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Breaking News in the Project Management World
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Michael Kennedy Confirmed as 3rd Keynote Speaker for 2nd UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in August
The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) has announced that Mr. Michael N. Kennedy, CEO of Targeted Convergence Corporation and author of Product Development for the Lean Enterprise, will be the third keynote speaker for the 2ndAnnual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in August. The conference, subtitled "Leveraging Project Management for Business Success!", will be held in the School of Management building on the UT Dallas campus in Richardson, Texas, USA during 18-19 August 2008. Mr. Kennedy will speak on Tuesday morning, August 19, 2008.
Before founding Targeted Convergence Corporation (TCC), Mr. Kennedy worked for Texas Instruments Defense Electronics for 31 years in product development, in manufacturing,in systems development - in both individual contributor and mid-level manager positions. He retired as a Senior Member, Technical Staff (SMTS) with the role as leader in the creation and adoption of improved product development processes. His efforts helped TI win the Malcolm Baldrige award for process excellence.
According to his official bio, Michael retired in 1997 after meeting Dr. Allen Ward from whom he learned about the Toyota Product Development System. That system was fundamentally different from the approach taken at TI and resolved problems naturally that a rigorous process approach seemed unable to resolve. The traditional approach was based on detailed design processes to manage specifications and the ability to iterate designs to meet those specifications. The Toyota system was built on the premise of learning – what the customer interests are and how to build the knowledge to meet them. Products are simply the result of integrating the growing knowledge into a continuous rhythm of great products.
Michael Kennedy wrote his first book, Product Development for the Lean Enterprise (Oaklea Press, 2003) while working jointly with Allen Ward on the NCMS project and other joint efforts. The plan was to write a business novel that introduced the change problems and Allen was going to write a textbook to provide more detail. His tragic death in a plane crash cancelled those plans.This book, which was posthumously published last year, showed his thinking at the time; unfortunately, that book did not include recognition of the LAMDA learning process as the foundation of Toyota’s system.
The mission of TCC is to provide systems and methods to enable"Learning-First Product Development" in manufacturing companies. At the UT Dallas PM Symposium in August, Mr. Kennedy will share some of his insights in a talk entitled "Managing To Achieve Excellence in Toyota Product Development."
The 2 Day 2nd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in August will focus on topics important to organizations and industries in North Texas. The Conference will include an Opening Keynote address by UT Dallas President David Daniel, several other keynote presentations during the two days, over 40 professional presentations, three panel discussions, a project management vendors’ exhibition, a Monday evening networking reception, and a closing keynote address.
With a reasonable registration fee and a full professional program, this event is expected to be one of the largest and most important project management conferences in Texas this year. For more general information, to register, or for vendor exhibition information, please visit http://pmsymposium.utdallas.edu/.
The symposium is being sponsored by the Graduate Program in Project Management at The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), in cooperation with the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and PMForum, Inc. Both the PMI Dallas Chapter and UT Dallas are registered education providers with PMI, so attendees receive up to 14 Professional Development Units (PDUs) for PMP recertification. Early registration through July is only $300.
The Project Management Program at UT Dallas provides application-oriented education for professionals with significant project, program or general management responsibilities. Established in the Executive Education center in the School of Management, students have the option of earning a Graduate Certificate in Project Management, a Master of Science degree with an emphasis in project management, or a Master of Business Administration degree with project management emphasis. The UT Dallas PM program, originally developed in 1997, is accredited by the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and is a PMI Registered Education Provider (PMI R.E.P.). The program is taught by world-class faculty with a blend of industrial project management, consulting and teaching experience. Delivered both on campus and online, the program attracts students from across the United States and around the world. For more information, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/.
The PMI Dallas Chapter is a volunteer-based professional association dedicated to supporting the growth and development of project management practitioners, as well as building awareness of the project management discipline and its critical role in business and organization success. With more than 240,000 members in over 160 countries, the Project Management Institute (PMI®) is the world’s leading membership association for the project management profession. Founded in 1984 and with over 4,000 members, the PMI Dallas Chapter is one of the world’s largest PMI components. To learn more about the PMI Dallas Chapter and its service offerings, visit www.pmidallas.org
Established in 1995, www.pmforum.org was the world’s first website devoted to professional project management and is one of the world’s most popular sources of project management news and information. PMForum also produces the monthly online PM World Today eJournal where articles, case studies, papers and stories by leading PM authorities from around the world can be found; free subscriptions are available at www.pmworldtoday.net.Through its Events Partnering Program, PMForum helps develop and support major PM events worldwide. For information,visit
http://www.pmforum.org/events/partner_program.htm.
According to his official bio, Michael retired in 1997 after meeting Dr. Allen Ward from whom he learned about the Toyota Product Development System. That system was fundamentally different from the approach taken at TI and resolved problems naturally that a rigorous process approach seemed unable to resolve. The traditional approach was based on detailed design processes to manage specifications and the ability to iterate designs to meet those specifications. The Toyota system was built on the premise of learning – what the customer interests are and how to build the knowledge to meet them. Products are simply the result of integrating the growing knowledge into a continuous rhythm of great products.
Michael Kennedy wrote his first book, Product Development for the Lean Enterprise (Oaklea Press, 2003) while working jointly with Allen Ward on the NCMS project and other joint efforts. The plan was to write a business novel that introduced the change problems and Allen was going to write a textbook to provide more detail. His tragic death in a plane crash cancelled those plans.This book, which was posthumously published last year, showed his thinking at the time; unfortunately, that book did not include recognition of the LAMDA learning process as the foundation of Toyota’s system.
The mission of TCC is to provide systems and methods to enable"Learning-First Product Development" in manufacturing companies. At the UT Dallas PM Symposium in August, Mr. Kennedy will share some of his insights in a talk entitled "Managing To Achieve Excellence in Toyota Product Development."
The 2 Day 2nd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in August will focus on topics important to organizations and industries in North Texas. The Conference will include an Opening Keynote address by UT Dallas President David Daniel, several other keynote presentations during the two days, over 40 professional presentations, three panel discussions, a project management vendors’ exhibition, a Monday evening networking reception, and a closing keynote address.
With a reasonable registration fee and a full professional program, this event is expected to be one of the largest and most important project management conferences in Texas this year. For more general information, to register, or for vendor exhibition information, please visit http://pmsymposium.utdallas.edu/.
The PMI Dallas Chapter is a volunteer-based professional association dedicated to supporting the growth and development of project management practitioners, as well as building awareness of the project management discipline and its critical role in business and organization success. With more than 240,000 members in over 160 countries, the Project Management Institute (PMI®) is the world’s leading membership association for the project management profession. Founded in 1984 and with over 4,000 members, the PMI Dallas Chapter is one of the world’s largest PMI components. To learn more about the PMI Dallas Chapter and its service offerings, visit www.pmidallas.org
http://www.pmforum.org/events/partner_program.htm.
