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 focuses on Russ’ participation in and knowledge about the formation and early years of the Project Management Institute. Part 3 will look at Russ’ knowledge of the early days of INTERNET (IPMA) in Europe and professional PM in other parts of the world. Part 4 will deal with Russ’ recent research, his observations about the state of the world of project management, and his predictions for the future of this field.
PM World Today (PMWT): From Part 1 of our interview, you indicated that you met Eric Jenett, one of PMI’s other Founders, in the 1960s. When and how did you meet Eric, and did you work with him or Brown and Root? If so, in what capacity?
Russ Archibald: When I was with Hughes Dynamics in Los Angeles about 1962 or 3 I got acquainted on the job with a fellow named Jim Campise, who worked for the Hughes Tool Company in Houston. Hughes Tool operated then (I suppose they still do) operated one of the largest machine shops in the Southwest US for manufacture of oil tools, and also ran a major machine-tool rebuilding service. I discovered that Jim was using “a modified version of PERT” very effectively on “an IBM CPM system in 1410 System mode” to schedule and control this operation, which was basically a classic, large ‘job-shop.’
At my request, Jim wrote a 15 page case study on this, which you can read in Richard Villoria and my 1967 book (pp 280-295) “Network-Based Management Systems (PERT/CPM)”. Along the way Jim introduced me to Eric Jenett, who was a chemical engineer (a bit later Vice President of Chemical Engineering – see what PM can do for you!) with Brown & Root, with whom Jim had done some consulting on CPM/PERT. Eric had developed a big CPM network plan that he called “Generalized Engineering Plan” that he wanted to get processed so he could optimize the logic and then adapt it to his specific projects for client facility design and construction projects. This network had a few thousand activities, so we had to use an IBM 7094 mainframe computer.
It was easy for Brown & Root and Eric to give us a contract, as a part of the Hughes empire, to process and debug Eric’s network in Los Angeles and ship the reports to Houston. We provided that service to Eric and B&R for several of their big DPC projects, until they built up their internal capability. There is another case study (written by H. S. Coumbe of Brown & Root) in our 1967 book (pp.295 to 308) about the design and construction of a Champion Paper plant in Pasadena, Texas, by Brown & Root.
Read complete interview in English
