PMI-Montreal celebrates its 30th anniversary
with a remarkable Symposium and dinner

Reported by Alcides Santopietro in Montreal

PMI-Montréal, the Project Management Institute (PMI®) chapter located in the city of Montreal, Canada, has celebrated its 30th anniversary! The day was separated in two; a full day symposium which regrouped 280 project managers followed by a Gala/dinner organized especially for the PMI-Montreal chapter celebrating 30 wonderful years of existence!

The event took place at the Omni Hotel Mont-Royal, downtown Montreal, on April 29th. The theme was cabaret and this magical evening was animated by the master of ceremony, Mr. Carl M. Gilbert. Amongst the 180 people who attended the Gala was Mrs. Beth Partleton, PMI headquarters Board of Directors, PMP, of Milwaukee, Wis. and Director of Project Management at Miller Brewing.

The morning session was conducted by Mr. Réal Laporte, President of Hydro-Québec Équipement and CEO for Société d’énergie de la Baie-James and throughout the day, the attendees could assist various presentations and discussions on varying topics, such as:

• Governance and project office

• Management of big infrastructure projects

• Organizational maturity in project management

• Project portfolio management

• Project team management

• Management of technological projects

The event demonstrated the appreciation of this chapter for all people–members and non-members–who have been supporting PMI-Montréal activities for all these years.

Following the afternoon sessions, the Gala began with a wonderful cocktail. The evening session was opened by Mrs. Marinella Ermacora, VP Human Resources for Groupe CGI and during the evening, two prizes were granted: the “Méritas Professional” was given to Mr. Réal Laporte and Mr. Carl M. Gilbert, President of Solutions Gestion de projets CMG, received the “Méritas Engagement”.

With more than 260,000 members in 170 plus countries, the Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI) is the leading membership association for the project management profession and the largest association dedicated to the advancement of project management in the world. As the leading advocate for the profession, PMI is actively engaged in setting professional standards, providing a professional career path for project managers and creating a family of professional credentials: Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®), Project Management Professional (PMP®) and Program Management Professional (PgMP)®. Additionally, the Institute provides members with access to the knowledge, skills, educational support and networking opportunities needed to drive business results through project management, program management and portfolio management. PMI is highly regarded for its extensive research program and published studies. PMI was founded in 1969.

Top of Page

---

Mendoza Branch of PMI's Buenos Aires Chapter
is launched in Argentina

Reported by Ana Maria Rodriguez in Argentina

On May 15th the presentation of the PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE, BUENOS AIRES CHAPTER, MENDOZA BRANCH, will be held at Park Suites, Mendoza. This event is expected to gather more than 100 assistants related to the Project Management industry in the Cuyo region, where the city of Mendoza is located.

The event has been called “First Cuyo Meeting of Project Management” and will count with the participation of international lecturers such as Mr. Victor Villar, PMI’s regional mentor for Latin America.

The Project Management Insitute is the main international organization advocated to the Management of Projects. It started activities at the USA in 1969 and actually counts with more than 260,000 worldwide. In Argentina it has been present since 1996 through the Buenos Aires Chapter, and since then has shown a sustained growth joining the profession with business and companies in the country.

In 2007, a group of volunteers were authorized to organize and develop a Branch of the Buenos Aires Chapter at the City of Mendoza, with regional scope. The objective of this branch is to bring closer to the region the successful practices and standards of PMI. Since 2007 this group of volunteers has been developing a series of activities related to the formation of the Branch that is now being launched.

The Mendoza Branch expects to establish local standards on Project Management, organize seminars and educational programs, and also support the certification of local professionals as Project Management Professionals (PMP).

For more information, contact Jorge Moreno, PMI BA Mendoza Branch Leader at moreno@pmimendoza.org.ar or organizer Patricia Aranda info@forum-empresario.com.ar

Top of Page

---

Se Presenta el Branco Mendoza Del Capitulo Buenos Aires, Project Management Institute

Reported by Ana Maria Rodriguez en Argentina

El próximo 15 de mayo se realizará en Park Suites la presentación del PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE, BUENOS AIRES CHAPTER, MENDOZA BRANCH; un evento que espera convocar a más de 100 participantes relacionados con la Dirección de Proyectos en la región Cuyo.

El evento presentación se denomina "Primeras Jornadas Cuyanas de Project Management" y contará destacados expositores internacionales incluyendo al Sr. Victor Villar, Mentor de PMI para Latinoamérica.

El Project Management Institute es la principal organización mundial dedicada a la Dirección de Proyectos. Inició sus actividades en EEUU en 1969 y actualmente cuenta con 250.000 miembros alrededor del mundo. En la Argentina, la institución tiene presencia desde 1996 a través del Project Management Institute, Buenos Aires Chapter, y desde entonces ha crecido sostenidamente, vinculando a la especialidad con el medio profesional y empresarial del país.

En el año 2007 se autorizó a un grupo de voluntarios mendocinos la organización y desarrollo de un Branch del Chapter en la Ciudad de Mendoza, con alcance regional, con el fin de acercar al medio de influencia las exitosas prácticas y estándares que pregona el PMI. A partir de entonces, este grupo inició una serie de acciones orientadas e la conformación del Branch que ahora se presenta.

El Branch Mendoza tiene entre otros objetivos el establecer estándares locales de Dirección de Proyectos, organizar seminarios y programas educativos y fomentar la certificación de profesionales “PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS” (PMP). Para obtener mayor información: Jorge Moreno, Líder del PMI Mendoza Branch moreno@pmimendoza.org.ar o Patricia Aranda organizadora del evento info@forum-empresario.com.ar

Top of Page

---

The International Young Project Manager Award recognizes rising talent with an international perspective. It is awarded to those individuals who, despite being in the early stages of their project management careers, are already demonstrating that they can make a difference to the project management profession and the companies and clients for whom they work.

The Young Project Manager Award is open to project managers aged up to 35 at the time of entry, who are working on any project where their involvement has been greater than 6 months. The criteria for evaluation are based upon the International Competence Baseline (ICB) 3. Sponsor of the Award is IPMA International Project Management Association.

Application is possible until 28th of May 2008. An international jury will select 3 applicants as finalists on 1st September 2008. The finalists will receive an IPMA-Sponsorship (1.500 €) to participate at the IPMA Young Crew Workshop 2008 in Rome, Italy in November. The Award Winner of these three finalists will be announced at the Workshop's gala dinner, 7th November 2008.

You can download the application forms as a zip file from the IPMA's homepage www.ipma.ch (click on "Awards"). For more information contact Margret Jona Thorarinsdottir, coordinator of the Young Project Manager Award 2008, ycaward@ipma.ch.

Founded in 1967 and registered in Switzerland, the International Project Management Association (IPMA) is the world’s oldest project management professional organization. IPMA is a global organization of over 45 national representative societies in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. National societies serve the needs of individual members in local languages, while IPMA provides an umbrella organization to represent them at the international level. IPMA’s internationally acclaimed 4 Level Project Management Certification Programme continues to grow, with over 50.000 professionals having now achieved IPMA Certification. The IPMA annually presents project management awards to recognize excellence in project management. IPMA maintains its continuous presence in the global PM arena through regular hosting of International Symposia, Expert Seminars and its Annual World Congress. Additional information is available at www.ipma.ch.

Top of Page

---

IPMA has announced its Research Awards Programme for 2008. Awards will be made to Young Researchers and to individual or teams of researchers for cutting edge research completed after
1 January 2007. Interdisciplinary research is particularly encouraged.

Researchers may come from academia, other research institutions or industry and from disciplines other than project management but their project must contribute to the development of project, program management, project-oriented companies or any element named in the International Competence Baseline (ICB3). The International Jury considers both the research outcome and the research process,
taking into account:

• Research results achieved

• Originality and innovation

• Theoretical foundation

• Transparency and professionalism of research process

• Practical relevance

• Management as research project

Candidates are required to apply with a research project. The research project must have had a duration of at least one year and must have been completed when the application is handed in. Completion of research project may date back to 1 January 2007. Application forms are available at www.ipma.ch

Winners are invited to present their research at the annual IPMA World Congress in Rome (9 – 11 November 2008). Awards will be presented at a special ceremony during the Congress. Winners also receive € 1000 to contribute towards travel expenses

Key Dates:

• 1 August entries close.

• 15. October Applicants and IPMA national association of prize winners notified

• 9 November Winners invited to participate in World Congress and receive prizes at special Ceremony.

For more information, contact Martina Huemann, Director of IPMA Research Awards, at martina.huemann@ipma.ch.

Top of Page

---

The PMI College of Scheduling (COS) held their 5th Annual Conference during May 4-7, 2008 at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The conference was excellent, with about 250 attendees. Here are a few highlights.

The keynote address by PMI CEO Greg Balistrero (pictured at right), "The Cutting Edge", got us off to a very good start. He made a very persuasive case that our PM discipline will be in ever-increasing demand for the foreseeable future. He also graciously acknowledged the presence at the conference of three of the PMI co-founders: Eric Jenett,
Dr. Gordon Davis, and me, Russ Archibald.

Top of Page

---

The journey to PMI's Leadership Institute Meeting in Malta started right at the Frankfurt airport when not only PMPs from Europe cross the path but also guys from New Zealand like Larry, who found the way around the world to get the newest information about PMI face-to-face and certainly having a lot of fun with the worldwide community. For the meeting PMI had chosen again a fantastic location in Malta, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Friday was stamped with the opening session, with its keynote from Yossi Ghinsberg on “Sailing the Seas of Change” (which is not arranged because of my past PMForum article about change management) and the graduation of the Leadership Institute Masters Class. The subsequent reception was the best time to meet friends or probably to discuss with Greg Balestrero (CEO of PMI) about visions for the project management landscape or simply issues that components have in their business.

Saturday started – after a short breakfast – with an update on the Virtual Community Project from Mark Langley (COO of PMI) and David Sobol who informed the audience that a new structure substituting the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) is planned to be implemented from PMI Global Operations Center (GOC). The presentation led to excited discussions and in some cases incomprehension about this comprehensive change of established structures. The details are expected with eagerness from PMI SIG leaders and members.

Later on the Component Mentors had invited the Component Leaders for an experience “exchange” between chapters. They had collected some interesting topics like a “cookbook” for newly elected Component Leaders, project management in schools, or a modernized fee system including the chapter fee in the PMI fee already and free choice of chapter memberships – we will see what is being implemented in the near future.

In the following meeting the PMI component mentors introduced their concepts for supporting the components with improving their chapters.

After lunch the Strategic Alignment Scorecard was introduced in detail by Wes Balakian from the Component Mentor Program MAG (member advisory group) so Component Leaders were able to deal with it in detail and get strong support when struggling. Thanks to Wes, many questions could be answered and the insecurity on this new tool was reduced.

All sessions were interrupted with breaks where networking was key. I’ll miss the friendly and familiar atmosphere when flying home, but the next PMI congress in Denver is not far away.

Top of Page

---

"Mastering I.T. Project Management (MITPM)" is an annual International event for I.T. Project Managers. This is the 4th such event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between May 14th and May 16th 2008 that attracted close to 300 delegates from the region to learn, network, and share the latest Technologies and Project Management Development in IT and Telecommunications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The organization committee of this event consisted of MDeC Malaysia, a one-stop agency established by the Malaysian Government dedicated to ensure that the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) initiative is the world’s best environment to harness the full potential of multimedia. Advanced Technology Studies Center (atSC) has a mission of being a Regional Centre of Excellence for the study and dissemination of knowledge, focusing in the areas of application of advanced technologies at work and in promoting the art and science of IT project management in industry and society as a whole. PMI IT & Telecom SIG, one of the industry components of the Project management Institute (PMI), Project Management Institute, PMI’s Malaysian Chapter, and Malaysian National Computer Confederation (MNCC), a confederation dedicated to the development of IT Professionals and the creation of an Information Rich Society.

The MITPM event focused on Learning and sharing of IT Project Management knowledge from experts around the world. The Pre-conference seminar conducted by Professor Hubert Vaughan from Tsinghua University, China, aimed to help IT project managers understand how to define project scope from the non-existent Requirements in today IT projects. A Post-conference seminar/workshop was conducted by Dr. Davidson Frame, Dean of University of Management & Technology in Virginia, USA and a PMI Fellow, and focused on the use of Earned Value for managing project progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the main conference, Dr. Davidson Frame, started off with the relationship of PMBOK, CMM and ISO9000, which gave the delegates an understanding of how to improve the quality of project engagements and project deliverables.

From PMI IT & Telecom SIG, both the current Chair, Mr. Dave Prior, and Past-Chair, Mr. Mark Lurch attended the conference. Mr. Dave Prior introduced the Agile Methodology to the delegates while Mr. Mark Lurch highlighted the importance of thinking and managing IT projects like a business.

Mr. Michael Song, Director of Engineering at Motorola Technology Malaysia, shared with the delegates how to manage Global software projects via virtual teams across various regions. The final wrap up for the conference was provided by Professor Hubert Vaughan on the value of Program Management, the new PMI credential introduced in October 2007, to IT Organizations.

A couple of side events made the conference more interesting, Mr. Dave Prior, Chair of PMI IT & Telecom SIG in USA arrived KL on the morning of the Pre-Conference Seminar without his baggage, and apart from his casual clothing on him, had to wait for the airlines to locate and deliver his bags to him in KL in time for his presentation. It ended up that Mr. Dave Prior had to borrow a suit for his appearance. Finally Mr. Prior got his luggage back on the same evening.

Another incident involved one of the guest-speakers Michael Song who was on assignment to Chengdu in China while the Earth Quake struck on the 12th and the organizers were really concerned for Mr. Song’s safety. Mr. Song was right in the middle of the Quake zone and only on the evening of the 13th managed to contact the organizers by phone while sitting on the plane for more than 3 hours waiting to take off for Bangkok. The flight was finally cancelled and the organizers immediately searched for a replacement and alternatives, while hoping Mr. Song could arrive in time for the event. Well, Mr. Song arrived 2 hours before his scheduled presentation.

The Earth Quake news keep filtering into the event and the organizer felt that we should all do something about it. A Donation Booth was immediately created and at the end of the day, delegates donated over 12,000 Malaysia Ringgits to a relief fund for the Myanmar and China disasters.

This annual event is becoming a platform for all project managers in the region to share and learn and is gaining momentum with supports from the surrounding countries. It is becoming an annual event most project managers in Malaysia are looking forward to in 2009.

Top of Page

---

Project Management South Africa’s (PMSA) conference, themed From Strategy to Reality, which started on Monday 26 may 2008 at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, kicked off on a high note with a presentation by Jürgen Oschadlaus from Australia, demonstrating how turning Strategy into Reality applied to soccer world cup performances in the past applies also to day-to-day project management. Jürgen, not only a soccer enthusiast and player, but also a soccer coach and historian, took the audience through how France, the 1998 victors fell from grace in 2002 and how Brazil won the 2002 competition.

The audience was also treated to a very interesting talk by Christelle Bure on the topic of “Coaching with Care”. She quoted Robert C Gallagher who said: “Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine” and applied it to projects. She pointed out how coaching is not a lot of things it is perceived to be, and explained the benefits and ease associated with coaching, and how coaching will effect the bottom line. Christelle ended with a bit of wisdom she shared with the audience: You get best out of others by not lighting the fire in them, but by building the fire in them!

The plenery session was concluded by Johan Voster who gave an update on the infamous eNaTIS project which directly frustrated many South Africans about a year ago when it first rolled out. The project covered transforming the old National Transport Information System which controls vehicle licencing, driver licencing, vehicle records and associated systems. This major project which involved 4.6 billion records in the database, covering 20 million vehicles, now processing 600 000 transactions per day, all on open source free software, has had many major challenges which all have been overcome in one or another way. The number of lessons learned is many, and he shared most with the audience in the form of tips and suggestions. Of particular value was his statement toward the end that the value of following the basics as described in PMI’s PMBOK Guide, cannot be over-enphasised – he has the scars to prove it. His very informative session concluded with a question to the audience, the stakeholders of the project, to judge whether the project was successful or not, despite temporary and minor set-backs.

The afternoon was spent in break-out sessions and workshops, covering many interesting subjects of interest to PM’s.

About Project Management South Africa (PMSA)

Project Management South Africa (PMSA) is a not-for-profit professional association serving more than 1 000 project management practitioners in South Africa. PMSA hosts a conference every second year that features invited international and local speakers, and a broad range of reviewed presentations. The conference enjoys the support of numerous industry training and service providers who sign up as sponsors. In 2008, for the third time running, The X-Pert Group is the Conference’s Platinum Sponsor. The PMSA President for 2008 is Elmar Roberg; and the Chairman of the PMSA Board is Robert Best. For more information about PMSA, visit http://www.pmisa.org.za.

Top of Page

---

The second of the four plenary session speakers was Michael Reynders who advised the audience about how his company transformed their operations from Project Support Office (PSO) driven to Project Management Office (PMO) driven. Of great interest was the many obstacles, cultural and otherwise which had to be overcome to make it work and to get the organisation to accept projects as an essential part of their survival.

He learned that it is very little about the tools and much about the process and to start simple and mature with time.

Adrian Lovell-Hall and Dan Mattson took the audience back to the basics with a talk on Management versus Leadership on a project, and its value.

Elmar Roberg, the outgoing PMSA President closed the plenary part of the day with an update on PMSA, new developments and updates on projects in progress.

As now customary, the afternoon saw four streams of break-out sessions and workshops. The audience closed the day with a film about the Losotho Highlands Project courtesy of Peter Tobin, concluded by the PMSA annual dinner combined with the conference gala dinner, during which awards were handed out to branch of the year, registered education provider of the year and some 20 odd 10 year membership awards.

About Project Management South Africa (PMSA)

Project Management South Africa (PMSA) is a not-for-profit professional association serving more than 1 000 project management practitioners in South Africa. PMSA hosts a conference every second year that features invited international and local speakers, and a broad range of reviewed presentations. The conference enjoys the support of numerous industry training and service providers who sign up as sponsors. In 2008, for the third time running, The X-Pert Group is the Conference’s Platinum Sponsor. The PMSA President for 2008 is Elmar Roberg; and the Chairman of the PMSA Board is Robert Best. For more information about PMSA, visit http://www.pmisa.org.za.

Top of Page

---

Bruce Rodriques, a person South African project managers are particularly proud of after he was elected to PMI's board of directors 4 years ago, kicked off the day's proceedings with a very informative talk on PMI and PMI's strategies and projects at present, emphasizing that Project management is a strategic competency for any company. He demonstrated how projects are becoming increasingly complex as time goes by, and stressed the importance and business sense of certified project managers running projects. In the short time available to him Bruce elaborated about the various activities of PMI and their initiatives around standards, credentials, degree programs and career pathing.

The title of the second plenary speaker on day 3 of the conference was Using Knowledge Management to move forward in Project Management. As so many times before, Ginger Levin, one of four international speakers who were invited to PMSA’s conference, mesmerized the audience with her easy and entertaining presentation style, and presentation packed with useful information and tips. She talked about how many successful organizations fail to realize the value of the investments in projects by not learning from experiences during such projects.

One of the very visible projects in South Africa right now, and certainly the one with the biggest budget at present, is the Gautrain Project, installing a dedicated rail link between Johannesburg, Pretoria and the OR Thambo international airport. The CEO of Gautrain Management Agency, a special vehicle created by the provincial government to manage this gigantic infrastructure project, Jack Van Der Merwe, gave the audience an update on the status of this project. He also went further and pointed out some of the substantial hurdles the project needs to still overcome, and gave some valuable suggestions for project managers on similar projects. An indication of the thoroughness of their planning is the international award they won for their kiddie’s website – an early education and communication medium with their future clients.

After morning tea one of the most exiting and well-known international speakers around, Frank Saladis, took the stage and delivered a most entertaining and informative talk titled “Your Future as a Project Manager”. Quoting many acclaimed (and less-known) authors and suggesting further reading on the myriad of topics and key competencies of able project managers which Frank covered, he managed to glue the audience to their seats up to the last second of the session. In his usual fashion Mr. Saladis provided the audience with a wealth of resources and references to take home besides inspiring each and every member of the audience to follow the advice of Tom Peters: “If you want to be excellent, start now”.

Jeff Shaw concluded the morning plenary sessions with his sharing of the results of surveys KPMG regularly conducts amongst major projects on global risk and governance trends. He shared the major trends which contribute to project failures and project successes, and explained how shortages of resources, rising cost, poor risk management, restrained growth and not meeting stakeholder expectations contribute to the success of major projects world-wide.

As per the example set during the first two days of the conference, the audience broke into three streams of particular interest and a workshop conducted by Ginger Levin on the role of the PMO in Knowledge Management after lunch.

 

A generally perceived successful and informative conference was concluded by a word of farewell and appreciation by the outgoing President of PMSA, Elmar Roberg. Amongst others he extended a special word of appreciation to Taryn Van Olden who went far beyond her call of duty to make this conference the success it was, and officially gave her permission to go and relax until the next conference in 2010. Somehow few believed that it was at all possible for this energetic lady to relax as suggested.

About Project Management South Africa (PMSA)

Project Management South Africa (PMSA) is a not-for-profit professional association serving more than 1 000 project management practitioners in South Africa. PMSA hosts a conference every second year that features invited international and local speakers, and a broad range of reviewed presentations. The conference enjoys the support of numerous industry training and service providers who sign up as sponsors. In 2008, for the third time running, The X-Pert Group is the Conference’s Platinum Sponsor. The PMSA President for 2008 is Elmar Roberg; and the Chairman of the PMSA Board is Robert Best. For more information about PMSA, visit http://www.pmisa.org.za.

Top of Page

---

Top of Page

---

Top of Page