Short Courses
Short courses are designed for our member company executives to quickly give them information on the newest technologies and techniques. Short courses are offered a few times a semester. Here are some the past course offerings.
"Take Back Your Life", Sally McGhee
We are extremely fortunate to have Sally and Anne McGhee in person. Their productivity tools are very highly utilized and supported throughout Microsoft, as well as some of our own member companies, including Gates Corporation and Lockheed Martin.
This course enhances the productivity for users of Microsoft Office Outlook by teaching them to create and maintain and Integrated Management System. Sally and Anne will address key issues regarding e-mail overload, protocol, managing multiple objectives and projects, and prioritization.
Many of their corporate clients and readers have reduced their email by over 50%. This is one of the most significant courses offered at CITI.
Effective Project Sponsorship - Defining, Building & Sustaining an Essential Project Role, Payson Hall
Effective Project Sponsorship is a half-day workshop that presents senior managers with an informational context to support and direct projects within their organizations. Intended for senior staff with varied levels of project management experience or training, this workshop provides a foundation for informed interaction with project managers through a series of discussions and simulations.
- Understand project management processes and the sponsor’s role in their performance
- Know what information and work products sponsors should expect from project managers before, during and at the conclusion of projects
- Know common pitfalls of project sponsorship and how to avoid them
- Better appreciate the senior management’s role in promoting good practices as well as sponsoring and influencing the outcome of projects
- Be better prepared to sponsor projects
Details
The course is organized to build outward from an initial understanding of the project management process. The role and responsibility of the sponsor in effective project management is emphasized throughout the session. The following topics are addressed in this course:- The role of the project sponsor
- Key deliverables and review points in the project life cycle
- Typical pitfalls and problems
- Risk management, project cancellation and project failure
- Effective project sponsorship
Managing IT as a Business - A Survival Guide for CEOs, Mark D. Lutcheon
Managing IT as a Business provides executives with practical advice on how to unleash the full potential of this critical function so that companies can derive maximum benefit. It offers a proven plan for bridging the gap between CEOs and CIOs that has, until now, impeded their ability to work together in order to craft objectives, establish budget guidelines, and develop metrics for measuring IT value and success. In short, with this book as a guide, business leaders will learn how to manage IT as they would any other functional business unit. Through numerous case studies that outline the lessons other senior executives have learned while maximizing their IT investment, Managing IT as a Business covers such essentials as:
- Bringing IT into the mainstream of the enterprise
- Managing IT as a stand-alone business unit that advances corporate goals and increases profits Linking IT strategy to corporate strategy from a perspective of practical execution rather than theory
- Helping business units define their technology needs and risks, and enhance IT services through rigorous relationship management
- Institutionalizing within IT a culture of customer service, on-time delivery, high quality, and results-oriented performance
- Rewarding IT executives and managers based on how well IT initiatives drive profits
In today's hyper-competitive business environment, long-term success depends on quality customer service and information management. As a key driver of that success, IT has become increasingly important to any company's survival. Embedding business-oriented performance measurements in all components of the IT organization may not be easy, but no forward-thinking executive can afford to ignore this business imperative. In Managing IT as a Business, Mark D. Lutchen offers CEOs the insight and practical guidance they need to get the most out of technology spending, to understand the real value of the IT business unit, and to increase revenues and minimize risks by taking advantage of new technologies.
Building Teams – CIO Alpine Access, Sean Curley
This three hour seminar describes what Directors and Managers can do build High Performance Teams
It appears that the old aphorism, "people are our most important asset," is actually true. Compelling evidence now suggests that success comes from building and managing teams effectively. But while many leaders believe that putting people first makes strategic sense, all too few of their organizations do it.
What can you actually do to implement high-performance management practices and enjoy the benefits that will almost certainly accrue? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers -- if there were, this strategy would not be such an important foundation for sustainable competitive success. But there are things that high-performing organizations do that significantly increase the long-term effectiveness of the team and indeed the likelihood of success.
This talk is about building and managing high performance teams, and how they help yield a successful and sustainable organization.Sarbanes Oxley – After it’s implemented and audited, Darryl Austin
Sustaining SOX Compliance – Year 2 and Beyond - How can Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance transition to a sustainable process for companies?
- Nine Key areas for Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 implementation:
- Organization structure
- Scope, documentation, and testing
- IT controls
- Use of external resources
- Relationship with the auditor
- Deficiency management
- Audit committee communications
- Section 302/404 certification process
- Management letter and reporting
Why Projects Fail - Bill Casey, Executive Leadership Group
This half-day seminar describes five strategic alternatives or at least prerequisites - to more expensive, tactical nostrums such as software packages, intricate methodologies, and training infinitum.
Details:
- The business purpose of the project: understanding, articulating, and communicating the point of the project. This is an intellectually and politically demanding imperative.
- Project owners and project sponsors: the thorny but necessary chore of sorting out which executive has purchased a business result and which executive is on the hook to deliver it; their respective roles and accountabilities.
- Authorization of the project manager: a decision that hinges on whether the project manager role is really that of a coordinator, or indeed that of a manager.
- Project configuration: structural issues such as who is accountable to whom for what? When is an ad hoc management relationship preferable to a customer-supplier model? What must be included in internal service level agreements to make them work?
Organizational learning policies: when project mistakes continue to recur it suggests that the common project management tactic of "lessons learned" has yet to be institutionalized.
Leading Geeks - Paul Glenn, Author, C2 Consulting
This half-day seminar discusses “How to Manage and Lead People Who Deliver Technology” which was recently published by Jossey Bass as part of the Warren Bennis Signature Series.
Privacy and Enterprise Risk Management - Rebecca J. Whitener, Director of EDS Privacy Services
This half-day seminar will address current privacy issues associated with global trends, emerging legislation, new technologies and consumer demands.
Details:
The complexity of managing security and privacy issues is greater today than ever before.
Nearly all companies are facing difficult challenges trying to stay on top of the risks associated with attacks on their information systems from internal and external sources, computer viruses, fraud, physical and cyber risks. Companies also face the challenge of compliance with the growing number of state, national, and international privacy and data protection regulations.
The protection of privacy must be paired with efforts to address security and other risks since adequate people, process and technical safeguards are the foundation for effective and reliable privacy practices. To avoid both monetary and reputational losses associated with privacy violations, companies are focusing more attention on building an enterprise-wide defense strategy. These strategies address a wide range of threats.
In this session we will address current privacy issues associated with global trends, emerging legislation, new technologies and consumer demands. We will also discuss the elements of an enterprise-wide risk management strategy and why some believe it is the solution of the future for not only managing security and privacy but also other risks such as fraud, system or process failures, and other threats.
