PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Ann R. Miller and David Pells in Dallas

The 3rd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium opened on Thursday 13 August 2009 with welcomes by Mr. James Joiner, Director of the Graduate Program in Project Management at The UT Dallas and Mr. Hasan Pirkul, PhD, Dean of The UT Dallas School of Management. They were followed by the first keynote speaker of the symposium, Mr. James Reilly, PhD, recently retired US Astronaut and currently a Vice President for Product Development at TAEUS International Corporation in Colorado Springs. Dr. Reilly has BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Geosciences, all from The University of Texas at Dallas.

The 3rd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium was held in the School of Management on The UT Dallas campus in Richardson, Texas during 13-14 August 2009, was organized by the Graduate Program in Project Management (PM) in the School of Management's Executive Education Center at UT Dallas, in partnership with the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and PMForum. The theme for this year's UT Dallas Project Management Symposium was "Managing in a Changing World".

During his keynote speech, Dr. Reilly (pictured above) told stories about his career at NASA and the three Space Shuttle Missions on which he flew: STS-89 in 1989, STS-104 in 2001, and STS-117 in 2007. Here are some of his more memorable comments that might also be useful for project managers:

• In the space program, "the margin between success and failure is very narrow! Details missed CAN kill you! Question EVERYTHING! Act like everyone has your life in his or her hands!"


• "If you ever get comfortable, that's when you need to start worrying because you've probably missed something."


• "On STS-89, a mission to Mir, we had a Russian crew member who flew in space for the first time on a US spaceship to a Russian space station. Growing up during the cold war, who would have imagined that?"


• "The commander had a very simple set of questions: Do you have a plan? Is it working? Are you ahead or behind?"


• "There were cultural differences between space station crews and shuttle crews. We had to meld these crews together. You have to develop a high level of trust, since your life depends on your team."


• "If you can make it fun, you can do anything! As soon as we started doing after hours things together, we started breaking down barriers."


• "We also live by the pilot's rule: Train like you fly! fly like you train! Question everything! If you are feeling relaxed, start checking details."


• "Listen to your troops. If the troops are griping, everything is probably fine. If the troops are silent, then there's probably a problem!"


• "In space, time is precious. So it really helps to know your team, what they are thinking when they say something."


• The Astronaut's prayer is "Please, God, don't let me screw this up!"

Mr. Reilly's talk was educational, entertaining and motivational. He emphasized the importance of teamwork, communication, risk taking, and thorough planning and preparation - especially relevant topics for project management.

Born in March 1954 at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, Jim Reilly graduated from Lake Highlands High School in Dallas Texas and The UT Dallas. Selected by NASA in December 1994, Reilly reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995, completed a year of training and evaluation, and was qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. Initially assigned to work technical issues for the Astronaut Office Computer Support Branch, Reilly also served as the Astronaut Office lead on Shuttle training, as Payloads and Procedures Operations lead for the Astronaut Office ISS Branch, and lead for Crew Exploration Vehicle crew systems and landing operations in the Astronaut Office Exploration Branch.

During his time at NASA, Dr. Reilly also worked on systems development, materials and vehicle engineering and human factors projects for both the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle. He has logged over 853 hours in space, including 5 spacewalks totaling 31 hours and 10 minutes. He has over 2000 hours of high-performance flight time in various NASA aircraft. Dr. Reilly retired from NASA in May 2008. To learn more about Jim Reilly, visit http://www.pmforum.org/blogs/news/2009/05/Astronaut
JamesReillytoKeynoterdAnnualUTDallas.html.

Photos: left - Dr. Reilly with Symposium organizers David Pells (PMForum), John Baley (PMI Dallas Chapter), James Joiner (UT Dallas); Right - with PMForum Team at the Symposium: Tom Sheives, David Pells, Ann Miller, James Reilly, Ted Koval; photos courtesy of PMForum.

Dr. Reilly was followed on the stage on Thursday morning Mr. Tom Leppert, Mayor of the City of Dallas. (see separate breaking news article about his speech). Other events on 13 August included 24 professional presentations in five streams by project management experts and professional practitioners. The day ended with a networking reception for participants in the atrium in the School of Management. Official attendance on day one was approximately 225. To see the full program, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/graduate/execed/projectMgmtProg/projSymposium/.

The Project Management Program at UT Dallas provides application-oriented education for professionals with significant project, program or general management responsibilities. Established in the Executive Education Center in The UT Dallas' School of Management, students have the option of earning a Certificate in Project Management, a Master of Science degree with an emphasis in project management, or a Master of Business Administration degree with project management emphasis.

The UT Dallas PM program, originally developed in 1997, is accredited by the Global Accreditation Center for Project Management (GAC) of Project Management Institute (PMI®) and is a PMI Registered Education Provider Program (PMI R.E.P.). The program is taught by world-class faculty with a blend of industrial project management, consulting and teaching experience. The UT Dallas PM Program is delivered both on campus and online, and attracts students from across the USA and worldwide. For more information, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/.

The PMI Dallas Chapter is a volunteer-based professional association dedicated to supporting the growth and development of project management practitioners, as well as building awareness of the project management discipline and its critical role in business and organization success. With more than half a million members and credential holders in over 170 countries, the Project Management Institute (PMI®) is the leading membership association for the project management profession. Founded in 1984 and with over 4,000 members, the PMI Dallas Chapter is one of the world's largest PMI components. To learn more about the PMI Dallas Chapter and its service offerings, visit www.pmidallas.org

PMForum operates www.pmforum.org, the world's first website devoted to professional project management and still one of the world's most popular sources of project management news and information. PMForum also produces the monthly online PM World Today eJournal where articles, case studies, papers and stories by leading PM authorities from around the world can be found; free subscriptions are available at www.pmworldtoday.net.