PMI Today—January/February 2020

In the midst of a busy season, 1 January may seem like a quick flip of the calendar and a continuation of the mundane—just another day in just another year. But not at the PMI Educational Foundation! We've been planning for a dynamic new year filled with exciting initiatives. And thanks to you—the PMI community of volunteers and valued practitioners—the foundation continues its mission of enabling youth to realize their potential and of transforming lives through project management.

As we say farewell to 2019 and move ahead into the new year, let's take a moment to reflect on some of last year's milestones.

2019—A Look Back

PMIEF proudly:

♦ Impacted more than 160,000 youth through project management—Last year, through the use of PMIEF resources, strategic relationships with other nonprofits and PMI chapter volunteers, more than 160,000 youth around the world were introduced to project management knowledge and the basics of a project management skill set, increasing their creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. PMIEF continued to support social good efforts by offering scholarships and awards, and by empowering chapter members to make changes in their communities using PMIEF resources.

♦ Launched a refined strategy—In 2019, PMIEF announced a refined strategy to focus on partnering with and supporting youth-serving nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations around the world. Our goal is to inspire youth around the world to achieve their goals and make their dreams a reality. Visit PMIEF.org to see our full mission and story, and download the strategic plan.

♦ Introduced a refreshed brand—In collaboration with PMI, PMIEF revealed a refreshed brand to further define its position within The Project Economy. Our brand represents our emphasis on social good through the foundation's philanthropic mission, community and collaboration with global partners.

2020 and Beyond

The foundation is kicking off 2020 in full speed and wants to help you do the same. Here are a few quick tips to get moving this year:

♦ Find a local youth-serving nonprofit and bring PMIEF resources to them and the youth they serve. We believe all social good is good.

♦ Research PMIEF's scholarship and award offerings. If you are looking to advance your career, PMIEF offers professional development scholarships and awards that can help take your career to the next level. Don't miss out: The first application deadline is 15 February.

♦ Introduce the youth in your life to project management through PMIEF's resources. If you are interested in teaching project management as a life skill, you can download the free Project Management Skills for Life^® resource to get started.

♦ Learn how fellow PMI community members are making a difference through social good. Visit PMIEF.org to read inspiring stories about how PMI chapters are impacting their communities for the greater good.

Of course, all of this wouldn't be possible without your support. Because of you, PMIEF is able to vigorously champion social good around the world, and teach young people dynamic life skills through project management.

Everyone at PMIEF looks forward to sharing a happy and prosperous 2020 with you, filled with an abundance of project management for social good!

Data as of October 2019

IN THIS ISSUE

2020 PMI Board of Directors

Chair

Tony Appleby, MBA, C.Dir., PMP
[email protected]

Chair, Audit Committee

Galen Townson, EMBA, MAPP, PMI-ACP, PMP, CDA
[email protected]

Chair, Strategy Oversight Committee

Tejas Sura, MS, MBA, PMP, PfMP
[email protected]

Chair, Compensation Committee

Caterina (Cathy) La Tona, BCS, PMP, PfMP
[email protected]

DIRECTORS

Randall T. (Randy) Black, P.Eng., PMP, C.Dir., IoD Fellow, Immediate Past Chair
[email protected]

J. Davidson Frame, PhD, PMP, PMI Fellow
[email protected]

Teresa A. (Terri) Knudson, MBA, PMP, PgMP, PfMP
[email protected]

Beth A. Partleton, PMP, PMI Fellow
[email protected]

LuAnn Piccard, PMP
[email protected]

Anca E Slușanschi, MSc, PMP, ICP-APM
[email protected]

Jennifer Tharp, PMP
[email protected]

Roberto Toledo, MBA, PMP
[email protected]

STAFF EXECUTIVE

President and Chief Executive Officer
Sunil Prashara
[email protected]

FROM THE BOARD

A Transformative 2019 Sets the Stage for the Future

The start of a new year often inspires reflection. And as we enter the early days of a new decade, what better time to both celebrate PMI's past and look ahead to the future of project management?

The list of our 2019 accomplishments is impressive—from naming Sunil Prashara president and CEO to several key acquisitions in the agile space and launching PMI's new brand.

We began with a special sense of purpose as we marked PMI's 50th anniversary with our Global Celebration of Service. It was an ambitious project, with the PMI community ultimately contributing 100,000 volunteer hours to causes aligned to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. It's just one way in which our community has harnessed our passion and talents to drive social change around the world this past year.

The anniversary celebrations continued through the year with events held by chapters and at PMI headquarters, along with the release of a commemorative book on the history of the organization, the profession and the world in projects.

The anniversary milestone also inspired the release of our ranked list of the 50 most influential projects of the past 50 years.

“The projects we've identified provide incredible insights into how project management has changed, is changing and will continue to change the world for the better,” said Mr. Prashara when the top 50 list was released. “This list demonstrates PMI's vision of how excellence in project execution will be critical in meeting the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.”

Spanning geographic areas, sectors and timelines, these are the projects that have transformed business, culture and society. And whether it was the World Wide Web, the Belt and Road Initiative, Harry Potter or the Sydney Opera House, the projects and rankings have sparked lively conversations throughout our community.
(Visit mip.pmi.org to explore the full list.)

The Way Forward

Since arriving at PMI in March, Mr. Prashara has wasted no time in meeting with employees, volunteers, chapter leaders, members and certification holders around the world to better understand who we serve and what they need.

Mr. Prashara also announced two major acquisitions designed to address organizations’ major pain points, resulting in stronger business outcomes, faster:

♦ Disciplined Agile (DA): The DA toolkit provides context-specific practical guidance for individuals and teams and is known as the world's only comprehensive agile body of knowledge.

♦ FLEX: This approach helps organizations understand “what's not working” at a system level and identify bottlenecks and eliminate them to improve workflows.

These additions “are important building blocks for PMI as we address new ways of working in an increasingly agile world,” Mr. Prashara explained.

It's also a testament to the association's commitment to the project management community. “PMI is now positioned to add even more value for members by providing a full continuum of products, services, training and certifications to project managers, agile leaders and their teams wherever they are in their careers—sometimes even before they know they need it,” he said.

Introducing The Project Economy

Even as PMI celebrated its past, it was preparing for the future—and for a business world that continues to change at an unprecedented pace. Against that backdrop, PMI began to pose some crucial questions. As Cindy Anderson, PMI's vice president, brand management, put it: “Who could PMI be for the future? Who should we be to represent this diverse set of stakeholders that are going to need a different set of skills and capabilities, that are going to need different ways of working as organizations continue to struggle with constant disruption and ongoing transformation?”

The result was a powerful new brand unveiled at PMI® Global Conference last October. More than just a new logo or a fresh set of colors, the brand highlights our position and purpose as the center of what we call The Project Economy. More and more, organizations are removing siloes, smoothing out processes and restructuring their operations to focus on a portfolio of projects. They're discovering what we in the profession already know: that focusing on project performance is the key to delivering stakeholder value in today's turbulent business environment. In The Project Economy, people must possess the right skills and capabilities to help organizations deliver the right products to the right stakeholders with an eye toward societal value.

That will require a shift in mindset—and the brand is meant to reflect that, with new design language representing PMI's ability to deliver value during this time of constant change.

The new brand and the new acquisitions are just some of the ways PMI is positioning members of the project management community to move into 2020 as real leaders. That may prove even more critical as we look toward another eventful year.

Many economists warn of changing tides for the world's economy, a slowdown brought on by trade tensions and political disruption across the globe. At the same time, extraordinary innovations are on the horizon, whether it's the first manned commercial space flight, new emerging renewables or the mainstreaming of the 5G network.

And even with all the focus on digital disruption and new technologies, it still comes down to people—which makes PMI's mission more essential than ever. Over the last 50 years, we've seen PMI members, employees, volunteers, chapter leaders and stakeholders make incredible strides in shaping the profession. As we head into the organization's next 50 years, we look forward to PMI and the project management community shaping the future of business—and helping make the world a better place.

The Next Evolution of The Standard for Project Management

Like previous editions of The Standard for Project Management, this new edition recognizes that the project delivery landscape continues to evolve and adapt. Over the past few years computer technology has continued to enable new solutions, while transformed organizational models have yielded new project work and team structures, including a broad range of approaches to project and product delivery with a stronger focus on outcomes rather than deliverables. These changes and more have created an opportunity to reconsider perspectives to help support the continued evolution of the standard.

Past editions of The Standard for Project Management took a process-based view for presenting the practice of project management. This foundational approach aligned project management discipline and function around a collection of project management processes. Those processes then enabled consistent and predictable practices that allowed for:

♦ Documentation;

♦ Performance assessment; and

♦ Process improvements to maximize efficiency and minimize threats.

Standards Workshop at PMI® Global Conference

While effective in supporting good practice, process-based standards are prescriptive by their very nature. With project delivery evolving rapidly, the process-based orientation of past editions is not necessarily conducive to reflecting the full value-delivery landscape as the practice grows and matures. Therefore, this edition shifts to a principle-based view to support effective project delivery regardless of approach and project environment.

A global community of over 70 practitioners in a range of roles and project environments from various industries and organizations worked together to develop and/or provide feedback on drafts of this standard as it evolved for this edition. In several workshops conducted around the world over the last year, the global project management community embraced this shift toward a set of guiding principle statements. These principle statements capture and summarize the generally accepted actions and behaviors of project management practice and its core functions, as well as provide broad parameters within which project teams can operate and remain aligned with their intent.

Using these principle statements PMI can reflect effective management of projects across the full value-delivery landscape. This principle-based approach is also consistent with the evolution of The Standard for Program Management and The Standard for Portfolio Management.

Standards Plus demo at PMI® Global Conference

Nothing in this edition of The Standard for Project Management negates alignment with the process-based approach of past editions. In fact, those processes still align with the principles of the standard and many organizations and practitioners continue to find that useful for guiding their project delivery capabilities, aligning their methodologies, and evaluating their project results.

Another significant change with this edition of the standard is a systems view of project management. The new Value Delivery System section changes the perspective from one of simply managing projects, programs and portfolios to one focused on the value chain that links those and other business capabilities to advancing organizational strategy, value and business objectives. Projects do not simply produce outputs—they also enable those outputs to drive the outcomes that ultimately deliver value to organizations and their stakeholders.

Your input is welcome! Help shape the next edition of PMI's flagship publication by participating in the exposure draft process for the standard opening soon! The Standard for Project Management is part of the update of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Seventh Edition. We invite you to review and comment on this new edition of The Standard for Project Management. The exposure draft is expected to be available for comment from mid-January through mid-February, and is open to any members of the public with an interest in project management. Watch for an announcement on the PMBOK® Guide & Standards page of PMI.org.

Events Calendar

PMO Symposium^® 2019

Leading the Future of Work

By Alex Jacobs

There's no escaping all the talk of transformation. But actually making it happen is a whole other thing—and that's where PMO leaders come in. “We're really the ones who are going to be delivering the future,” said Amber Tunseth, PMI-ACP, PMP, customer experience PMO director at Kärcher North America, Denver, Colorado, USA. “We're going to be the agents of change.”

How project professionals will lead their organizations into the future was the central theme at this year's PMO Symposium^® in Denver, Colorado, USA.

Dante Gerochi hadn't been to symposium in a while and saw how the event itself had transformed with the profession. “It's not only project management anymore,” said Mr. Gerochi, PMP, director, global technology PMO at Under Armour, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. “We're going beyond project management. We're changing mindsets.”

More than 900 attendees from 65 different organizations across 35 countries—the largest PMO Symposium on record—prepared for the tectonic shifts ahead through a range of keynotes, breakout sessions and networking events.

Across it all, one thing was clear: The Project Economy is driving the future of work.

“Leaders are looking for new ways to get things done, and project work is increasingly in vogue,” said keynoter Robert Safian, former editor of Fast Company.

Employees are also looking for different ways of working. People want to build experiences and continuously grow, something Mr. Safian called “skill hoarding.” “It's not about the job, it's about the task and experience, and what that will do to help a worker grow,” he said. “The Project Economy is about the need for speed, flexibility and learning.”

Ian Laliberte is already seeing the change. “The keynote was pretty bang-on,” said Mr. Laliberte, PMP, vice president, delivery transformation, TD Bank, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “Either you greet and cocreate the future or you let that happen to you.”

On the Cutting Edge

In Monday's TED Conversation, two speakers offered an eye-opening look into some of their work—and insights into how PMO leaders could fuel innovation at their own organizations.

First up was quantum physicist Shohini Ghose, PhD, of Wilfred Laurier University. She took the audience inside the world of quantum computing to show how it's being used in everything from data encryption to drug development.

Her directive to project leaders: Ask bold questions and learn how to reframe attitudes to see something like subatomic chaos as a solution, not a problem.

The push for innovation was seconded by self-proclaimed “mad scientist” Andrew Pelling, PhD, creator of pHacktory, a small lab where “risk is a virtue” and where projects are “bound to fail ... or change everything.” He pushed PMO leaders to make the most of those moments when someone says, “This is a crazy idea, but what if we tried X?” Allow the space for questions and creativity, Dr. Pelling said. “The thing about curiosity is you don't know where it will take you if you follow it.”

For all the heady talk, project leaders like Shawn DeWitt immediately understood the point. “Especially in the industry I'm in, we need to find ways to generate new ideas and reexamine the healthcare system as a whole,” said Mr. DeWitt, director of program management at Kaiser Permanente, San Diego, California, USA. “So when you talk about biohacking and generating new drugs and new treatments—where do those ideas come from? They come from everyone.”

Question Everything

Project leaders shouldn't just be asking more questions, but better questions, declared keynoter Hal Gregersen, executive director of the MIT Leadership Center.

He suggested building four key habits:

1. Ask, don't tell.

2. Audit the questions around you, and ask if any of those caused you to be wrong.

3. Embrace “jumpstart” questions, such as: “Why are we even doing this?”

4. Brainstorm questions as a team.

The point is to reframe your thinking and reexamine your presuppositions. Then you listen. “That's how you get the data you need to avoid getting disrupted,” said Mr. Gregersen.

Outside of the keynotes, PMO leaders attended sessions on everything from tapping into AI to managing millennials, and also had the opportunity to learn from each other at networking events.

To get an inside look at transformation in action, some attendees took local excursions, venturing out for an insider's tour of Lockheed Martin Space, the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center and the expansion project underway at Denver International Airport.

Symposium also included recognition of the 2019 PMO of the Year, Fannie Mae, as well as the two other finalists, McDonald's and Saudi Aramco. “PMOs are more relevant than ever,” said Fannie Mae's Amilda Gjecovi, in accepting the award.

On closing day, master orchestra conductor Roger Nierenberg and The Music Paradigm led an interactive session highlighting how listening and trust—above all else—can bring voices (and a team) into harmony.

Mark your calendars. There's more networking and knowledge ahead at next year's PMO Symposium slated for 8–11 November in Orlando, Florida, USA.

PMI CHINA NEWS

Embracing and Enabling Technology in The Project Economy

“What impresses me most is the real passion that people have who have attended the congress to learn new ideas, learn how technology can help in project management, to develop more skills for the individual,” said PMI President and CEO Sunil Prashara at the Project Management Congress 2019 held on 26–27 October in Shanghai, China. In his keynote speech, “Leading Projects in the Age of Disruption,” Mr. Prashara envisioned a world built around The Project Economy and is leading an initiative to determine the skills and capabilities that are needed to lead the charge on disruption.

Mr. Prashara was among 69 speakers and about 1,800 project and program management practitioners, leaders, experts and government officials who gathered at the Shanghai International Conference Center for this event.

20 Years: From Zero to 33,000

The conference theme, “Technology Made Possible by a Project Manager,” highlighted project management practitioners and the central role they have played in creating our world today—throughout the past 50 years and into the next 50 years as well. As 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of PMI and the 20th anniversary of PMI certifications in China, the year was of great significance.

“From 1999 to 2019, the number of Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification holders in China skyrocketed from zero to nearly 33,000, accounting for one-third of the globe,” said Bob Chen, managing director of PMI China at the opening ceremony. He also shared valuable statistics from a recently conducted survey with a sample size of nearly 1,000 PMP certification holders in China.

PMI's globally recognized standards and certifications help improve project management skills in a wide and profound way, facilitating the rapid development of Chinese organizations and the huge demand of international project management practitioners as China opens its market further.

Mr. Wan Jinfa, deputy director of China International Talent Exchange Foundation (CITEF), Ministry of Science and Technology of People's Republic of China, summarized the past 20 years of achievements under the strategic partnership between PMI and CITEF.

China's tremendous market is still in huge need of project talent in all industries. Taking the software industry as an example, Mr. Chen Baoguo, deputy secretary general of China Software Industry Association (CSIA), chairman of China Software Industry Association– Project Management Professional Committee (CSIA-PMC) said, “As intelligent industry develops, the number of software projects in China will explosively grow, and software engineers in China will exceed 200,000 by 2027.” This growth is a catalyst for partnership between CSIA and PMI China to promote project management in China's software industry.

Pivot to the Future

As technology disrupts the future, change and transformation are everywhere. Whatever and whenever disruptions may occur, helpful insights and proven practices were part of the unique sessions offered at the conference to help practitioners meet those challenges. Raed S. Haddad, managing director of Strategy Execution at APAC, highlighted the emerging trends that most organizations are going through in this digital disruption world, such as how digitization is changing the nature of work. “Project and program managers must shift their mindset and perspectives—what got us here will not get us there (to the future),” said Mr. Haddad.

Large-scale and complicated projects and programs are typical in China, especially for Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNRDI). This year's PMI China Project of the Year Award went to the Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant Construction Project of SNRDI. “It is 10 years’ earnest efforts. We are so proud that no single accident occurred in our construction site with over 4,000 workers in 100 months,” said Mr. Wang Bin, deputy manager of SNRDI. The top honor in project management offices—the PMO of the Year Award—was given to the Transformation Functional Unit of the AVIVA-COFCO Life Insurance Company for its excellent performance in transformation and innovation. In addition, seven projects and six PMOs were recognized after a rigorous selection process among hundreds of participants. Chen Yanping, chair of the PMI Global Accreditation Center for Project Management Education Programs (GAC), presented the PMI Linn Stuckenbruck Teaching Excellence Award to Dr. Ding Shizhao, professor at Tongji University, who is the first Chinese citizen to win this award. The awards ceremony and announcements were both exciting and inspiring!

Ideas Start Here

The plenary session ended with a TED Talk, with five speakers from architecture, technology forecasting, cognitive neuroscience and the robotics industries who shared spectacular ideas on a variety of topics. As Cindy Anderson, PMI vice president, brand management, said during the opening of the session, “The reason why TED Talks are curated in PMI's conference is that TED inspires new ideas, while PMI turns ideas into reality.” The session was unprecedentedly inspiring, featuring:

♦ Anil Seth, a cognitive neuroscientist who shared how the “inner universe” of consciousness can be explained in terms of mere biology and physics;

♦ Ma Yansong, a Chinese architect and artist who shared what happens when nature collides with architecture;

♦ Catherine Mohr, a roboticist who demonstrated some of the newest tools for surgery through tiny incisions that are performed using nimble robot hands;

♦ Anna Heringer, an architect using low-tech materials like mud and bamboo to create structures; and

♦ Stephen Petranek, a technology forecaster who said that within 20 years humans will live on Mars.

To close the day, a cocktail party was held to celebrate PMI's 50th anniversary, and to express appreciation for the volunteers and sponsors who have offered great support, both for the event and in promoting the project management profession in China.

Best Practices to Take Away

Breakout sessions on the second day were extremely popular, with a full day of dedicated lectures on PMOs and project management practices, in addition to topics on focus, agile, talent development and an Alibaba project management session. The Alibaba session was a highlight of the day, with eight speakers from the Alibaba group and its subsidiaries like Alipay, Amap.com and Alibaba Cloud.

Attendees soaked up knowledge and learning experiences in PMO transformation, leadership, agile and program/portfolio management such as a presentation on Singles’ Day (one of the world's 50 most influential projects), while also digging into topics such as big data, smart transportation, DevOps and artificial intelligence (AI). All of this content was delivered with firsthand practical experience from industry leaders including ZTE, Huawei, Didi, Meituan, Yi Guo group and Ctrip.

With the learning and networking opportunities available at the conference, what attendees took away was more than expected. That's the result that PMI intends to make. It also envisions that PMI will do whatever is needed to help the project management profession embrace and enable technology in The Project Economy!

Chapter Links

PMI St. Petersburg Chapter pmi.org.ru

Member Feedback Brings Focus to the PMI St. Petersburg Chapter's 2020 Goals

The PMI Talent Triangle® is at the core of the PMI St. Petersburg Chapter's development strategy, with the chapter now conducting regular offline events for its members and the local project management community.

In June 2018, the PMI St. Petersburg Chapter brought its members together for an event to help define the requests for learning opportunities coming into the chapter. It turned out that the community was looking for in-person meetings that offer networking, knowledge sharing and professional development opportunities. At the same time, chapter members were requesting learning and discussion focused on in-depth industry topics related to project management.

This led to the chapter establishing three local interest groups in the third quarter of 2018: IT, Construction and Leadership. Another local interest group—Project Management Office—launched in October 2019.

The chapter now organizes events related to one of these topics nearly every week. These offerings allow chapter members to be more active within the community and become subject matter experts providing information on a variety of topics. This concept also helps to develop leaders within each area, who often become chapter volunteers afterward.

In addition to these activities, the chapter hosts regular project management events, including its conferences—the annual PM Bridge and biannual PM Schools—which often draw between 25 and 200 participants.

In November 2019, the chapter organized a strategic planning session that was open to all chapter members. This open forum allowed chapter leaders to meet members in person. It also provided a great opportunity to share the knowledge gained from a recent PMI Region 8 meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Chapter leaders who attended the region meeting were able to share news about PMI's rebranding and transformation to help inform chapter members. Finally, this forum also helped to understand and document member needs, giving their concerns the attention they deserve and encouraging members to take an active role in the process. More than 50 of the 260 chapter members attended this four-hour session held on a Saturday. The chapter leaders and members worked both individually and in facilitated groups to help define the strategic areas of development for the upcoming year's initiatives.

The session clearly determined that members value events as the foundation of the chapter's activities for 2020, which is especially promising considering St. Petersburg is the host city for the Eastern Europe Subregional Meeting in April 2020.

PMI Nigeria Chapter pminigeria.org

Stop. Think. Recycle. Initiative by the PMI Nigeria Chapter

Use it, trash it or bag it; it's all a fad ... for plastics are here to stay. Or are they?

While we deliberate on the future of plastics, the world gets more polluted, and Nigeria is no exception.

Inspired by the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the PMI Nigeria Chapter organized a “pick up the plastic” initiative, also known as Stop. Think. Recycle. This event was organized to help mark PMI's 50th anniversary celebration in Nigeria. The chapter pledged project hours toward achieving UN SDG Goal #12, “Responsible Consumption and Production,” which targets reducing waste in the environment.

On 21 September 2019, more than 50 PMI Nigeria Chapter members and volunteers participated with members of the community to achieve this goal. In addition, a plastics recycling company teamed up to “clean” the city of Lagos, which is Nigeria's largest city and its economic capital.

The celebration kicked off with media rounds at a local radio station and special invitations to government agencies, recycling organizations and other stakeholders. This impactful event promoted awareness of the PMI global brand and PMI's 50th anniversary, and also brought attention to the hazards that plastic bottles have on the environment and community as part of the chapter's corporate social responsibility goals.

PMI Nigeria Chapter's plastic initiative

PMI Northern Italy Chapter pmi-nic.org

The PMI Northern Italy Chapter Hosts Forum Centered on Sustainability in Projects

On 18 October 2019, the PMI Northern Italy Chapter (PMI-NIC) hosted the third edition of its National Project Management Forum, a joint initiative of the three PMI Italy chapters to promote project management culture all over the country. The event was chosen to be part of the official Global Celebration of Service in honor of PMI's 50th anniversary.

The event, titled “RE-Think! #project #sustainAbility #future,” continued PMI-NIC's tradition of providing cutting-edge topics in project management and proposed a relatively unexplored aspect of Italian projects: sustainability.

Sustainability in projects is a transversal theme that encloses and aptly represents the best practices of project management (#project), from specific competences (#sustainAbility) to innovative drive (#future). This theme was well explored, taking inspiration from the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and focusing on the four natural elements (#air, #earth, #water, #fire) as a critical part of maintaining a sustainable relationship between human beings and the environment in the long term.

The best practices for sustainable project management were at the core of this third annual forum, and were accompanied and enriched by several initiatives meant to develop a profound cultural discussion with industry, academia and society in Italy.

The forum's scientific committee selected speakers who could address sustainability from different perspectives: Silvana Castellucchio, HR Six Sigma Black Belt consultant, painter and art therapist; Rich Maltzman, professor at Boston University and author of Green Project Management; and Massimo Pica Ciamarra, architect and author of several publications on the systemic view of architecture. Three project managers also presented case studies of their best sustainable practices through “project stories:” Roberta Bernasconi, head of sustainability lead at Whirlpool EMEA; Michael Sampene, an engineer and expert in the energy and oil and gas sectors; and Alessandro Artuso, a construction engineer with expertise in the design of complex buildings.

PMI-NIC was also honored to host Beth Partleton, PMP, PMI Fellow, and member of the PMI Board of Directors, for a special face-to-face interview about PMI's transformation journey and future with Walter Ginevri, PMI Fellow, member of the PMIEF Board of Directors.

Students from universities and high schools were also in attendance to present their sustainable projects in poster sessions held during the welcome coffee and luncheon.

The 50th Anniversary Celebration, organized by PMI, helped close the event with great entertainment and elegance, including the music of Fortissimo, an electric string quartet.

The event hosted nearly 700 attendees and was made possible by “allcrazy4theforum:” a very special inter-chapter team of 45 volunteers. The team began working on the forum in the first quarter of 2019 to embed sustainability into every activity, from gadgets to hospitality and car sharing, to the catering leftover collection—all in alignment with the United Nations’ SDGs. The #allcrazy4theforum team also participated in the pledge of service for PMI's 50th anniversary with a reference to Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals. The #allcrazy group of volunteers chose to address sustainable value and created exhaustive lessons learned for future events that can be shared with other chapters.

The forum also provided the opportunity to experiment with new ways to communicate and engage members and potential attendees in advance. Throughout the year, an ideal path was created prior to the event with posts, in-depth articles, and live and virtual events on sustainability in project management. The “Heading for the Forum” initiatives certainly contributed to raising the interest of the community and to the success of the final event.

The event's economic support was provided by six platinum, three gold, eight silver and four technical sponsors, who are committed to project management and environmental best practices. Sponsors enthusiastically participated and chose to offer items made of recycled or recyclable materials as part of the forum's commitment to the environment.

The event organizers were also thrilled to have the support of the city of Milan and the National Council of Engineers.

More details about the event can be found at https://forum2019.pmiitaly.org/en/homepage-2/.

Beth Partleton joins Italian chapters in a toast to PMI

PMI Australia Chapters pmi.org.au

When PMI Chapters Come Together—The Project Management Day of Service a National Offering

Where else can you find 61 charitable or not-for-profit organizations being offered professional consultation services for FREE in a single day?

On 21 October 2019, exactly that happened with the delivery of another Project Management Day of Service (PMDoS) occurring simultaneously in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.

The PMDoS offers free project management consulting to organizations that stand to benefit tremendously from it—the charitable few working to make a difference in our world. The PMDoS’ contribution helps to build and deliver project tools that make these organizations more effective in delivering the services they offer.

The success of the event is realized in the accolades and compliments received about this offering. And if you have already heard about this event and are debating whether or not to host one, our recommendation is to go for it!

Behind the curtain, the question that gets asked most often is, “How did you do it?” How have multiple Australian chapters managed to coordinate with each other across the country and work cohesively to deliver the same event?

It begins with a framework that has been—and continues to be—refined from the first few events. The objective is for the event to avoid being structured as a singular entity offered in multiple venues at once. Instead, each chapter is free to execute the event as they see fit, taking from each other what works, and filling in the blanks with their own ideas where necessary. In fact, at the time of writing, there is another event being hosted by the PMI Western Australia Chapter scheduled for November 2019, approximately two weeks after the three events held in October.

Since the events do not follow a “cookie-cutter” model, they eventuate as unique offerings in each location. The disparity in the finer details does not subtract from realizing the overall objective, nor does it hinder the cooperative and supportive nature in planning. Through the months leading up to the event, communications consist of a few conference calls, plenty of emails to large and small audiences, and frequent progress updates sent from each of the participating chapters to keep each other in the loop on their planning efforts.

Hard at work at Brisbane's 4th Annual PMDoS

The collage of all the participating charities in Sydney 2019

The planning committee from the PMI Melbourne, Australia Chapter

Resourcing and sponsorship are always a challenge in organizing these types of events, and the chapters are always finding new ways to work collaboratively to share ideas and innovate. An example can be found where one chapter secured an in-kind sponsorship from an educational facility that operates a program in graphic design. This sponsor was happy to design the handbook for all the chapters’ events, which were localized to each chapter's content but used the same framework for all. Content for the handbooks (sponsors, charity names/logos, chapter information, etc.) was provided by each chapter and then the sponsor provided the final product for each: One sponsor, four handbook designs, and valuable results of collaboration in action.

The chapters shared charities as well. One organization in attendance at the Brisbane event in 2018 (with offices across Australia) opted to attend both the Brisbane and Sydney events in 2019. A simple introduction was facilitated between the Sydney charity representatives and the PMI Sydney, Australia Chapter—a direct product of cooperation in the planning phase.

The Australian collection of PMI chapters is proud to share the limelight and promote the PMDoS as a “national” event. PMDoS volunteers thrive off of the energy at the events and are humbled each time an organization expresses gratitude for what's been offered. PMDoS’ momentum is building and charities are now expressing anticipation for the next event—a strong testimonial to the services offered.

Australia's success has also caught the attention of their neighbors in New Zealand and Singapore, and we look forward to hearing about their first PMDoS offerings.