PM Scene: Faces and Places
July - August 2002
Quentin W. Fleming
Quentin
has had over four decades of professional experience in project management,
with two distinct careers: one in private industry and another as a consultant
in project management.
He began his career in project management quite by chance. In 1958, he went to work for a new company which no longer exists, Aeronutronic. He was assigned to a new project developing penetration aids, decoys, for the Atlas intercontinental missile. His first day on the job the project manager gave him his orders: "Here is our new contract. I want you to schedule it, budget it, status it, and keep me out of trouble." So began his career in project management.
Over the next three decades he worked on several exciting state of the art aerospace projects developing missiles, the navigation system for the SR-71, fighter aircraft, and other highly sophisticated systems. In 1980 he was assigned to a new super-secret project which later became the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Quentin was responsible for implementing an earned value management system.
To implement earned value he accumulated a stack of Government documents over a foot high. He read them all, and still didn't have a clue as to what they wanted. So in desperation he decided to write his own book on earned value which became a best-seller: "Put Earned Value Into Your Management Control System." This was the first of seven textbooks he has written on project management, which collectively have sold over 60,000 copies world wide.
His second career began in 1991 when he gathered enough courage to go out on his own, and follow his twin sons advise: "Dad, go do something important...for a change!" He took their advise and started his own consultancy practice in project management. His specialty: earned value and procurement management. He intentionally works solo to better focus on the needs of his clients.
In 1998 he joined the eight person core team which updated the Project Management Institute's Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK, year 2000 edition. Quentin was responsible for all earned value content in the update, and also Chapter 12 covering Procurement Management.
In 1995, Quentin was honored when the Performance Management Association, which has since become the PMI College of Performance Management awarded him their prestigious Lt. General Hans Driessnack Distinguished Service Award for his work in earned value management. He was the third person to receive the award and the first from private industry.
Quentin Fleming can be reached at his website at http://www.QuentinF.com
Dr Martin Barnes
BSc(Eng), PhD, FICE,FCIOB,FAPM,FInstCES,MBCS,CIMgt,PrEng
Martin
Barnes has been working in project management for the last 30 years. The management
consulting business which he founded merged with what is now PricewaterhouseCoopers
in 1985. Since 1996 he has been an independent consultant. He is also Executive
Director of the Major Projects Association, the prestigious association for
businesses and governments involved in major projects based in the University
of Oxford, UK. http://www.majorprojects.org
Martin has advised many of the largest businesses and other undertakings on project management, both in the U.K. and elsewhere. He specialises in the organisational and human aspects of project management, contracts and risk management. His recent work has included risk management in the decommissioning of nuclear installations and constructing major chemical plants, introduction of project management into the financial sector and project management of a major racecourse development.
Martin has been responsible for a number of developments in project management technique now widely used. He invented what is now often called the 'classic' project management triangle (Cost - Time - Quality) in 1969. More recently he conceived the New Engineering Contract and headed the team which designed and developed it. It is the only standard contract system designed to stimulate application of modern, collaborative project management techniques around all the organisations involved in a project.
Martin Barnes is a former Chairman of the Association for Project Management in the UK and of the Council of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). His many contributions to IPMA international congresses over the years have been memorable and he has lectured on project management all over the world. His BBC television programme on PM is widely used to introduce the topic into new areas.
Martin Barnes can be reached at cornbrash@aol.com