Volume X - Issue VI - June 2008
Regional Reports
 Project Management News
News from the PM Profession PMI Buenos Aires Chapter News The PMI Buenos Aires Chapter received this month the visit of Mr. Victor Villar, PMI Region 13 South Latin America Component Mentor as a support to its transformation process into a Chapter with Branches. Also, PMIBA announced the invitation for presenting projects interested in being considered for the “2007 Project of the year” award. PMIBA grants this award as a means to promote and spread professionalism in Project Management, and offers public recognition to the project and project team by highlighting their performance and the achievement of the project’s objectives. According to what PMIBA has established, all projects executed within the Republic of Argentina under a contract between independent companies can participate of this invitation. Projects of all size, industry or specialty are welcome to participate. It is not required to be a member of PMI in order to present a project. The project should be nearly finished, with a finish date between January 1st 2007 and December 31st 2007. Read complete report in English | Spanish
Infrastructure and technology - areas of focus in India By Raju Rao
Based on happenings over the last few months we can look at a few interesting stories, some on the infrastructure front and others related to technology Infrastructure Rising oil prices are sources of great concern today with the Indian government exploring varying options to reduce supply maybe by increasing prices. There is also a feeling that there could be shortage of gas in the coming months. In this light the announcement last month of India joining an inter country gas project has a lot of substance. Here is a brief report on it. India has formally joined the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) pipeline project as it seeks to import more natural gas to fuel an economy that is growing at 8-9% an year. The project has now been officially renamed as the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. The project was conceived in 2002 to transport gas from Turkmenistan to the other three Asian nations. The gas is expected to flow to India in 2014. The length of the pipeline in Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan up to India border is 145 km, 735 km and 800 km, respectively. Read complete report in English
 Current Events Affecting Projects & Project Management in Nigeria By O. Chima Okereke, PhD
Failure to Plan is the Bane of Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria The last national development plan was as inherited in 1979 by Shehu Shagari, a civilian prime minister overthrown by the military in 1983. The military interregnum which followed was mainly run on adhoc basis without comprehensive national planning. So explained President Umar Yar’Adua as he tried to reject the accusation of slowness to act made against his government by the Press during a presidential interview he granted yesterday, May 29th, when he marked his first year in office and on the National Democracy Day. He said: “Our slowness to issue is a process of learning. ….You see, any work done is almost 50 percent of what you intend to achieve. If you produce a good plan, it (the work) will be over because by the time you begin to implement the plan and if you have put in a lot of hard work in making the plan, then the implementation goes smoothly”. He went on:” That was the reason we insisted that was must plan, ….we must take time to produce good plan so that when we implement it, it will translate into achievement that will be long term and that will continue to sustain the country towards growth”. Read complete report in English
Project Management Reported by Alfonso Bucero, PMP
The public firms Arpegio from Madrid and Incasol from Catalunya, experiment project management in housing state projects dedicated to VPP Project management services have spread out its scope to Housing state projects (VPP). The last project management services subcontracting from the Catalan Institute (INCASOL), firm who depends on the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the interest showed by the firm ARPEGIO, public organization from the Community of Madrid, opens an interesting opportunity to the Project Management Services; because it is the first time that two public organizations will use those services for state projects destinated to VPP. AEDIP (Asociación Española de Dirección de Proyectos de Construcción) has supported the two public organizations, that have decided to implement this discipline as an strategic tool to deal with the complexity of several planned property development; and also to achieve the desired cost, quality and time control. This decision, that has generated interest from other public Spanish organizations like EPSA from Andalucía, IGVS from Galicia, and ASPIRILUR from País Vasco, places the Construction Sector in a very good position, the VPP, that the experts show the main Construction engine during the next years. Read complete report in English | Spanish
Project Management Profession Current Accruals By Florin Gheorghiu, PMP and
1.) Current status of Project Management discipline in Romania Either called Project Manager, Project Coordinator or Team Leader depending on the Companies’ organizational structure, it seems that under the general accepted term of Project Manager the list with professions and job descriptions are abundant in requiring professional with skills, experience and expertise in the field. Whether they know well or shallow what the job entails one can easily notice the growing need for these individuals today when the number of projects of every size is constantly growing up. If few years ago there was a clear misconception or even misunderstanding of what a Project Manager and Project Management are dealing with, totally mistaking the project for a bunch of written documents, drawings, technical specifications and other documents related to the scope requirements, today this misinterpretation was been eradicated almost from its root. Read complete report in English
UK Project Management By Miles Shepherd
End of the Iron Triangle? We all know the so called Iron Triangle of Time, Cost and Functionality (although this last one has several other forms) and indeed it is written into many contracts. But we also know that despite the fundamental truth of the maxim, like many ‘truth’s of Project Management, it does not tell the whole story. Take the case of Centrica vs Accenture, reported elsewhere in PM Forum, where one side claims the conditions of the Iron Triangle were met while the other claims it wasn’t. As we’re talking multi-million £ sums for the loser in this court action, this isn’t going to be a simple case of on side is right and the other is wrong. The essentials of the case hinge around functionality in a 5 year project costing more than £300M. Scope creep, cost escalation and hardware specification seem likely to be raised along with how well user testing and handover can done. The action will play out in court in coming months (or years more likely, given the size of the claim) but one of the points it raises is how well can the Iron Triangle represent success in a complicated project running over several years. Read complete report in English
Challenges and Opportunities facing Project Management By Ed Naughton
The Celtic Tiger is now more of a Cub driven primarily by a dramatic slowdown in construction that is impacting the entire economy. There are, however, still a number of sectors offering potential for project management growth in the immediate future The whole compliance area continues to grow and companies and organisations will have to implement new systems as a result. Another growth area is in the whole green agenda. If you look at companies in the IT sector like Dell and IBM they are advertising their products as being green, and power usage is a big issue in operations like data centres. The presence of the Green party in the ruling coalition government is a further catalyst and stimulus to the promotion of the green agenda. Read complete report in English
 Project Management News By Ahmet Taspinar
IPYD News 1. The Istanbul Project Management Association (IPYD) held their annual meeting with only 25 of the 400 members on April 27th; elections were held for the new board, and the following were elected : 2008 - 2009 BOARD of DIRECTORS: Read complete report in English
Project Management Education: What the Ethiopian Higher Education fails to recognize By Getachew Teklemariam Alemu
I would rather quote an Ethiopian saying “Kemetemtem temheret yekdeme”. Though not perfect, it could literally be translated, as “it is better to learn the detail, before assuming a priest’s post”. Our forefathers, while saying this, are telling us that we have to learn the detail of any profession, before holding a post in the discipline. It is a saying, which underlines the importance of education. Undeniably, the education sector has evidenced a huge structural transformation in Ethiopia in the past 17 years. The reform efforts range from changing the previous policy to efforts aiming to ensure universal access to primary level education. Nevertheless, by the time that we are colorfully celebrating our unique millennium and the achievements, we have forgotten one big educational element: Project Planning and Management. How would our graduates in engineering, IT, Agriculture, Education, Business and Economics, Medical science, Social sciences…etc, be competent to realize our development policies and strategies without learning sufficient “project planning and management” courses? How would we, as a country, be in a position to efficiently use our scare financial resources without well-trained “Project professionals”? How comprehensive is our higher education system without providing project-oriented specialization in different fields of study? Why are we ignoring it? What will the consequence be? Read complete report in English
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