Presentation: How’s It Going? Balancing the Demands of Project Work and Updating Stakeholders
Abstract: This session will focus on how best to address and manage increased levels of internal, external and leadership requirements and expectations of new and legacy federal projects while operating in a virtual environment.
Managing customer expectations while meeting project scope, schedule and cost targets is challenging enough. Doing so when your stakeholders crave more frequent communication and updates, using a mixture of email and videoconference, becomes exceedingly challenging and a time suck for PMs.
How you address this feedback (often times unsolicited) in a professional and responsive manner while maintaining project momentum is an art and not a science. We will reach out to the membership of the Federal Program and Project Management Community of Practice to gather information on their experiences in this area, and may ask one or two to participate in the discussion. Participants will derive strategies for managing the constant demand for updates while still getting the ‘real’ work done.
PMI Talent Triangle: Strategic and Business Management
Biography: LaTanya S. Anderson is the Associate Dean of Program Management and Training Delivery of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s University (DOIU) and the Program Manager of the Interior Acquisition Institute. She is a results-driven leader of learning solutions that transform and shape the federal workforce to innovating, creative problem-solving, strategic teaming, and responsible stewardship of Americans’ taxpayer dollars. Prior to her appointment at DOIU, she served as a Project Manager managing multi-million dollar enterprise-level projects, acquisition activities, and initiatives related to the planning, engineering, and implementation of IT infrastructure improvements and enhancements in support of the mission of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and was the Program Manager for the development of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s regulatory management system. In addition, she has over 15 years’ experience providing federal tactical, operational, and strategic direction as well as performing as an authoritative advisor to cabinet-level leaders on policy and governance of program, acquisition, and IT and is a member of federal advisory boards and workgroups for those knowledge and policy areas. She has been the Lead for reports to Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the General Accounting Office (GAO), and to Congress on the status of Departmental projects and has been instrumental in driving Departmental initiatives in the development of technology. LaTanya is also the Lead of the FedPM Community of Practice’s IT Working Group.
Since 2002, she has served under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries at cabinet-level federal agencies and has been the recipient of a number of awards and honors to include: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Patriotic Employer Award (April 2017); U.S. Department of the Interior Procurement Managers Conference Speaker (October 2016); American Council for Technology Industry Advisory Committee’s (ACT-IAC’s) 2013 Future Now Leaders Award Nomination (February 2013); U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Executive Leadership VA (LVA) Nomination (January 2012); and U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Secretary’s Award of Excellence (October 2010) and Office of General Counsel’s Damon P. Whitehead Award for Community Service (May 2008).
Before working for the Federal Government, LaTanya performed project administration as a private sector IT consultant for Unisys, General Dynamics, and Manpower Technical as well as a staff member for the U.S. edition of the Stars and Stripes Newspaper. She is certified at the senior level with the Federal Acquisition Certification for Program and Project Managers (FAC-P/PM) and in Managing IT Projects from the George Washington University School of Business. She possesses a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA), Master’s of Science (MS) in Technology Management with a specialization in Project Management, and a Bachelor’s of Arts (BA) in Media Communications all from the University of Maryland.
She is a native of the District of Columbia and passes on many interesting stories that were told to her about historic Washington, DC, and has her own about growing up as a child of a U.S. Secret Service agent and Vietnam-Era combat Veteran. Furthermore, she is featured in “Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City” by Natalie Hopkinson regarding the music and culture of, Go-Go, DC’s homegrown music genre.
