Volume IX - Issue X - October 2007
Editor's Perspective
Welcome to the October Welcome to the October edition of PM World Today. The Editor’s Perspective on the Current Issue provides a short overview of the articles and contributions included in the current edition. This edition of PM World Today again contains a lot of articles and papers, including several in both English and Spanish languages. This issue also reflects our continuing growth and globalization, with news about projects and project management from around the world of project management. This month’s Editorial is on the subject of “The important but under-appreciated role of consultants in the Project Management world”. In my opinion, project management consultants sometimes get a bad rap. This article is intended to shed some light on some of the important roles that consultants play in the world of PM. If fact, I argue that PM consultants are a critical, indispensable and valuable element of the PM world. Please read the editorial and let me know your reaction in a Letter to the Editor. Three Letters to the Editor are included this month. Lew Ireland, PMI Fellow, writes from Georgia in his email “On the Subject of Disaster Response’. In response to my August editorial on that subject, Lew provides a few comments and a suggested resource as “a starting point for investigating how project management may be used to recover from natural disasters.” Paul Giammalvo in Jakarta in his “On Project Complexity” agrees with last month’s letter to the editor by Bill Duncan. Michael Knapp in Sydney, Australia responds to Max Wideman’s September letter in an email we have entitled “On project management vs. project financing”. Mr. Knapp argues that project financing expertise and responsibilities should be kept separate from project management, for accountability and governance reasons. This seems like an interesting position worth more discussion. One Viewpoint article is included this month, contributed by Dr. Paul Giammalvo from Jakarta, Indonesia. This paper is actually a “Report from the Systems Dynamic Society Meeting in Boston and a call for incorporating more Systems Thinking in Project Management. According to Paul, “And lets get the PMBOK into the public domain!” Please read Paul’s report from his trip to Boston and let us know what you think. This month, we are happy to include a Featured Interview with Max Wideman, Fellow and former president and chair of PMI. A retired professional engineer and construction project manager in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Max is one of the best known project management authorities in the world and editor of the his renowned PM website www.maxwideman.com. Max has answered questions about is own background and experience, the PM world, the PM profession, PMI and other matters. Please read Part I of the interview with Max this month for a very interesting and entertaining story. Featured Papers are serious professional contributions to the PM literature; this month six such papers are included. Two papers represent significant papers that break new ground on important aspects of PM. Two papers were prepared for and presented at the 1st UTD Project Management Symposium on August 6, 2007 in Plano, Texas, USA. And two papers are by previous popular PM World Today authors, Mark Kozak-Holland and Bas de Baar. Robert Van de Velde, PhD, has provided an important paper on a hot and somewhat controversial topic entitled “Time is up! Earned Schedule for Schedule Management.” Earned value is one of the most important and well established methodologies for advanced program management. Now we have some sophisticated analysis that shows how to use some of that EVM data for more accurate schedule status. Dr. David Dompkins has provided a paper entitled “Wave Planning.” The proponent of the new “Complex Project Management” school of PM in Australia, Dr. Dombkins has been stirring up the world of professional PM over the last two years with his revolutionary thinking. We are happy to present this paper, which outlines the basis for his research and thinking on the subject of complex PM. The paper entitled “Managing Projects Across Borders” by professors Sue Freedman and Lothar Katz from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) was originally prepared for the 1st UTD Project Management Symposium in August 2007. It was selected for publication in PM World Today by the conference team and is included here with permission of the authors and UTD. This paper discusses project management in a flat world, across borders and across cultures. It is worth including in serious PM bibliographies on the subject. The second UTD paper included this month is “Product Centric-Project Management” by Curt Raschke. A PhD physicist employed by Texas Instruments in north Texas, Curt is also active in PMI’s Product Development Specific Interest Group (SIG). Dr. Raschke provides some perspective and advice on how to learn from product development projects. This too was judged a popular and useful presentation at the UTD symposium in August and is published with permission of the author and UTD. Mark Kozak-Holland returns with part 14 in his series on Winston Churchill, the Agile Project Manager. His paper this month is entitled “Churchill Personally Communicates” and discusses how Churchill effectively used his radio broadcasts to change the public mood in 1940. According to Mark, “Churchill’s personal communications had a significant impact on the population, and further continued the positive effect from the propaganda victory at Dunkirk (Part 13).” Read this continuation of the story of Winston Churchill the PM. Our final Featured Paper this month is “Male Machismo” by Bas de Baar, author of the popular book “Surprise! Now you’re a Software Project Manager.” In this fascinating and tongue-in-cheek paper, Mr. de Baar challenges some long-standing assumptions about PM. According to Bas, “plan-driven methods may have some fundamental flaws in their underlying assumptions.” Bas explores the differences in approach and philosophy, projects as machines vs. projects as fuzzy human ventures. This is great stuff! PM Tips & Techniques papers provide an opportunity for project management consultants, experts, trainers and vendors to contribute to the PM World Today eJournal, with helpful and practical suggestions. Four of these advisory papers are included in this issue. Venkat Madireddy has contributed an article entitled “Moving from Technical Specialist (Programmer) to Software Project Manager.” Mr. Madireddy provides advice to technical specialists (software programmers) on making a career move from a purely technical path to project management. Curt Finch, founder and CEO of Journyx, provides an interesting article entitled “How to start a project management company without an IT professional.” This could be useful paper to anyone thinking about starting a business, and a primer on software-as-a-service (SAAS). Michelle LaBrosse, head of Cheetah Learning, has contributed another article entitled “Buying Time: How to put more hours in a day!”, distributed through Cheetah’s “Know How Network”. As usual, Ms. LaBrosse provides some good advice. Tim Bergmann returns this month with “The Seven Deadly Project Sins: Part 3 – Project Lust”, the third in a series in which he discusses problems we often create for ourselves as project managers. Three Book Reviews are included in this edition. “Project Sponsorship - Achieving Management Commitment for Project Success” byRandall L. England and Alfonso Bucero, is reviewed by James G. Page. “CAPM/PMP All-In-One Project Management Certification Exam Guide” by Joseph Phillips, PMP, is reviewed by Earl W. Crisp, D. P. A. “Program Management for Improved Business Results” by Dragan Z. Milosevic, Russ J. Martinelli, and James M. Wadell is reviewed by Jovica R. Riznic, PhD., P.Eng. Both Mr. Crisp and Mr. Page are working professionals and enrolled in the Graduate Program in Project Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Riznic is a professor at Algonquin College, Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA. Regional Reports is the section of PM World Today where reports from our International Correspondents around the world are collected and published each month. These may be surveys of local PM activities and events, discussions of local conditions that affect projects and PM, or personal reflections based on their own recent experiences or activities. In this way, we try to provide a snapshot and multi-cultural flavor of project management around the world. This is one of the most interesting and rewarding aspects of our monthly production process, to learn what is happening around the world and what is reported by these active and motivated PM professionals. We hope you also find this section interesting and educational. 12 reports are included this month from correspondents in Argentina, Austria, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Nigeria, Peru, Spain, Turkey, the UAE, and the UK. Ana Maria Rodriguez’ report is in the form an interview with Laura Pedretti, president of the Buenos Aires chapter of PMI, a nice update on developments there. Both English and Spanish language versions are included. Irwin José Franco in Guayaquil provides a good report entitled “The Software Sector promotes project management in Ecuador.” Irwin’s report is in the form of an interview on this subject with Mr. Miguel Angel Rodríguez, MBA, Executive Director or the Ecuadorian Association of Software. Mr. Franco’s report is also provided in both Spanish and English languages. José Carlos Machicao in Lima reports on “Reconstruction Management”, projects to help repair damages from the recent earthquake, and the recent annual event by the PMI Lima Chapter that attracted over 350 people. José’s report is also in both Spanish and English. Ed Naughton in Dublin reports on the Annual Survey of project management Practitioners 2007, produced by the Institute of Project Management and the University College Cork, Dept. of Management and Marketing. Miles Shepherd in the UK reports on a UK governmental IT project failure, relaunch of OGC’s “Managing Successful Projects”, and several recent conferences around Britain. Manfred Rieck in Weisbaden provides a quick look around the PM professional landscape in Germany. In her first report as a correspondent for PM World Today, Renate Prantner in Vienna provides a nice article about Austria as a project-oriented society, and an update on PM education, research and professional activities in Austria. Theofanis Giotis in Athens reports on project management developments in Greece, including the recent forest fires, the project to develop a Greek PM standard, and the coming PM conference sponsored by the PMI Greece chapter. Alfonso Bucero report from Madrid includes a short article by Fernando Diaz on “Project Management evaluation in the private construction sector,” and information about the PMI Valencia chapter conference in November. Alfonso’s report is also provided in both Spanish and English. Dr. O. Chima Okereke, International Correspondent in Nigeria, has provided another report on “Current developments affecting project management in Nigeria”. This month Chima discusses the need for peace in the Niger Delta for national economic development, the resumption of work on the Port Harcourt International Airport, repairs on the strategic oil pipeline in the country, and the importance of power generation and transmission. Ahmet Taspinar’s report from Turkey provides a first invitation to DYNAMICS 2008 Project Management Conference in Istanbul in April 2008. Finally, Mounir Ajam in Dubai provides a report about their important project management seminar and meeting on 1 September and the launch of a new PM society in UAE. The balance of this month’s PM World Today features calls for papers, announcements of future events, news, information and stories related to projects and project management. Please review the articles on Future PM Events and PM Community News where people are featured. We hope the inclusion of all of these stories is both interesting and informative. We want to welcome two new Global Advisors this month. Alan Stretton, PhD, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) and former chair of the PMI Standards Committee, was named a Global Advisor for PMForum and PM World Today on September 13. One of the world’s most widely respected figures in the PM profession, Alan retired from his second project management-related career in 2006, as Adjunct Professor of Project Management in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, which he joined in 1988 to develop and deliver a Master of Project Management program. Tasmanian Rhodes Scholar for 1948, Alan spent 38 years in the building and construction industry. He was awarded an honorary PhD in Strategy, Programme & Project Management by Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Lille, France in 2005. Miles Shepherd, former Chair and Honorary Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM) in the UK, was named a Global Advisor for PMForum and PM World Today on September 29. Miles is also past President and Chair of the International Project Management Association (IPMA), the global federation of PM associations based in Switzerland. He is currently managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 30 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. He has been representing PMForum and PM World Today as International Correspondent in the UK since December 2006 and will continue to fill that role. Please see their stories in PM Community News in this edition. Also, welcome to Renate Prantner in Austria, our newest International Correspondent who will be representing us and reporting about developments in the PM world from Vienna. Please read her first monthly article in the Regional Reports of this edition. At the same time, we want to again offer our sympathies to the family and friends of Saralee Newell, PMI Fellow and International Correspondent for PMForum and PM World Today in Florida, who passed away on September 1. We want to welcome thank our sponsors this month, which include the IPMA,Journyx, Keller Graduate School of Management, The Graduate Program in Project Management at theUniversity of Texas at Dallas, and Threon Group. Please visit their websites for some leading PM products, publications, services and training. 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 PM World Today home page at www.pmworldtoday.net. If your organization is interested in sponsoring an issue of PM World Today please contact me at 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 and the world of project management . Please send this to a friend or sign up for a free subscription at: http://www.pmworldtoday.net/subscribe/subscribe.htm.
Good luck with your projects!
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