INTERVIEW

Interview with Dr. Martin Barnes

Part I – To Projects & Project Management

Project Management Pioneer
APM Honorary Fellow
Current President of APM, UK

Editor’s Note: Martin Barnes is one of the world’s most respected authorities on the subject of modern programme and project management. We are honored to provide this first glimpse into his personal history, which also parallels the early development and growth of the project management professional field. Part II, to be published in a future edition of PM World Today, will include Martin’s memories and reflections on the project management profession itself..

PM World Today (PMWT): Where are you from originally? What steered your course into studying Engineering at University?

Martin Barnes: I was born and brought up in Birmingham, the UK’s second city. I was very lucky to go to the best school in the city. At age about 16 I knew I wanted to be an engineer although not sure what sort – mechanical or civil. I knew what engineers produced and opted for civil engineering as their products seemed more exciting. I was totally ignorant of what engineers actually did week by week .I started my civil engineering degree course at Imperial College, University of London in1957..

This engineering perspective changed from 1961, after I had joined a company called Civil & Civic Pty Limited. (I had had four different employers in the meantime). Civil & Civic had already been in the project management business for some time, but not yet on a large scale. It is probably worthwhile discussing the evolution of project management in Civil & Civic from the mid-1950s, because it evolved quite independently of any external influences.

PMWT: What topics did you study at University and how did that prepare you for a career involved with projects? It seems that you became interested in engineering projects quite early, and focused some of your research on the subject? What were some of your early research topics related to projects and project management? When were those research projects done? Can you remember any interesting details?

Barnes: Being at University in London as a young man in the late 1950s was tremendous fun.. There were so many exciting distractions and no way parents would get to know what I was doing unless I told them. I earned money at weekends playing in a Dixieland Jazz band. I spent the first long vacation working on a farm in Germany, the second on a major road building project in the UK and the third in the soil mechanics lab at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

PMWT: What was your first major project after university? What were some of the highlights? How did you spend the first ten years of your professional career? How did you actually come to focus your professional career on projects and project management?

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