PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Ann R. Miller and David Pells in Dallas

Veikko Välilä, Secretary General of the International Project Management Association (IPMA), the Switzerland-based global federation of national project management societies, delivered the closing keynote speech at the 3^rd UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in Richardson, Texas on 14 August. The topic of Mr. Välilä's speech was "Latest Trends in Project Management".

The 3^rd Annual UT Dallas PM Symposium was held in the School of Management on The UT Dallas campus in Richardson, Texas during 13-14 August 2009. The event 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 symposium was "Managing in a Changing World".

According to Veikko at the start of his presentation, "Since I was to speak today on latest trends in the project management world, I reviewed the papers and presentations at our recently completed 23rd IPMA World Congress in Helsinki where a variety of trends and projections were presented. I found some good information presented by several leading organizations, including NASA and the Stevens Institute in the USA, Poyry in Finland and Siemens in Germany. I hope you find this information useful."

Mr. Valila's presentation highlighted such trends as the movement of project management forward as a profession (as in the UK with APM's application for a Royal Charter), the increasing role and importance of systems thinking and systems engineering in the project management theory, a move towards "threats management" as distinct from risk management, research into "complex" PM, trends highlighted by Dr. Ed Hoffman at NASA Academy of Program, Project and Engineering Leadership (APPEL), the increasing importance of China in the PM picture, impacts of the current global economic crisis, and other aspects.

Veikko's presentation on behalf of IPMA followed the morning presentation by Dr. Edwin Andrews of PMI (See the news article about Dr. Andrew's presentation at http://www.pmforum.org/blogs/news
/2009/08/DrEdAndrewsofPMIhighlightstheValueofProject.html ), making this conference one of the few in the world where leaders from both PMI and IPMA shared the spotlight. Both IPMA and PMI have sent high ranking executives to the Annual UT Dallas PM Symposium each year now, providing participants in North Texas with an opportunity to learn more about the broader world of professional project management.

(Editor's note: Stacy Goff, current president of the American Society for the Advancement of Project Management (asapm) also participated in the UT Dallas PM Symposium, authoring a paper presentation and participating in a panel on the Future of Project Management on Tuesday afternoon. asapm is the US national member association of IPMA).

Photos: Left - Veikko Välilä during presentation; Right - Veikko with 3rd UT Dallas PM Symposium Management Team: David Pells (PMForum), Jim Joiner (The UT Dallas), Dwaraka Iyengar (PMI Dallas Chapter President), Veikko Välilä (IPMA).

Veikko Välilä, M.Sc. (Mech. Eng.) is the Secretary General of IPMA, a global federation of over 45 national project management associations and registered in Switzerland. He has more than 30 years experience in project and risk management, gained in employment with PaloDEx Group, Kone Corporation, Industrial Mutual, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Sampo Industrial Insurance, If P&C Insurance and Marsh & McLennan. Veikko has been a Scientific and Industrial Commissioner of Finland for China and Southeast Asia and has lived and worked in circa 50 countries. He was a co-founder of Soredex Oy and responsible for start up of new insurance underwriting operations in the London market for Hansa Industrial Insurance. Veikko has also served as a Scientific and Industrial Commissioner for Finland creating new industrial and scientific co-operation projects between Finland and China. Veikko has provided consulting and risk management services for 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). Former President of both IPMA and the Project Management Association of Finland, Mr. Välilä is based in Helsinki, Finland

The 3rd UT Dallas PM Symposium was launched on Thursday, August 13, with welcoming addresses by James Joiner, Director of the Graduate Program in Project Management at The UT Dallas and Hasan Pirkul, PhD, Dean of The UT Dallas School of Management. They were followed by two keynote speakers, retired US astronaut James Reilly, PhD, and Tom Leppert, the popular mayor of the City of Dallas. Other events on 13 August included 24 professional presentations in five streams by project management experts and professional practitioners. The first day ended with a networking reception for participants in the atrium in the School of Management.

The second day of the symposium, August 14, featured keynote speeches by Edwin Andrews, PhD, Director of Academic and Educational Programs and Services for the Project Management Institute (PMI); Mark Penny, Project Executive at Manhattan Construction, the prime contractor for the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas; and Veikko Välilä, Secretary General of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). The second day also included 15 professional presentations and three panel discussions. Official attendance for the two day event was around 225. To see the full symposium 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 oldest 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.