Editor's Perspective on the December 2006 PM World Today
David Pells, Managing Editor PM Forum
Welcome to the December issue of PM World Today. This month’s issue is expected to be the last one hosted on the www.pmforum.org website. With the January issue, we are planning to migrate to an independent website and identity for PM World Today. In conjunction with that move, we plan to add an international Editorial Advisory Team and to begin to promote PM World Today as an online project management eJournal. Although featured papers will be reviewed by editorial advisors, we will continue to present ourselves as a non-refereed journal and certainly not refereed in the same sense as a fully refereed academic research journal. Nevertheless, we plan to be more serious about the quality of featured papers accepted for publication. This is also because we expect contributions to increase in 2007. With the January issue, we expect that authors of featured papers and case studies will qualify for 15 PDUs for each article published in PM World Today, this is according to category 2B in the Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) Program Handbook published by the Project Management Institute (PMI®).
This month’s Editorial is entitled “Celebration and Reflection – A Look Back at the Year in PM.” The theme was selected not only due to the time of year, but because reflecting on “lessons learned” and celebrating successes should be regular activities on every project. It is also needed for the PM profession itself. So this was my opportunity to document some reasons for celebration as 2006 comes to a close and to reflect on some lessons learned this year. I hope the article proves interesting to readers from several perspectives.
We received four Letters to the Editor this month worth sharing. Tom Kappel, former editor and reviewer for allpm.com, sent us a heart warming vote of confidence related to recent developments with www.pmforum.org. Ben Voivedich in Houston sent two emails, offering some comments on the importance of professional ethics for both himself and his firm, which is involved in several offshore projects. The Letter from Russell Archibald, Ph.D. (hon), PMI Fellow, takes issue with a recent PMI ethics complaint against long time PMI member Edward Fern, and includes a request that we make his concerns visible to PM World Today readers. Mr. Archibald, who is also a global advisor for PMForum.org, attached his letter to the PMI Ethics Committee which is now available to readers via a link in his Letter to the Editor.
This month, we have a Featured Interview, thanks to PMForum’s International Correspondent in Argentina, Ana Maria Rodriguez. Ana Maria attended the PMI Global Congress – Latin America 2006 in Santiago, Chile during November 5-7, where she had an opportunity to interview Gregory Balestrero, CEO of PMI, and Linda Vella, Vice Chair (and Chair-elect) of the PMI Board of Directors. Mrs. Rodriguez asked these PMI leaders some questions about "Project Management in Latin America". We at PMForum.org believe that Latin America represents an important region for future developments in the world of modern PM. We also hope to be involved and to offer what support and visibility we can.
Three Viewpoints articles are included this month. Eric Jenett, PMI Founder and Fellow, warns PM professional organizations against the “Silo Effect”, in a short philosophical article. Paul Giammalvo, writing from Jakarta, explains the logic underlying the AACEi decision to join the recently announced Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards in his article, “AACEi Joins GAPPS – Why and What It Means!” Finally, Matt Piazza and Satinder Baweja experienced PM consultants in north Texas, argue for more serious consideration of Chief Project Officers in Organizations. All are interesting, albeit arguable, positions. Viewpoints articles are intended to be opinion pieces by professional leaders, and that’s what we have here this month.
Five Featured Papers are included. Peter Baxter has provided a paper entitled “Measuring for Maturity in Process Improvement Using DataDrill EXPRESS”. His article is included here with permission from his company, to highlight some interesting maturity assessment concepts. Mark Kozak-Holland returns this month with a sixth installment of his interesting and entertaining series on “Churchill the Project Manager” (Part 6). Curt Finch, CEO of Journyx, is back with another interesting article on the importance of time and cost control for both management and governance, in his article “How SOX Affects Payroll Professionals”. Laurence Nicholson in the UK provides another good contribution on the subject of “Project Management Benchmarking for Measuring Capability within the Organisation” Finally, Florin Gheorghiu in Bucharest makes another solid contribution with his article “Balancing Design Costs in EPC Projects: In-Office Design vs. Site Engineering Adjustments.” Mr. Gheorghiu, who has recently become an International Correspondent for PMForum in Romania and who is a PMP, can now also confirm the usefulness of PM World Today as a source of PDUs for authoring professional papers published in this online eJournal.
Our Case Study this month is a second story provided by Richard Pharroof The APM Group in the UK, the leading implementer of PRINCE2 methodology. Mr. Pharro discusses “Using PRINCE2 to Start Up a Business”. While this paper promotes the usage of PRINCE2, I might like to suggest that many PM methods and concepts can be used for business start-up, start-up of new lines of business, new joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and many other aspects of business today. Mr. Pharro’s paper reinforces this position, in my opinion.
We offer two interesting articles under PM Tips & Techniques in this issue. Daniel Galorath, one of America’s risk management experts, contributes another paper entitled “Risk Management Success Factors”. Robert Posener, who is also a PMForum correspondent in Australia, offers some interesting perspective and advice in “Communications Tip – Moment of Truth Activities.” We hope these suggestions are useful on your projects.
We include three Regional Reports again this month, from Argentina, Australia and the United Kingdom. PMF international correspondent in Rosario, Argentina, Ana Maria Rodriguez, has provided an interesting personal assessment of "Project Management Today in Latin America". Rob Posener, PMF international correspondent in Sydney, provides a short and positive report entitled “2006 – A Big Year!” Rob ends his report with a joke, which is not normally recommended for global audiences, but it made me smile so its still there. And Miles Shepherd, PMF correspondent in London, jumped in this month with a nice report on “Project Management in the UK.” Regional reports are intended to provide a snapshot of the PM profession in various parts of the world. We are now expecting this section of PM World Today to grow dramatically in the future as PMF correspondents have recently been announced in Germany, Nigeria, Spain, Romania and the USA. We already had correspondents in Argentina, Australia, Brazil and the UK. We have correspondents waiting to be announced in Ireland, Russia, Turkey and more locations in the USA. So we really do hope that this section will begin to provide a more global picture in future issues. It’s quite exciting to me.
This month we introduce another new feature, PM Book Reviews. On 29 September 2006, a cooperative book review program with the University of Texas at Dallas was announced. Under terms of that program, PM books will be provided by PMForum.org for review by graduate students in UTD’s Project Management MBA program. Students read and prepare book reviews in exchange for receiving the books at no cost. Results of that program are now coming in and we are happy to present 4 book reviews this month. “Managing Smaller Projects” by Mike Watson is reviewed by Catherine Vilaga. "Avoiding Project Disaster – Titanic Lessons for IT Executives”, by Mark Kozak-Holland is reviewed by Mr. René Le Bel. “A Survival Guide for Project Managers” by James Taylor is reviewed by Mr. Karim Osman. “Titanic Lessons for IT Projects” by Mark Kozak-Holland is reviewed by Mr. Chris Patrick. These four reviewers are all mid-career professionals enrolled in the graduate MBA-PM program at UTD. We look forward to publishing reviews of other PM books by their fellow students in future issues.
The balance of this month’s PM World Today features news, announcements, information and stories that have been featured over the last 30 days as breaking news articles on www.pmforum.org. We hope the inclusion of those stories is helpful, especially those announcing future PM events and Calls for Papers.
I want to welcome Eric Jenett, a founder, Fellow and former Chair of PMI; Brian Kooyman, Fellow and former Chair of the Australian PM Association; and Professor Vladimir Voropajev, founder, Fellow and current President of the Russian Project Management Association SOVNET, all of who became Global Advisors to PMForum.org and PM World Today this month. And a warm welcome also to Saralee Newell in Florida, Dr. O. Chima Okereke in Nigeria, Florin Gheorghiu in Romania, Alfonso Bucero in Spain and Manfred Rieck in Germany. They all become International Correspondents for us in November. You can see the stories about these new advisors and correspondents under PM Community News in this issue.
We want to thank our sponsors this month, which include the International Project Management Association (IPMA), Method123, and iWorld Projects & Systems, Inc. Click on their banners on the PM World Today main page and visit their websites for some exciting PM products, publications and services. Sponsors receive a banner ad and publicity in the PM World Today e-Journal that is emailed to thousands of PM practitioners and professionals worldwide, and an ad on the PMWT home page. If your organization is interested in sponsoring an issue of PM World Today please contact editor@pmforum.org.
Thank you for your subscription, and for reading the articles submitted by our authors and contributors. We are excited about the future of this online publication. Please send this to a friend so that they can sign up for their own free subscription of PM World Today at: http://www.pmforum.org/subscribe.htm. We really are “Connecting the World of Project Management.” Good luck with your projects & have a great December.
David L. Pells
Managing Editor
PM World Today
editor@pmforum.org
www.pmforum.org
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