Editor’s note: Max Wideman is a retired Canadian professional engineer and project manager with experience in systems, social and environmental projects, as well as design, engineering and construction projects. He is a Fellow of the Project Management Institute, of which he is past president and chairman, and for whom he developed the 1987 version of the Project Management Body of Knowledge. He also enjoys Fellow status in the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering. Max has lectured or presented papers in eleven countries and has contributed books, chapters, papers and articles on many project management topics. His latest book is A Management Framework for Project, Program and Portfolio Integration, Trafford, BC, 2004. Comprehensive coverage of project management theory and practice can be found on his web site at http://www.maxwideman.com. The interview below was conducted over the last few months by David Pells, managing editor of PM World Today.
PMWT: Max, how did you first get interested in "project management", and when did it happen?
Max Wideman : I suspect that the seeds for project management were sewn long, long ago when my father first admonished me for never ever finishing some "project" or other that I had started. Consequently, my bedroom was strewn with things like unfinished Meccano models, half carved wooden boats, copy-printing jellies that didn't quite set (and that was in the days of carbon copying), and the like. So, when I did manage to get my first "project" finished, an elaborate treadle car for an eight-year-old, there was an enormous sense of satisfaction.
Of course, it was not until years later that the issue of "process" became paramount. That was when I was practicing in the field on construction projects. It seemed to me that there must be some logical sequence, but that a lot of people had difficulty in getting it right, with resulting chaos, mayhem and wasted effort. Still later I was involved in preparing legal contracts for construction work. That's when I discovered it takes a special kind of lawyer to understand the construction process, preferably a person who had first taken an engineering degree before migrating into law.
In struggling with conflicts and claims under construction contracts I came to realize that most of the problems were generated by flawed concepts or plans. In other words, a lot had already gone on, long before construction was started. Even today, a lot of people do not recognize a project until production work actually starts. But that drove me "upstream" so to speak with the question: "When does a project really start?" and "What is the ideal generic model?" - and that's where we are today.
Read complete interview in English
