24  October 2008

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And the Winners Are

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2008 PMI Awards that were conferred on 18 October in Denver, Colorado, USA. The awards honor outstanding achievement in project management. Find out who won.

Professional Awards

The newly created PMI Professional Award symbolizes the bridge between strategy and execution that project management provides. Each of the two pillars of the award has five facets that represent five processes universal for any project: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and closing. The award is made of crystal to symbolize transparency and accountability that are vital for projects at any stage. The globe in the center of the award represents the global nature of the profession and the Institute.

PMI Project of the Year Award recognizes the year’s most outstanding project and project team for exemplary project management.

Hatch, Ltd. is honored for their leading management role in two large projects for client QIT-Ger et Titane.

Hatch, Ltd. played a role of unprecedented influence in an ambitious project to expand the acid leaching plant and slag preparation plant sectors of QIT-Fer et Titane’s UGs plant in sorel-Tracey, Quebec.

They were entrusted with virtually all of the major project deliverables from managing engineering, procurement and construction to leading the specification, design and programming of process equipment and controls. Result: they enabled the UGs plant to increase its capacity by an impressive 15 percent.

 
PMI Community Advancement Through Project Management Award recognizes significant achievement that improves the well being of a community by applying project management principles.

Teresa Newton-Terres, PMP, (pictured at left) is honored for using her expertise to benefit National Guard families as a volunteer with the U.S. National Guard’s Professional Education Center (PEC). Her skillful use of project management methods empowered PEC families to be self-reliant and interdependent to navigate the challenges of military life. Ms. Newton-Terres also managed the development of a family program that would support 460 PEC employees and over 22,000 yearly attendees.

PMI David Cleland Project Management Literature Award  recognizes the best project management literature published during the previous calendar year.

It is awarded for the book, Global Project Management: Communication, Collaboration and Management Across Borders by Jean Binder, MBA, PMP. Mr.. Binder addresses the fundamental challenge faced by project managers in international environments: managing teams that span functions, corporations, continents and cultures. The book demonstrates the value of using project management for international endeavors by providing innovative approaches, strong concepts based on academic research and hands-on techniques proven through practice.  

PMI Professional Development Provider and Product of the Year Awards  honor project management training providers and products that excelled in the previous calendar year.

The PMI Professional Development Provider of the Year Award,  Individual / Business Category is awarded to Cheetah Learning for contributions to the field of project management education. Cheetah’s innovative techniques optimize the time project managers spend preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) credential examination.
 
The PMI Professional Development Product of the Year Award Individual / Business Category is awarded to the Technion Israel Institute of Technology PTB project team and to Avraham Shtub, PhD, PMP, for the “Project Team Builder” software application. Aircraft pilots use flight simulators to gain valuable experience; Project Team Builder extends this concept to project management. The application creates a highly realistic environment where project managers face the challenges of managing complex projects.
 
PMI Distinguished Contribution Award recognizes a PMI member for outstanding contributions to the development and advancement of the project management profession and contributions to PMI. It is awarded to Tim Bueter, PMP, and John Makaran, PhD, P.Eng..

 
Tim Bueter, PMP, (at left) is honored for dedication to the profession and practice of project management.

As an employee of Caterpillar, Inc., he played the key role in the company’s acceptance of project management as a profession, not a role.

After he attained the PMP credential in 2003, he helped others strive for the excellence that the PMP represents. He coordinated regional PMP exam preparation workshops, donated time to recruit volunteers, handled logistics and secured funding. More than 100 project managers completed the workshops to date, and are closer to achieving a PMI credential.

John Makaran, PhD, P.Eng. (at right) is recognized for dedication to advancing the project management profession within the academic community of Fanshawe College, London, Ontario, Canada. As a tireless champion for project management at the college level, he engaged faculty support for establishing project management as a core competency for manufacturing sciences students.

PMI Distinguished Project Award recognizes successful projects that have advanced project management concepts, techniques, practices or theories through the effective application of project management principles. It is awarded to:

• The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI)
• Ruby Tuesday, Inc
• Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO)

 
NCCI, a large provider of workers' compensation data, needed to substantially update an 11-year-old system that served 28,600 customers. The system was embedded so deeply within the rest of the IT infrastructure that changes could affect operations across the organization.

NCCI based the project approach on procedures from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide) and drew upon Six Sigma and the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), and met every standard for scope, schedule, cost, value metrics and user adoption.

Ruby Tuesday, Inc., a chain with over 900 restaurants across the United States, embarked on one of the largest IT projects in its history. The “Micros 4.0” initiative involved integrating multiple state-of-the-art technologies with its existing infrastructure and implementing an ultra-secure credit processing system that virtually eliminated the possibility of credit card fraud.

The project team collaborated with executive management to create an innovative process that would engage stakeholders and inspire their participation throughout the project life-cycle.

All components were delivered to specification and Ruby Tuesday became the first restaurant chain to have this ultra-secure system in place.
 
VELCO has evolved from the first "transmission only" company in the United States into a regional leader in the electricity marketplace in New England. Concerned with the reliability of the region’s outdated electrical infrastructure, VELCO launched the ambitious Northwest Vermont reliability Project.

It created a PMO to raise the level of project management capability across the organization and since then, project efforts have doubled while oversight costs have decreased by 35 percent.
 
PMI Component Awards honor exceptional PMI chapters, specific interest groups, colleges and their leaders for contributions to their communities, the project management profession and PMI.

PMI Sweden Chapter received Chapter of the Year, (size category II) for its commitment to raising international awareness of project management.
 
PMI Information Systems SIG received Specific Interest Group of the Year (SIG category II) for advancement of the profession of project management through the activities of the SIG and its 14,000 members.
 
PMI Central Virginia Chapter received Chapter of the Year (size category III) for its award-winning range of programs and initiatives honored multiple times in the past by PMI.

PMI Phoenix Chapter received Chapter of the Year (2007 size Category IV) for exemplary commitment to the project management profession.
 
Patrik Bergstrom, PMP, attained the Component Leadership Award (Category II)  for advancing the practice of project management in his native country of Sweden, among his peers and on the international stage.

Teresa Colon, PMP, attained the Component Leadership Award (Category III) for her role as a leader in the professional project management community, including for achievements in both the workplace and with the PMI South Florida Chapter.

Michael Flint, PMP, received the Component Leadership Award (Category IV) for leadership in the professional project manager community in Canada, with a reach and effect that extends far beyond the PMI Southern Ontario Chapter and the Northeast North America region.

Ron Taylor, PMP, received the Component Leadership Award (Category IV) for leadership in the project management community, both as PMI Washington D.C. Chapter president and as a strong advocate of the profession who trains and empowers others to lead.  

PMI Educational Foundation Awards

James R. Snyder International Student Paper of the Year Award recognizes excellence in student development of original concepts in project management. PMI honored the North America region recipient, Peter Bennison.

In his paper, Agile and PMBOK^® Project Management Techniques: Closer Than you Think, Mr. Bennison identifies the specific areas in which these historically separate project management approaches differ, by measuring them against the same frame of project knowledge reference. The paper illustrates the situational applicability and effectiveness of the Agile approach.

The Donald S. Barrie Award is a research paper award presented the PMI Educational Foundation in conjunction with the PMI Design-Procurement-Construction SIG. Chad Lee’s research paper, BIM – Changing the Construction Industry, outlines how construction documentation and associated processes are moving toward a collaborative, computer-based environment known as BIM – Building Information Modeling.