As we gather around the table, Greg Balestrero (CEO of PMI) says, “It’s really a exciting time for project management, despite the economy.” “There’s an era shift in the way we execute that we haven’t seen before.” This is Greg’s final day at the PMI Global Congress Orlando. He seems happy with how the event went. Before the Congress began, the leadership meeting attracted more than 700 delegates. PMI is trying to reach those who haven’t been to Florida yet.
Greg states that PMI has 2500 leaders who meet face-to-face each year and that they have really increased their support in Latin America this year. They have created a portal that allows PMI groups in Latin America to design materials in Spanish and Portuguese. There are also high-profile events in the area, and PMI sends members of its global Board to speak at them. Greg states that the economy of Latin America has performed very well in this recession. “There has been an increase in demand for project professionals.”
Project professionals who have a range of skills. Greg believes Agile has become more accepted and is now a common practice. This belief is also reflected in PMBoK. We discuss certification, something Greg is passionate about. Greg seems to be confident that PMBoK processes align with ISO’s development. I sense a sense of hope. This implies that the ISO standard will be known as the PMBoK.
Greg believes that project management education is not up to the mark, regardless of what happens with ISO. Universities don’t offer the breadth of courses required by the discipline, so companies have to create their own certificates to make up the gap, especially for senior and experienced professionals. This is a valid point. However, while it might be true for IBM and Siemens, smaller companies cannot afford to invest in such a programme and won’t have the skills to promote or assess to that level. Greg asks Greg if PMI will fill the void and offer an advanced practitioner certificate.
He explains that PMI produces a new certificate after a role delineation study. This involves looking at the jobs of people and mapping them to the type certificate they need. About 10% of PMI staff are PMI certified as CAPM or PMP, but not Greg. He explains that it is not relevant to his position as CEO. However, everyone in the organization has taken a basic project management course. They discovered that a project manager was required, as well as an advanced role for managing complex projects that could be broken down into smaller projects. This role was then mapped to PgMP. Greg says that the “ah-ha” moment was the role of risk professional. PMI created a risk certification for this role.
Green project management appears to be the next big thing. Greg states that project managers will be held accountable for maintaining ethical supply chains and must be vigilant. “Being a better global citizen is key to organisation sustainability.” The next trend is being an ethical and green project manager. It’s not enough to wait for someone else to give you a checklist on how to make your project green. You need to think ahead and get started now. Greg says that cloud computing is the hottest buzzword. When you purchase space in the cloud, you must be ethical. “Where is it located?” This is not just about ethical supply chains for products. It affects all aspects of the project.
Despite all the talk of green project management, there is not much for the average project manager to do. There is also not much happening at the Congress in ‘advanced track for senior project managers. It looks like that will change in 2010. “We’ll have research t…”
