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Project management world summit and awards 2019

Recently, I was invited to the Project World Summit and Awards 2019 to moderate panel discussions on “Waterfall vs. Agile: Which is the Right Development Methodology for Your Project?” It was great to share the stage for panel discussion with eminent thought leaders – Bharat Bhagat from PMI Mumbai Chapter, Gautam Bhatia from Yes Bank, Manwendra Singh from Pune PMI Chapter and Priya Patra at Project Management World Summit and Awards 2019.

Learning’s from Agile transformations:

–     Does Agile enhance the quality of our products?
–    Does Agile come with overheads in terms of ceremonies? And many such interesting discussions were there in our panel discussion at Transformance Forums Project Management World Summit and Awards.

There were also interactive discussions with the audience. It was proud moment to moderate the stage with the stalwarts of the project management field.

I also presented my views in a separate presentation on Project predictability as a technique to improve the bottom line. I covered the challenges being faced by project managers along with tools and techniques to address some of those challenges. It was quite an engaging and inspiring talk.

This was also followed by a round table discussion, “Changing Paradigms of Project Scope Management”. The table consisted of several expert project management professionals from different industries. I was happy to share my thoughts on how we control scope and effectively use project management to deal with stakeholders. The thoughts were well received.

There were several other topics which were discussed & I found the day spent quite enriching.

More pictures in photo gallery.


Why

The Origins of some of our strange customs…
  
WHY – Why do men’s clothes have buttons on the right, while women’s clothes have buttons on the left? 
BECAUSE
When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. As wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid’s right! And that’s where women’s buttons have remained since.
 
WHY –Why do ships and aircraft use ‘Mayday!’ as their call for help? 
BECAUSE
This comes from the French word m’aidez_ – meaning, ‘help me’ – and is pronounced, approximately, ‘Mayday.’
 
WHY – Why are zero scores in tennis called ‘love’? 
BECAUSE
In France, where tennis became popular, the round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called ‘l’oeuf,’ which is French for ‘the egg.’ When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans (naturally), mispronounced it ‘love.’ And then the word stuck on.
 
WHY – Why do X’s at the end of a letter signify kisses? 
BECAUSE
In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous.
 
WHY – Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called ‘passing the buck’? 
BECAUSE
In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility of dealing, he would ‘pass the buck’ to the next player.
 
WHY – Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast? 
BECAUSE
In earlier times it used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would only touch or clink the host’s glass with his own.
 
WHY – Why are people in the public eye said to be ‘in the limelight’? 
BECAUSE
Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and theatres by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theatre, a performer ‘in the limelight’ was the center of attention.
 
WHY – Why is someone who is feeling great ‘on cloud nine’? 
BECAUSE
Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, then that person is floating well above worldly cares.
 
WHY – In golf, where did the term ‘Caddie’ come from? 
BECAUSE
When Mary, Queen of Scots, went to France as a young girl; Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the Scots game ‘golf.’ He had the first course outside of Scotland built for her enjoyment. To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from a military school to accompany her. Mary liked this lot and when she returned to Scotland (not a very good idea in the long run), she took the practice home with her. In French, the word cadet is pronounced ‘ca-day’ and the Scots changed it into caddie.
 
WHY – Why are many coin collection jar banks shaped like pigs? 
BECAUSE
Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of dense orange clay called ‘pygg’. When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the jars became known as ‘pygg banks.’ When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a container that resembled a pig. And it caught on.
Biren Parekh