PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Ann R. Miller and David Pells in Dallas

Ted Koval, PMForum's International Correspondent in Omaha, Nebraska, broke new ground with his presentation entitled "Project Management in Politics as a Future Direction" at the 3^rd UT Dallas Project Management Symposium on 13 August 2009. The regional project management conference 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 the 3rd UT Dallas Project Management Symposium was "Managing in a Changing World".

According to Ted, "Political campaigns rarely recognize project management as a formal means to win elections. The object of my research is to determine if (1) project management efficiencies and processes can be utilized by the campaign manager to win elections, and (2) what lessons can project managers learn from campaign management?."

Photo: Ted Koval on left with PMForum Managing Editor David Pells at the 3^rd UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in Richardson, Texas on 13 August 2009.

Ted Koval, PMP, is a business project manager for Mutual of Omaha, a financial services company based in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Ted has 13+ years of experience as a project manager, both in state government and in IS/IT field in the United States. Ted has managed campaigns and legislative outreach for several Pennsylvania State Representatives, served as Director of the Policy Committee for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and was project manager for the first nationally recognized centralized voter registration system in the USA. He subsequently became project manager and Director of PM for the largest provider of enterprise class voter registration systems in the USA. Ted holds a BS degree in Journalism and Political Science, and a Masters degree in Public Administration. Ted is a member of the Mutual of Omaha Change Management Council, was named PMI Heartland Chapter Member of the Year for 2008 and is a Certified SCRUM Master. Ted has been an International Correspondent for PMForum in Omaha since January 2009.

For additional information about Ted Koval, or to contact him about his presentation in Texas, visit http://www.pmforum.org/pm%20forum%20team/index.htm#Koval .

The 3^rd 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 .