Russell Archibald, PhD (Hon), PMP, PMI Fellow, is a globally-recognized author, consultant and lecturer on project management. With a career spanning more than 50 years, Russ has broad international experience in engineering, operations, program and project management. He has experienced three project management related careers: Management Consultant, Corporate Executive, and Military/Aerospace. In recent years, He has consulted to a wide variety of large and small organizations in many industries and in 12 countries on 4 continents. Russ Archibald is a Fellow and Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) (member No. 6, one of the five original trustees), an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Project Management (APM/IPMA) in the UK, and is listed in Who's Who in the World. Russ is the author of 3 editions of the best-selling book, “Managing High- Technology Programs and Projects” (1976, 1992, and 2003, also published in Japanese, Italian, Italian, Russian and Chinese) and the co-author of “Network Based Management Information Systems (PERT/CPM)” (1967). Russ has presented many papers over the years at PMI and International Project Management Association (IPMA) conferences in North America, South America, and Europe, and is widely published in periodicals on professional project management. He holds Bachelor of Science (University of Missouri) and Master of Science (University of Texas, Austin) degrees in Mechanical Engineering. As a pioneer in the field, Russ received an honorary Ph.D. in strategy, program, and project management from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Lille (ESC-Lille) in Lille, France in August 2005. Currently residing in Mexico, Russ Archibald’s personal website can be found at www.russarchibald.com, and he can be contacted at Russell_archibald@yahoo.com.
Editor’s Note: Russ Archibald is a founder of PMI and one of the pioneers in the field of professional project management. He has been an active supporter of PMForum and PM World Today for many years. A recognized supporter and mentor for many professional leaders around the world of project management, Russ is well known throughout North and South America, Europe, Russia and elsewhere for his global knowledge, research, professionalism and personal warmth. Part one of our interview with Russ, published in the September edition of PM World Today, dealt with the first part of Russ’ career as he witnessed and participated in the beginnings of professional project management. (see Part 1 at http://www.pmforum.org/library/interviews/2008/PDFs/Archibald-9-08.pdf.) Part 2 of the interview with Russ focused on his participation in and knowledge about the formation and early years of the Project Management Institute and the PM profession in North America. (see Part 2 at http://www.pmworldtoday.net/interviews/2008/oct.htm.) Part 3 includes Russ’ memories and knowledge of the early years of the PM profession outside of North America. Part 4 will deal with Russ’ recent research, his observations about the current state of the project management world, and his predictions for the future of this field.
PM World Today (PMWT): Let’s change focus now and consider the rest of the world. Were you aware of the discussions and meetings occurring in Europe that resulted in the startup of INTERNET (Now the International Project Management Association (IPMA)) in the 1967 timeframe?
Russ Archibald: In 1972 I was invited to be the keynote speaker for the “Third International Congress on Project Planning by Network Techniques, INTERNET 72,” in Stockholm, Sweden, May 15-19, 1972. There were 145 papers presented in 5 streams during this 5 day Congress. This was my first contact with IPMA, then called INTERNET. It was a big Congress as I recall, with something like 800 people participating. This was the 3rd INTERNET Congress: the 1st was in Vienna in 1967 and the 2nd in Amsterdam in 1969. I was not aware of any of this activity until I received the 1972 invitation to speak in Stockholm.
My 1972 keynote presentation was titled “Management Information Systems for Projects and for Organizations: A Comparative Overview.” The proceedings of this Congress were published in 3 volumes totaling 666 pages, with my paper on pages 1 to 13. [Editor’s note: Russ’ 1972 paper can be found in the Second Editions category of the November edition of PM World Today – at www.pmworldtoday.net.]
Of course I met many new friends in Stockholm and also saw a number of old friends and acquaintances there: Ivars Avots, Dr. Larry Bennigson, Dr.Prof. Goeffrey Trimble, Sebastian Dworatschek, Al Feiler, Bob Gillis, Dennis Gower, Jack Grimshaw, Roland Gutsch, Steen Lichtenberg, Klaus Pannenbacker, and Sam Phelan, who all presented papers at INTERNET 72. We either knew each other from earlier encounters in the US or UK, or became good new friends and in some cases collaborators over the years. Dr. LarryBennigson, then a professor at the Harvard Business School in Boston, had presented a paper at the second annual PMI Seminar/Symposium in St. Louis MO in 1970, for example.
One major highlight for me of that Stockholm INTERNET 72 Congress was my first meeting with Dr. Peter Norden of IBM, who presented a paper there titled “On the Integration of Project Management and Information Systems.” Peter was the father of IBM’s PMS 360 application package (for IBM’s 360 mainframe computer), released in the mid to late 1960s, which I used with a number of clients and within several ITT Corp. companies on 3 continents. Peter also was the author of a seminal paper on project management titled “On the Anatomy of Development Projects,” published in the IRE Trans-Engineering Management, vol. 7, 1960, pp 34-42, which had a great influence on me and my understanding of and interest in project management. I was sorely tempted but decided not to accept a job offer from Peter a year or so later to join his staff at IBM in Poughkeepsie, New York.
As most of your PMFORUM and PM World Today readers know, IPMA today is an international network consisting of 45 national project management associations in as many countries all over the world. Its next big event is the IPMA 22nd World Congress in Rome, Italy, Nov. 9-12, 2008. (See http://www.ipmaroma2008.it/ ) I will be presenting a paper there titled “The Interfaces Between Strategic Management of an Enterprise and Project Portfolio Management Within the Enterprise.”
Read complete interview in English
