Professional Development Summit 2020
  • Home
  • Registration
  • Program
    • 2023 Session One >
      • Employer Panel
      • Juliet Turpin
      • Ross Saunders
      • Chris Keevill
      • Natalie Ripp
    • 2023 Session Two >
      • Women in Technology Panel
      • Susan Power
      • Robert Newcombe
      • Greg Kirczenow
      • Zafar Muhammad
    • 2023 Session Three >
      • Agile Panel
      • Carlo Carandang
      • Graham MacDougall
      • Jessica Reid
      • Angela Arsenault
  • Keynote - Shawn Kanungo
  • Sponsor
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • PDS Committee
  • Previous Events
    • 2019 Program >
      • Opening Address - Chris Crowell
      • Mike Lipkin - Keynote
      • 2019 Session One >
        • Precious Williams
        • 2019 Robert Newcombe
        • Martin Davis
        • Women in IT Mini-Panel
        • Dawson Mossman
      • 2019 Session Two >
        • 2019 Susan Power
        • Doug Denny
        • Karla Pooley
        • Blockchain Mini Panel
        • Thomas Ley
      • 2019 Session Three >
        • Tracy Zwicker-Forbes
        • James Slupsky
        • Kim Scaravelli
        • Nachiket Parab
        • Chris Mitchell
    • 2018 Program >
      • Jim Harris Morning Keynote Speaker
      • Jim Harris Lunch Keynote Speaker
      • 2018 Session One >
        • Jean-Claude Beaudry
        • John Robertson
        • Chris Fullerton
        • Bill Carroll
        • Ian Ghent
      • 2018 Session Two >
        • Danielle Comeau
        • Stephen Smith
        • Martha Wenc
        • Andrew Pery
        • Mini-panel - Evolution of Technology
      • 2018 Session Three >
        • Charles Villanyi Bokor
        • Melanie Gallant
        • Mini-panel PM Stories
        • Tim Dickinson
        • James Slupsky
      • 2018 Session Four >
        • Perry McLeod
        • John Buckley
        • Emad Rizkalla
        • Michelle Murray
    • 2017 Program >
      • Ted Graham Keynote Speaker
      • 2017 Executive Panel >
        • Fawn Annan - Moderator
        • Peter Burns
        • Sandra Cascadden
        • Roman Coba
        • Spiro Bokolas
        • Jeremy Wubs
      • 2017 Session One >
        • Dianne Gaudet
        • Kevin Schwenker
        • Brenda Fay
        • Matthew Leach
        • Jeremy McCurdy
      • 2017 Session Two >
        • Katalin Allen
        • Victor Zhu
        • Gary Cox
        • Robin Veinotte
        • Nathan Dennison
      • 2017 Session Three >
        • Ian MacNeil and Carrie Forbes
        • John Trites
        • Teri Fearn
        • Brian Fanning
        • Anas Aman
      • 2017 Session Four >
        • Victoria Mcintosh
        • John Robertson
        • Emily Hemlow
        • Jordan Kyriakidis
        • Patrick Rogers
    • 2016 Program >
      • 2016 Keynotes >
        • Jennifer Gillivan - Opening Keynote
        • Perry Monaco - Lunch Keynote
      • 2016 Session One >
        • Ian MacVicar
        • Natalie Doyle Oldfield
        • Victor Zhu
        • Grant Sullivan and Greg Foran
      • 2016 Session Two >
        • Livia Botyanszki Boss
        • Ron RIchard
        • Patricia Uptegrove
        • Dale Kehler and Lynn Clark
      • 2016 Session Three >
        • Catherine Vardy
        • Devin Cameron and Melissa Reid
        • Steve Caseley
        • Victoria McIntosh 2016
      • 2016 Session Four >
        • Louise Harris
        • Mike Frenette
        • Stephen Doiron
        • Tim Pratt
    • 2015 Program >
      • 2015 Session One
      • 2015 Session Two
      • 2015 Session Three
      • 2015 Session Four
    • 2014 Presentations
    • 2013 Presentations
    • 2013 Workshops
    • 2012 Presentations
    • 2012 Workshops
    • 2011 Presentations
Picture
Charles Villanyi Bokor

Leading Enormous and Complex Projects​

​Presentation Synopsis:  In the last two decades, the size of some projects grew and exceeded all upper bounds. These enormous and complex projects (programs) have unmanageably large number of: functions and resulting lines of code; development teams comprised of people with different skills; stakeholders; different and changing requirements that have corresponding outputs; cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take many years to develop and deploy. They impact the organization in such a fundamental way that most operational people resist them. We will call these totally overwhelming, all consuming, centers of the organization’s focus, Black Hole Projects (BHP) [3- Villanyi Bokor, 2017] because they are analogous to the most exciting concept in the universe. 


​Developing BHPs with a standard development methodology that is focused on producing outputs that are based on requested requirements, under a governance structure that is slow and mostly administrative, has proven to result in outcomes that are less successful than desired. BHPs take significantly longer, than planned in the initial project schedule, cost more than initially estimated and do not deliver the critical success criteria of the vision set at the start. “According to a 2013 Strategy&/Katzenbach Center survey of global senior executives… the success rate of major change initiatives [BHPs] is only 54 percent”. [A- Katzenbach, 2014] While according to this, only 54% of the BHPs deliver their expected outcome, based on empirical evidence, only the exceptional BHP is successful, often due to luck. 

In short, most organizations do not know how to develop enormously large and complex systems, but as they think they know, they attempt them and hence fail them by design. The worldwide cost of failing very, very large projects is between $3 and $6.2 trillion per year. This is unconscionable.

The most significant cause of such poor results (we suspect) includes: our tolerance for even smart people, to do stupid things; the (enormously large) size, resulting complexity and long development time of the project; inadequate pre-development problem and business requirements definition; an output focused requirements management process; and a project management plan that overlooks the organizational capacity (due to the portfolio of projects already underway) and capability (limited by the available skill sets) to undertake such projects. In other words, we fail projects by using a methodology that was not designed for BHPs, in its standard (i.e. not unique to the organization and the project) form, and developing under a project governance structure that does not support the project’s needs.

As BHPs are built to enable a new paradigm, and as projects’ probability of success varies inversely with their size, we need to limit projects’ non-vital functionality hence, reduce their size, complexity and length of time used to develop them, and assemble them out of sub-projects rather than subdividing them into sub-projects. We must use a customized, unique and iterative BHP development methodology, project specific governance structure, empower and responsibilize Business Analysts and replace the Project Manager with a Project Leader.


Speaker’s Bio:  Charles Villanyi Bokor, is a Strategic Management Consultant focused on Transforming Business Processes, Leading [the Recovery of Problem] Projects, Strategic Planning, Education, and Leading to Better Decisions. Charles works mostly in Ottawa but has worked in Florida, Wales, Malaysia, Sweden and Australia.

Charles was the Program Director of the Professional Corporate Performance Management Certificate Program at Sprott, U. of Carleton, where he taught Problem Project Management, Logic in Business Decisions and Total Cost of Services. He has also taught at U. de Montréal, U. de Chicoutimi, Lasalle College, was the speaker on several occasions and published several White Papers. 

Charles has a Diploma in Management from McGill U., an Executive Development Certificate, a M.Sc. Mathematics from U. de Grenoble and one from U. de Montréal and a B. Sc. Mathematics from Sir George Williams U.. He was Certified Management Consultant (CMC), ITIL Certified, was Governor for International Council for Computer Communications (ICCC), Member, Business Process Management Professionals BPM Institute and Member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).​


 Partner Associations Include:
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
2023
  • Home
  • Registration
  • Program
    • 2023 Session One >
      • Employer Panel
      • Juliet Turpin
      • Ross Saunders
      • Chris Keevill
      • Natalie Ripp
    • 2023 Session Two >
      • Women in Technology Panel
      • Susan Power
      • Robert Newcombe
      • Greg Kirczenow
      • Zafar Muhammad
    • 2023 Session Three >
      • Agile Panel
      • Carlo Carandang
      • Graham MacDougall
      • Jessica Reid
      • Angela Arsenault
  • Keynote - Shawn Kanungo
  • Sponsor
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • PDS Committee
  • Previous Events
    • 2019 Program >
      • Opening Address - Chris Crowell
      • Mike Lipkin - Keynote
      • 2019 Session One >
        • Precious Williams
        • 2019 Robert Newcombe
        • Martin Davis
        • Women in IT Mini-Panel
        • Dawson Mossman
      • 2019 Session Two >
        • 2019 Susan Power
        • Doug Denny
        • Karla Pooley
        • Blockchain Mini Panel
        • Thomas Ley
      • 2019 Session Three >
        • Tracy Zwicker-Forbes
        • James Slupsky
        • Kim Scaravelli
        • Nachiket Parab
        • Chris Mitchell
    • 2018 Program >
      • Jim Harris Morning Keynote Speaker
      • Jim Harris Lunch Keynote Speaker
      • 2018 Session One >
        • Jean-Claude Beaudry
        • John Robertson
        • Chris Fullerton
        • Bill Carroll
        • Ian Ghent
      • 2018 Session Two >
        • Danielle Comeau
        • Stephen Smith
        • Martha Wenc
        • Andrew Pery
        • Mini-panel - Evolution of Technology
      • 2018 Session Three >
        • Charles Villanyi Bokor
        • Melanie Gallant
        • Mini-panel PM Stories
        • Tim Dickinson
        • James Slupsky
      • 2018 Session Four >
        • Perry McLeod
        • John Buckley
        • Emad Rizkalla
        • Michelle Murray
    • 2017 Program >
      • Ted Graham Keynote Speaker
      • 2017 Executive Panel >
        • Fawn Annan - Moderator
        • Peter Burns
        • Sandra Cascadden
        • Roman Coba
        • Spiro Bokolas
        • Jeremy Wubs
      • 2017 Session One >
        • Dianne Gaudet
        • Kevin Schwenker
        • Brenda Fay
        • Matthew Leach
        • Jeremy McCurdy
      • 2017 Session Two >
        • Katalin Allen
        • Victor Zhu
        • Gary Cox
        • Robin Veinotte
        • Nathan Dennison
      • 2017 Session Three >
        • Ian MacNeil and Carrie Forbes
        • John Trites
        • Teri Fearn
        • Brian Fanning
        • Anas Aman
      • 2017 Session Four >
        • Victoria Mcintosh
        • John Robertson
        • Emily Hemlow
        • Jordan Kyriakidis
        • Patrick Rogers
    • 2016 Program >
      • 2016 Keynotes >
        • Jennifer Gillivan - Opening Keynote
        • Perry Monaco - Lunch Keynote
      • 2016 Session One >
        • Ian MacVicar
        • Natalie Doyle Oldfield
        • Victor Zhu
        • Grant Sullivan and Greg Foran
      • 2016 Session Two >
        • Livia Botyanszki Boss
        • Ron RIchard
        • Patricia Uptegrove
        • Dale Kehler and Lynn Clark
      • 2016 Session Three >
        • Catherine Vardy
        • Devin Cameron and Melissa Reid
        • Steve Caseley
        • Victoria McIntosh 2016
      • 2016 Session Four >
        • Louise Harris
        • Mike Frenette
        • Stephen Doiron
        • Tim Pratt
    • 2015 Program >
      • 2015 Session One
      • 2015 Session Two
      • 2015 Session Three
      • 2015 Session Four
    • 2014 Presentations
    • 2013 Presentations
    • 2013 Workshops
    • 2012 Presentations
    • 2012 Workshops
    • 2011 Presentations