PMFORUM Breaking News

An overview and update on P2M, the Project and Program Management standard developed in Japan and now recognized as one of the leading guidelines in the world of project management, will be a highlight of the “International Project & Program Management Symposium Tokyo 2008 – In pursuit of organizational project management value.” The two-day symposium being sponsored by the Project Management Association of Japan (PMAJ), will be held in Tokyo, Japan during 10-11 March 2008.

A keynote presentation on P2M will be made by Professor Dr. Motoh Shimizu of Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan and Professor Dr. Christophe Bredillet, Dean of Postgraduate Programmes at ESC Lille in France. Their presentation is entitled “P2M, the PM Methodology that Supports the Construction of Business Infrastructures in the Age of Global Economy.”

P2M institutionalizes a new way of apprehending program and project management, proposing a flexible and adaptable framework grounded in balanced epistemology. Going far beyond most of the existing standards, P2M offers a clear linkage between strategy (Vision and Mission), and the way of implementing it through programs and projects. P2M provides a flexible and adaptable framework, not just a "one best way" anchored in a western positivism rationalist paradigm of doing things. P2M clearly differentiates programs to projects, their hierarchy. It proposes a specific approach to address programs and projects.

Furthermore Project & Program management governance is the management system that enables acting and answering the demands of a wide range of stakeholders for increasingly high levels of accountability and performance. Here, governance is based on two criteria: accountability and performance. Accountability is promoted through transparency and performance is promoted by responsive and responsible decision-making. P2M has included these dimensions in the whole framework. The organization’s competencies are the most relevant driver as sources of competitive advantage and the creation of value. P2M recognizes that competences and learning are at the heart of value creation. P2M aims at providing the Capability Building Baseline (CBB) for mission-achievement professionals."

Professor Motoh Shimizu, Doctor of Engineering, is Professor at the Department of Industrial Management Engineering of The Graduate School, Nagoya Institute of Technology since 2001, and was its vice president between 2004 and 2006. He is one of the leading members of the Revised P2M Guidebook Development Committee for PMAJ, and was in charge of Program Management chapters of the New Edition of the P2M Guidebook. His career over 30 years, before teaching at Nagoya Institute of Technology, included R&D management in communications and space systems programs at NEC Corporation. He was also a project manager of fiber-optic communications projects and inter-satellite laser communications projects, and a program manager of JEM communication and control system program for the International Space Station. He was responsible, as General Manager, for the Space Systems Division of NEC Corporation.

Professor Christophe N. Bredillet, PhD, D.Sc, MBA, Ingénieur EC Lille, CPD Level A, PRINCE2™ Practitioner, CCE, is the Dean of Postgraduate Programmes at ESC Lille (Lille School of Management), in Lille, France. He is also a leading international management expert and the Editor of the Project Management Journal (PMI®) and member of the Editorial Board of PM4Success (APM Group), BetterManagement.com (for project management), and PM World Today (www.pmworldtoday.net). Christophe has more than 20 years of experience mainly in the field of Project and Programme Management in Banking, Sports Goods, IT and Academic institutions. For the past 16 years, he has been the Professor, Chair of Strategy, Programme & Project Management, Dean Postgraduate Programmes at ESC Lille.

Based on a praxeological perspective – learning and practice are integrated – the emphasis of their speech will be on some of the main strengths of P2M. Referring to the P2M methodology, processes and examples of integration management will be highlighted. Characteristics and benefits that P2M can contribute to the strategic dimensions of program and project management will be discussed from a global perspective by Professor Bredillet.

The keynote presentation by Professors Shimizu and Bredillet will be on Tuesday, March 11, at 10:15 a.m. The Tokyo symposium will also feature presentations and papers by project management experts and leaders from around the world.

According to Symposium Project Director Dr. Hiroshi Tanaka, “P2M is now the most recognized and important PM standard in Japan. Professor Shimizu is one of the leading experts on P2M and is greatly respect throughout Asia. Dr. Christophe Bredillet is well known throughout the world and can provide global perspective. His endorsement of P2M is especially welcome.”

The March 2008 symposium will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Japan’s foundation of the professional project management society and will demonstrate “project management as new economic infrastructure and a driver for social development and transformation”.

The symposium will be conducted on Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th March 2008 at Tower Hall, Funabori, Tokyo, Japan, with delegates expected from 20 or more countries. The sponsoring organization is PMAJ, with support of the Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry (METI), the Engineering Advancement Association of Japan, and other major public organizations. The Symposium Project Director is Dr. Hiroshi Tanaka, President, PMAJ; the symposium project manager is Mr. Tetsuhiro Yamane, Vice President of PMAJ. For more information, visit http://www.pmaj.or.jp/ENG/PPM2008/.

The national Project Management Association of Japan (PMAJ) was born in 2005 thorough the integration of the Japan Project Management Forum (JPMF – pioneer of Japan’s project management society) and Project Management Professionals Certification Center (PMCC). PMAJ has 3,000 individual and 110 corporate members from all branches of the Japanese industry and governmental agencies. PMAJ offers its own standard “The Guidebook of Project and Program Management for Enterprise Innovation – P2M” and P2M based certification system. For more information, visit http://www.pmaj.or.jp/.