This month, PMI EMEA e-Link had the chance to interview Ralf Müller, DBA, MBA, PMP, managing director of PM Concepts AB, a Sweden-based management consultancy. He is also an associate professor at Umea University in Sweden, as well as an adjunct professor at the Norwegian School of Management BI in Oslo, Norway and at the Graduate School of Management in Lille, France.

On 12 October, Dr. Müller, Professor Miia Martinsuo, D.SC, from Tampere University of Technology, Finland and Associate Professor Tomas Blomquist, PhD, from Umea School of Business, Umea University, Sweden were awarded the Project Management Journal^® Paper of the Year. Their significant contribution to project management knowledge with the paper “Project Portfolio Control and Portfolio Management Performance in Different Contexts” was published in Project Management Journal^® in September 2008.

Dr. Müller has authored more than 60 publications, including four books, several book chapters, conference papers and a number of articles in international management journals.

 Ralf Müller, DBA, MBA, PMP and managing director of PM Concepts AB

PMI EMEA e-Link: Tell us a little about your career history — how did you get to where you are now? 

Ralf Müller: Before joining academia I worked for almost 30 years in line and project management positions, among others as worldwide Director of Project Management at NCR Teradata, USA, where I consulted managers in 43 different countries and established tactical and strategic Project Management Offices (PMOs) for the worldwide improvement of project management capabilities.

Today, my key research is in transitions of PMOs (changes of PMO mandates and structures over the years), PMO networks and their governance (both studies funded by the PMI Research Council). In parallel I am lecturing project, programme and portfolio management, as well as research methods for Masters and doctorates at several universities worldwide.

My future goal is to continue to bridge academia and industry by doing research that is of interest for practitioners. Thereby having academia learn from practice, and practice learn from academia.

PMI EMEA e-Link: Share with us a successful project management story you have experienced.

Ralf Müller: The Project Management Journal^® Paper of the Year for a paper titled Project Portfolio Control and Portfolio Management Performance in Different Contexts.

We are very honored about receiving the PMI award, because it constitutes a key milestone in our team’s research work. On behalf of my co-authors I am very grateful to the PMI evaluators for this recognition.

We investigated the impact of project portfolio control techniques on the portfolio outcomes and found that these outcomes vary by context. The study results have implications for companies, and allow them to adjust their portfolio control to their particular circumstances in order to increase their portfolio results. A further key finding was that project and portfolio results should not be evaluated independently from each other, as this might lead to wrong conclusions.

This study showed that different project portfolio control techniques impact the performance of project portfolios depending on the organisational context.  Successful organisations measure the performance of their project portfolios as the sum of the achievement of planned project results and planned project purposes. Simultaneously, they control their project portfolio through strict project selection and reporting of project status.

Portfolio control through portfolio reporting supports the achievement of portfolio results, independent of context. Portfolio control through use of portfolio selection techniques leads to the achievement of project purpose or project results depending on geography and project governance structure. In organisations with high external and low internal organisational dynamics it leads to the achievement of project purpose. However, in hybrid governance structures (i.e. the simultaneous application of programme and portfolio management) the use of portfolio selection techniques leads to achievement of project results.

PMI EMEA e-Link: What would be your advice to become a successful project manager?

Ralf Müller: Companies should:

• Define and establish a common communication and reporting platform for all projects in the portfolio. It is important to measure and compare projects along similar metrics.
• Take portfolio decisions in teams, after evaluation of the pros and cons of different mixes of priorities and go/no-go decisions, at the organisational and the portfolio level.
• Establish organisational routines to ensure project selection based on the organisation’s strategy, not the personal preferences of individual managers.
• Review portfolios periodically using comparable metrics.
• Use both the control mechanisms and the success factors and assign operational values to them, depending on the business. That allows tracking, setting and measurement of goals, and their achievement in their particular business circumstances, which is the aim of portfolio management.

More details can be found in the figure below and the article:

Müller, R., Martinsuo, M., & Blomquist, T. (2008). Project Portfolio Control and Portfolio Management in Different Contexts. Project Management Journal, 39(3), 28-42.

The second edition of the annual conference Projects and Complexity took place in Milan, Italy, on 6 November. The event was organised by the PMI Northern Italy Chapter (NIC), with the aim of exploring the relationships between complexity theory principles and project management best practices.

Compared to the 2008 edition, the conference was chiefly focused on the project manager’s profile and professional growth, enhanced by the ability to integrate the knowledge on several disciplines in the increasingly uncertain project contexts that project managers will face.

  From left: Stefano Levi Della Torre, painter, essayist and professor at the Faculty of Architecture of Milan, Italy; Walter Ginevri, PMP, education and certification vice president of the PMI Northern Italy Chapter; Gianluca Bocchi, professor of philosophy of science at the Bergamo University of Studies, Italy; Francesco Varanini, essayist, consultant, trainer and professor of humanistic computer science at the University of Pisa, Italy; Rocco Filippini, violoncellist and conductor, who has played in the most famous concert halls all over the world; and Haim Baharier, one of the major scholars in biblical hermeneutics and Jewish thought in Italy.

The event drew almost 300 attendees, including 40 international guests of PMI Headquarters, PMI Region 8 and the PMI Leadership Institute Master Class. The publication of a book produced by the NIC research team, The Emerging Project Management – The Project as a Complex System, was met with strong interest, with more than 130 copies sold that day.

Congratulations to Mohammed Abou Hassira, PMP, PgMP, RMP, OPM3 Consultant, Raju Rao, PMP, OPM3 Consultant and Dieter Tappe, PMP, OPM3 Consultant who just earned the OPM3 certification in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 5 November. A four-day training was held by Claudia Baca, PMP and OPM3 Certified Assessor and Consultant.

PMI EMEA e-Link received personal impression of the three new OPM3 Certified Consultants and insight on how the certification will help them on their career path.

Learn more about PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3^®)

• Fabe Proje Yonetimi – Turkey
• PK Project Consult PME-T – Germany
• Demos – France

Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s) are organisations approved by PMI to offer project management training for professional development units (PDUs) to maintain your PMI credentials.

View the R.E.P. Web pages on PMI.org to learn more about R.E.P.s or log on to the new CCR System to find a provider of project management education activities and offerings in your country.

PMI has launched the new communities of practice. Communities of practice are knowledge-driven websites where you can connect with other project management practitioners through blogs, wikis, discussion boards, shared document areas and opinion polls.

These sites are a great way to collaborate with more than 300,000 PMI members from around the world to share and gain a local and global perspective on best practices, lessons learned, new research, tools and techniques in your specific areas of interest.

By engaging with these global online communities of practice, you will be able to share ideas and insight, and benefit from other practitioners’ advice and experience.

Currently there are eight new PMI communities of practice:

• Agile
• Consulting
• International Development
• Organisational Project Management
• Project Human Resource Management
• Project Management Global Sustainability
• Retail
• Utility

As a PMI member you can currently have complimentary access to the communities of practice with your PMI username and password.

• Visit PMI.org www.pmi.org;
• Enter your PMI.org username and password and click “Log in”
• Click on the section labeled “Communities” and select the name of the community you wish to access

Tour a community,  and learn how to participate in the communities of practice .

If you are organising a PMI event in the EMEA region, please let us know.

PMI Research Conference 2010
11-14 July, 2010
Washington, D.C., USA

PMI credentials involve a rigorous process designed to ensure the highest possible professional standard. All candidates for: Project Management Professional (PMP)^®, Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)^®, Program Management Professional (PgMP)^®, PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)^® and PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)^® must first meet specific education and experience requirements and then pass an examination.

After receiving their letter of eligibility, qualified candidates may schedule a computer-based examination online.

Candidates in regions without a computer-based testing centre may take advantage of the paper-based testing (PBT) opportunities listed below.