Jeroen van Liempd, new director of the PMI EMEA RSC

In August 2009, the PMI EMEA Regional Service Centre (RSC) welcomed its new director, Jeroen van Liempd.

Mr van Liempd is a Dutch national, having lived half of his life in England, Australia and Belgium. He has an extensive background and experience working with European institutions, national governments and the world of trade and professional associations. Mr van Liempd is engineer by profession with extensive experience in the development of industry standards within the European Union. In this respect, he advised the European institutions and various agribusiness industries.

In addition to his governmental affairs and advocacy background, communications and external relations are amongst Mr van Liempd’s strengths, driving him to build industry relationships, strategic partnerships and alliances, and engage various stakeholders in the activities of international associations.

The PMI Educational Foundation (PMIEF) is a charitable organisation and the philanthropic arm of PMI dedicated to improving society globally in the areas of education, community and personal life, and disaster response recovery, through project management knowledge and skills.

To do so, PMIEF has taken the first step in a major expansion of programmes to achieve the most ambitious social responsibility undertaking in the history of PMI.

The goal is to build better futures through project management and create sustainable, life skill project management programmes which will benefit a global society and help bridge the talent gap.

Because the Foundation is an autonomous, non-profit, charitable organisation, it is dependent on contributions to provide the financial resources necessary to undertake its purposes. 

Through the generous support of donors, PMIEF recently accomplished the following:

• In 2008 it conferred US$90,000 plus in scholarships and awards; in 2010 PMIEF will confer over US$200,000.
• PMIEF is working with leading international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through a non-profit organisation called LINGOS (Learning for International NGOs). To date, more than 200 disaster-relief workers from 29 NGOs in 31 countries have received project management training through the PM4NGOs initiative of LINGOS.
• The Foundation has funded grants to train primary and secondary school teachers and help develop pilot programmes that teach children project management as a valuable life skill.

Current Programmes

The Foundation’s current programme areas are centered on leveraging project management to improve society in three areas:

• A Better Prepared Project Management Workforce of the Future
• A Better Prepared Society for Future Success Through Project Management
• A Better Prepared Response in Future Times of Need

Foundation Products

The following products are available for use locally by PMI Components and all PMI Members by downloading them at no cost from PMIEF.org:

• Careers in Project Management
• Project Management Toolkit for Youth contains the tools and templates that can be used to start a project management programme at a primary or secondary school.
• Project Management Life Skills
• PMI Project Management Methodology for Post Disaster Reconstruction (PMMPDR)

Scholarship and Awards

PMIEF administers scholarships and awards for you as PMI members, for PMI credential holders and for prospective project management practitioners:

• Over 300 scholarships valued at over US$200,000
• Five awards valued at US$20,000

Grants

The Foundation provides grants in support of projects that align with its goal to build better futures through project management.

How You Can Get Involved

Visit the PMIEF website to learn more about the programmes and free downloads. Share the free downloads with your local school, teachers or favorite charity. You can also volunteer and/or consider a gift to the foundation.

For more information, please contact Diane Fromm, administrator of the PMI Educational Foundation.

A revitalised set of core values, a key part of PMI’s governing documents, was approved by the PMI Board of Directors in its October meeting. Core values are a key part of the Institute’s core ideology, which describes PMI’s consistent identity.

Management author Jim Collins defines core values as "the essential and enduring tenets of an organisation—the very small set of guiding principles that have a profound impact on how everyone in the organization thinks and acts."

In summary, core values:

• Are a set of beliefs that influence the way people and groups behave;
• Articulate what we stand for;
• Are the “soul” of the organisation;
• Guide business processes;
• Guide decision-making;
• Explain why we do business the way we do;
• Help form an organizational psychology that can support or overcome individual psychology;
• Represent “what we stand for,” not “what we wish we stood for” or “what someone else believes we should stand for.”

Core values are important because they:

• Influence behavior;
• Communicate what we really believe;
• Are sacred and do not change very often;
• Provide a moral compass;
• Provide continuity through change;

• Help people make tough decisions;
• Help to decentralize decision making;
• Help people to be more proactive;
• Are integrated into all levels and functions of the organisation.

The first joint PMI Chapter Meeting hosted 120 participants from the PMI Belgium Chapter (including friends from the PMI Belgium Chapter, Luxembourg Section), the PMI Netherlands Chapter and the PMI Cologne Chapter, and took place in Aachen, Germany, on 17 November 2009.

For all of the attendees, meeting project managers from different industry sectors, countries and cultural backgrounds was beneficial—as was listening to new concepts and methods, and exchanging experiences. Attendees got a better understanding of what drives a project and its players to a successful mission, which is important for any international project.

Presentation on managing complex technical projects with design structure matrices by Prof. Christopher M. Schlick, RWTH Aachen (University of Technology), Aachen, Germany.

During the meeting it was discussed that hard and soft skills are both very important to effectively and efficiently manage projects. Also, a mathematical-analytical approach to scheduling and planning is very useful, and allows an optimisation of resource allocation and use.

Presentation on knowledge management of project teams by Prof. Allard van Riel, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Other research focuses on better understanding the human challenges surrounding projects: getting the most out of the participants through team building, and identifying all stakeholders and their expectations.

Often, knowledge and information are shared with the various stakeholders in a project. Team leaders have to identify the best way to circulate and to utilise the distributed knowledge.

Communication procedures and expectations need to be clarified proactively to avoid any delays and conflicts throughout the project life-cycle.

Several new topics were brought up during the meeting that may lead to further research. Moreover, the participants received some insights from scientists and professionals, expanding attendees’ horizons. 

Following the outstanding success from the first joint PMI Chapter Meeting, the next one is already planned for 2010.

• Insignia Seminars & Conference Organisers – United Arab Emirates
• Instituto Nacional de Administração – Portugal
• DAT Computer Concepts – Poland

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 find a provider of project management education and products in your country.

   Risk Management Core Team

Project risk management reflects the fact that certain events or conditions, whether expected or unforeseeable during the planning process, may impact your project. These impacts can be positive or negative, and may cause the project to deviate from its intended objectives.

Project risk management processes allows for the consideration of these events by describing them in terms of probability of occurrence and identifying critical success factors – resulting in more realistic project results.

PMI’s recently released Practice Standard for Project Risk Management provides a benchmark for the project management profession that defines the aspects of project risk management that are recognised as good practice on most projects most of the time.

The core team included Cynthia Ann Berg, PhD, PMP; David T. Hulett, PhD; David Hillson, PhD, FRSA, FIRM, PMP; and Crispin "Kik" Piney, BSc, PMP. The Practice Standard for Project Risk Management outlines the principles of effective risk management for project managers, team members, supervisors and stakeholders:

• Identify risks;
• Perform qualitative risk analysis;
• Perform quantitative risk analysis;
• Plan risk responses;
• Monitor and control risks.

The standard covers risk management as it is applied to single projects only. It is consistent with A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide)—Fourth Edition and is aligned with other PMI practice standards.

Practice Standard for Project Risk Management is available at PMI.org/Marketplace at a member price of US$44.75.

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

The Project Portfolio Days Event
25-26 March
Madrid, Spain

Project Challenge
28-29 April
Birmingham, United Kingdom

Happy Projects 2010
27-28 May
Vienna, Austria

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