2013 EMEA PMI Global Congress

Istanbul, Turkey

The PMI Global Congress 2013–Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), took place in Istanbul, Turkey on April 22-24. In this article I will highlight some take-aways from the following selection of Global Congress Area of Focus session presentations; Peter Storm’s Development Paths of Project Managers, and Pietro Casanova‘s Agile Processes: A Unifying Approach for the Future of Projects.  You can read another article about the EMEA Global Congress in the June newsletter.

By summarizing these presentations, I hope to give a taste for the flavor of some of the exciting, trending topics and new research presented at the EMEA Global Congress this summer. Contact information for the session speakers is provided below the blurbs.

1. Development Paths of Project Managers, Peter Storm (from New Research in Project, Program and Portfolio Management)

Peter Storm gave an insightful talk on ‘what made Project Managers what they are today’, the paths they took in their careers that led them to the field.

One key take away in this session was that it is more important to innovate than it is to control the process, or to seek immediate material success. For example, for a ‘mundane’ invention such as the bag-less vacuum cleaner, there were 6400 prototypes developed before one was decided on for commercial use. Concrete results and a functioning product are the end result, however lengthy the trial and error period was. There are many paths to becoming a Project Manager, and perhaps their defining characteristic is that they are mostly not straight and narrow; most paths curves and diverge, and involved a lengthy period of trial and error.

In order to understand the development paths of Project Managers, it is useful to consider what motivates people to become a Project Manager. To answer this question, Peter posed several questions to a selection of survey respondents, as part of a research project sponsored by PMI.

These included some of the following questions:
(For the purpose of this article, make a mental note of the response you would most likely give.)

  • Where do you learn PM skills in practice, and how long does it take?
  • Is the development of project managers planned, self-guided or innate (unplanned, spontaneous)?
  • What is Prince versus PMP training and certification? Are they equally valuable?
  • Who has the strongest influence on the development of PMs? Personnel management, line management or the client organization.
  • What do PMs learn in the first stage of their careers? (First 3-4 years as a PM). Select either: 1. I am cut out for this job 2. Do’s and dont’s of being a PM, 3. To apply the essential techniques of PM.
  • What helps PMs learn from their experiences? 1. Training 2. Coaching 3.“Intervision” – meaning PMs from different companies getting together to share experiences and hold discussions with other PMs through forums such as PMI.

Without detailing each of the most popular survey responses to these questions, a few key ones that stood out for me were that it was mainly line management that held the greatest influence on the development of PMs in the organization. Also, mentors, colleagues, and regulations such as privacy, safety and etcetera.  The development of project managers tends to be innate (unplanned, spontaneous) rather than planned, or self-guided. This tends to paint a picture of the ‘accidental profession’, one that people tend to “happen into.“ ‘Intervision’ was the most popular survey response; meaning that it is the informal and horizontal learning opportunities with PM peers across industries, companies and projects, that have made the greatest difference along the career trajectory of PM professionals. Many take-aways here; and a clear case to be made for the role of involvement with peers in the PMI organization for facilitating intervision and mentor opportunities.

A distinguishing feature of the PM career is that it is characterized more by ‘soft skills’ and projects are often not longer than a few months, in contrast with the  ‘hard skills’ obtained by FM’s, CPA’s, and their characteristic longer term projects. The desire to gain deep knowledge in any one subject is not an interest that drives PM professionals in general.

Dr. Peter M. Storm is active as a researcher and consultant in the areas of strategic management, project management, leadership and organisational development. From 2009 to 2011 he was involved in a PMI sponsored research project on “Learning Behaviours in Project Teams.” For more information, contact Peter Storm at Kennis & Co: peter@kennisenco.nl.

2.  Agile Processes: A Unifying Approach for the Future of Projects, Pietro Casanova (from the Agile session)

Pietro Casanova addressed the topic on most agile-minded professionals these days; “What’s wrong with traditional PM?” Or put another way, how can it be made to be more adaptive to the needs of today’s project environment? Simply put, upfront project plans don’t work. And as a outgrowth of this reality, Management as planning is the way to go, rather than management as organizing. This is the key.

Traditional PM says that the “output” is the result of a project process, versus with Agile, there are outcomes, results and visible effects as well. Traditional project management versus agile outcome management is the difference. This is likened to the difference between the traditional PM ‘thermostat’ model, in which a project is either on or off-track in elation to its established plans and baselines, versus the scientific experimentation model which allows more adaptability to be built into the process.

According to Mr. Casanova, traditional PM suffers from the following weaknesses:

  • Linear processes
  • Management as planning
  • Dispatching model
  • Favor of optimization versus adaptability

The reason that these approaches do not work in the case of many projects which do not meet their planned targets, is that the increased complexity built into today’s project environment (technology, society, economics) requires a new more adaptable, less linear and mechanical approach. Upfront project plans are set up to fail, because it is impossible to keep them effectively updated and because of the separation between management and execution. The thermostat model of controlling project fails because it does not address or eliminate the root causes for deviation.

Rather, we need to look at projects as social systems and as complex adaptive systems. This means that temporary knowledge organizations to come together to work towards common goals, and projects must be responsive and interactive with their environment. The central characteristic of these systems is that they emerge rather than being controlled or planned, per se. As an agile project emerges, practitioners are able to create an agile product roadmap, which is a logical graphical representation of a product’s intended directions and by definition, ‘as good as it gets’.

Pietro Casanova, PMP is an independent senior consultant and director at of the Southern Italy Chapter. He has 35+ years of IT, Software Engineering and Project Management experience. For more information, contact him at: pcasanova51@gmail.com.

About the Author

Sharon Watkins photoSharon Watkins, PMP, is Newsletter Director for PMI Portland Chapter and lives part-time in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Sharon was on-site at the 2013 EMEA Global Congress in Istanbul.

Read her previous article about the EMEA Global Congress in the June newsletter.