PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Ahmet Taspinar in Istanbul

How can a single presentation both clear the air and muddy the water? That appeared to be the result of a presentation by PMForum Managing Editor David Pells at the DYNAMICS 2010 Project Management Conference in Istanbul, Turkey on 3 April, "The Future of Project Management is … not a straight line." This was the title and topic of his 30-minute presentation to approximately 200 participants in Salon one during the two-day, multi-track congress.

David L. Pells is the Managing Editor of PM World Today and of www.pmforum.org, one of the world's leading online sources of project management news and information. David is an internationally recognized leader in the field of professional project management, with over thirty years' experience in project management. His professional experience includes a wide variety of programs and projects, including engineering, construction, transit, defense and high technology, and project sizes ranging from several thousand to ten billion dollars. He served on the board of directors of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) twice, and was awarded PMI's Person of the Year award in 1998 and Fellow Award in 1999.

Some main points of his talk included:

• The future of project management for most people will depend primarily on three things: (1) your definition of project management; (2) your personal perspective - based on your role or position, your industry and the types of projects you work with; and (3) some current trends and directions within the project management field.
• Most people assume there is a common definition of project management, but that may depend on your business, industry or role.
• Some recent trends in PM concepts include project portfolio management, critical chain, agile, complex PM and PM governance, among others.
• Some recent trends in PM tools include enterprise solutions, web-based software-as-a-service and cloud computing.
• Project management is now an entire industry; I estimate annual revenues of around $100 billion worldwide for PM products and services.
• There are some emerging New Frontiers of application such as earth sciences, nanotechnology and urbanization, and a resurgence of opportunities in Old Frontiers (industries) such as agriculture, education and healthcare.
• PM is now a competitive factor - with more and better project management, organizations and industries are more productive, more successful, more profitable.
• Society benefits when PM is applied to social programs and publicly funded projects, and in many other ways when economies are growing.
  

David summarized with "As you might now have predicted, I expect the future of project management to include multiple futures, multiple paths and directions, depending on one's position and perspective. I see PM as an evolving multi-dimensional set of applications, concepts, methods and models, applied in a variety of ways on different types of projects, in literally all organizations and industries."

Photos: David Pells speaking in Istanbul on 3 April 2010.

According to David after speaking, "It was a pleasure for me to come here to share these ideas. I think that the future of project management as a special topic is overblown in importance today. The fact is, projects and project management are increasing in numbers and importance in most industries and organizations. This will inevitably lead to a wide range of applications, models and practices in the world. As Russ Archibald put it this morning, 'one size will not fit all'; there will be many good ways to manage programs and projects in the future."

To view David Pells' DYNAMICS 2010 PowerPoint presentation, click here.

Photo at right: IPYD President N. Murat Erkan, PMP, and David Pells in Istanbul.

Other DYNAMICS 2010 speakers on Saturday, 3 April, included Russell Archibald, PMI Fellow; Dr. Ersin Arioğlu, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Yapi Merkezi; Mustafa Çağan, Microsoft Turkey; Neil Albert and Catherine Ahye of the PMI College of Performance Management; Arzu Gençoğlu, Gartner Turkey; Levent S. Arkan, General Manager of DELEEUW International; Marianne de Muynck, NBM Governance Director for PPG EMEA, Brussels; Dr. Tecettin Köperϋlϋ, Innovative Programs Group Manager at HAVELSAN; Ümit Anil of Tribϋn Consulting; Mehmet Yitmen; Chian Deniz, Software Manager for ACM; Prof. Dr. Atilla Dikbaş, ITÜ; Murat Erkilet of Gamma Power Systems Co., Inc.; Sedef Karagöz, PYO Director for Siemens Energy; Şener Kara of ROTA Information Technologies; Dr. Lance Kurke, author of Leadership Lessons from Alexander the Great; and others.

Dynamics, organized by the Istanbul Project Management Association (IPYD), is the oldest and best established project management symposium in Turkey. Every year this international symposium brings together prestigious speakers from various sectors and countries to present different topics related to the theme of that year's conference. It aims to promote professionalism and quality in the practice of project management in Turkey. The DYNAMICS 2010 conference was held at the 5-star Ceylan Intercontinental Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey during 2-3 April, 2010. This was the 11th International Project Management Symposium sponsored by IPYD and, with 350 attendees, the largest one yet. For information about the conference, visit http://www.dinamikler.org/english/.

Officially founded in March 1997, IPYD is an association for project management with approximately 500 members in various industrial sectors including construction, IT and finance. IPYD works in cooperation with Turkish members of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and delivers to its members knowledge on practices and developments in the international project management world. For more information, visit www.ipyd.org.