PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Jouko Vaskimo in Berlin

Scandinavian researchers Ralf Müller, Miia Martinsuo and Tomas Blomquist were awarded the Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Journal® Paper of the Year. This award recognizes authors who have significantly advanced the concepts, knowledge and practice of project management through professionally conducted and authored project management research. The award was bestowed on the authors by Professor Christophe M. Bredillet from ESC Lille at the IRNOP IX Conference in Berlin.



Five professors in the photograph (from left to right): Gemünden, Martinsuo, Müller, Blomquist and Bredillet. (photo courtesy Jouko Vaskimo)

Project Portfolio Control and Portfolio Management Performance in Different Contexts, co-authored by Müller, Martinsuo and Blomquist, investigates the effect of outside influences, including industry, governance, and location, on the nature and relationship of project portfolio control techniques and portfolio management performance. Analysis showed that different portfolio control mechanisms, such as selection, reporting and decision-making style, are associated with different performance measures, such as desired results and program purpose.

"The PMI Awards Program recognizes excellence in project management across a broad array of categories for organizations, individuals, community advancement and our chapters and their volunteers," said Gregory Balestrero, president and CEO of PMI. "Winning this award is a testament to the value project management brings to our varied stakeholders."

Dr Müller is an associate professor at Umeå University in Sweden, adjunct professor at the BI Norwegian School of Management, and adjunct professor at ESC Lille. He is also the managing director of PM Concepts, a Swedish-based management consultancy. "We are very honored about receiving the PMI award, because it constitutes a key milestone in our team's research work," said Müller. "On behalf of my co-authors I am very grateful to the PMI evaluators for this recognition." Dr Müller can be contacted at Ralf.Mueller@usbe.umu.se. (photo courtesy Umeå University)

Dr Martinsuo is the Professor of Service Business Development and Project Management at Tampere University of Technology in Tampere, Finland. Her teaching, student instruction and research work focus on the following aspects of project business: multi-project management, innovation management, and organization development. She has 15 years of experience in strategy, business process development, and management development in international private companies especially in metal and electro-technical industry. Dr Martinsuo can be contacted at Miia.Martinsuo@tut.fi. (photo courtesy Miia Martinsuo)

Dr Blomquist is an associate professor at Umeå School of Business at Umeå University in Sweden. He is the head of the management section and a director for the Erasmus Mundus Masters Program in Strategic Project Management, a joint program with Heriot-Watt University and Politecnico di Milano. In recent years, he has worked in research concerning projectified firms and how they organize, manage and control their projects, as well as studies in product development and customer projects. Dr Blomquist can be contacted at Tomas.Blomquist@usbe.umu.se. (photo courtesy Umeå University)

IRNOP, The International Research Network on Organizing by Projects, was founded in 1993 as a loosely coupled network of researchers and has developed from there, adding researchers in countries all over the world. The IRNOP network connects scholars with a background in business, economics, engineering and other fields, with a common interest in projects, project organizations and temporary systems. The IRNOP Project Research Conference gathers scholars who have a research interest in projects from all over the world to a conference every second year (in 2006 a decision was made to schedule the IRNOP Project Research Conferences to odd years). Up to date IRNOP Project Research Conference has been organized eight times

• IRNOP I in Lycksele, Sweden in 1994: Temporary organizations and project management
• IRNOP II in Paris, France in 1996: Aspects of society and business organized as projects
• IRNOP III in Calgary, Canada in 1998: The nature and role of projects in the next 20 years: Research issues and problems
• IRNOP IV in Sydney, Australia in 2000: Paradoxes of Project Collaboration in the Global Economy: Interdependence, Complexity and Ambiguity
• IRNOP V in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 2002
• IRNOP VI in Turku, Finland in 2004: Project business
• IRNOP VII in Xi'an, China in 2006
• IRNOP VIII in Brighton, UK in 2007: Projects in Innovation, Innovation in Projects

For further information please navigate to www.irnop.org.

IRNOP IX Research Conference on Organizing by Projects gathers scholars with a background in business, economics, engineering and other fields, with a common interest in projects, project organizations and temporary systems from all over the world to Berlin from October, 11^th to 13^th 2009. The conference is organized and hosted by Technische Universität Berlin. The conference organizers have encouraged scholars from around the world to submit full papers of their current research work. A total of 96 research papers describing a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to topics related to the general theme of Organizing by Projects were submitted. All papers underwent a double-blind review process, following which 66 papers were approved in to the conference program.

IRNOP IX Project Research Conference places special emphasis on following topics:

• A Theory of Project Management
• Coping with Complexity
• People in Project Management
• Project-based Organization
• Cooperation and Networks
• Coping with Risk
• Knowledge Management and Learning

For further information please navigate to http://www.irnop2009.org/.

The world's leading project management organization, PMI shares knowledge with nearly 500,000 members and credential holders in over 185 countries. Since its founding 40 years ago, PMI has impacted more than one million practitioners, businesses, governments, students and training organizations. Today, PMI's products and services range from world-class standards for project, program and portfolio management to five professional credentials, including the gold standard Project Management Professional (PMP)®. PMI's exclusive Global Corporate Council and European Corporate Networking Group engage large multinationals and government organizations in endorsing the value of project management. The only project management association with an established academic research program, PMI has invested more than US$14 million in support of dozens of research projects since 1997. For further information please navigate to www.pmi.org.

The internationally renowned Technische Universität Berlin is located in the German capital at the heart of Europe. TU Berlin activities focus on building a distinctive profile, exceptional performance in research and teaching, excellent qualifications for graduates and a forward-looking administration. TU Berlin strives to promote the dissemination of knowledge and to facilitate technological progress by adhering to the principles of excellence and quality. Strong regional, national and international networking partnerships with science and industry are an important aspect in this regard. TU Berlin research and teaching endeavors are characterized by a broad spectrum of academic disciplines, ranging from engineering science to natural science, planning science and economics, as well as the humanities and social sciences. For further information please navigate to www.tu-berlin.de.