PMFORUM Breaking News

In what was billed as the first in a series of Expert Project Management Forums, a group of senior project management experts and leaders met at The George Washington University (GWU) on Friday, 19 December 2008 in Washington, DC, USA. The purpose of the meeting was to identify current "hot topics" among the attendees. As might have been expected, PM in the USA government and especially related to the announced Infrastructure stimulus planned by President-elect Obama's administration was the main point of discussion.

Participants included the following:

• Prof. Frank Anbari, The George Washington University
• Barbara Archibald, Consultant, Archibald Associates
• Russell Archibald, Principal, Archibald Associates & PMForum
• Antonello Bove, Inter-American Investment Corporation
• Valerie Carter, Manager, Government Relations, Project Management Institute (PMI^®)
• John Courmier, Independent Consultant & PMI^® Washington DC Chapter
• Daniel Daly, The George Washington University
• Prof. Young Hoon Kwak, The George Washington University
• Michael O’Brochta, Independent Consultant, Zozer Inc.
• David Pells, Managing Editor, PMForum
• Bob Rovinsky, Director, IT Enterprise Services, Office of the CIO, US Federal Aviation Administration
• Miles Shepherd, MSP Consulting & PMForum
• Lawrence Suda, Managing Director, Palatine Group
• Ron Taylor, Independent Consultant & President, PMI® Washington DC Chapter
• Prof. Stuart Umbleby, The George Washington University
• Robert Youker, Independent Consultant, World Bank (retired)

According to Russ Archibald, PMI^® Fellow (PMI^® member #6) and one of the world’s best known authorities on modern PM, “We took the occasion of being in Washington, DC to invite some PM thought leaders to get together to see what might happen. =I am happy to report that we debated PM in the government, with an eye on the Obama administration’s commitment to invest around $1 trillion in US infrastructure projects next year. If there is some way that we can gain their ear to ensure that the good PM is used for that stimulus package, it would be great!”

The two hour roundtable meeting at GWU began with each participant suggesting a topic that he or she considers important and worth discussion. The topics identified included the following:

• Knowledge management vs. project management
• Integration of project management with systems engineering
• Project management in government
• Mega project management vs. PM for smaller efforts
• A Center of Excellence in PM for the US Government
• Project Management in different industries
• How to get executives to act for project success
• How to overcome hurdles to earned value implementation in government
• Knowledge production on projects and in organizations
• Project management + product creation in industry
• The need for a global & systematic project categorization model
• Human emotions in project management
• How to improve PM in government, non-governmental and non-profit sectors, especially for programs and projects addressing global problems
• Project management profession and professionalism
• Strategic vs. operational project management
• Introducing project management to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)

These topics were then grouped into three general categories for discussion, as follows: (1) Project Management in Government; (2) Categorization; PM in different industries; PM on different types and sizes of projects; and (3) PM knowledge creation and management. The rest of the meeting was devoted to discussing the first topic, better PM in government and especially related to the US federal government’s plan to inject hundreds of millions of dollars into “shovel ready” projects around the USA next year.


According to Michael O’Brochta, retired former PM leader at the CIA, “The key is to reach the executive level. Unless there is buy-in and active support at the top, it’s impossible to affect serious changes and it will just be business as usual. Better project management could save the taxpayers millions, in my opinion.”

Miles Shepherd, former chair of both the Association of Project Management (APM) in the UK and the International Project Management Association (IPMA), pointed out, “Former PM Tony Blair actually told British ministers and governmental executives that they need to become specialists in project management in order to be successful. The OGC now dictates programme and project management standards across the UK government and everyone takes it seriously, although there are still some spectacular failures.”

Bob Rovinsky, who is overseeing approximately $3 billion in IT programs and who has been leading a major EVM/PM improvement program at the FAA, stated, “It took a culture change at the FAA, but our program to implement a broad-based earned value management system has been very successful. We have already saved a lot of time and money, but also stabilized the management process. This same type of effort is needed across the entire federal government, and at state and local levels. Better PM is also needed in nonprofits, nongovernmental and multi-lateral agencies.”

The group discussed various options and scenarios, including ways to publicize the need for better PM in the US government. It was agreed that PMForum should publicize the meeting and this issue. A “Project Management Manifesto” for better Project Management in the US government was also proposed by Russ Archibald and may be advanced.

According to GW Prof. Frank Anbari, who hosted the event, “This was an interesting discussion, with a very interesting group. We identified several issues that might make good topics for research studies. I want to thank David Pells and Russ Archibald for proposing this meeting, which we were happy to have happen at GW.”

Reported by PMForum’s managing editor David Pells, who attended the meeting in Washington. Photos courtesy of GW Prof. Young Kwak.