PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Ann R. Miller and David Pells in Dallas

The second day of the 4th Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium featured a panel discussion on the topic of Project Management for Cities and included two city managers from the Dallas area and a UT Dallas professor of public administration. The symposium held during 12-13 August 2010 in the School of Management on The UT Dallas campus in Richardson, Texas 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 afternoon panel discussion on "Project Management Issues in City Administration" included the following panelists: Mr. Allen Barnes, City Manager for the City of Sachse, Texas; Mr. Jim Holgersson, City Manager of the City of Arlington, Texas; and Mr. Doug Kiel, Professor of Public Affairs and Administration at UT Dallas. The panel was moderated by David Pells, PMForum's Managing Editor of the PM World Today eJournal.

Photo, from left to right: Prof Doug Kiel, Allen Barnes, Jim Holgersson; photo courtesy of PMForum

Each panelist was provided with five minutes or so to make a brief introduction, describing his city, city projects, size of budget, impact of the economy on city and project budgets, and other introductory comments. Professor Kiel introduced his background and offered some relevant introductory comments on the topic, including his opinion that project management should be included in the curricula for public administration.

The panelists were then presented with such questions as (1) what portion of your annual budget is allocated to projects, for example, IT systems, facilities, special events, programs?; (2) How has the economy affected your projects?; (3) have you any major successes or failures that you might like to mention?; (4) what are some of the leading project-related issues or problems for your city?; (5) is professional project management established or used on your projects?; and (6) have you considered using a project or program management office (PMO). The audience was encouraged to ask questions throughout, and at the end.

Photos: moderator and panelists on 13 August; photo courtesy of PMForum

Some interesting comments by panelists during the discussion:

• "I've attended many sessions here at the UT Dallas symposium and I've learned a lot, learned some things that we are doing right and some others where some improvements could be made. It's made me wonder why we haven't sent some of our project managers to this conference."
  

• "The impact of the economy is permanent. We all have to make do with less now."
  

• "We have many projects, especially highways and roads, that cross jurisdictions. Those project require close coordination with other cities and with the State of Texas. Such services as fire protection and emergency response can also involve other cities, so we frequently need to plan and deal with those issues."
  

•  "911 is another area that requires a lot of cross-jurisdictional and multi-jurisdictional coordination; this is also an area where more good project management could be used."
  

•  "In Arlington, our Capital Improvements Program office provides project planning and management services for all new facilities and construction projects. In addition, we are completely going out of the parks business, outsourcing those projects and services."
  

• "We should not forget the whole issue of contracting; contracts management and human resources are major issues in city administration that affect both projects and operations."
  

• "We have some other projects that are not always big, but very complex because of the stakeholders involved. For example, youth programs and programs for senior citizens."
  

• "Cities with a high proportion of residential neighborhoods compared to business and industries populations can have big problems with budgets and services. The taxes and revenues from commercial activities always supplement the budgets for services for citizens, such as fire protection, police and schools. In fact, most cities would prefer more businesses and fewer residents, especially less expensive homes."

According to the panelists, the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex is the 4th or 5th largest in the USA with six million residents. The City of Arlington has a population of around 400,000, annual operating budget of $388M, and a capital budget of $5B in the last five years. Sachse has a population of approximately 30,000 with a $34M budget for projects, mostly related to highways.

The panel discussion ended with a brief presentation by Mr. Holgersson on the planning and construction of the new Dallas Cowboys Football stadium, which is located in Arlington (photo courtesy of PMForum).

Other events on 13 August included a morning keynote presentation on the Trinity River Corridor Project by Dallas City Councilman David Neumann; 15 professional presentations over five streams by 18 project management experts and professional practitioners; two other panel discussions on the topics of "The Future of Project Management" and "Career Transitions in Project Management"; and closing keynote presentations by Miles Shepherd, chair of the IPMA Executive Board, and Steven Fahrenkrog, PMI Vice President for Regional Development. The day ended with drawings for door prizes. Official attendance at the symposium was approximately 260. 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.

Editor's note: More information about the Dallas Trinity River Corridor Project can be found at http://www.trinityrivercorridor.com/index.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_River_Project

PMForum is a Media Partner for this event. To see more news coverage, please visit http://www.pmforum.org/events/2010/4thUTDalas-Symposium2010.html