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Editor's Perspective on September 2006 Issue



David Pells, Managing Editor PM Forum

Welcome to the September issue of PM World Today.  Over the last month, we have taken steps to both increase the contents and streamline the presentation of our monthly publication.  We have also introduced several new programs at pmforum.org, including the launching of a new Global Correspondents Network.  With international correspondents from around the world providing news and information to us, we hope to increase the global content, perspective and reach of www.pmforum.org.  We hope this will be both useful and interesting to our readers

In this month’s Editorial, I have introduced a new global model of the World of Project Management.  It is a model that I have been using personally for the last few years to better understand the global project management industry and profession.  While this new model may seem too simplified to many, it has helped me put PM related activities, concepts, organizations and trends into a more global context.  It has also allowed me to better understand just how large and significant the world of PM really is.  With programs and projects representing an ever larger portion of the world’s economic, political and social activities, better PM becomes more important for human progress on the planet.  In my opinion, that is the global context that we must eventually embrace as an emerging profession.

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This month, we introduce a new feature, the PM Forum Interview, with an interview of Mr. Jose-Luis Bretones-Lopez.  Mr. Bretones-Lopez is Director. APMEA Strategic Execution, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa Region, McDonald’s Corporation.  For the past three plus years, Mr. Bretones-Lopez has been responsible for region-wide implementation of Program & Project Management (PPM) processes and training.  In this interesting interview, Mr. Bretones-Lopez shares some of the challenges encountered, changes introduced, and benefits resulting from the program.  He is very interested in hearing from executives of other companies also engaged in enterprise-wide PM implementations on an international or global scale, to exchange lessons learned and for networking.

We are happy to include a Viewpoints article this month, Project Management Today - A Personal Point of View of the Near Future, from Mr. Marcio Prieto, a well known professional leader in Sao Paulo and one of the fathers of modern PM in Brazil.  As president of Brazil’s largest PMI chapter during 1995-2005, Mr. Prieto has seen the resurgence of PM throughout Brazil in the last 10 years.   He offers some reflection on the growth of PM over this time period and now the need for more attention to PM governance.

In Churchill the Project Manager, Part 4, Mark Kozak-Holland continues to entertain us with his portrait of Winston Churchill as a project manager before and during World War II.  In this latest installment, Mr. Kozak-Holland continues to draw parallels and examples from Churchill’s war years that might be useful to project managers and executives today.  I agree, and find the discussion highly entertaining.

The second featured paper, Putting Your PMO in Overdrive, is by Terry Doerscher, Chief Solutions Architect for Planview.  Mr. Doerscher suggests a way to supercharge the project management office (PMO) by adding responsibilities “to include areas like account resource management, workforce management and overall work integration.”  He calls this expanded PMO a Management Integration Center (MIC), a center of excellence that can be stronger than a PMO and of greater value.  It’s an interesting idea.

I am very happy to introduce our student paper this month, entitled Project Management of New Products in the Consumer Foods Industry, by Audrey Damilaville, graduate student in project management at Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Lille (ESC Lille), in Lille, France.  This is a very good research paper for three reasons, in my opinion.  First, it reviews project management, and the lack of PM, in a large important industry that seemingly has not yet discovered modern PM.  Second, it adds some interesting research in the product development field of PM.  Third, it discusses the relationship of project planning and control to non-traditional business functions such as marketing.  We hope to publish more good student papers on project management in PM World Today in the future.  In the meantime, we congratulate Ms. Damilaville on her paper and wish her success with her graduate studies in programme and project management at ESC Lille.

The Case Study this month, Risk Management Solution for London Underground Project, was provided by Colin Wheeler in the UK.  Risk management is an important topic for every project manager.  Projects for the London Underground and Train Systems provide excellent case studies for a variety of project risk management issues.  In this case, we see an example of an automated risk analysis and reporting solution.

We offer two interesting articles under PM Tips & Techniques in this issue.  Curt Finch describes “Critical Characteristics to Demand from your Timesheet Vendor”, an issue of increasing importance as more companies face accountability questions.  Good time tracking is critical for accurate project cost reporting.  The article by Daniel Galorath, “Project Risk Analysis & Prioritization” is an extract from one of his books on software project management.  I like his material, find it applicable to many different types of projects, and hope to include more of his articles in future issues of PM World Today.

Another exciting new feature this month is the introduction of “Regional Reports"; from pmforum.org “International Correspondents” around the world.  We launched the pmforum.org “Global Correspondents Network” on August 9, with three international correspondents announced since then.  Those correspondents in Argentina, and Australia have already started sending us PM-related news, which you will see in various sections of this issue of PM World Today.   Each month we will also include short briefs from those correspondents on the state of PM in their cities, regions or countries.  This month we feature the following:

In the future, we will add reports from correspondents from more cities and countries around the world, as pmforum.org expands it global coverage.

The balance of this month’s PM World Today features news, announcements, information and stories that have recently been featured as breaking news articles on www.pmforum.org.  We hope the organization of this information in the following categories is helpful;

We have also introduced sponsorship opportunities for the monthly PM World Today. This month we feature two banner ads for the International Project Management Association (IPMA), our September sponsor. If your organization is interested in a sponsoring an issue of PM World Today please contact me at editor@pmforum.org.

We are trying to expand both the www.pmforum.org website and PM World Today.   We are also engaged in a continuous improvement process, so you will see some design changes in the weeks ahead.  Hopefully, those changes will meet your approval.  We are always interested in reader comments and suggestions, so please feel free to contact me at editor@pmforum.org, or make your comments known to the World of PM in a Letter to the Editor.

Thank you for your subscription, and for reading the articles submitted by our authors and contributors.  Based on our growing number of stakeholders, I am excited about the future of this online publication and www.pmforum.org.  Please send this to a friend or sign them up for a free subscription to PM World Today.   We really are “connecting the world of project management.”

David L. Pells
Managing Editor
PM World Today
www.pmforum.org



Each Issue of the PM World Today has a PM Perspective Section which is the Editor's Foreword and Observations on the contents of the particular Issue. That is, the Editor describes his choice of highlights of the Issue and provides a personal comment on the PM World Today.

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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