Project Management Community May - June 2005

May/June 2005: Editorial | Viewpoints | Papers | Education | Publications | Case Studies | Community

Innovative training program allies trekking with project management teaching

by Alcides Pietro

PROAGE, a Brazilian consultancy and training company in the Project Management area, has launched an innovative training course: “Trilha Gantt”. Trilha is a Portuguese word that means “trekking”, the name “Gantt” comes from the Gantt’s graph, that management tool which is very well-known in the project management world, and this initiative refers to a new way of teaching project management to professionals of this area.

The participants take part in a regularity trekking and are divided in teams which have to compete among them in order to achieve a goal in common. It seems to be just one more ordinary physical activity for the weekend but it is very far from it: during all the day, from the moment they arrive at the trekking site to the final meeting where they are supposed to analyze the results, modern concepts of project management are transmitted to the participants.

“We have planned this training in details in order to simulate real situations of the project management day by day”, says Alcides Pietro, PMP, PROAGE’s partner, designer and coordinator of “Trilha Gantt”.

The members of the winning team of the competition that took place in São Paulo (Brazil) on March 12th showed that they know about project management: they showed know-how in planning time, risks, costs, controlling the project, managing changes and administrating human resources during all the trekking activity, that also had interesting special tasks aiming at testing each of these areas of knowledge.

“The result was very positive: two-thirds of the participants stated that the event has succeeded beyond their expectations,” says Pietro, who concludes: “Trilha Gantt provided the participants a practical way of living and learning good management techniques based on the practices of the Project Management Institute.”

Latin America Aerospace & Defense Expo

by Tom Vanderheiden

While on a combined PMI A&D SIG and business trip to Brazil, I was invited to attend the Latin America Aerospace the Defense Expo – held in Rio de Janeiro’s Riocentro Conference Center. This significant international exhibition and conference on Aerospace and Defense Technology materials and systems suppliers was held between April 26 - 29, 2005. There were over 200 exhibitors from worldwide contractors and manufacturers of major defense, security, and commercial aerospace and weapons systems. Several were focused on space systems.

Over the next few years Latin American Governments will continue to introduce new and updated systems, platforms and technologies to replace the aging inventories of counter insurgency aircraft and air defense fighters. Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Agusta Westland and other world-wide contractors and suppliers are likely to maintain their already significant presence in the region. However, Brazil has several A&D suppliers who are quickly becoming very capable in their supply of commercial and defense systems, such as Embraer, Avibras, and Condor.

The Brazilian Navy is actively developing a nuclear-powered submarine capability and holds long term ambitions to build new technology aircraft carrier and frigate vessels to help guard their very long coast line. The recent F-16 purchase by Chilean Air Force will be followed by acquisition of tanker aircraft for in-flight refueling. Colombia as well as Mexican and Peruvian armies are all determined to maintain superior and well-equipped armed forces to stage successful counter-insurgency operations against leftist guerillas and illicit drug operations.

Latin America accounts for 13% of the world’s commercial corporate aircraft fleet with Brazil being the world’s second largest corporate jet and turboprop market. Regional jets and single-aisle aircraft are forecast to dominate future aircraft sales to serve local markets. There will be increased demand for smaller regional jets. North America and Europe is expected to drive demand for intermediate sized aircraft. Much of this demand is expected to be satisfied by Brazil’s Embraer, which is the world’s 4th largest aircraft manufacturer, who are projecting major growth in the size of regional 50 to 90 passenger highly economical jets.

As a result of continued growth in air travel throughout the S.A. continent, airport infrastructure development is high on many S.A. governments’ agendas. With the impending privatization of Brazil’s Infraero, they will support a much faster upgrading of regional airports to help with the growth of tourism and regional infrastructure development. There continues to be a significant international investment in Brazil in the aerospace manufacturing and support sector with such primes as Dassault, Rolls-Royce, and GE aircraft engines.

After attending the LAAD, I traveled to the city of Sao Paulo, a thriving highly developed and modern city with a population of ~ 10 million. The population of the State of Sao Paulo is ~ 30 million and there is a high level of industrialization in three of the other large SP cities, with Sao Jose dos Campos city being the location of much of the aerospace, defense, and general manufacturing centers. It was obvious to me in my limited travel that Brazil truly is a rapidly expanding economy and one that will likely become a very strong partner with the U.S. economy over the next few years.

Tom Vanderheiden, PMP
Chair of PMI Aerospace and Defense SIG
Mailto: chair@pmi-adsig.org
PMI A&D SIG Web: http://www.pmi-adsig.org

Tom Vanderheiden has over 35 years of project management experience including 20 years in construction on major civil, commercial, environmental, nuclear, and petroleum projects; and 15 years in the IS industry developing and implementing management systems projects for auto, government, home building, insurance and university organizations. He has worked at 25 job sites in 14 states and in Australia.

Tom has been a member of PMI for 15 years, participating at various times in the Mile Hi, Columbia Basin, Idaho Falls, Albuquerque and Las Vegas Chapters, and sponsoring new chapters in Los Alamos NM and Bloomington IL. He is a past Chair of the Environmental SIG, past President of the Central Illinois Chapter, and currently serves as Chair of the Aerospace and Defense SIG.

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