Welcome to the April
issue of PM World Today

The Editor’s Perspective on the Current Issue is intended to provide a short overview of the various articles and contributions included in the current edition.  It is also intended to provide some perspective on why the articles should be of interest or why they are included in the first place.  Whether this is read before or after the articles, we hope it is useful.

This month’s Editorial is entitled “The Value of Project Management Conferences – why they are important for individuals, organizations, industry, government & the profession!” Attending a project management conference offers more value and rewards than most people realize.  In addition, there are several good reasons why organizations should participate, why industry and government should support, and why professional PM associations should organize more conferences.  Please read my editorial and let me know your reaction .

We include two Letters to the Editor this month. The first from Earl Glenwright, an American now living in Sofia, is on the subject of “Oil, Projects & PM in Bulgaria” and was in response to a breaking news article on www.pmforum.org about a Russian pipeline project through Bulgaria.   The second is another email from John Ndubuisi in Nigeria, with an update on the activities of “PM Technology Students in Nigeria”.

Two Viewpoints articles are included this month.  Paul Dinsmore and Pedro Ribiero in Brazil provide an excellent article in both English and Portuguese on the subject of “Corporate Governance and Strategic Projects”, an article that senior executives and directors should read carefully.   Michael Young in Australia offers some interesting perspective on “Project Manager Skills Shortage – Disaster or Challenge?”  Both articles are highly worth reading.

There are five Featured Papers this month. Russ Martinelli and Jim Waddell return with the 4th installment in their program management series with “Power, Politics & Program Management.” Mark Kozak-Holland returns this month with his 10th installment in his interesting and popular series on “Churchill the Agile Project Manager”, taking another lesson from history for today’s PM.  Paul Giammalvo in Jakarta contributes a tremendous article on the subject of earned value from a global perspective with his paper entitled “Earned Value - A Leading Indicator of Clean Governance?”  Daniel Galorath once again provides a good paper for software project managers in “Effective Software Sizing”, in which he discusses some critical factors to be considered during the estimating process.  Finally, Donald Pillitteri has contributed a paper this month entitled “Ingredients to a Successful Project Team: The 4Fs - Focus, Freedom, Fun and Family”, based on his project experience at Kodak.

Second Edition is an exciting new feature this month, where selected high quality papers previously published in another journal in a language other than English, will be republished here in both English and the original language.  This month we feature an interesting paper by Professor Vladimir Voropajev and Masha Cates Voropajev on the subject of “Integration of Russia into the Global Project Management Community.”  The authors review the history of modern project management in Russia, and the history of both IPMA and the Russian Project Management Association SOVNET.  They then review SOVNET accomplishments over the first 15 years, current status and future plans.  For anyone with an interest in Russia, this is a very interesting read.

Our PM Tips & Techniques papers provide a convenient and useful opportunity for project management consultants, experts, trainers and vendors to contribute to the eJournal, with helpful suggestions.  We offer three such papers in this issue.  In her paper “Project Management – art or skill?” Fumiko Kondo, Managing Director at Intellilink, provides a roadmap for identifying future project managers and an approach for developing their capabilities. Suresh Malladi, a Client Services Manager with a major software firm in Philadelphia, offers some good advice for project team members in his paper “Fostering Communications – is about planning, process and people!”  Darshana Patel, Vice President with OnSite, provides an excellent discussion of project governance in her paper “Why Executives Should Care about Project Governance: What your peers are doing about it!”

Ten Regional Reports are included this month, the most ever, from our international correspondents in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France, Greece, Nigeria, Peru, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom.  Regional reports provide a snapshot of the PM profession in various parts of the world.  This section of PM World Today will continue to grow as correspondents are added in more cities and countries around the world.  This section will also provide a more global picture of conditions, trends, developments, and opportunities in the world of professional project management. We thank our international correspondents for sharing news, information and personal perspectives from these important regions of the World of PM. 

Two Book Reviews are included in the April issue.  A review of “Fundamentals of Project Management” (3rd edition, 2006) by James Lewis is included from Natalie Davis.  A review of “Project Leadership” (2003) by Timothy Kloppenborg, Arthur Shriberg, and Jayashree Venkatraman was provided by Jamita Machen.  Ms. Davis and Ms. Machen are graduate students in the Project Management MBA program at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).  Please see their reviews for a useful overview on these two project management books.

The balance of this month’s PM World Today features calls for papers, announcements of future events, news, information and stories that have been featured over the last 30 days as breaking news articles on www.pmforum.org.  We hope the inclusion of those stories is helpful, especially those announcing future PM events and Calls for Papers.

I want to welcome Mr. Adesh Jain, current Chair of the International Project Management Association (IPMA), to the PMF/PMWT Global Advisory Panel this month.  Mr. Jain is also Managing Director of the Centre for Excellence in Project Management Ltd. (India), President of PM Guru, Inc. (USA), and Honorary President of Project Management Associates (PMA - India).  His addition continues our process of adding global leaders from the project management profession to this illustrious panel of advisors.  Please see the article announcing his addition under PM Community News.

I also want to welcome our newest International Editorial Advisor Professor Brane Semolic, PhD, Senator and Head of the Project and Technology Institute in the Faculty of Logistics at the University of Maribor, in Maribor, Slovenia.  Professor Semolic is also Head of the European Masters in Project Management at the University of Maribor, and visiting professor of project management at the University of Bilbao in Spain.  Please see the article about his participation and background under PM Community News.

We also extend a warm welcome to Mr. Ed Naughton, our newest International Correspondent, who lives in Dublin and will be providing us with news and information from Ireland on a regular basis.  Please read the article announcing his participation that is included in the PM Community News section of this issue.

We want to welcome a new sponsor this month, Threon Group, a Belgium-based PM consultancy with offices throughout Europe. We want to thank all of our sponsors this month, which include the IPMA,Journyx, Threon and PMForum.  Please visit their websites for some exciting PM products, publications and services.  Sponsors receive visibility and publicity in the PM World Today e-Journal that is emailed to thousands of PM practitioners and professionals worldwide, and on the PMWT home page at www.pmworldtoday.net. If your organization is interested in sponsoring an issue of PM World Today please contact editor@pmforum.org.

Thank you for your subscription, and for reading the articles submitted by our authors and contributors.  We are excited about the future of this online publication.  Please send this to a friend or sign up for a free subscription at : http://www.pmworldtoday.net/subscribe/subscribe.htm.  

 

We really are “Connecting the World of Project Management.” 

Good luck with your projects!
David L. Pells
Managing Editor
PM World Today