiding, and motivating your co-workers, you can help move a project forward and deliver a positive outcome. Strong leaders also foster a productive work environment by communicating regularly with their teams and helping their employees develop important project management skills themselves. Teams also work more efficiently when employees feel they are making a meaningful contribution to the project. You can help team members feel impactful by learning how to delegate tasks, provide constructive feedback, set goals, and evaluate individual and team performance. Be sure to recognize the achievements of your team members so they know you value their contributions, as well.

Technical Expertise Successful project managers must not only possess the aforementioned soft skills but also have the technical know-how to move projects toward completion. PMs who can “speak the language” of their organization’s subject matter experts will be able to communicate more effectively with their teams and have a better understanding of a project’s inherent risks and potential roadblocks. Additionally, a practical understanding of popular project management software can have a positive impact on a project manager’s work. These types of programs are frequently used to plan, organize, and communicate with teammates while simultaneously managing resources, budgets, and schedules. In today’s world, this means project managers must also constantly evolve, learning how to leverage the newest technologies available to successfully lead a project to completion.

Risk Management Risk management, which involves identifying and planning for potential risks, is a critical competency for project managers. The most productive PMs are able to identify risks at the outset of a project and develop proper mitigation plans in the event that the risk does, in fact, occur. Since risks are, by definition, uncertain events, it’s easy for project managers to ignore them and assume they will not happen. But by knowing—and acknowledging—what positive or negative impacts may happen to the project if the risk does occur, project managers can plan ahead to avoid major problems that might otherwise derail a project.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving While critical thinking is a skill all professionals could benefit from learning, it is particularly useful in the project management discipline. Rather than being reactive, the best project managers are proactive and use their critical thinking skills to navigate through tricky or ambiguous projects. By remaining objective, analyzing the facts, and evaluating options without bias, project managers are able to solve complex problems for organizations while delivering results on time and within budget.