Congrats to our client Henkels & McCoy for their amazingly successful project to get gas to Manhattan from NJ despite Hurricane Sandy and many other challenges.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0YFXFFpDLIbX1BSNUNzRGpHbTQ/edit?usp=sharing

New Videos and Demos

Construction Project Management Series

Earn 8 PDH/PDU Credits

Overview and Goals:

The Construction Project Management course consists of an seven-part video-based education series designed to provide both new and experienced construction project managers with fresh approaches to their project planning and tracking, and to share little-known tips and techniques for creating and updating effective schedules in Microsoft Project.  The software tips apply to other project management software packages as well. At the end of each session, participants are offered a five to ten question multiple choice test to assess knowledge gained. The session leaders are noted PM experts,       Frank Walker, P.Eng., PMP and Ann Tomalavage, P.E., PMP, LEED AP.

Upon successful completion of each session participants should be able to:

1. Create a work breakdown structure for any project.
2. Create and maintain a powerful schedule.
3. Develop cost estimates “for free”, using software features.
4. Use Earned Value Management (EVM) comfortably to monitor and control projects.
5. Feel confident updating Microsoft Project files, and creating meaningful templates for other projects.

  The course is divided into seven individual sessions as follows:

• Session 1: Program Overview, Basic Process & Concepts in Project Management & Scheduling
• Session 2: Project Management Resources & Breakdown Structures
• Session 3 / Part A: Techniques for Effectively Managing Time
• Session 3 / Part B: Techniques for Effectively Managing Time
• Session 4 / Part A: Project Cost Management
• Session 4 / Part B: Project Cost Management
• Session 5: Updating the Project, Change Management, Earned Value
• Session 6: Updating – Using Microsoft Project
• Session 7: Risk, Other Knowledge Areas & Series Conclusion

                                                          

  Cost:

·         Members - $495.00

·         Non-Members  - $595.00

Top 27 Checklist for MS Project

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0YFXFFpDLIbRkNWQVRud1Q3ZXM/edit

Why you should change defaults in Microsoft Project

Updated Resume

Frank R. Walker, P.Eng., PMP                                                            President

 

Education & Qualifications

Bachelor of Engineering, Civil (Structural), University of Sydney, Australia – 1974

Project Management Professional (PMP ® # 289), Project Management Institute (PMI) ® - 1989, Professional Engineer, BC, Canada – 1977, Turkey - 1979.

Background

Frank Walker was co-founder and president of Gates, Taylor Walker, Corp. (GTW) from 1988 to 1997. GTW was a Project Management (PM) consulting and PM Software company, and the Primavera dealer for Alaska. We worked on many large projects, initially for the aerospace, oil and construction industries on the USA, West Coast. In 1993, thanks to PMI and our relationship with Microsoft, we grew and diversified rapidly into multiple industries, globally, as project management became its own profession and PM software migrated from the mainframe to the personal computer. Fluor Daniel approached us regarding purchase in 1996 and we sold GTW to another company in 1997.

TWG, incorporated in 1998, is a similar, smaller company that supports clients through all the stages of the program or project life cycle. It allows Frank to stay more hands-on with clients and in PM instead of marketing and running large offices in multiple states. He is an excellent leader with the ability to pull the best people together for a project and to create great teams. He is adept in all the aspects of project management including the management of time, resources, cost, risk, scope, procurement, quality and communication. Specialties include, team planning, fast-track project management, management by exception using earned value, litigation avoidance and mediation. He is also experienced at portfolio management and helps implement PM Offices (PMOs).

Frank’s seminars on PM, PMP certification & PM software are in demand in North America, Europe and Austral-Asia. He has given PM classes to more than 12,000 people. At Microsoft’s request, he led an in-house team to produce and market GTW’s Project Partner (derived from our PVS Mainframe software) and other Microsoft Project companion products and to customize Microsoft Project for specific industries and companies. He has been quoted in Fortune Magazine, Engineering News Record, PMI publications, etc. and has lectured on Satellite/Webcasting and Distance Learning classes. Frank has lived long-term in Sydney, Vancouver, Turkey (where he was found equal to a donkey by a Turkish magistrate), Seattle, and Dallas. He now lives in Washington Crossing, PA, USA between Philadelphia & New York City.

We have had no litigation on GTW or TWG projects where we had a key role from the beginning. However, Frank has been called in to mediate many construction disputes and as an expert witness on schedule impact claims on non-GTW / TWG projects. He has learned a lot from others’ mistakes.

General Experience

Frank has worked forty plus years on many unique and challenging projects worldwide for many different industries and public agencies. He is currently giving PM classes in the USA and Europe, helping with PM services on a large ERP project in Alaska, a Spectra project to pipe natural gas from NJ into Manhattan, Distance learning classes for Smartpros, Atkins, ASCE, et al. and is hoping to bring PM to the medical profession at a famous hospital shortly. Construction projects are still his #1 passion and he has a unique perspective because he has worked as Owner, Designer, Contractor and PM consultant on so many interesting projects.

A small sample of past projects follows. See www.TWGpm.com and http://twgpm.blogspot.com/ for more details, clients, etc.

·         Construction - High-rise buildings (e.g. QANTAS suspended floor building and slip-formed buildings in Sydney). Transit projects in Sydney, Las Colinas, Texas, and the Sky Train project in Vancouver, BC. Roads and Bridges in Australia. Buildings and facilities with Baugh, Bayley, B.Northern, et al. Bid for Hibernia off-shore platform in Canada with ES Fox. California earthquake repair for FEMA, UI - 345kV Transmission and Facility projects, Amazon.com – fast track facilities in USA & Germany, marine and port facilities, incl. the Sea-Bus project in Vancouver, B.C., Pulp, Paper and Sawmill construction in North American and Turkey, many high-school construction projects, gas distribution with Henkels & McCoy, etc.

·         IT –Microsoft, AETS, NY Life, Vanstar, The Limited, United Illuminating (UI) SAP project. State of Florida – PeopleSoft ERP implementation project, DuPont (USA, Germany and Switzerland), various IT projects for DOF in Juneau, Alaska. Pharmaceuticals - Novo-Nordisk, CTI.

·         Miscellaneous - Mobil, Las Colinas Corp, 747 airplane retrofit for Saudi Prince (USA & England), Moss-Adams, Ford, ModemMedia (USA & England), Spectrum, International Institute for Learning (USA, Canada & England), Mars Electronics (USA & Europe), Marystown Shipyard (Canada), ABAM Engineers (USA & Canada), Harris Corp (USA & France).

·         Frank led a GTW team to help NEDA and the World Bank on Energy, Transportation, Water Resources, Industry & Tourism and other projects in Asia worth $10.8 billion US. His team also taught the principles of project management and PM software directly and by training the trainers to help institutionalize PM throughout the Philippines. He is particularly proud of the hospitals we helped build for the urban poor.

·         GTW helped manage nine Boeing Company projects including the state-of-the-art 530,000sf Integrated Aircraft System Laboratory (IASL) for the new 777 aircraft.

Transit Experience

·         Frank was Construction Manager of the APT Light Rail Transit System for DCURD and Las Colinas Corporation, Dallas, Texas. This system uses Westinghouse vehicles on elevated pre-stressed concrete beams. It will eventually connect with the DART system.

·         He managed the construction of the elevated guide way for the Phase I Sky Train Transit System in Vancouver, British Columbia. His team developed new computer driven variable formwork methods for incorporating direct fixation track work into pre-stressed concrete guide way beams, which resulted in significant cost savings. This experimental phase finished on time and on budget in marked contrast to subsequent phases. He learned a great deal about the importance of public relations on these very sensitive and political projects.

·         Frank supervised complicated steel false-work and formwork, dewatering, sheet-piling, winching and post-tensioning of large precast segments for the Eastern Suburbs Railway Viaduct Project in Sydney, Australia. These massive elevated, “at grade” and tunnel structures support heavy rail double-deck trains running in both directions through a very congested, prestigious part of Sydney.

·         Numerous bridges in N.S.W. Australia, in B.C while working for Dillingham Construction and in the Philippines for the World Bank.

Ports and Harbors

·         GTW supplied PM / construction management services to the Port of Seattle SW Harbor project. This large project involved permits, cleanup, design and construction of roads, rail, buildings etc. in a heavily used, highly congested, port facility, which remained operational.

·         Frank was assistant Project Manager for the Port of Tacoma’s Sea-Land project. He helped fast-track the Sea-Land, TOTE, Intermodal Yards and World Trade Center program from five plus years down to 26 months using multiple matched prime contracts. The Port of Tacoma is now a leading North American seaport, handling more than $40 billion in annual trade and 2 million TEUs.

·         Frank was Project Engineer and acting Project Manager for construction of the Burrard Inlet Ferry Terminals (BIFT) in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. This project used unique, highly complex, pre-stressed concrete caissons, post-tensioned together after flotation into an E-shape to handle 18 ft tide changes. Steel framed building superstructures were added. Frank worked on many other marine projects while at Dillingham including piers, bridges, temporary structures, dewatering, etc.

·         Frank was Project Manager for construction of the Inter-modal Yards for Burlington Northern Railroad in Portland, Oregon, and St. Paul, Minnesota. These two facilities were each designed and built in six months using fast-track CM. (The previous best time for similar facilities was fourteen months.) He also was responsible for the schedule and budget for a similar facility at Naperville, Illinois.

·         Airport Reconstruction, Road and Bridge construction, Cowra, N.S.W. Australia

Unique Projects

·         GTW was interviewed by Fortune Magazine for our Project Management services on the 530,000sf Boeing Integrated Aircraft System Laboratory (IASL) for the 777 plane. We worked on many other Boeing construction projects and the Tacoma Union Station - Federal Law Courts project.

·         GTW provided the Project Management for a Saudi Prince 747 airplane retrofit (USA and England)

·         Frank managed the value engineering study, a construction method investigation for the feasibility study of large (multi billion dollar) floating concrete structures for the oil industry in the offshore Arctic, for which he and his team were granted Patent No. 4,576,519. The ice loadings were so large that the design required sophisticated finite element analysis and declassified information from nuclear strikes on concrete, missile silo doors.

·         He was responsible for feasibility studies and cost estimates for marine terminals, slip formed water towers, LPG terminal bund walls and the MX Missile project. In addition, he provided engineering design, scheduling, inspection services and damage surveys on many projects.

·         Frank was Chief Civil/Structural Engineer (second-in-charge) in Turkey during the construction of the Akdeniz Pulp, Paper and Saw Mill for the World Bank at a cost of $350 million (current price $1 billion). During his two years there, he was responsible for the direction, scheduling, contract administration, and coordination with other disciplines of all on-site civil/structural work including the boiler and generator buildings and a 65-meter slip-formed chimneystack. His Turkish and international engineering staff was also responsible for off-site work including 40 kilometers of water supply and effluent pipelines, pumping stations, siphon structures and bridges, clarifiers, settling ponds, and an ocean outfall and diffuser.

·         He was Project Engineer for the construction of the unique cable suspended floor, 640-foot QANTAS office complex and underground computer complex in Sydney, Australia. Special requirements included mix design and quality control of high strength concrete, design and construction of temporary works, steel fabrication, scaffolding and formwork, supervision of production of prestressed beams, cost control, scheduling and critical path programming, and construction method investigation.

GTW and TWG have worked on many university and high school projects, the Waterbury, CT Magnet School being a recent example. We recently helped with Procurement of A/E and Contractors for a new Office and Operations Facilities for UI in Connecticut.

Professional Affiliations & Awards

Project Management Institute: President of Delaware Valley Chapter (Philadelphia) 2009

http://pmi-dvc.org/. Project Management Institute (PMI) Puget Sound (Seattle) 1991 President, PMI Global Standards Committee 1997.

Graduate PMI Leadership Institute Masters Class 2008 – Stockholm, Lille and Malta.

PM Advisory Boards, University of Washington and City University, Seattle.

Various USA and International Who’s Who directories.

Co-inventor of an Offshore Oil Platform Base Structure for Exxon, Patent No. 4,576,519.                                          President of TWG Project Management, LLC http://twgpm.com/, http://www.linkedin.com/in/frankrwalker

http://www.wimp.com/cloudschool/

These guys could use some Project Management.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/

On Leadership

http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/courses/communicationskills/leaderqualities.pdf

PMI Westchester 2013 Professional Development Day
Saturday, March 23, 2013

My Speech:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60044575/Microsoft_PowerPoint__PMI__Westchester%2C_Silos%2C_Foundations.pdf

PLANNING A CAREER IN A WORLD WITHOUT MANAGERS THE OLD CAREER TRACK? OBLITERATED, AS YOU KNOW. BUT VISIBLE IN THE RUBBLE IS A NEW WAY TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL CAREER. HERE'S HOW IT WORKS--AND HOW TO MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU.

By THOMAS A. STEWART REPORTER ASSOCIATE JOE MCGOWAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY DARRYL ESTRINE

March 20, 1995

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1995/03/20/201941/index.htm

Fast track anyone? Building a 30-Story Hotel in China in 15 days. https://www.youtube.com/embed/GVUsIlwWWM8?rel=0

Jim Snyder and I are speaking at the Westchester PMI Chapter, Professional Development Day on Saturday March 23rd. http://www.pmiwestchester.org/Chapter_Event_Details.asp