The Latest News in Project Management
PMI Global Congress EMEA To Be Held In Amsterdam - May 18, 2009
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS– Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading membership association for the project management profession, will convene in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the PMI Global Congress 2009—EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa) on 18-20 May. The three-day professional event will be held at the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, and it will offer opportunities for project management practitioners, students and executives to learn about worldwide trends and the value project management offers to organisations everyday.
“It is clear that everyone’s mind is on the economy and how to navigate through it,” said Gregory Balestrero, president and chief executive officer of PMI. “By attending congress, project practitioners at every level have the opportunity to sharpen their skills so they demonstrate the most value for their employers.”
PMI Global Congress 2009—EMEA is the premier project management, educational and networking event in the Europe-Middle-East-Africa region. Project managers learn new techniques, tools and best practices, gaining a glocal—both global and local—perspective of their profession.
The congress offers attendees more than 75 areas of focus to meet a variety of career development paths. Some of this year’s areas of focus include advanced project management skills, communications, consulting skills, research, general business skills, industry specific issues, new project management trends, professional development, project management foundation skills, project management issues, sales and marketing skills and teaming. In a proactive response to regional needs, Project Management Institute will work with the PMI Netherlands Chapter to host an executive breakfast, a project management student event and a think tank seminar. These events will take place in conjunction with PMI Global Congress 2009—EMEA proceedings.
Registration for the 2009 PMI Global Congress—EMEA opened 4 March 2009. The deadline for advance registration is 30 April 2009, after which on-site fees will apply. To register online and for more information on PMI Global Congress 2009—EMEA, please visit http://congresses.pmi.org/EMEA2008/NextYearsCongress.cfm.
About PMI
The world’s leading project management organisation, PMI shares knowledge with nearly 500,000 members and credential holders in 170+ countries. Since its founding 40 years ago, PMI has impacted more than one million practitioners, businesses, governments, students and training organisations. Today, PMI’s products and services range from world-class standards for project, program and portfolio management to five professional credentials, including the gold standard Project Management Professional (PMP®). PMI’s exclusive Global Corporate Council and European Corporate Networking Group engage large multinationals and government organisations in endorsing the value of project management. The only project management association with an established academic research program, PMI has invested more than US $14 million in support of dozens of research projects since 1997. Learn more at PMI.org.
Project Management Institute Releases Updates To Four Standards - January 5, 2009
On 31 December 2008, PMI released updates to four globally-accepted project management standards. Updated standards include:
- A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition
- The Standard for Program Management—Second Edition
- The Standard for Portfolio Management—Second Edition
- Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®)–Second Edition
Global teams began reviewing the four standards in December 2006 and concluded their work in August 2008. The simultaneous release of these four standards allowed PMI’s global standards working teams to ensure these standards are fully harmonized with each other for the first time.
The goals for the harmonization process included assessing inconsistencies and aligning language. “If a term is used, we agreed that there was no room for poetic license, they all needed to be used verbatim across standards and ultimately in the standards lexicon,” said Beth Ouellette PMP, PgMP, managing director of The Ouellette Group based in Central New Jersey and Content Integration Analyst for the standards update project.
To get the process started, the teams agreed to use the PMBOK® Guide as the base document on which all other standards would be verified. “We also agreed that the Program Standard would ‘own’ those things exclusive to a program, and that the Portfolio Standard would ‘own’ those things exclusive to a portfolio,” says Ms. Ouellette. Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®) became the standard that lifted the standards to an organizational level.
The teams also built in necessary processes to create alignment, consistency and clarity across all four standards. Comparison tables were used to alert the teams to intersections of commonality and areas that needed coordination. “We had face-to-face meetings to hammer out conflicts, inconsistencies and contradictions. And with all of these events, there was careful pre-planning, collaboration, information and data reviews, recommendations and suggestions,” says Ms. Ouellette.
“It is when there is convergence of the application and use of the standards within our PMI community at large, in a consistent, clear, concise fashion that we reach true harmonization,” Ms. Ouellette said.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide–Fourth Edition
PMI released the first PMBOK® Guide in 1996 and since then it has become the definitive guide for all who work with projects. Today, there are more than two million copies of the PMBOK® Guide in circulation. It is published by PMI in English and 10 other languages.
For the fourth edition, the project team made several improvements. The first was the inclusion of project documents, such as issue logs, duration estimates and resource requirements, to aid project managers in project execution.
Another noticeable change, said Cynthia Stackpole, PMP, President of Cynergy2 located in Southern California and project manager for the PMBOK® Guide update, was the combination of the change request, corrective action, preventive action and defect repair groupings into one heading called “Change Requests.”
“Our goal was to bring about clarity and have the specific planning process outputs serve as inputs to developing the project management plan and not the other way around,” Stackpole says.
Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®)–Second Edition
Alignment with the PMBOK® Guide —Fourth Edition, as well as the standards for program and portfolio management, was a driving force in developing the second edition of OPM3, PMI’s best practice standard for enterprise improvement.
The update includes the introduction of organizational enablers. “These are the structural-, cultural-, technological- and human resource-focused best practices, which underpin the implementation of best practices in projects, programs and portfolios,” said Tim MacFadyen, PMP Senior Manager for Pariveda Solutions and project manager for the new edition of OPM3. “This ultimately helps foster project management within an organization and helps project managers anchor processes within the organization.”
The team also updated the standard’s self-assessment method (SAM) questions—refining the offering from 151 to 120 questions. “The goal was to make the SAMs very straightforward—clearing up any confusion and facilitating application for PMP [credential holders],” Mr. MacFadyen says. “Our goal was to simplify and make sure people find solid use of the standard.”
The Standard for Program Management—Second Edition
“The most significant aspect of the latest edition of The Standard for Program Management is the development of knowledge areas specific to programs,” explains Frank Parth, PMP, CEO of Project Auditors LLC., located in Southern California and project manager for the update. “It gives the program managers a significant amount of information that is relevant to managing large, complex programs,” he said.
The second edition provides a consistent framework to adequately assess project, program or portfolio management. “For the first time we are talking about governance and audits,” said Mr. Parth. “Both topics are highly relevant to programs but have not been included in any standards before.”
The Standard for Portfolio Management—Second Edition
The second edition of PMI’s standard for portfolio management brings with it a noticeable foray into two significant knowledge areas: governance and risk.
“These are key additions, especially risk,” says Larry Goldsmith, PMP, Senior Project Manager for Microsoft and project manager for the portfolio standard update. “At the portfolio level there are different risks involved, many of which are external, such as shareholder value. By taking on a given project within the portfolio, you could introduce the company to unnecessary risk.”
This standard’s coverage area is significant for all project managers in part because of its role in advancing the profession’s career path from project to program to portfolio management.
“There needed to be a level set between the four standards to make them more integrated instead of interfaced,” he says. “This is something we definitely accomplished.”
Credential Candidates Use New Online Tool to Determine Which Edition to Study
To avoid confusion among credential candidates studying for exams in 2009, PMI has developed a “Which Edition Should I Study” tool, available at www.pmi.org/StandardsUpdate. Credential candidates select the credential for which they are studying and their expected exam date. The tool identifies which edition of the standard would be most appropriate to study in preparation for the exam.
About PMI
Project Management Institute (PMI.org) is the leading advocate for the project management profession globally. Founded in 1969, PMI has more than 420,000 members and credential holders in more than 170 countries. PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP®) credential is globally recognized as the gold standard in project management.
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