PMF to co-sponsor 1st Annual
UTD Project Management Symposium
PMForum.org is one of three co-sponsors announced for the 1st Annual UTD Project Management Symposium, 6-7 August 2007 in Plano, Texas, USA. The conference is being sponsored by the Graduate Program in Project Management in the School of Management’s Executive Education Center at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Co-sponsors of the conference will be PMForum.org and the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®).
David L. Pells, Managing Editor, PMForum.org and James Joiner, UTD
According to James Joiner, Director of UTD’s graduate program in project management and pictured at right with David Pells, managing editor for PMForum.org, “We are happy to team up with PMForum on this project. They will help bring some high level speakers, provide global visibility, and publish some of the papers. It should be a winning combination.”
The 2 Day event will be the first major project management conference in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area since the PMI’91 Seminars/Symposium 16 years ago. The UTD conference will focus on topics important to organizations, industries and the economy of North Texas. Proposed Tracks include the following:
Track 1 – PM for Nanotechnology & Semiconductor Development
Track 2 – Project, Program & Portfolio Management
Track 3 – Agile Project Management
Track 4 – PM for Medical & Healthcare Projects
Track 5 – Big PM: Management of large IT Projects
Track 6 – Micro PM: Management of smaller projects
Track 7 – The Role of PM for Corporate Governance
Other Conference Events will include an Opening Ceremony with keynote speakers on Monday morning; a Monday evening reception for attendees, speakers and vendors; and a Closing Panel Discussion of keynote speakers on “The Future of Project Management”. A vendor exhibition is planned, with sponsorships also to be available.
Key Dates to Remember:
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15 March 2007 – Abstracts Due;
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15 April 2007 – Papers selected;
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1 May 2007 – registrations open;
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30 June 2007 – Full papers due;
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5 August 2007 – onsite registrations open;
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6-7 August 2007 – conference to be held.
The Symposium will be held at the Plano Center in Plano, Texas. Again, according to Mr. Joiner, “both UTD and the Dallas Chapter are Registered Education Providers with PMI, so attendees should receive up to 12 PDUs. Paper presenters can receive five more. The registration fee will only be $399 for the two-day conference, which is reasonably low, so we expect a good turnout.”
Project management experts, leaders and professionals worldwide are invited to email an abstract for presentation of a professional paper on one of the above topics. For more information, contact James Joiner at .
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UTD’s Project Management Program provides application-oriented education for professionals with significant project, program or general management responsibilities. Established in the Executive Education center in UTD’s School of Management, students have the option of earning a Certificate in Project Management, a Master of Science degree with an emphasis in project management, or a Master of Business Administration degree with project management emphasis.
The UTD PM program, originally developed in 1997, is accredited by the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and is registered with the PMI Registered Education Provider Program (PMI R.E.P.). The program is taught by world-class faculty with a blend of industrial project management, consulting and teaching experience. UTD’s PM Program in delivered both on campus and online, and attracts students from across the United States and around the world.
For more information visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/ or contact James Joiner at
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Ukrainian Software Company Enters Global
Project Management Tools Market
CS Odessa, a provider of productivity solutions based in Odessa, Ukraine, has announced the release of ConceptDraw Project 3, a new redesigned version of their project management software product for both the Windows and Macintosh environments. Version 3 provides a new redesigned intuitive interface and the addition of critical path management. There have been added task filtering and sorting and other features to make the project planning process more effective
An advantage for Macintosh users is that the new version is in a universal binary application and runs natively on all Intel-based Macintosh computers. More information about ConceptDraw Project 3 and a Free Trial version can be found at http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/products/project/main.php
According to information provided to PMForum.org by CS Odessa, the Company’s history goes back to 1993, a time of social evolution and hunger for knowledge in Eastern Europe and the year when Computer Systems Odessa was founded. From the beginning, the company founders worked to create robust software solutions to improve the productivity of users, whether in small offices or large corporations. The Company’s first software product was a publishing program called plainly - Publisher. Although, at that time there were only two similar systems on the market - Xerox Venture Publisher and Quark Xpress - the first steps out to foreign markets were quite hard ones.
The company’s approach was based on cross-platform development of products suited for the mixed Macintosh - Windows office place. CS Odessa is leading the way in adopting Apple's operating system - Mac OS X as the foundation for future development.
ConceptDraw Professional was released in 2000 as a comprehensive and cost-effective diagramming, project management and business graphics solution. Seamless cross-platform compatibility combined with a powerful feature set and attractive pricing made it an outstanding productivity resource. The company has now expanded its product line by building additional productivity and presentation tools designed to satisfy the diverse needs of both business and technical professionals. Along the way, CSO has also successfully created software products and internal applications as a source developer for a number of European and American companies. Regardless of software platform, Windows or MAC OS or UNIX, CSO provides unique, customized, highly productive products and solutions.
The company’s products include:
ConceptDraw Productivity Line - used by thousands of people worldwide for brainstorming, flowcharting, problem-solving, working up business strategy, elaborating network design and floor plans, planning and organizing their own projects, creating Databases and content analysis.
ConceptDraw - produces report summaries and action plan instruction, ToDo lists, charts for home use and outlines in interesting and easy to understand ways.
ConceptDraw VI - offering a flexible vector drawing tool, libraries with hundreds of pre-drawn shapes, built-in scripting language and many other professional features. The software supports import/export of XML for Visio, allowing users to exchange documents with MS Visio users.
ConceptDraw MINDMAP - which enables individual users, professionals and teams to easily capture ideas, sort, structure and present various information as clear visual maps.
CD MINDMAP 4 - facilitates brainstorming, development of project task lists and explanation of concepts, finding solutions and making decisions, and synchronized with iPod to allows users to view maps, outlines and text notes, present thoughts and explain concepts to others while listening to music.
ConceptDraw Project 3 - a unique project planning tool designed for efficient planning and tracking of multiple projects.
ConceptDraw NetDiagrammer – a product designed for professional computer network diagramming, LAN scanning and visualization, preparation of network documentation, office/building/home network planning.
ConceptDraw WebWave - a tool on the stage of web site/application prototyping and design, page mocking-up and site-mapping.
ConceptDraw Medical – a multifarious product with pictures and diagrams for reports, outlines and experiments; illustrations to unordinary cases in medical practice; schemes of chemical and molecular transformations, genetic conversion and others. There are more than 80 libraries which contain 2300 templates including pre-drawn schemes for microbiology, biochemistry, anatomy and immunology.
ConceptDraw Presenter – for creation of slide shows, interactive HTML pages and Flash presentations. Apart from features common to other presentation software, ConceptDraw Presenter contains tools for business and technical drawing. This makes it useful for those who need to include vector illustrations in their presentations - charts, diagrams and schemes.
ConceptDraw Reporter – a software tool to easily combine images with text in one document, making it convenient for creating visual learning materials, photo-based business documents, personalized illustrated proposals or even research and scientific reports.
According to the company all applications have cross-platform compatibility and run both PPC and Intel-based Macs. Additional information can be found at www.conceptdraw.com.
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Agreement between Mining Companies
and the Government Promotes
Project Management in Peru
This month, an agreement between more than 40 mining companies working in Peru and the Peruvian Government was signed. The agreement states that due to the unexpected earnings caused by the minerals price raising these two latest years, all mining companies should have paid more taxes, but provided that the State did not ask for those taxes, all mining companies will give a voluntary contribution for the poorest provinces and regions in Peru.
The agreement also states that the mining companies should guarantee the correct use of this funding, which in time was a reason for the mining companies to call project managers, prioritizing those certified, to design the operational system and to select, evaluate and manage the projects.
More than 3,000 projects were already approved under the National Public Investment System (SNIP) but without funding in the past. Today, all the feasible projects are ready to be managed and to contribute to offer a very visible test for project management best practices within the Peruvian Government, as well as contributing to the population development. This is another important work for project managers!
Acuerdo entre compañías mineras y Gobierno
promueve la gestión de proyectos en Perú
Este mes se firmo un acuerdo entre más de 40 empresas mineras que trabajan en Perú y el Gobierno Peruano. El acuerdo establece que debido a las ganancias inesperadas por efecto del incremento del precio en los metales estos últimos dos años, todas las compañías mineras debieron haber pagado más impuestos, pero debido a que el Estado no pidió estos impuestos, estas compañías mineras darán un aporte voluntario para las provincias y regiones más pobres del Perú.
Este acuerdo también establece que las compañías mineras deben garantizar el uso correcto de estos fondos, que a su vez ha sido la razón por la cual las compañías mineras han convocado a gerentes de proyectos, priorizando aquellos que están certificados, para diseñar los sistemas operativos y para seleccionar, evaluar y gestionar los proyectos.
Más de 3000 proyectos ya estaban aprobados bajo el Sistema Nacional de Inversión Pública (SNIP) pero sin financiamiento hasta ahora. Hoy, todos estos proyectos viables están listos para ser gestionados y contribuir a ofrecer una prueba bastante visible a las mejores prácticas de gestión de proyectos en el Gobierno Peruano, contribuyendo además al desarrollo de las poblaciones. ¡Otro trabajo para gerentes de proyectos!
Reported by Jose Machicao in Lima, Peru
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Center for Business Practices Announces
2007 PM Summit & Benchmarking
Forum Schedule
The Center for Business Practices (CBP) has announced its 2007 Event Schedule as follows:
CBP Summit: Strategy & Projects, 27-29 June 2007, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA- This CBP Summit will be an opportunity for senior-level portfolio, program, project and strategy management executives to examine and debate the most critical issues their organizations are facing today. Participants will discover cutting-edge best practices and lessons learned in managing strategy and projects - integrating strategy, portfolio, program, project and performance management - from management thought leaders and knowledgeable senior practitioners.
CBP Benchmarking Forum: IT Project Management, 17-19 September 2007, Bellagio Resort Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA This CBP Benchmarking Forum will provide senior IT project practitioners with a participative learning environment to exchange key success factors and core best practices, brainstorm new approaches to overcome the challenges of managing effectively in a project environment, and build a network for ongoing discussion and future problem-solving. The forum involves a high degree of attendee participation. Participants will have the opportunity to provide feedback to case presenters, participate in breakout group discussions, and give reports back to the group at-large.
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CBP Benchmarking Forum: Government Project Management, 7-9 November 2007, Caribe Royale Resort Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA - This CBP Benchmarking Forum will provide senior government project practitioners with a participative learning environment to exchange key success factors and core best practices, brainstorm new approaches to overcome the challenges of managing effectively in a project environment, and build a network for ongoing discussion and future problem- solving. The forum involves a high degree of attendee participation. Participants will have the opportunity to provide feedback to case presenters, participate in breakout group discussions, and give reports back to the group at-large
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CBP events are organized for senior practitioners responsible for their organization's portfolio and project management practices, including vice presidents, directors of project management and/or PMOs, and senior project managers.
The Center for Business Practices (CBP) is the research and publishing arm of PM Solutions, one of the leading project management consulting and training organizations in North America. The CBP promotes effective strategy execution through sound portfolio, program, project, and performance management by capturing best practice knowledge and integrating it into actionable, fact-based information available through research reports, books, and benchmarking events. For additional information, visit www.cbponline.com..
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Schott Jumps into the PM Tools Market
with Graphical Project Management
Stemming from requests for a graphical method of organizing project information, without the need for databases and dedicated project management software, German CAD/CAM developer Schott Systeme is offering its users with a new 'Graphical Project Management’ tool. This is according to a Schott press release issued in Gilching, Germany on 8 January 2007.
At the heart of the software lies their CAD/CAM package ‘Pictures by PC’ and 'Business Graphics’ module. Simple but extremely powerful, the software enables all types of project documents such as job orders, design drawings, engineering change notes and product catalogues to be graphically linked to a project ‘structure’ graphic. Providing an instant overview of a project and related documents, these ‘structure’ graphics can depict anything from a rough project plan, to complete ISO 9000 procedures, with the graphic itself being automatically generated from simple checklists.
With the transportation of project information in a ‘neutral’ format being a firm requirement, Schott Systeme have developed the ‘worlds first’ linked PDF format. In short, their software will not only automatically find all the project documents that have been linked, but will in addition pack these* into a single PDF document complete with the project structure graphics. Ideal for customer presentations and visits, the project structure can then be followed and the linked project documents found, all within the PDF itself.
See example project - http://www.schott-systeme.com/en/newvideoCAMproject-en.htm
* see Schott Systeme website for supported formats
Having developed the same software solution for over 25 years, Schott Systeme can claim to be one of the very first founders of the CAD/CAM market. Seen very much as an innovator within both the CAD/CAM and 'Graphics' field, the company supplies cost effective solutions ranging from 2D/3D design and graphics priced at 2,800 Euro, through complete design and manufacture for under 10,000 Euro.
Reported by Manfred Rieck in Germany
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Project Management in the
Construction Industry Grows in Spain
New Tendences: Last year, the construction work achieved 6.000 millions of Euros in Spain.
Project management is growing quickly in Spain in the Construction industry. AEDIP (Spanish Association of Project Management) composed by 30 consulting firms that give these type of services for Construction industry, celebrated last December 2006 their yearly meeting to close the fiscal year.
Miguel Angel Alvarez Pérez, President of AEDIP opened the meeting session saying that the Project management sector is moving forward in the Construction industry in Spain. He said that the average growth of this sector is close to 15% with a construction work of 6.000 millions of Euros in Spain. The most demanding customers are coming from the financial sector (40%). And the application of the Project Management discipline in the Public sector has been 13% last year.
All the facts indicate that the Government and the Public sector will be the future areas of project management growth in the Construction industry by 2007.
Reported by Alfonso Bucero in Madrid, Spain
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PMF Announces New Globalization Opportunity
for Local PM Associations
PMForum.org has announced a new program to help local and regional project management professional societies, associations and components of larger organizations (branches, chapters, SIGs and Colleges). The new “Strategic Alliance Program” is intended to provide those organizations with access to and connection with more of the world of professional project management.
Objectives for the new program include the following:
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To provide local associations and their members with more global PM news and information on a regular basis – expanding global PM knowledge & education;
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To provide local associations and leaders with more visibility on the world stage;
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To provide a vehicle for members of local PM associations to publish articles and stories, for global visibility and, for PMI members, PDUs for PMP recertification; and
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To provide local PM associations with direct access to global PM resources.
Benefits to local associations, at no cost, include (1) monthly emailing of PM World Today for forwarding to local members; (2) listing as a Strategic Alliance Partner on www.pmforum.org and pmworldtoday.net websites, with links to the local association’s website; (3) listing of association events in the Events Calendar on www.pmforum.org; (4) publication of breaking news articles and publicity on www.pmforum.org about the local association; (5) opportunities for members of local associations to publish articles in PM World Today; (6) access to globally-recognized PM authorities and leaders as potential speakers for local events, meetings and seminars or workshops; and (7) other benefits to be added in the future.
According to Managing Editor David Pells, “we want to provide a resource and service to the project management profession worldwide. We think this new program will do just that. The program should be especially useful to new and smaller PM associations that do not currently provide monthly newsletters for their members.”
Leaders of local PM associations who may be interested in participating in this new program should contact David at .
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PMForum.org, Inc. Announces New website
for Global eJournal PM World Today
PMForum.org has introduced a new website for the monthly eJournal PM World Today at pmworldtoday.net. The new website features significantly more information about PM World Today, including mission, objectives, policies, author information, production team and subscription details. Most importantly, the new website showcases the authors, advisors, correspondents, sponsors and other contributors who make each issue possible.
According to Managing Editor David Pells, “this is one of the most exciting changes that we have made at PMForum.org. We have been expanding PM World Today over the last few months and wanted to give it a more independent and professional identity. The new website should attract more attention, and make it easier for subscribers and readers to enjoy the monthly eJournal. As usual, our technical director, Nelson Soucek, has done a fantastic job on this project.”
PM World Today is the monthly eJournal published by PMForum.org. Previously published as an eNewsletter and hosted on www.pmforum.org, PM World Today has grown in content, scope and visibility during 2006. PM World Today contains educational articles and news, and provides PM leaders and professionals with opportunities to publish articles and papers, and to gain more visibility in the world of project management. PM World Today is emailed to thousands of PM professionals and executives each month; subscriptions are free. For more information, visit pmworldtoday.net.
PMForum.org administers and operates www.pmforum.org, one of the world’s best known project management websites and a leading source of project management news and information. The company also publishes the monthly online PM World Today e-Journal, where articles, case studies, papers and viewpoints by leading project management authorities and experts from around the world can be found. Free subscriptions are available at www.pmforum.org/subscribe. PMForum.org is majority owned by iWorld Projects & Systems, Inc.
iWorld Projects & Systems, Inc. (OTC Pink Sheets: IWPS) is a public company registered in the USA under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and is a reporting company for SEC purposes under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Company is engaged in the business of investing in and assisting small public and private operating companies with a focus on project management. Additional information about iWorld can be found at www.iworldprojects.com
Benefits to local associations, at no cost, include (1) monthly emailing of PM World Today for forwarding to local members; (2) listing as a Strategic Alliance Partner on www.pmforum.org and pmworldtoday.net websites, with links to the local association’s website; (3) listing of association events in the Events Calendar on www.pmforum.org; (4) publication of breaking news articles and publicity on www.pmforum.org about the local association; (5) opportunities for members of local associations to publish articles in PM World Today; (6) access to globally-recognized PM authorities and leaders as potential speakers for local events, meetings and seminars or workshops; and (7) other benefits to be added in the future.
According to Managing Editor David Pells, “we want to provide a resource and service to the project management profession worldwide. We think this new program will do just that. The program should be especially useful to new and smaller PM associations that do not currently provide monthly newsletters for their members.”
Leaders of local PM associations who may be interested in participating in this new program should contact David at .
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Why are Organizations so Bad
at Project Management?
According to Tom Mochal of TechRepublic, in a story published online on Monday, 8 January on www.builder.com.au, “Generally speaking, all companies and organisations are trying to get better at project management. (In other words, there aren't any organisations that are purposely trying to get worse at project management.) Though they may not be able to articulate it, organisations recognize that there is value associated with being able to manage projects more effectively.”
Mr. Mochal then lists his top five reasons why organisations fail at project management as follows:
5. Senior managers think that project management is a software tool?
4. Organisations don’t value the upfront investment of time.
3. You may have been burned in the past.
2. Your organisation is not committed.
1. Organisations don't know how to implement culture change.
We thought these points worth noting for pmforum.org readers. The full article can be found at:
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EXPO ZARAGOZA 2008 Implements
Customized Project Management Software
The Expo 2008 Project Team has determined that it needs a customized project management information system to monitor and control the thousands of activities to be performed and managed. The PM software will also be used for classifying and updating activities and projects periodically over time, and to be able to evaluate deviations from initial plans. The system must be dynamic enough to be updated with information provided by project contractors. This system must also allow management processes to occur in real time, with real time calculations and information provided.
This system is being developed by a group of companies (UTE) formed by an external consulting company outsourced by Expoagua to do the "Project Management" job, as part of an integrated management system for project cost and time control. This system is to be based on some management procedures adapted through a software package. The information obtained like diagrams, graphics and tables should be easy to understand and stored in a database that managers and project managers can access in order to make the right decisions.
Customized software: This system has already been demonstrated, both locally and internationally, with successful results on complex projects like theme parks, airports, Olympic games, etc. Its strongest point is the possibility to control, manage and monitor thousands of projects simultaneously; this tool should help the Expo 2008 projects to be finished on time and under control.
The starting point is an initial plan where they list the main activities to develop, along with all milestones and dates to accomplish them. They will then try to do a methodical and disciplined control, on a weekly basis, updating the degree of progress and all the changes. In that way they can compare the real situation to the project baseline, analyzing the deviations and taking corrective actions when necessary.
There are tools in the market able to do those tasks, however, for this particular project any standard tool was not enough. They wanted a customized system for efficiently collecting updated information for all activities, unifying that information and being able to integrate it into a database with more than 35.000 activities. Thanks to this software, the Expo 2008 project finish is expected be under control.
According to Wikipedia, Expo 2008 is a planned international exposition to be held from 14 June to 14 September 2008 and coordinated by the Bureau of International Expositions organization which is responsible for sanctioning World's Fairs.The 2008 expo will be held in Zaragoza, Spain, with the topic of "Water and Sustainable Development". More than 70 countries, plus dozens of companies and NGOs are expected to participate in Expo 2008. Zaragoza, host city for the International Exposition, is the administrative and financial capital of the Aragon region and the fifth largest Spanish city in inhabitants (660,000). Additional information about Expo Zaragoza 2008 can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_2008.
Reported by Alfonso Bucero in Madrid, Spain.
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