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"It's a great platform for all the PM professionals to learn and share their knowledge and experience with the rest of the PM community." This
statement could have referred to a professional association, a conference,
a newsletter, or even PMFORUM. But the speaker was not referring to
any of these traditional approaches to professional development, but
to an on-line discussion group: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com /group /pmpros/
Predictions to the contrary notwithstanding, project management discussion
groups continue to proliferate. Searching for Yahoo groups using "project management" yields an astonishing 1835 groups, up from less than 1000 at the beginning of 2003. Many have less than 5 members. (One "group" has only one member, although we would challenge the definition of "group" in
this case.) Several have more than 1000. The great majority are somewhere
in between.
Many represent physical groups, such as project teams, college classes,
and even PMI chapters. Our favorite is the Red Mountain Winery, a 6-member
group formed "as partial fullfilment [sic] of the requirements for the University of Washington Bothell Strategic Management 544 class".
But many others are virtual groups with a geographically-dispersed
membership.
One such group is PMPros (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com /group /pmpros/),
a rapidly growing group started in May by Rakesh Bhatia, a senior process
and program management professional from India. Bhatia said he realized
there was a need for such a group every time he wanted information,
resources or expert guidance. He therefore established the group described
as "a group for professionals and aspiring professionals, into project, program, portfolio and delivery management. A forum to share and learn all about the said discipline of utmost importance to any organization."
He has not been disappointed. The members, who are spread around the
globe, participate actively, usually daily, discussing such subjects
as project/program management, PMP certification, software project
management, and software cost estimation. According to Bhatia "all the members are very helpful and will provide guidance when needed".
PMPros exemplifies why these groups are so popular. As one member explained: "I check the forum every day. There is always new information I can apply to my projects almost immediately."
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Editorial Policy: The PMFORUM® has no connection to any national or international project management organization nor does it reflect the policy of any project management professional or commercial organization. The PMFORUM® maintains an objective and impartial view of project management affairs. In the interests of advancing professional project management the PMFORUM® will publish contending and objective views on issues that reflect collegial differences and perspectives