Laura Barnard

Presentation: Let’s Debate… Process vs Principles, Which Approach is Better?

This debate is about whether starting with principles or processes is the best way to form standards and drive project management excellence.  Project Management Institute just switched in PMBoK 7 to principles, but in all previous standards had used processes.  Principles can provide flexible decision making support, but don’t offer a way of getting there leaving project managers stuck with unachievable outcomes and no guide or basis for improvement. Meanwhile processes offer how to do project management, but they aren’t universal by nature and don’t encapsulate on their own the value we’re delivering nor the goals of project management. We know no project is exactly alike and tailoring processes would seem to be somewhere in the middle – but which provides us the best starting point? What should be the standard used by PMI or any organization as we aim for excellence in project management?

Join us as we dive into the details and hear from two experts in educating project managers on which is the best approach: Principles or Process?

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Biography: Laura Barnard, PMP, Prosci, CAL 

Keynote Speaker, Trainer & Consultant
Founder and CEO, PMO Strategies
Host, PMO Strategies Podcast
Host, PMO IMPACT Summit
Co-Founder & President, Project Management for Change, nonprofit 

Laura has been instrumental in bringing PMOs and Project Management to the strategy table for 25 years. She knows just how hard it can be to drive effective and sustainable change in organizations, having spent 15 years in the role of PMO leader beginning in 1999, and now she helps organizations drive higher return on investment for their strategy by unleashing the full potential and power of project management and the PMO. She has developed a unique and powerful system for growing organizational project management competency with a deliberate focus on driving high-IMPACT outcomes on every project. 

Laura has been recognized as a top global PMO influencer by the PMO Global Alliance two years in a row, and gives back to the PMO and project community by sharing her insights and stories on the popular PMO Strategies Podcast and as a part of the longest running PMO-specific virtual conference, the PMO IMPACT Summit, where she is shaking up the way the industry thinks about the PMO role in driving strategy realization. Laura welcomes you to join her community of IMPACT Drivers on their mobile app the IMPACT Driver Network and to learn more about how they can help you at PMOStratetgies.com. 

Laura believes that project managers are uniquely positioned to help organizations have a greater impact. She is the Founder and President of Project Management for Change, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to raise the profile of the project management profession by showing the value of project management across the globe as the most effective enabling resource for delivering sustainable change in the nonprofit sector. Their signature event, the Project Management Day of Service (PMDoS)®, brings together thousands of project managers with hundreds of nonprofit leaders to change the world, one project at a time. 

Laura served on nonprofit and corporate boards for 16 years including multiple Project Management Institute (PMI) chapters, Virginia International University, Goodwill Industries, and Computer Aid. Laura has a Computer Science degree from Virginia Tech, a Project Management Institute (PMI), PMP certification, a Prosci Change Management Practitioner certification, and a Certified Agile Leadership (CAL) certification.