17 December, 2007

Dear Editor

I am trying to solve a very difficult problem, which may not be solvable. In trying to solve this problem, I discovered PMFORUM.org -- a very nice site.

It occurred to me that you might have a suggestion I have not thought of.

The problem:

I am 65, and currently looking for a job. I was recently laid off, and I am not ready to retire. I just passed my PMP exam and have been a project manager for 10+ years.

While I can somewhat readily find a job in the U.S., my ideal would be to find a project management job in Europe.

However, in Europe the mandatory retirement age is 65.

The only way I could do this that I can think of is to get a job in a large multinational company like IBM. However, most companies like IBM are not going to hire someone and then send them to Europe.

My question: do you have any ideas on how to solve my problem in general, and/or how I could specifically identify multi-national companies that would be most likely to send someone like myself on business to Europe?

Many thanks for your consideration of this.

Regards,
Craig Jensen
Sr. Project Manager
CraigLJensen@comcast.net

Editor’s note:  In response to his email, Mr. Jensen was asked to send a little background information.  He responded as follows:  “I have 10+ years experience as a project manager working in financial services, banking, insurance, retailing and IT industries; skilled at managing multiple complex projects; I achieve high customer satisfaction levels on projects. Have much experience coordinating virtual teams of 20 to 60 people throughout the U.S., Germany and India. I welcome fast-paced challenging projects, and excel at bringing them to a successful conclusion.” 

If anyone has interest in speaking with Mr. Jensen, please contact him via email.

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Kudos and congratulations

18 December, 2007

Dear David,

Kudos and congratulations to you and the PMForum Staff, namely its Technical Director and Webmaster Nelson Soucek, as well as your great network of International Correspondents, for your December issue. PM World Today is far more than a newsletter, and I recommend that you rename it as an e-magazine at least.

I found something of great interest in each of your departments: especially your Editorial, Viewpoints, Featured Papers, Regional Reports, Calls for Papers, and each of the News sections. There is no other source that I am aware of that gives this global perspective on what is happening in the field of project management, which of course now must include portfolio, program, and project management. It is fascinating to me to tour the world so rapidly by reading through the 13 Regional Reports from 4 continents/regions. But there were none from the USA or Asia this time!

I think it is very valuable that you publish featured papers from outside the usual sources of English-as-a-first-language countries, and I found Stanislaw Gasik's UPMM – A Full Model for Portfolio Management paper from Poland and Bas De Baar's Why do Developers contribute to Open Source? paper from the Netherlands to contain very useful and interesting contributions and ideas. There are many great ideas and experiences in project management and other fields from many countries that we never hear about because they do not get translated into English. I hope that you will continue to encourage and publish papers like these. A note to the authors in those countries: Please don't worry about perfection in the translations!! Just do it!

Your Editorial mentioned the dedicated work for 11 years by David Curling in establishing the original PM Forum. I served with David Curling on the Board of IPMA (called INTERNET in the early days, until the Internet came along) for most of those years, and can attest to his intense devotion to project management and his obvious interest in promoting global communications among PM practitioners, consultants, teachers, trainers, and software vendors. The last time I saw David was a chance encounter with his wife Lois when my wife Marion and I were walking across the beautiful, historic, shop-laden Ponte Vecchio in Florence, after the 1992 IPMA Congress in that city. Prof. Dr. Steen Lichtenberg (from Denmark) and I had just given our co-authored keynote paper, "Experiences Using Next Generation Management Practices -- the Future Has Already Begun!," at that Congress. The paper focused on risk management using Steen's "Successive Principle," described as a new logic for planning under uncertainty. Anyone interested in that -- still a powerful team-planning methodology -- can see a summary treatment of it on pages 236-240 of my book, Managing High-Technology Programs and Projects (Wiley 2003.) (Perhaps you would like to publish those five pages in a future issue of PM World Today.)

Your accomplishments during 2007 are certainly very impressive, and I'm sure that all of your subscribers and sponsors wish you even greater success in 2008.

Russ Archibald
PMI Fellow – PMI Member No. 6
San Miguel de Allende
Mexico

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A Tribute to Max Wideman

29 December, 2007

Dear David,

I read your wonderful coverage of Max Wideman interview with PM World Today. A growing project management community like PM Forum needs people with such experience and lasting contribution to project management.
It takes courage to do what Max is doing in one developing profession. From tagging the PMBOK in the 1984 to an outstanding website www.maxwideman.com and TenStep’s PortfolioStep™, Max is staying at the top of the knowledge based project management. If anyone deserves recognition for long time framing of project management, it is Max.

My experience with Max is simple; a professional and positive moving. While many of my correspondence with top ranking project management professionals did not always help me moving forward with my thoughts, Max was all the time there. I usually posted a question and Max sent a pragmatic answer. He did not hesitate to read hundreds of pages of my manuscripts and help with his written comments. I don’t know how much this is a kind word, but he did the things just the way I could learn.

Reading Max’s papers and books, as well as sharing of information with Max, has been always beneficial; you usually get back valuable information or questions, which elevate your thinking into a strategic image of the problem. Although, his writings could not be instantly understood or perceived, you will embrace it later. For example, in 1997, he promoted the objective that the next century project management “Does not impose any proprietary view of project management”, (Project Management Knowledge Structure for 21st Century, Objectives for structuring PMKS”, www.maxwideman.com)! Today, I think, this should be a corner stone to overcome a tribal culture in development of project management system. 

While most of his colleagues take pleasure in retirement, disconnecting themselves from the project management world, Max is developing his prestigious website. Whenever I visited his website I usually learned something I did not know before. And, in the same time, Max never asked you for “Sign in”, “User Name”, “Password”, “Membership” or to read unsolicited emails. In the past ten years, the website has grown beyond expectations and it has been very useful to project managers all over the globe.

I visited Max’s website recently and read his paper ”Ten Step to Comprehensive Project Management”. As I have all respect for his temperament, energy and deep understanding of knowledge based project management, I am sure that this endeavor is not a risky one; in fact it can be the next big thing. While there are many systems in options, there are not many project management professionals uniquely suited by background, experience and to the role of successful mentor for development and support of this system. Therefore, we should watch closely what is going on regarding Max’s new and innovative approach - TenStep’s PortfolioStep™.

Sincerely,

Muhamed Abdomerovic, Dipl, Eng, PMP
Louisville, Kentucky, USA
mabdomerovic@insightbb.com