asapm Announces New Extra Credit™ Project Management
Certification Program

The American Society for the Advancement of Project Management (asapm) has announced details of the organization's new Extra Credit^TM extension to the asapm Certified Project Practitioner (aCPP^TM) program. The Extra Credit^TM program will allow eligible individuals to obtain the aCPP Level D certification without the time and expense involved in sitting for the exam. aCPP.D^TM is the USA's version of the International Project Management Association's IPMA-D^® and is recognized throughout the world by IPMA's more than 40 Member Associations.

With Great Success Begins the PMI Global Congress -
Latin America at Sao Paulo, Brazil

Reported by Ana Maria Rodriguez in Sao Paulo, Brazil

With the presence of more than 1,000 Project Managers the PMI Global Congress 2008- Latin America was officially opened on Monday 11 August by Mr. Gregory Balestrero, president and chief officer executive officer of PMI. As mentioned by Mr. Balestrero, this is the largest PMI Global Congress outside the USA ever. The congress has been totally sold out for the last weeks, more than 500 Project Managers were not able to register due to the overwhelming respond to PMI's invitation. Most of the attendees come from different cities in Brazil, a country where PMI has 13 chapters. Professionals from other countries in the region have also joined the congress, with great enthusiasm to learn about Brazil’s state-of-the-art Project Management Best Practices and also about practices in other Latin American countries.

Mr. Balestrero’s presentation emphasized the increasing need for talented Project Managers and in contrast, the low availability of experienced professionals. According to his words, good PMs are highly required in markets such as China, Middle East and India. Therefore, management should make an extraordinary effort to maintain employees in order to guarantee resources for good projects.

Mr. Ricardo Viana Vargas (pictured at left), member of the PMI Board of Directors and chair of PMI’s Strategic Planning Committee, who also resides in Brazil, welcomed attendees with some words on the importance of sustainability for business in Latin America. According to Mr. Vargas, this means keeping the good resources in the region by investing on their development.

Mr. Ramiro Garcés, Vice President of Human Resources for the Latin American region of Kimberly-Clark Corporation lectured the opening general session as a keynote speaker. Mr. Garcés also emphatized the need to form a winning culture at working places. Mr. Garcés was born in Medellín, Colombia, and held various leadership roles with several multinational companies before joining Kimberly-Clark.

Meninos do Morumbi, a group of kids and teenagers from the city welcomed visitors with a great show of brazilian music. The cheery spirit of Brazil touched all assistants with this musical spectacle.

The congress offers attendees more than 60 educational presentations within 13 areas of focus to meet a variety of career development paths. Today’s presentations included a broad variety of topics, from information on PMI’s new credentials (speaker: Steve Gazurian), the implementation of a PMO at Motorola Mexico (Speakers, Rivera and Danneker), the GovSIG standard for Communication Planning (spealer: Diana Jonas), and others. A presentation from Mr. Michael O’Brochta PMP on Great Project Managers was particularly interesting, probably because as he says "Project Management is about applying common sense with uncommon discipline".

The three-day event is being hold at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Sao Paulo and will continue until Wednesday August 13^th.

With more than 265,000 members in 170 plus countries, the Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI) is the world’s largest membership association for project management. As a leading advocate for the profession, PMI is actively engaged in setting professional standards, providing a professional career path for project managers and maintaining a family of professional credentials: Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM^®), Project Management Professional (PMP^®), Program Management Professional (PgMP)^® and PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)SM. The PMP is held by more than 267,000 project managers and professionals worldwide. PMI provides members with access to PM knowledge, skills, education, and networking opportunities. PMI is also highly regarded for its research, accreditation of colleges and universities, and Registered Education Provider program. PMI was founded in 1969. Please visit PMI.org for more information.

More than 20 Presentations at Day 2 at PMI Global Congress -
Latin America at Sao Paulo, Brazil

Reported by Ana Maria Rodriguez in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Day 2 at the PMI Global Congress in Sao Paulo was a day full of valuable knowledge. With 24 presentations in three different languages, most topics of modern project management were presented with an incredible well-organized schedule. Main topics presented on Tuesday, 12 August included experiences with PMOs, Earned Value Technique, Leadership, Communications, Project Start, Team Building, Enterprise Resource Planning, and others.

Most attendees are very satisfied with the broad amount of topics of the presentations. Presenters from all over Latin America and also from the United States shared their best practices.

Mr. Peter Mello (pictured right), PMForum’s international correspondent in Brazil, offered a very clear and interesting presentation on Project Management Tools. On it, he synthesized all tools that must be used in a project to improve its performance, software tools, cash flow management, risk simulation, trend analysis.

The software Spider Project Professional was also introduced to the audience by Peter, showing it as a very useful tool for applying important concepts such as resources and budget constraints and also managing and presenting all types of project information in an easy way to make decisions.

The Project Management Institute (PMI^®) is the leading advocate for the project management profession globally. Founded in 1969, PMI has more than 400,000 members and credential holders in 174 countries. PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) credential is the world’s most widely recognized project management certification. For more information, visit www.pmi.org.

Four PMI Global Congresses are held each year, in the Asia Pacific region, Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region, in North America and in Latin America.PMI Global Congresses are often the largest project management related events in the world and include educational seminars, tracks of professional paper presentations, vendor exhibitions, networking and social events, and professional meetings. PMI also conducts regional leadership meetings in connection with each Global Congress, at which leaders of PMI components, committees and operations staff meet on PMI business. For more information about PMI Global Congresses, visit: http://congresses.pmi.org/

A little of the Best at PMI Global Congress Latin America 2008

Reported by Peter Mello in Sao Paulo, Brazil

From Monday 11^th to Wednesday 13^th August, we had over 60 educational presentations within 13 areas of focus in one of the largest events in Project Management ever in Brazil. Unfortunately I could be present for only a dozen of those and therefore my choice for the best may in fact be unfair to all congress speakers.

Having a double session, José Esterkin (IAAP) had a rare opportunity for giving a simple but effective workshop about the Triple Restrictions in Project Management.

In a couple of hours, long-living project managers and newcomers could learn or remember many aspects of risk management, effective communications, creativity and basic project planning during the workshop. The exercise also was a very interesting networking opportunity where we could meet, talk, discuss, agree and disagree with people from many countries including (but not limited) to Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru and United States.

Speaking of different opinions, I must add that although the workshop was a highlight to the event I personally disagree on the Triple Restriction Triangle that displays "quality", "time" and "cost," as in fact quality should be the result of doing what the customer wants for the price and time established. I did not bring the subject to discussion there as means of giving time for the workshop to be developed among all participants but I hope that in future events spaces for continuous discussions are then created.

PMI Global 2008 in Sao Paulo ended with a record in public and it had some of the best and a few of the worst presentations one could expect in such large congress. Let’s hope I do not fall in the last category in regard to my own two papers I had the opportunity to present!

More information can be found at: http://congresses.pmi.org/LatinAmerica2008/TheCongress/DailyAtAGlance.cfm

5th Annual Project Management Australia Conference 2008
in Melbourne, Australia - a great success!

Reported by Brenda Treasure in Melbourne, Australia

The opening Keynote by well known Sporting Guru Max Walker set the theme that has continued into day two at the 5^th annual Project Management Australia Conference (PMOZ) in Melbourne, Australia. The conference opened on Monday, 18 August and will run through Wednesday.

Max spoke about the Essence of Change and recognising the sign posts to the future. Even doing nothing is change. The rest of the world will rush on by at an accelerated rate. If we continue to do what we continue to do ... we will most definitely miss the sign-posts to the future.

We need to embrace with passion and conviction an attitude to change. The possibilities may surprise us. Value every relationship and understand the communication circle in creating an attitude of responsibility, accountability and ownership.

Some of the key take-aways from the presentation were - trust is the big word. Be transparent in decision making. Every person can make a difference. Leadership is about credibility, consistency, empathy, vision and honesty. In this new environment crisis creates opportunity.

Change before you are forced to change.

Max stayed on and joined delegates at the networking reception and shared many sporting stories.

Photo: PMOZ Program Chair, Brenda Treasure sharing stories with Max Walker

The opening of day two continued the theme with Iain Fraser PMP, Director-at-large, Past Chair of PMI speaking on Project Management into the future. In the 20^th century, large organisations mastered operations on a global scale, with strong functional departments that made routine activities more efficient than ever before. But new activities - technological innovations, global supply chains, new business processes - demanded more focused, flexible, results-driven teams. Project management has evolved to meet the need.

Iain shared with us statistics from recent studies undertaken by PMI that there are 20million practitioners of project management worldwide. $USD 14trillion a year is spent on capital projects worldwide.

In the future, organisations will become even more "projectised" to capture more of the advantages revealed in studies such as the path-breaking Researching the Value of Project Management: more reliable and repeatable performance, greater stakeholder satisfaction, and improved transparency and accountability. At the same time, project managers will learn to adapt their methods for optimum "fit" with differing organisational and national cultures.

The gamut of speakers that followed shared new project management learnings and case studies.

One speaker from Brazil, Andre Augusto Choma, PMP shared his insight in ‘Ten ways to SINK a project’. The presentation showed ten situations that can bring a project to failure, with the objective of altering the project managers about some risks that are frequently ignored during project planning and execution. In a very humorous manner, the presentation approached the common causes of problems, and remembers the project manager’s greatest responsibility in risk presentation as the decisive factor of success. Andre also presented suggested course of actions that from the project manager to face each one of the 10 risk situations to keep the project ‘above water’.

Khalil Saeidzadeh, PMP from Melbourne shared his research into Rethinking Project Management. The rise in importance and application of project management over the last two decades in part is a result of businesses’ and organisations’ quest for attaining excellence.

If project management is to become central for business results, then it must embrace all facets of business. This among other things, starts with creating a wider sphere of knowledge and influence to achieve a greater understanding and closer alignment with business.

If organisations continuously search for better ways of doing business and as a result constantly adapting new ways, methods, models, and products then shouldn’t Project Management do the same to stay relevant?

An expanded sphere of influence would have to measure project performance beyond the traditional indicators of scope, time and cost. It must also equip the practitioners with new skills and tool set to overcome the physical mental and emotional barriers brought about by such an expanded context.

The presentation mapped the use of soft skills as major enablers for creating the right environment to drive projects.

Photo: Khalil Saeidzadeh

PMOZ 2008 incorporating PMI Australia National Conference was held at Sofitel Melbourne on Collins from 18 - 20 August 2008. The conference was co-located with the 6th Annual Software and Systems Engineering Process Group Australia Conference, providing greater opportunities for networking and high quality presentations targeted to a range of industries.

PMI is a non-profit professional association which has over 270,000 members across 170 countries with 40,000 members in the Asia Pacific Region. Locally PMI has Chapters based in all mainland states and the ACT. PMI Australia consists of the PMI Chapters in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. See http://www.pmichapters-australia.org.au/home.asp . For more information on the conference, visit www.pmoz.com.au.

Finalists Announced for 2008 APM Project Management Awards in UK

Reported by Miles Shepherd in London, UK

The APM Project Management Awards have been recoginising project management success across all sectors of industry for the last 15 years and have become a popular focal point on the project management calendar in the UK. This prestigious annual event takes place alongside APM's national Project Management Conference, making it one of APM’s largest events. This year the Awards Banquet will be held on 29 October 2008.

Leading up to the event, scores of projects, project managers and academics all come under the scrutiny of the expert judging panel, who assess their project management abilities against a number of criteria derived from the APM Body of Knowledge. The entrants who impress the greatest in each category are selected as finalists and from these the eventual winner is chosen. Winners all gain extensive and deserved recognition for their achievements over the following 12 months, as well as receiving their very own 'Nigel', the iconic trophy (pictured) created by British designer Nigel Cripps. Now the finalists for APM's 2008 awards have been announced.

From the Stephen Lawrence Centre to the Water Cube in Beijing, from Eurostar to London’s Low Emissions Zone, the full diversity of project management practice is represented among the finalists for this year’s APM Project Management Awards. The awards ceremony which will be held at the Brewery in London on the evening of the 29^th October. Finalists are the following:

Project Manager of the Year - sponsored by Corporate Project Solutions
Julie Hirlam, Turner & Townsend
Kay Martin, BT/Liverpool Direct Ltd
Martin Potterton, Bovis Lend Lease

Project of the Year – sponsored by Siemens
Defence Aerospace, Rolls-Royce
London Low Emission Zone, Transport for London and Deloitte
North Coast Waste Water Treatment, MWH/RPS Joint Venture Alliance

Programme of the year - Sponsored by Program Framework
Swanwick and West Drayton, NATS
DWP IP Convergence Programme, BT Global Services
Eurostar High Speed, Eurostar

Young Project Manager of the year - Sponsored by PMProfessional Learning
Emma Silvey, Currie & Brown
Iain Heath, Turner & Townsend
Seb Hills, Moorhouse Consulting

Overseas Project of the Year, Sponsored by The Projects Group
Water Cube, Beijing, Arup
AMA International University, Davis Langdon
North Sitra, MWH

Project Management Company of the Year
BAE Systems
Moorhouse Consulting
Faithful + Gould

Community Project of the Year
Langdon Park Station, Docklands Light Railway Ltd
The Stephen Lawrence Centre, Turner & Townsend
Singleton Environment Centre, Ashford borough Council

Geoffrey Trimble Award
Kenneth Sheard, Fenwick Elliott LLP
Paul Christmas, Rolls-Royce
Sven Demant, Henley Management College

Tickets for the awards, which once again run alongside this year’s APM Project Management Conference, are available now from www.apm.org.uk/awards.asp.

Programme and project managers from around the world are invited to participate in the APM October Conference, to help develop the national and international project management agendas through presentations, panel discussions and debate. For details about the conference visit www.apm.org.uk/conference.asp or contact conference@apm.org.uk. Exhibition opportunities are also available. Those interested in exhibiting at the APM Project Management Conference 2008, or sponsoring an activity or award, can download the exhibitors pack on the conference website at http://www.apm.org.uk/exhibitors.asp, or contact Jo Asher on jo@impact-now.co.uk

The Association for Project Management (APM) is the UK’s national body for professional project management. With over 15,000 individual and 390 corporate members throughout the UK and abroad, APM is one of the largest organizations of its kind in Europe. The organization develops and promotes project management across all sectors of industry and beyond. APM's published mission is: "To develop and promote the professional disciplines of project and programme management for the public benefit." APM is the UK member of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). With headquarters in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, APM has twelve regional branches throughout the UK and one in Hong Kong. Additional information can be found at www.apm.org.uk.

PMIBA Members Reunion at Mendoza, Argentina

Reported by Ana Maria Rodriguez in Rosario, Argentina

The Mendoza Branch of the Buenos Aires Chapter, Project Management Institute will hold its members reunion next august 28^th. The reunion's objective is based on the exchange on experiences and knowledge on the best project management international practices.

The event will count with the presence of well-known international lecturers: Pedro Garay (Chile) will lecture on the Project Manager competencies profile. Raul Mercau (Argentina) will discuss the impacts of actuality on the project management profession. PMPs that assist to the event could obtain 2.5PDUs.

The event: Thursday August 28th 2008, 5pm to 10:30pm.
Place: IMPSA auditorium, (Carril Rodriguez Peña 2451, Godoy Cruz), Ciudad de Mendoza.

For reservations: info@forum-empresario.com.ar

Event sponsors:

For more information about the Mendoza Branch visit www.pmimendoza.org

Reunion de PMIBA Mendoza Branch en Argentina

Reported by Ana Maria Rodriguez in Rosario, Argentina

La Branch Mendoza del Capítulo Buenos Aires del Project Management institute tendrá su reunión de miembros el día 28 de agosto. Los objetivos de la reunión se basan en el intercambio de experiencias y conocimientos en las mejores prácticas internacionales en Dirección de Proyectos.

El evento contará con la presencia de reconocidos conferencistas internacionales: Pedro Garay (Chile) hablará sobre el perfil de competencies del Project Manager. Raul Mercau (Argentina) discutirá el impacto de la coyuntura actual en la profesión de Dirección de Proyectos. Los PMPs que asistan al evento recibirán 2.5PDUs.

El evento: Jueves 28 de Agosto 2008, 5pm a 10:30pm

Lugar: Auditorio de IMPSA (Carril Rodriguez Peña 2451, Godoy Cruz), Ciudad de Mendoza.

Para reservar info@forum-empresario.com.ar

Sponsors del evento:

For more information about the Mendoza Branch visit www.pmimendoza.org

On the Same Stage - IPMA & PMI Leaders Address the Future
at 2nd UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in Texas

Leaders from the International Project Management Association (IPMA) and the Project Management Institute (PMI) shared the stage as keynote speakers to conclude the 2^nd UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in Richardson, Texas, USA on 19 August 2008. This was one of the few occasions when leaders from the world's two largest and oldest professional organizations have shared the stage at a major project management conference.

Ricardo Viana Vargas, Director-at-Large for the Project Management Institute (PMI), delivered a speech on "Project Management as a Strategic Competence" at 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. He was immediately followed on stage by Veikko Valila, President of the International Project Management Association (IPMA), who spoke on the topic of "Where is Project Management Going?" Both leaders reviewed current trends and future directions affecting the project management profession.

Ricardo Vargas, MSc, PMP, based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is a Director-at-Large and member of the PMI Board of Directors. He is the first Brazilian to serve on the PMI board and flew to Dallas from Brazil to participate in the UT Dallas Symposium. In his talk, Ricardo reviewed recent trends in global industry that is leading more organizations to embrace PM as a strategic capability, reviewed several recent studies and surveys related to the growth and economic impact of projects, and strategic issues that PMI is addressing as it plans for the next 15 years. It was a highly charged and informative presentation.

Mr. Vargas, who is also Chair of Macrosolutions, a consulting company with clients and projects around the world, is the author of nine books on project management. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering, an MS in Project Management, and a Masters Certificate from GWU in Washington, DC. A part-time professor of project management, Ricardo has received PMI’s Distinguished Contribution Award and Product of the Year Award. He is currently Chair of the PMI Board's Strategic Planning Committee.

Veikko Välilä (pictured left), President of the IPMA, a global federation of over 40 national project management societies and based in Switzerland, delivered an equally interesting presentation on trends affecting both global society in general and the project management field in particular.

Veikko is also Chairman of Project Management Association Finland and Practice Leader of Marsh Ltd., a global insurance and risk management organization. He has more than 25 years experience in project and risk management, gained in employment with PaloDEx Group, Kone Corporation, Industrial Mutual, Ministry of Trade and Industry, P&C Insurance and Marsh & McLennan. Veikko has been Scientific and Industrial Commissioner of Finland for China and Southeast Asia, and has lived and worked in nearly 50 countries. He was a co-founder of Soredex Oy and responsible for start up of insurance underwriting operations in the London market for Hansa Industrial Insurance. Veikko has provided consulting and risk management services to many large corporations in the areas of power generation (including thermal and nuclear power), pulp & paper industry and large infrastructure projects (including harbor and motorway projects.)

The 2 Day Project Management Symposium was held on the UT Dallas campus in Richardson, Texas during 18-19 August 2008. Day one included Opening Ceremony with Keynote Speakers, 23 presentations over five tracks of topics, a networking lunch, and a Monday evening networking reception. Day two on Tuesday featured an opening keynote by Michael Kennedy, CEO of Targeted Convergence, 16 paper presentations, three panel discussions and closing keynote addresses by Ricardo Vargas, Director of PMI and Veikko Valila, President of IPMA. This annual event was intended to contribute to the productivity and success of organizations and industries in North Texas, and to local economic development.

The symposium was organized by the Graduate Program in Project Management at The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), in cooperation with the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI^®) and PMForum, Inc. The corporate sponsor was Global Knowledge, a leading project management training and education provider. Papers and presentations from this year’s symposium will be posted soon on http://pmsymposium.utdallas.edu, where additional information about the conference can be found. Individuals or organizations interested in participating in next year’s symposium should contact Debbie@utdallas.edu.

For more information about the Graduate Program in Project Management at UT Dallas, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/. For information about the PMI Dallas Chapter, visit www.pmidallas.org. For information about PMForum, visit www.pmforum.org.

How to Grow a Regional Conference! 2nd UT Dallas Project Management Symposium Wraps up in Texas with Door Prizes & Congrats!

The 2^nd UT Dallas Project Management Symposium was successfully completed on 19 August, with the 200 attendees in the main auditorium in the School of Management building on the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) campus in Richardson, Texas, USA. The 2-day conference culminated with two excellent keynote speeches by PMI and IPMA leaders from Brazil and Finland, respectively, drawings for door prizes and congratulations to the symposium project manager, Debbie Samac.

According to James Joiner (in left photo below), Symposium Chair and Director of the Graduate Program in Project Management at UT Dallas, "we are happy with the quality of papers again this year, the larger turnout and the attendee satisfaction that was evident today. Next year’s event should be even better, as we continue developing the symposium as a major regional project management conference. We think this is very good for the school, for the local project management profession, and especially for participating organizations."

Following the closing keynote speeches, Mr. Joiner called Debbie Samac (right photo) to the podium to recognize her leadership and administrative skills reflected by the successful conference this week. Together, they then held drawings for a number of door prizes contributed by speakers and sponsors, including seminar by event sponsor Global Knowledge, books by Lothar Katz, CD ROMs by Lee Lambert, dinner meetings from the PMI Dallas Chapter, and two free registrations for next year’s symposium.

The 2^nd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium included:

• Welcome by Jim Joiner and Dr. Hasan Pirkul, Dean of the School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas

• Opening keynote speech and presentation by Dr. David E. Daniel, president of UT Dallas, on the topic of "Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina and Implications for Managing Critical Infrastructure Systems".

• Second keynote speech on Monday by George Consolver, Director of Strategy Process at Texas Instruments (TI), on the topic of "Strategy and Project Management Connections."

• 40 professional paper presentations over five main tracks during the two days, but well known international experts and local leaders.

• A keynote speech on Tuesday morning by Michael Kennedy, CEO of Targeted Convergence, on "Managing to Achieve Toyota Excellence in Product Development."

• A closing keynote speech on Tuesday afternoon by Ricardo Viana Vargas, Director-at-Large and member of the Board of Directors of PMI, on "Project Management as a Strategic Competence."

• Final closing keynote speech on Tuesday afternoon by Veikko Välilä, President of IPMA, on "Where is Project Management Going?"

• Networking lunches both days and a Monday evening networking reception.

• Closing ceremony where door prizes were given out to lucky attendees, the symposium project manager was recognized and sponsors were thanked.

Debbie Samac, symposium project manager for UT Dallas, stated "I want to thank our staff and the volunteers who helped make the symposium a success this year. Without their support, it would have been much less successful. And thank you all for participating. In fact, if you have interest in attending again next year, please let me know as soon as possible. We are especially interested in more sponsors and vendors. Next year’s event will be bigger and better than ever!"

According to Dwarka Iyengar, President of the PMI Dallas Chapter, one of the Symposium organizers, "This was another successful event concluded in partnership with UT Dallas and PMForum. We think this relationship is resulting in real value creation for the project management profession in North Texas, which we expect to continue into the future."

David Pells, Managing Editor for PMForum, the event’s third organizing partner, added, "There is a need for more opportunities to share lessons learned, case studies and information about effective project management. The annual UT Dallas PM Symposium is now helping to fill that need in North Texas, providing an opportunity for executives and professionals to contribute to and learn more at a major regional conference."

The 2^nd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium was sponsored by the Graduate Program in Project Management at The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), in cooperation with the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI^®) and PMForum, Inc. Papers and presentations featured at this year’s symposium will be available for download at http://pmsymposium.utdallas.edu, where additional information about the conference can be found. This annual event is intended to contribute to the productivity and success of organizations and industries in North Texas, and to local economic development. Individuals or organizations interested in participating in next year’s symposium should contact Debbie@utdallas.edu.

For more information about the Graduate Program in Project Management at UT Dallas, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/. For information about the PMI Dallas Chapter, visit www.pmidallas.org. For information about PMForum, visit www.pmforum.org.