PM

MAKING PROJECT MANAGEMENT INDISPENSABLE FOR BUSINESS RESULTS.®

NETWORK
APRIL 2008 VOLUME 22, No. 4

> Details Matter in

Mega-Projects

> Kids’ Comments

Drive Hospital
Design

Companies are looking

beyond India to multiple
partners scattered

PICK
around the globe. Heidi Godfrey Jones at
Vodafone, Newbury, England,
developed the company’s
multisourcing framework.

AND

CHOOSE
PMN0408 Cover Spreads 1-4 3/5/08 11:11 PM Page 2
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:34 PM Page 1

>>>OPENING
SHOT

“
Human settlement in Nairobi is dominated by
informal settlements, which lack basic infrastructure
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

such as urban transport, water and sanitation.

—Dick Wathika, mayor of the City Council of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

Nairobi,
F
or years, the Nairobi River Basin has
been unsafe for human use. Looking
Kenya to change that—and improve the
livelihood of area residents in
the process—the Kenyan government and the
United Nations launched the Nairobi River
Basin Programme in 1999. Funded by the
private sector, along with support from
the Belgian, Irish and French governments,
the project aims to revive the river’s delicate
ecosystem by removing solid waste, repairing
sewer systems and diverting dry-weather
river flows.
The initial phases of the project identified
the river’s environmental needs through a
system created to monitor water quality over
time. That data helped determine the urban
planning goals, including an effort aimed at
developing bridges and walkways to help the
artisans and small vendors who rely on the
river for their businesses. The team backed
up the plan with a grassroots awareness and
support campaign.
Nearly a decade after it began, the three-
phase, $6.5 million project is on track to
close in December 2008.
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:35 PM Page 2

Targeted training that

improves bottom line
performance.

PM College provides on-site training and focused learning programs

© 2007 Professional Development Solutions, Inc.

to strengthen the abilities of your project personnel. Stronger skills

mean better project performance. We’ll work closely with you to create On-site Training
a customized curriculum that focuses on competencies specific to Certificate Programs
your organizational goals. Let us help you equip your project teams Certification Preparation
for success – call PM College today and take the first step. Competency Assessment

pmcollege.com | 888.619.2819
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:36 PM Page 3

pg. 58
Alberta Children’s Hospital
“ We all had a sense that we were getting stuck with the
design, that we were just regurgitating the same old thing.
”
—Ken Chiang, Calgary Health Region, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

features
contents
apr08
34 SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
Companies are getting far more selective and protective about their
vendors—and no, they’re not all in India anymore. by Sarah Fister Gale

46
IT’S A MEGA WORLD
Even on the world’s biggest projects, it still comes down to the minor
details. by Tegan Jones

52
WORLDVIEW: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
It’s boom time in this cosmopolitan city, where the needs of
a growing population are sparking an overwhelming demand
for savvy project leaders. by Sandra A. Swanson

58
LISTEN UP
Children turned out to be the true design experts when it
came time to build Canada’s first pediatric hospital in 25
years. by John Buchanan 42
pg.
A CLOSER LOOK:

64
STRETCHED THIN NOVELL, PROVO,
For project managers on the edge, stress management is part of the UTAH, USA
job description. by Simon Kent A software
company
extends its
global reach by
68
BEST OF CONGRESS PAPERS
cultivating
ROLE PLAY
relationships
Every project player has a part to fill. by Marcia Jedd with a small
stable of
vendors.
cover photo by MARTIN BEDDALL
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:39 PM Page 4

Think Your Project

is Unsinkable?

      

     
 

!!!


##"


#




#

 #
!#

# #

101 S. Whiting Street, Suite 320

Alexandria, Virginia 22304
Phone: 703-370-7885
Fax: 703-370-1757
Website: www.pmi-cpm.org

  



   
 
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:39 PM Page 5

pg. 12

IT Industry Loses—and Gains—Bandwidth

“business
There is already sufficient concern about the possibility of a
slowdown for next year from enough credible and
independent sources to suggest that preparing a backup cost-
cutting IT budget now is just plain good management.
”

apr08
—Ken McGee, Gartner Group, Stamford, Connecticut, USA

calendar of events
UPCOMING MAJOR
PMI GLOBAL EVENTS
19-21 May PMI Global Congress 2008—
EMEA. St. Julians, Malta.

viewpoints 13-16 July 2008 PMI Research

Conference. Warsaw, Poland.

10 Feedback 11-13 August PMI Global Congress 2008—

Latin America. São Paulo, Brazil.

25 From The Top Visit www.pmi.org for details.

High Flyer Greg Bronson

26 Crossing Borders APRIL

Masters of Change by Alfonso Bucero, PMP, 14-15 PMI Nashville Chapter Spring
Contributing Editor Symposium. Nashville Convention Center,
28 Executive Speak
Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
www.pminashville.com
Adapting to the Times
by Michel Thiry, PMP, PMI Fellow,
Contributing Editor 29-30 9th Annual Professional
Development Days. PMI Manitoba Chapter.
30 Variance Threshold Manitoba, Canada.
Audit at the O.K. Corral by Michael Hatfield, http://www.pmimanitoba.org/
PMP, Contributing Editor

72 Software Review
MAY
5-8 Northern Alberta Conference and
Meeting of the Minds by David E. Essex
SeminarCity. PMI Northern Alberta Chapter.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
also in this issue http://www.pminacconference.com
01 Opening Shot 74 In the Field
09 PMI.org 76 Product Roundup 7 PMI Upstate New York Chapter Annual
11 Contributors 78 Featured Books Professional Development Day. Albany,
12 The Buzz 81 Services Directory New York, USA.
22 Metrics 84 The End Result http://www.pmi-uny.org/pdd2008.html
33 Executive Brief
JUNE
on the cover 24-26 2008 The Center for Business
34 Pick and Choose Practices Summit: Strategy & Projects.
46 Details Matter in Mega-Projects Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.
58 Kids’ Comments Drive Hospital Design www.cbponline.com
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:41 PM
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PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:44 PM Page 7
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:46 PM Page 8
PMN0408 1-31 3/6/08 10:16 PM Page 9

WATCH, LISTEN + DOWNLOAD @

>
PMI.org
> THE DOCTOR IS IN.
Joan Lundholm, PMP, president of the PMI Troubled Projects Specific Interest
Group (TPSIG), likes to think of herself not only as a project manager, but as a
project doctor. And indeed, it can take that type of mindset to fix troubled
projects. Ms. Lundholm and Charles McHenry, PMP, vice president of member-
ship for the TPSIG, share four pieces of advice for project managers facing, or
trying to avoid, troubled projects of their own.

> IS GOOD HELP HARD

TO FIND?
A shortage of project management talent around the world
means many companies are scrambling to fill their ranks.
Find out what recruitment tactics and resources are at your
disposal, and what Kathi Kroop, president of the PMI Human Resources Specific Interest
Group, suggests for organizations seeking the best of the project management talent pool.

> PLUS
Visit congresses.pmi.org/EMEA2008 to find out more about the speakers, exhibitors and events
planned for the PMI Global Congress—EMEA slated for 19–21 May in St. Julians, Malta.

READ THE DIGITAL EDITION OF PM NETWORK

DON’T FORGET PMI MEMBERS HAVE ACCESS TO SEARCHABLE DIGITAL EDITIONS
OF CURRENT AND PAST ISSUES OF PM NETWORK. GO TO PMI.org, CLICK ON THE
RESOURCES TAB, THEN VIRTUAL LIBRARY, THEN PUBLICATIONS ONLINE LIBRARY.
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:48 PM Page 10
>>FEEDBACK
BEYOND SOUND BITES
One project manager jumping from a $90,000 to a $300,000
position does not a consistent and fluid job market make.
I work in the same overheated energy and construction market
cited in “The Great Talent Shortage” article (January). While it is
possible that one project manager for a construction company did
jump for over triple compensation, this is an extreme outlier in
Alberta, never mind the rest of Canada. The individuals I have
encountered who even remotely approach a $300,000 pay package
have similar characteristics in that they are typically independent
consultants and are not employees; they usually have decades of
specific, niche experience; a large number are registered profes-
sional engineers. This is on top of the fact that extreme pay grades
are positively correlated with factors such as high levels of respon-
sibility and prolonged remote travel and living arrangements.
While I have great respect for Sam Shaw, Ph.D., and his poly-
technic institution, the quote attributed to him is nothing more
than a two-sentence sound-bite I would normally expect to hear in
a pitch to “get rich quick”—sensational at best, but fraught with
missing details.
—Jason George, P.Eng., PMP
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
PART OF THE IN CROWD
I had to chuckle as I read the January 2008 article in PM
Network on FilmRiot and crowdsourcing. Far from being a new
phenomenon, crowdsourcing has been practiced by PMI for
years! Every time a volunteer steps forward to contribute a piece
>>What’s Your View? Be a part of the discussion.
Please send your comments on PM Network’s features, columns and news to editorial@pmi.org.
10 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
of work or an experienced opinion to a PMI Specific Interest
Group, that person is participating in crowdsourcing. Every
time PMI reaches out to its membership to participate and
strengthen the profession, that’s crowdsourcing. Anyone who
has stepped up to lend a hand or voice to a PMI endeavor can
palpably feel the dynamism of the community and the power of
connection. Now, with the tools available to reach individuals
beyond institutional borders, that successful community model
has spilled out to the profit arena, branded with a hip new name.
—Patricia Dazé, PMP
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
THAT’S SOME DEAL
As a avid reader of anything “space” and a proponent of devel-
oping affordable space capabilities, I was surprised by a few
statements in February’s “The Outer Limits.” Some fact-check-
ing may be necessary.
The Chinese lunar orbiter comment “The orbiter is the first
phase of a ¥1.4 billion ($12.6 million) lunar program aimed at
landing an unmanned rover on the surface by 2012 ...” sounds
like one heck of a bargain to me. Assuming the ¥1.4 billion fig-
ure is correct, I believe that works out to about US$194 million,
not US$12.6 million, give or take exchange-rate fluctuations.
Still, that seems to be a rather low cost for such a program.
—Lt. Commander Andy Samoluk, PMP
project director, Space Projects
National Defence Headquarters,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
EDITOR’S RESPONSE: The figure of 1.4 billion is correct, as
reported by a variety of media, including Xinhua News Agency,
People’s Daily, MSNBC and The Guardian. However, the monetary
symbol and conversion used in the story were wrong. The figure
should have been expressed in Chinese yuan, which converts to
about US$195 million.
CLARIFICATION: In February’s Worldview featuring Marrakech,
Morocco, the $152.5 billion cited in the story was the country’s
2006 GDP purchasing power parity figure; the GDP was approx-
imately $57 billion in 2006.
PMN0408 1-31 3/6/08 3:56 AM Page 11
>>CONTRIBUTORS
JOHN BUCHANAN has appeared in
more than 100 magazines and news-
papers including The Conference Board
Review and Workforce Management. He
is based in the Blue Ridge Mountains
area of Georgia, USA.
SARAH FISTER GALE has been a
trade journalist for more than 10
years. Based in Chicago, Illinois,
USA, she has covered business and
technology issues for a variety of
publications, including Small Times,
Training and Organic Processing.
JUSTIN HACKWORTH is a
photographer based in Provo, Utah,
USA, and has been working profes-
sionally since 1997. He is also a
member of a private photography
group called the Salt Lake Seven.
MARCIA JEDD is a Minneapolis,
Minnesota, USA-based supply chain
and business writer.
SIMON KENT is a London, England-
based journalist who specializes in IT
and human resources.
ANDREW QUERNER is an
independent photographer based in
Canmore, Alberta, Canada. His
work has appeared in Time, Outside,
Aplinist, The New York Times and
The Wall Street Journal.
OTTO STEININGER is an
award-winning illustrator whose
work has been published in The
New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal, The Economist and other
publications throughout North
America and Europe.
SANDRA A. SWANSON is a
journalist based in Wilmette, Illinois,
USA. A former senior editor at
InformationWeek, she has contributed
to Crain’s Chicago Business and BtoB.
IN THIS ISSUE
PEOPLE PAGE
Lisamarie Babik, PMP,
Menlo Innovations ..........................................67
Simon Bennett,
Cross London Rail Links..........................49
Rolf Blomberg, Swedbank ..........................71
Lynda Bourne, DPM, PMP,
Mosaic Project Services pty Ltd. ..........54
Michael Campbell, PMP,
Holland & Davis LLC ................................70
Ken Chiang, Calgary Health Region ........60
Rakesh Dadhania, Manipal Acunova........67
Alexander Egorov, Reksoft ........................36
Milton Gardner, Kasian Architecture Interior
Design and Planning Ltd. ........................60
Simon Garlick, MetaPM pty Ltd. ..............54
Anurag Gupta,
Wipro Technologies Ltd. ..........................36
Rob de Haas, ABN AMRO..........................39
Bob Holmes, Calgary Health Region ......60
Heidi Godfrey Jones, Vodafone................40
Beatrice Kessler, Credit Suisse................66
COMPANIES PAGE
3PM Experts Sàrl, Vaud, Switzerland ....67
ABN AMRO,
Amsterdam, Netherlands ........................38
Calgary Health Region,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada ........................60
Credit Suisse, Zurich, Switzerland..........66
Cross London Rail Links,
London, England........................................49
Dimension Data,
Johannesburg, South Africa ..................36
Henley Management College,
Henley-on-Thames, England..................66
Holland & Davis LLC,
Houston, Texas, USA................................70
Iskandar Regional Development Authority,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ..........................50
Kasian Architecture Interior Design &
Planning Ltd., Vancouver & Calgary,
Alberta, Canada..................................................60
La Confluencia Tinguiririca,
Tinguiririca Valley, Chile ..........................50
Manipal Acunova, Bangalore, India..........67
Maunsell, Melbourne, Australia ................55
PEOPLE PAGE
Héctor Llanos,
La Confluencia Tinguiririca ..........................50
Beni Lopez, Softtek ....................................42
Alexander Matthey, PMP,
3PM Experts Sàrl......................................67
Catherine Morrison, Southern Alberta
Child & Youth Health Network ..............60
Mysore Nagaraja,
Metropolitan Transit Authority ..............48
Noor Azwa Mohd Noor, Iskandar Regional
Development Authority ............................50
Scott Petty, Dimension Data......................36
Jorge Quijano,
Panama Canal Authority ..........................51
J. Garrett Ralls, TTech LLC ......................50
Stephen Simister, Ph.D.,
Henley Management College..................66
Lois Ward, Calgary Health Region ..........62
Dave Wilkes, Novell ....................................42
Christine Wyatt, Maunsell ..........................55
COMPANIES PAGE
Menlo Innovations,
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA ..........................67
MetaPM pty Ltd,
Melbourne, Australia ................................54
Metropolitan Transit Authority,
New York, New York, USA ....................48
Mosaic Project Services pty Ltd,
Melbourne, Australia ................................54
Novell, Provo, Utah, USA ............................41
Panama Canal Authority,
Balboa-Ancón, Panama............................51
Reksoft, St. Petersburg, Russia................36
Softtek Near Shore Services,
Garza García, Nuevo León, Mexico ......42
Southern Alberta Child & Youth Health
Network, Calgary, Alberta, Canada ......60
Swedbank, Stockholm, Sweden................71
TTech LLC, Los Angeles, California, USA
& Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ..........................50
Vodafone, Newbury, England....................40
Wipro Technologies Ltd.,
Bangalore, India ........................................36
APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 11
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:56 PM Page 12

thebuzz

IN THESE PAGES
16 The Latest Theme (Park) in Projects
Submit news to pmnetwork@imaginepub.com. All monetary figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.
IT INDUSTRY
LOSES—AND
GAINS—
BANDWIDTH
IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE it’s going to
be a good year for IT project spending
and hiring in the United States.
The threat of a recession has
caused a flattening or even a dip in
IT spending across industries. And
whether it’s companies revising
spending projections or taking
another look at hiring, the message
is clear: Proceed with caution.
Paul Carton, director of research at
Rockville, Maryland, USA-based
investment consulting firm ChangeWave,
points the finger at a slowing economy.
In a ChangeWave survey conducted
in February, 23 percent of the 2,013
U.S. respondents said their company’s
IT spending will decrease or there will
be no spending at all in the second
quarter. That’s three points worse than
the company’s previous survey last
November, says Mr. Carton.
Only 15 percent say spending will
ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES KACZMAN

increase—an unprecendented 9 point

18 New Project Management Standard
In the Works
20 Tapping Into the Earth’s Energy
drop from November.
“It’s an unusually bad visibility for
IT purchasing,” he says. >>

SEE THE LATEST NEWS about project, program and

portfolio management online at www.pmi.org/PMport

12 PM NETWORK JANUARY 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:56 PM Page 13

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PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:58 PM Page 14
thebuzz
MORE CAUSE FOR CONCERN
ChangeWave isn’t the only company seeing red
for the U.S. IT industry this year:
Be prepared. Gartner Group analysts speaking at
the company’s Symposium/ITxpo in Cannes,
France last November urged U.S. organizations to
brace for the worst, citing turmoil in credit mar-
kets around the world and continued uncertainty
surrounding the future economic climate.
“Although the financial outlook for 2008 remains
far from certain, waiting for a clear economic trend
to appear prior to taking action is not a prudent
option,” Ken McGee, vice president of Stamford,
Connecticut, USA-based Gartner Group said at the
symposium. “There is already sufficient concern
>>WORLD REPORT
The outlook for IT spending seems to be a mixed bag outside the United
States. International Data Corp. (IDC) predicted last December that the
worldwide IT market will only grow by 5.5 percent to 6 percent in 2008—
lower than usual, according to the Framingham, Massachusetts, USA-based
marketing intelligence company.
Western Europe’s IT spending potential is slightly stronger than the United
States, while Japan is predicted to fall to the bottom of the heap, according to
IDC analyst Stephen Minton. “Japan’s economy is weaker than it was six
months ago and it’s facing another downturn,” he says. “The tepid economy
is limiting the ability of Japanese companies to fund big IT projects.”
It’s not all bad news for IT spending, though. IDC expects IT spending
to remain strong in emerging markets, including Brazil. The country is
projected to reach 13.4 percent growth, says Mauro Peres, an IDC analyst
based in São Paulo, Brazil. “That is twice the average for the world mar-
ket,” he says, noting that spending increases are expected to be steady
across multiple industries. “Finance, telecom, large manufacturing com-
panies are the ones that traditionally invest a lot in IT and this trend will
continue in 2008,” Mr. Peres says.
According to IDC analysts, Russia, India, China, Mexico, Poland,
Turkey, Argentina, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, United Arab
Emirates and Vietnam are also showing promise, with spending
remaining steady across multiple industries.
“A larger proportion of IT spending is coming from these emerging
markets,” Mr. Minton says. “That’s why IT vendors are working so hard
to gain a foothold in these regions—so they can reduce their reliance on
established markets like the [United States] and Japan.”
IDC predicts technology companies will boost their
collective investments in these economies by about 16
percent this year.
Invincible India
India’s booming economy and the continued growth of its out-
sourcing sector are making it impervious to the current sluggish
IT market, says Stephen Minton, International Data Corp. After a
17 percent increase in IT spending last year, the country’s market is
poised to grow another 20 percent this year, he says. “India is
among the fastest growing IT markets for 2008.”
14 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
about the possibility of a business slowdown for next
year from enough credible and independent sources
to suggest that preparing a backup cost-cutting IT
budget now is just plain good management.”
Maybe that IT spending won’t be so high
after all. Forrester Research Inc., a Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA-based technology and mar-
ket research company, cut its estimates of U.S.
investment in IT goods and services for 2008
from an earlier forecast of 8 percent growth
down to 4.8 percent. The revised forecast
assumes the U.S. economy will grow only
1 percent to 2 percent until the second or third
quarter of 2008.
You might want to hold off on filling those
positions. IT hiring is stagnant, according to the
November 2007 IT Hiring Index and Skills Report
from Robert Half Technology. The survey by the
Menlo, California, USA-based firm revealed that
82 percent of CIOs intend to maintain the status
quo, with no plans to hire in early 2008. The sur-
vey is based on interviews with more than 1,400
CIOs from a random sample of U.S. companies
with 100 or more employees. While this certainly
isn’t a dire prediction, it does reflect a decline in
optimism about hiring.
NO NEED TO PANIC—YET
It’s not all “gloom and doom,” however. Mr. Carton
says an economic turnaround can happen quickly
once a spending jump occurs. “I expect a bump up
at some point soon,” he says. “What’s surprising
though, is that I expected to see it by now.”
Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of
Robert Half Technology, also urges careful opti-
mism. Although the IT Hiring Index result is
down two points from the previous quarter, the
results over the past year “were as strong as any
we’ve seen in five years or more,” she says.
“Overall, the outlook for the industry is positive as
the results point to sustainable rates of growth.”
And, there’s still a shortage of highly skilled
candidates in many IT specialties, particularly
applications and web development, database man-
agement, systems analysis and network adminis-
tration, Ms. Spencer Lee says. Networking and
help desk/end-user support are both experiencing
significant growth within IT departments.
“It’s a good time to be in IT,” Ms. Spencer Lee
adds. “Professionals who are able to combine
in-demand skill sets with business acumen and
in real-world experience are sought after.”
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 10:59 PM Page 15

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thebuzz
No Walk in the Park
open by 2020, the theme park will occupy six square
kilometers (2.3 square miles)—nearly five times the
size of Hong Kong’s Disneyland.
But Disney isn’t the only company bringing Asia
its share of tourist sites. Developer Shenzhen OCT
Sanzhou Investment spent $450 million to launch
a 2,200-acre (890-hectare) Swiss alpine resort—
complete with a man-made Lake Interlaken—in the
hills of Shenzhen, China. Dubbed a “large-scale eco-
tourism project,” the park offers visitors ski chalets
and a Swiss village. But the project has posted less-
than-impressive results since it opened in mid-2007,
according to Time.

motorbike AND, ACTION!

ride in
Spain’s
Spyland
$28.5 billion
Projected worldwide
spending in the amusement
park segment by 2011
And here are the big spenders:
United States ......$14 billion
Asia ....................$8.1 billion
Europe................$5.5 billion
Latin America......$248 million
Middle East ........$200 million
Source: Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2007-2011,
PricewaterhouseCoopers
MICKEY HEADS TO ASIA
The first new park on deck for entertainment
IT MAY SEEM LIKE ALL FUN AND GAMES,
but developing amusement park projects is serious
business. Spending worldwide in the category is
expected to rise from $22.8 billion in 2006 to
$28.5 billion in 2011, according to a report by
global consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The United States currently ranks as the world’s
largest amusement park market, per the report. And
that growth should stay flat to moderate given the
weak dollar and new attractions,
including the 2008 planned debut
of the world’s first Hard Rock
Park in Myrtle Beach, South
Carolina, USA.
But the United States is facing
some stiff new competition from
a flurry of projects in Asia Pacific,
which is on pace to become the
fastest-growing region for theme-
park projects. The report predicts
regional spending in the segment
will reach $8.1 billion by 2011.
And major players such as Walt
Disney Co., are moving in with a
cavalcade of new park projects.
Further east, in South Korea, one of the country’s
largest entertainment management groups, iHQ,
will join forces with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to
develop a theme park based on the studio’s huge
library of movie titles. It’s set to open in 2011. Not to
be outdone, rival U.S. film giants Universal Studios
and Paramount Pictures Corp. are set to open theme
parks in South Korea by 2012 and 2009, respectively.
The studio theme extends to the Middle East. In
September 2007, Warner Bros. Entertainment part-
nered with Abu Dhabi developer ALDAR and Abu
Dhabi Media Company to build a theme park, a
hotel and cinemas. Work on the park and hotel is
expected to begin in 2009, while the cinemas are due
to open in 2010.
UNDERCOVER WORK
And in Europe, the secret’s out: The world of
espionage and intrigue will be the focus of one of
International Leisure Development’s latest park
projects. To be built near Zaragoza, Spain, Spyland
will include historical shows, rollercoaster rides and
interactive exhibits that celebrate famous spies from
history, novels, cartoons and films. The park will
anchor the much larger mega-resort, Gran Scala.
“The local government and development offices
have been deeply involved in the project and have
pushed to make it happen,” says Didier Rancher,
RENDERING COURTESY OF VEKOMA

powerhouse Disney is set to be located on a 500-acre
(202-hectare) site in southern Malaysia.
Then there’s Disneyland Shanghai. China Daily
reported the suspended plan to build a Disneyland
theme park in suburban Chuansha has been revived
and preparations are moving ahead. Expected to
coordinator and manager of the Spyland project. He
expects construction to begin in late 2008 and for
the €316 million park to open in 2010.
With that kind of spending going into the parks,
project leaders are in for a roller coaster ride of risk
and reward.

16 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:01 PM Page 17

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thebuzz
Standard Issue
IT TOOK NEARLY 14 A Global Effort
YEARS to get approval to
move forward, but the
International Organization
for Standardization (ISO) is
finally putting a project
management standard into
development. The goal is to
create a document that can
provide uniform guidance
for practitioners, consult-
ants, trainers and organiza-
tions on the planning and
realization of projects as
well as the application of
project management tech- Observing Participating Countries
Countries Australia Ghana South Africa
niques and good practices
Hungary Austria India South Korea
around the globe. Ireland Belgium Israel Spain
Pakistan Brazil Italy Sweden
“It will be a truly generic Romania Canada Japan United Kingdom
standard that will be accepted Finland Netherlands United States
France Norway
worldwide,” says James Germany Portugal
Gordon, Ph.D., chairman
of the committee established to develop the stan- The new standard will build on existing
dard known as ISO/PC 236 Project Management. benchmarks, such as PMI’s A Guide to the Project
Dr. Gordon was the champion of this standard, Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®
urging ISO to pursue it for more than a Guide) and the British project management
decade. standard, BS-6079-1, which is the base docu-
The American National Standards Institute, the ment for the standard. But, Dr. Gordon adds,
U.S. representative of the ISO, is serving as the there will be no bias toward any one standard in
secretariat, or administrator, of the com- the final version.
More Than mittee. Experts in another 21 countries
will also be weighing in. And another four
“We want to bring all the standards together
and pick the best of them,” he says. “The final
16,500 countries have observer status, which document will be an overarching standard that can
The number of means they do not participate in develop- sit on top of the national standards, creating a
international standards ing the standard but are kept up-to-date generic set of terms, principles and global best
developed by ISO, on its progress. practices that can be adapted to any project.”
covering a variety of The experts are broken up into three The aim is to create a standard that will be
industries, including working groups addressing terminology, applicable to organizations of all sizes and sectors,
healthcare technology, processes and informative guidance. Dr. Gordon says. Primarily targeted to relative
military engineering, food “[The standard is] crucial now because newcomers to project management, it’s also
technology, clothing man- so many project management standards designed as a support tool for more experienced
ufacturing, and airport and around the world are beginning to differ practitioners and organizational management
space vehicle engineering from each other and that’s becoming a concerned with projects.
problem,” Dr. Gordon says. Most impor- The standard is due to be completed in 2011,
tantly, he adds, it will help build a common lan- according to Dr. Gordon. During the course of
guage and terminology for projects around the its development, drafts will be sent out by ISO to
world—eliminating the frustration teams face when national standards bodies for comment and
they have differing definitions for the same terms or review so all concerned bodies have an input in
disagree on principles and best practice. the final document.

18 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:13 PM Page 19
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:16 PM Page 20

thebuzz
Geothermal Is Hot
“The marketplace will continue to expand in a
significant way across the globe in the coming
years,” he says.
Look for a significant investment in the expan-
sion of existing geothermal fields, as well as the
exploration of new ones, Mr. Kallis says
And with several large-scale geothermal projects
and partnerships under way around the world, it
looks like his prediction is already coming true.

HOT SPOTS
Last November, Empresa Nacional de Geotermia
S.A. (ENG) began construction on a geothermal
energy plant in Chillan Hot Springs, Chile. The
company expects the $9 million plant to generate
enough energy to fulfill the needs of all 172,225
Chillan residents once it’s completed in 2010.
IN THE SEARCH FOR alternative sources of “[We are] opening the doors to energy projects
power, companies are digging deep—literally— that are environmentally sustainable in Chile,” says
tapping into natural steam, hot water or hot dry Christian Brunner, environmental and corporate
rocks mined from the Earth’s crust to generate social responsibility
clean, renewable energy for heat and electricity. director of Empresa
“There has been a surge in geothermal devel-
opment projects worldwide,” says Terry Kallis,
Nacional del Petróleo,
the state-owned energy-
Why
managing director at Petratherm Ltd., an exploration organization Geothermal
Adelaide, Australia-based geothermal company.
There are two types:
partnering with ENG.
In Kenya, the Energy
Energy?
1. It’s clean. Geothermal energy
Conventional geothermal resources are located Regulatory Commission
can be extracted without burning
near volcanoes and can be found in areas of Europe, (ERC) announced last
fossil fuels such as coal, oil or
the United States, Asia, Chile and on many islands. November it will invest
gas. And it only produces one-
Non-conventional resources are engineered $750 million in geother-
sixth of the amount of carbon
and are most prevalent in Australia, Spain, mal power projects over
dioxide that natural gas-fueled
China, the United States and India. the next seven years as
$750 Last November, Petratherm was awarded an part of its efforts to
power plants do.
2. It’s available. Geothermal
million extensive geothermal exploration license cover-
ing 330 square kilometers (127 square miles) of
meet the country’s
increasing power energy is accessible 24 hours a
Amount Kenya the Madrid Basin in Spain. The location was demand. ERC is a
day, 365 days a year. And it has
plans to invest identified as a major prospect because it covers regulatory agency
an average availability rate of
in geothermal an area that includes deeply buried high-heat 90 percent versus about 75 percent
responsibile for the
for coal plants.
power projects producing granites and is close to key markets economic and technical
over the next for electricity and hot water. The project is regulation of both 3. It’s homegrown. Geothermal
energy makes countries less
seven years expected to be completed by the end of 2008. renewable energy and
dependent on foreign oil.
Mr. Kallis expects to add several more explo- downstream petroleum
Source: U.S. Department of Energy
ration projects in the country to the company’s subsectors.
project portfolio over the next few years. A unilateral partner-
He attributes the industry’s growth to increasing ship is also in the works
demand for renewable energy, along with the desire for the Philippines and Iceland to promote the
to underpin major cuts to greenhouse gas emissions exploration of geothermal energy resources in the
and combat the skyrocketing costs of oil and gas. Philippines.

20 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:16 PM Page 21
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:32 PM Page 22

METR1CS
90
BUT ARE YOU TAKING CARE OF YOUR PMO? BETTER THAN AVERAGE

54 “
The percentage of companies
The spread and growth of
PMOs is a strong indicator
that organizations recognize
the critical value of successful
project management. Our
research shows, though, that
simply implementing a PMO
The percentage of U.K. profes-
sionals in project management
who earn more than the median
weekly pay of £457 for full-time
is not enough. PMOs, like employees in the country.
that had an enterprise-wide
project management office
all organisms, need to be
But only 38% of project
(PMO) in place in 2007—a nurtured and supported workers saw their earnings
major jump from 35 percent to become effective. increase last year, while 15%
in 2006.
Source: The State of the PMO 2007–2008, Center
for Business Practices, PM Solutions, Havertown,
Pennsylvania, USA. Results based on a web-based
survey conducted in June 2007 of 435 global
senior project managers.
”
—Jim Pennypacker, director of the Center for Business
Practices, Havertown, Pennsylvania, USA
experienced a drop in pay.
Sources: 2007 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, National
Statistics, London, England. The Project Management Survey for
2007, Arras People, a project management recruiting firm in
Lancashire, England. Respondents included 1,225 permanent and
contract program and project professionals in the United Kingdom
during January 2007.

43
UP OR OUT RELATIONSHIP WOES WHERE’D ALL THE MONEY GO?
Only 12% of IT professionals want
to stay in their current position.
29% of customer
relationship management
The rest aspire to:
software deployments
Shift into a higher position ended in failure in 2007.
37%
in the IT organization 31% were unsuccessful
in 2006, while only 18% The percentage of companies
Move up in the overall 24% around the world that reported
organization failed in 2005.
User adoption rates economic fraud in 2007. The
most common type was corruption
Go to another company 12% were cited as the biggest and bribery, followed closely by
obstacle to success. asset misappropriation.
Move out of IT into a
business role 7%
Source: Global Economic Crime Survey, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Source: AMR Research, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
and the Economy & Research Center at Martin-Luther University,
Results based on an August 2007 survey of 190 U.S.-
Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. The survey of 5,400 global companies
Source: Results based on a survey of 438 IT professionals by searchcio.com. based IT and line-of-business executives.
was conducted in 40 countries between April and July 2007.

22 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

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 PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:36 PM
Greg Bronson, Sabre Holdings Corp., Southlake, Texas, USA
High Flyer
Averaging about 2,000
projects per year, Sabre
Holdings Corp. employs
roughly 3,000 software
developers to keep its
offerings—including mega-
site travelocity.com—on the
r
cutting edge of the constantly
changing travel industry.
Greg Bronson began as
a software developer at the
company 21 years ago and
now serves as director of
portfolio management. He
r
discusses how Sabre is
using project management
to reach new heights.
How does project
management further
Sabre’s strategic goals?
r Sabre has a planning
process that drives align-
ment between projects and
market needs. Through it,
business initiatives that
help meet strategic objec-
tives, such as growth in a
specific market, are identi-
fied. Since all projects are
linked to business initiatives
and business initiatives
are linked to strategic
objectives, Sabre always
knows what is being done
to further the company’s
strategic objectives.
Is project management
consistently employed
across the enterprise?
Sabre is composed of three
Page 25
business units: Travelocity,
Sabre Travel Network and
Sabre Airline Solutions.
Each one has an operations
team responsible for the
project management prac-
tices used in their unit.
Though all three groups
are independent, they all
share information and
best practices, and they
come together as needed
for corporate-wide project
management initiatives.
This allows each group
to customize project
Sabre has a
perspective
that project
management
is not a
destination,
but a journey.
management practices for
the unique aspects of their
business.
What are the primary
benefits that Sabre rec-
ognizes from project
management methods?
For Sabre, project manage-
ment is about bringing vis-
ibility to our investment in
our software products.
This includes
knowing the
projects in the
pipeline and
understanding the
resources required
to develop the
portfolio.
In support of
that, at the begin-
ning of 2007,
Sabre implemented
an ongoing process that
establishes a product plan
for the following five
quarters of projects. At the
end of each quarter, another
quarter of projects is
added.
The final 2008 product
plan was ready for the
board in five weeks—versus
six months in previous
years—and included much
more analysis and justifica-
tion than previous years.
Ongoing product plan-
ning allows Sabre’s marketing
and sales staffs to nominate
new projects as they identify
needs in the marketplace
versus saving project ideas
for the annual planning
process. It keeps project
ideas fresher, the develop-
ment pipeline full and
allows easy adjustment of
the delivery sequence by
pushing lower-priority
projects further out in the
pipeline versus removing
them from the plan.
FROMTHE
TOP
What’s unique about how
Sabre approaches project
management?
Sabre has a perspective that
project management is not
a destination, but a journey.
Changes in the market-
place occur rapidly in the
travel industry, and this
drives changes in our
internal operations and
procedures, including
project management.
We periodically stop
and ask the question: What
level of project manage-
ment is required today?
What practices are too
cumbersome and should be
streamlined? What new
processes are required?
What existing ones should
be strengthened? What
issues can be addressed
through project manage-
ment processes? If there is
no value to the company,
we want to stop using the
process. PM
APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 25
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:38 PM Page 26

VIEWPOINTS
MASTERS OF CHANGE
CROSSING BORDERS

Inflexibility isn’t an option for project managers.

BY A L F ON S O BU C E RO , P M P, CON T R I BU T I N G E D I TOR

P
eople often have habits and behavior patterns that
seem set in stone. But as a project leader, you have
to be flexible with team members and be ready to
adapt to the project environment.
Here are some tips for project managers on how to
become more adaptable:
Break new ground. If a person works hard and
becomes highly skilled in one area, he or she can transfer
that ability to new endeavors. “I am willing to put myself
through anything. Temporary pain or discomfort means
nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will
take me to a new level,” says Efrain Romero of Atos Origin,
Madrid, Spain. “I am interested in the unknown, and the
only path to the unknown is through breaking barriers.”
Don’t see everything as a challenge or threat. Some
people view any shift—the addition of another talented per-
son to the team, any change in their position—with suspicion.
But emotionally secure people evaluate a new situation or
change in their responsibilities based on its merit.
Be creative and find a way to get the work done. When
a person suggests trying things a new way, you can actually
see the pain it causes among some team members. Those
who don’t react with fear are the really creative people. They
think it’s worth a try even if it doesn’t quite work out. Think of the team. People who are focused on them-
selves are less likely to make changes for the good of the
team than people focused on serving others. If your goal as
Make a Change a project manager is to serve the team, adapting to accom-
plish that goal shouldn’t be difficult.
If you think your ability to adapt needs a little work,
here are a few actions you can take: One of the greatest generals in military history was
Napoleon Bonaparte and one of his most formidable
>> Get into the habit of learning. For many years, I’d
enemies was the Duke of Wellington. But Napoleon dis-
write down new things I learned in a small notebook
I carried around. At the end of the day I would try to covered the mistake his opponent consistently made: He
share the idea with a friend or colleague and then file drew up his plans the day before battle, when he did not
it for future use. Doing so got me in the habit of look- yet know his adversary’s movements.
ing for things to learn about. Napoleon recognized his opponent’s lack of adaptability—
>> Reevaluate your role. Look for other duties you still an important lesson for project managers. PM
could fulfill. The process may prompt you to make a
transition, and even if it doesn’t, the exercise will Alfonso Bucero, PMP, is an independent con-
increase your flexibility. sultant who manages projects throughout
>> Think outside the lines. Look for unconventional Europe and Asia. He is the author of Project
solutions every time you meet a challenge. Don’t think Management—A New Vision and coauthor
about why it can not be done, but how it can be done. of Project Sponsorship: Achieving Man-
agement Commitment for Project Success.

26 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:38 PM Page 27
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:40 PM Page 28
VIEWPOINTS
ADAPTING TO
THE TIMES
EXECUTIVE SPEAK
Governance means more than just establishing control—it must allow enough
flexibility for change.
BY M I C H E L T H I RY, P M P, P M I F E LLOW, CON T R I BU T I N G E D I TOR
G
overnance is currently one of the most misused
terms in the business. Since the WorldCom,
Enron and other scandals, along with the advent
of Sarbanes-Oxley, governance is associated with
disaster prevention, risk mitigation and, consequently,
tighter control. Legal issues of corporate responsibility are
the main driver for the systems put in place to support
this narrow vision of governance. These structures are stifling
innovation and creating an oppressive culture where
everybody feels they have to protect themselves rather
than contribute to value creation.
But when exercised properly, governance helps execu-
tives communicate the purpose of the organization and
ensures results will match this vision.
All the Pieces
In Principles of Corporate Governance: 2004, the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development states:
28 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
“Corporate governance … provides the structure through
which the objectives of the company are set, and the means
of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance
are determined.”
Based on this and other definitions, governance can be
divided into three main elements:
1. Set corporate objectives. Management must exercise
leadership by consulting with the main stakeholders to
identify their needs and expectations and define what
constitutes value for them. The stakeholders may
include shareholders, customers, managers, staff and
suppliers. Value can mean worth of shares and financial
benefits, but also encompass productivity, growth, cred-
ibility, operations and product excellence, as well as less
tangible factors such as customer satisfaction, career
development and corporate citizenship. Following this,
management must formulate and clearly communicate
strategies in measurable terms.
2. Establish the means to achieve the objectives.
Corporate strategies are often communicated in ways
that are vague and leave a lot to interpretation.
Management must commit to clear, measurable
objectives and allocate the necessary financial, human,
technical and time resources to achieve them. The project
management office and portfolio, program and project
managers must use their expert knowledge to assess the
achievability of these objectives and alert managers to
any discrepancies.
3. Monitor that the objectives are being achieved. This
part of governance is currently viewed as a rigid system
focused solely on bottom-up reporting in a standard-
ized and imposed format. It’s put in place to protect
managers from any legal consequences their decisions
could have. Such a system is often bureaucratic and
kills accountability, initiative and creativity. In an
innovative, fast-moving environment, effective moni-
toring can make the difference between competitive-
ness and stagnation.
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:41 PM Page 29

So, what’s the answer? To be dynamic, and at the

>>Monitoring should not be done
solely for verification purposes,
but also to provide data for
management to make the right
decisions, should change be
required.
Governance is essential to integrate corporate and
business strategy with projects, and to communicate strategy
to program and project managers. But too many organi-
zations focus only on the latter part of governance and
forget its first two elements.
same time ensure legal accountability is not compro-
mised, a project-based organization has to integrate the
three elements of governance through a system that enables
strategic decisions to be reformulated to adapt to changing
circumstances. This means monitoring should not be done
solely for verification purposes, but also to provide data for
management to make the right decisions, should change be
required. In this way, legal accountability is not compromised
and the organization retains its flexibility to adapt to
changing circumstances. PM
Michel Thiry, PMP, PMI Fellow, is managing
partner of Valense Ltd. He has more than
30 years of experience in project-based
organizations worldwide.

APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 29

PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:42 PM Page 30
VIEWPOINTS
AUDIT AT THE
VA R I A N C E T H R E S H O L D
O.K. CORRAL
A hero of the Old West must contend with some new project perspectives.
BY M I C H A E L H AT F I E L D , P M P, C O N T R I B U T I N G E D I T O R
Auditor No. 1: Good afternoon, Mr. Wyatt Earp. We’re
here to do a quick review of your recent “project.” What
was your scope?
Mr. Earp: Scope? We went to disarm the Clantons,
McLaurys, and Billy Claibourne. It’s illegal to hang
around Tombstone while carrying firearms.
Auditor No. 2: Is this documented anywhere?
Mr. Earp: Documented? As in written down? Well, there’s
the city ordinance …
Auditor No. 2: No, not the requirements document. I’m
talking about some sort of scope statement.
Mr. Earp: Well, my brother Virgil told the cowboys,
“Throw up your hands, I want your guns.”
Auditor No. 2: Was this written down?
Mr. Earp: No, of course not.
Auditor No. 2: Tsk, tsk. (He makes notes on his pad.)
Mr. Earp: What are you writing there?
Auditor No. 1: What was your communication plan?
Mr. Earp: I just told that fellow that my brother said …
Auditor No. 1: Yes, I heard that. Was that approach doc-
umented in any way? Did you have a procedure that states,
“When approaching armed men you want to disarm, one
must say, ‘Throw up your hands. I want your guns?’”
Mr. Earp: Uhhh, no.
Auditor No. 1: And what was the response to your brother’s
communication?
Mr. Earp: Frank McClaury pulled out a gun and shot at us.
Auditor No. 1: Don’t you see that your communication
method should have been better planned?
Mr. Earp: Oh, I don’t know. His response conveyed his
thoughts rather directly, don’t you think?
Auditor No. 1: Tsk, tsk. (He writes more on his pad.)
Mr. Earp: What are you writing?
Auditor No. 3: Some witnesses have said there were 30
shots fired in 30 seconds.
Mr. Earp: I wasn’t counting, but that sounds about right.
Auditor No. 3: But the coroner counted only six wounds on
the cowboys. Added to the three wounds your brothers and
Doc Holliday suffered, that totals nine, out of 30 shots!
30 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
Considering you were as
close as 10 feet from each
other ...
Mr. Earp: Yeah, so?
Auditor No. 3: That
means your efficiency was
only 30 percent! If I factor
in the cost of the bullets, it
gives me a ROI of …
Mr. Earp: What on earth
does that have to do with
anything? They were a
public menace!
Auditor No. 3: I’m not interested in whether or not you
accomplished your scope. I’m focused on your efficiency,
and I must say that if 30 percent, at that range, works for
you, well, then, tsk, tsk. (He writes more on his pad.)
Mr. Earp: Hey, what are you ...
Auditor No. 2: Did you calculate the odds that your team
would receive three wounds and the cowboys would have
three fatalities in your risk assessment?
Mr. Earp: My what?
Auditor No. 2: I’ll take that for a “no.”
Mr. Earp: Look, there’s risk in virtually every aspect of a
lawman’s life. I never sit around worrying about it, and I
certainly don’t commit such worrying to documents or
analysis. I just go out and do what’s required.
Auditor No. 2: Tsk, tsk, tsk. (He writes more on his pad.)
Mr. Earp: Hey, what …
Auditor No. 1: Mr. Earp, it’s clear to us that you failed to
adequately plan or control your project. How you got a repu-
tation for being competent in this area is simply beyond us,
but I can assure you that, after we publish our findings, you
will never again be taken for a prominent law
enforcement agent! PM
Michael Hatfield, PMP, is a senior project
leader and instructor. You can reach him at
varthold@aol.com.
PMN0408 1-31 3/5/08 11:43 PM Page 31

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PMN0408 32-51 3/5/08 11:53 PM Page 32
PMN0408 32-51 3/5/08 11:54 PM Page 33

EXECUTIVE
BRIEF 34 SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
*
*
Multisourcing requires strong management from the home office.
Organizations must define project management expectations upfront in service-level agreements.
APRIL 2008

* As companies make outsourcing choices, they should consider language, culture, industry

>
and location.

* Near-shore vendors are an increasingly popular choice for projects that need regular
communication or integration. ”Being a
project manager
46 IT’S A MEGA WORLD requires a level of
* Efficient
Before a mega-project even begins, project leaders should secure public support. maturity and more
* communication
resource allocation on major projects requires big-picture planning and open
channels. education. It will
* Leaders of mega-projects must remain agile to avoid, anticipate and address risks. take a decade for
the discipline to
52 WORLDVIEW: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA catch up with
* Within the next two decades, Melbourne may rank as Australia’s largest city. The booming popula-
tion’s needs have led to a proliferation of projects—and a shortage of project leaders.
what is required.
”
* Melbourne is struggling to maintain the delicate balance between economic and environmental
needs, which requires a sophisticated skill set from project leaders.
PG. 67, ALEXANDER MATTHEY, PMP,
PM EXPERTS SÀRL, VAUD, SWITZERLAND

58 LISTEN UP
* Calgary Health Region launched a project to build the first new Canadian children’s hospital
in a quarter-century.

*
*
The children hated the initial design, so they were brought into the creative process.
Even with all the changes, the project came in on budget and ahead of schedule.
20
The percentage of senior
64 STRETCHED THIN executives in an April 2007
* Project
Stress is part of the job in project management.

* Whethermanagers must be self-aware and learn to recognize—and deal with—stressful situations. PricewaterhouseCoopers
* organizations have to do their part as well.
it’s by setting realistic deadlines or providing support to overworked teams,
LLP survey that believed
offshore outsourcing
68 ROLE PLAY works in “real life.”
* Everyone involved with a project should have his or her role clearly defined.

* Project managers should enlist project champions, who often have a direct line of communication
to senior management.
PG. 36

* Developing project committees can help bring business expertise to the project.

APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 33

PMN0408 32-51 3/5/08 11:55 PM Page 34

Heidi Godfrey Jones,

Vodafone, Newbury,
England

34 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 32-51 3/5/08 11:55 PM Page 35

Companies are getting

far more selective
and protective about
their vendors—
and no, they’re not
all in India anymore.

SURVIVAL
BY SARAH FISTER GALE PHOTO BY MARTIN BEDDALL

OF THE FITTEST
PMN0408 32-51 3/5/08 11:56 PM Page 36
INDIA
is no longer necessarily the one-stop-
shop for all your IT outsourcing
needs. It certainly still ranks as the
low-cost leader, but competition from
other countries that offer near-shore
expertise or a more similar workplace
culture is prompting companies to
look elsewhere—for at least some
parts of their projects.
“Most of the Indian outsourcing
services providers no longer enjoy client
exclusivity,” says Anurag Gupta, group
manager, strategic marketing at Wipro
Technologies Ltd., the global outsourc-
ing giant based in Bangalore, India.
“There is a high amount of overlap in
the customer base, and this has elevated
the competition which existed between
the service providers.”
In nearly every corner of the world,
IT vendors are opening shop, offering an
array of services in regions where strong
labor pools and reasonable pricing can
give India some stiff competition.
>
MULTISOURCING
fosters a high level of
competitiveness among the
vendors, which should reflect
in the quality of delivery,
promptness and pricing.
—ANURAG GUPTA, WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES LTD.,
BANGALORE, INDIA
And that means destination-specific
outsourcing is fast becoming a thing of the
past, as more companies hand off chunks
of projects to multiple vendors in multiple
locales. But it also means companies must
take a more active role in supervising and
coordinating all those vendors.
36 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
Companies seem to realize the old
model isn’t functioning as well as it
might be. Only 20 percent of the 226
senior executives in global private-sector
corporations participating in an April
2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP survey
said they believed offshore outsourcing
works in “real life.” And, although they
acknowledged a continuing need to out-
source IT projects, 50 percent of the
respondents said they planned to
increase investments in multisourcing in
an effort to regain quality and oversight.
QUALITY CONTROL
Companies need to maintain better con-
trol over their outsourced projects to get
the results they want. And they’re starting
to realize cost alone is not the best way to
choose a vendor, says Scott Petty,
London, England-based group executive
of services for Dimension Data, an IT
provider based in Johannesburg, South
Africa. “Multisourcing is about finding
the best mix of providers to get the
most operational benefit for your IT
infrastructure strategies,” he says.
The move to multisourcing frees
companies from the shackles of an off-
shore outsourcing model that often takes
control of projects to another side of the
world. Some companies are opting to go
with nearshore vendors operating in a
similar time zone and culture to their
own. Others ship pieces of their projects
to several different countries, awarding
each contract to the company that best
meets a particular need. And some
organizations are even choosing vendors
willing to move their offshore teams to
the client site.
Done right, multisourcing gives
companies access to best-of-breed
solutions to their problems.
“Multisourcing gives a customer an
opportunity to keep working with its
favored supplier but at the same time to
start cooperation with other vendors,”
says Alexander Egorov, CEO of
Reksoft, an IT services provider in St.
Petersburg, Russia. Using multiple
providers also helps mitigate project
PMN0408 32-51 3/5/08 11:56 PM Page 37
ON THE MAP
WITH MORE OUTSOURCING destinations open for busi-
ness, companies need to think carefully about which vendor
relationships bring the greatest benefit to their business and
the unique circumstances of the project.
Boasting a large English-speaking labor pool with an estab-
lished skill set, India still ranks as the most economical option,
says Wipro’s Anurag Gupta. “India continues to offer extraor-
dinary financial benefits,” he adds. “The cost base of India is
approximately one-sixth of that of the United States.”
But India is no longer the automatic choice. As companies
consider the bevy of outsourcing options available, they’re
assessing an array of issues such as cultural fit, time zones,
turnover rates, longevity and history of the vendor, project risk
and long-term needs.
And in many cases, other countries are simply a better
match—especially in terms of location, says Beni Lopez, CEO
of Softtek Near Shore Services, a global IT services firm
headquartered in Garza García, Nuevo León, Mexico.
“Anyone who’s ever tried to manage a project problem with
a vendor on the other side of the world understands the impact
such choices can have,” he says. “A small functional project
change can take days to resolve when your vendor is working
on the other side of the world.”
And these days, companies no longer have to settle for
long-distance relationships. Outsource options are cropping
up in Russia, Europe, Asia, South Africa, and Central and
South America to deliver skill sets, cultural understanding and
a more compatible workday than conventional Indian offshore
providers can give.
Mexico, for example, has become a popular choice for U.S.
companies because of the near-shore benefits it offers. “They
share a time zone, schedule and calendar, and collaboration
comes much easier,” Mr. Lopez explains. “If you need appli-
cation support during business hours in the United States,
you will be better served by people who are not working a
night shift.”
Expertise in a particular industry can make one country or
region more attractive than another. “IT skills are strong in all
countries, but there are certain industries for which they will
have a functional expertise,” he says.
Mexico has a strong financial industry, so its labor pool has
more experience with the vernacular and business needs of
those projects. In Brazil, though, industrial manufacturing is
strong and the business community follows a European busi-
ness model, making it a good destination for logistics projects,
particularly for European companies.
Here are some other front-runners vying
for India’s clients:
CANADA: Another preferred spot for
U.S. companies, the country ranked fourth
in a recent Gartner Group review of the top
30 countries for offshore IT services. It fared
worst in the North American region, how-
ever, for cost of labor.
RUSSIA: This emerging player has
become known for delivering high-end
software research and product development,
says Alexander Egorov, Reksoft.
“Russia will most likely never outperform
India in the cost aspect, but the combination
of a vast human force potential and the
ability for creative thinking and strong
technical background allows Russia to do
product design and research and devel-
opment better than any other country on
the market,” he says.
Mr. Egorov adds that Russia has a similar
business culture to nearby European
nations. “For companies based in Europe,
Russia presents an excellent outsourcing
destination since the labor pool is large and
the travel time is small,” he says.
MOROCCO: A popular destination
for French-speaking companies, the
country served more than 50 percent of
the French-speaking offshore market in
2006, according to the Oxford Business
Group. To support its growing popularity,
Morocco has plans to develop several “out-
sourcing zones” that will offer call center,
back-office operations and other offshore
IT services.
CHINA: Already dubbed “the new
India,” China is fast developing its own IT
services infrastructure. And business
should increase even more as the Chinese
market booms and companies look to
develop products that meet local needs.
APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 37
PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:03 AM Page 38
TIP Sometimes choosing a far-off vendor with a
good team and a great price may make the most sense.
“Companies should remember that some IT projects are best selected for
price and others for location,” says Dave Wilkes, Novell. “If the project
requires tight integration with a team at the company site, near-shore
choices make more sense, but in older projects or maintenance projects,
vendor teams can be self-contained and don’t need a lot of interaction.”
risks because you can tap into the
expertise of many teams of vendors in
multiple nations.
“A disciplined multisourcing process
results in engagement with a set of sup-
pliers, each one of which will be a spe-
cialized expert in some identified areas,”
Mr. Gupta says. “It fosters a high level
of competitiveness among the vendors
which should reflect in the quality of
delivery, promptness and pricing.”
INVESTIGATING THE
POSSIBILITIES
Wherever the vendors are located,
choosing multiple project partners takes
more up-front investigation by company
executives, both in defining the exact
needs of the project and determining
which factors are most critical.
But it’s not always easy to ask multiple
vendors to collaborate when they’re
used to cut-throat competition, Mr.
Gupta says. To make sure everyone’s
“playing nice,” some Wipro clients
Multisourcing gives a customer an
opportunity to keep working with its
favored supplier but at the same time
to start cooperation with other vendors.
—ALEXANDER EGOROV, REKSOFT, ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
38 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
establish a vendor management office or
a dedicated supplier relationship man-
agement program with set processes,
strategic vendor management, appraisal
and relationship management.
“For better governance, we are
also seeing customers adopting a
‘primary vendor’ strategy in a multi-
sourcing environment,” he adds.
“This primary vendor owns the
accountability for a big part of the
business needs of the customer while
the other vendors bring in their serv-
ices capabilities.”
But companies should still keep tabs
on the primary vendor’s handling of
secondary vendors. “Because in the end,
it’s their business that can get affected,”
Mr. Gupta warns.
When international banking company
ABN AMRO, Amsterdam, Netherlands,
decided to completely redesign its IT
service delivery model, it forged its
own way of multisourcing—making a
clean break with the way most such
PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:04 AM Page 39

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First, ABN AMRO investigated "PMP" and "CAPM" are registered certification marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
several delivery and sourcing scenarios:
in-house, single vendor and multi-
vendor. But as the bank was choosing
vendors to fulfill the complex state-
ment of work, it recognized that
although it didn’t want to relinquish
control, it also didn’t want to manage
operational IT in-house—it wasn’t a
core banking skill. The solution was
to define a new role in the multi-
sourcing model: the vendor “guardian.”
“This role was conceived to avoid
any aspect of the end-to-end services
falling between the gaps of service
responsibility between the various
vendor partners,” says Rob de Haas,
group CIO of ABN AMRO.
The bank chose IBM for the lead-
ership role, both for its own expertise
and because it was the vendor
responsible for taking the work live,
which made it dependent on the suc-
cess of the others. “IBM was also the
furthest along the IT food chain, so
its final product was a combination
of the work of all the vendors, mak-
ing it a good choice as coordinator,”
he explains.
As the guardian, IBM was the
“first among equals.” ABN AMRO
maintained control over the vendors
and the model, but left the opera-
tion details in the hands of IBM.
The chosen vendors also signed an
agreement to work together with
PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:05 AM Page 40
all of the other service providers—
even if they were rivals.
Although IBM acted in the
guardian role, Mr. de Haas and the
bank team remained intimately
involved with the development and
maintenance of the model. The bank
Multisourcing established a governance structure and
project management strategy for opera-
is about finding tions that includes reporting require-
ments, and then scheduled meetings
the best mix of with all of the vendors.
ABN AMRO and IBM managers
providers to convened with representatives from all
of the vendors regularly, either in per-
get the most son or via videoconference, to discuss
operational
progress, problems, innovations and
cost issues. The team also received regu-
benefit for your lar reports on all the vendors from IBM
and was involved with any problems
IT infrastructure that escalated beyond the IBM-vendor
relationship.
strategies. “If you choose a guardian, you
should not assume you never have to
—SCOTT PETTY, DIMENSION DATA, speak with the vendors again—you may
LONDON, ENGLAND
as well just outsource,” Mr. de Haas
explains. “Dialogue is key.”
DOOR-TO-DOOR SERVICE
One way to help manage the multi-
sourcing process is to integrate a common
project management structure into all
service agreements and negotiate the same
expectations with each of the vendors.
Global wireless and telecom giant
Vodafone developed a framework to
40 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
help it outsource the 400 network
changes that come in per month from
the 900 projects running throughout
the business.
Of course, there’s also something to
be said for working in close quarters. So
one of the company’s vendors,
Dimension Data, has some of its team
working at the Vodafone headquarters
in Newbury, England, where they manage
a flow of project needs under the lead-
ership of Heidi Godfrey Jones, who
developed the framework.
“Having the vendor come to us has
helped us to ensure our suppliers are
staying true and delivering what’s
expected,” says Ms. Godfrey Jones, head
of core operations at Vodafone.
The move gives the company full use
of the IT personnel without the hassle
and cost of employing them on staff.
Having vendor employees on site also
gives her easy access to their progress
through team meetings and unan-
nounced spot checks, all of which are
built into the service agreements.
“You have to stay on top of the
vendors and constantly check the
schedules, the milestones, the key per-
formance indicators,” she says. “You
need to make it clear the reviews and
reporting are not negotiable.”
This constant review process has
helped Ms. Godfrey Jones identify sev-
eral issues that might have caused delays
and problems if they’d gone unchecked.
For example, during a recent spot check
of the Dimension Data team progress,
she discovered one of the Vodafone busi-
ness units was making a huge number of
requests for service, which were sapping
resources from other projects. She inves-
tigated and found the business unit had
just launched a major project and was
making multiple individual requests for
service to keep up with its growing
needs. Armed with that knowledge, Ms.
Godfrey Jones was able to assign another
full-time person to the unit, thus easing
demand on the vendor’s time.
“That’s when I knew our review
process works,” she says. “Through the
PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:06 AM Page 41

spot checks, we stopped a problem
before it affected other projects.”
LAYING DOWN THE LAW
Along with instituting a constant review
process, companies need to build a solid
communications mechanism.
Vodafone’s service agreements out-
line details about when and how teams
will meet deadlines for deliverables and
reporting requirements. Ms. Godfrey
Jones meets with her teams briefly every
two weeks and in-depth once a month
to review progress and identify trends
that may require contract changes.
“You need to define the scope, set
the ground rules and all agree upfront,”
she says. “Otherwise you will have
expectations that your vendor won’t be
prepared to deliver, and they will fail.”
Regardless of the multisourcing model
chosen, it’s up to companies to maintain
control and management of the project
and ensure all of the vendors are aligned.
“The vendors still do the work, but
the client maintains project manage-
ment ownership of the results,” Mr.
Petty explains. “It’s not just about
handing off a project, it’s about build-
ing relationships and managing the
cost-value balance,” he says. “There is a
lot less complacency.”
Effective multisourcing often comes
down to establishing a clearly defined
strategy, says Dave Wilkes, engineering
vice president of the Workgroup
Solutions Business Unit at Novell, a
Provo, Utah, USA-based network solu-
tions provider. “You have to build the
same process with each vendor and
insist that they be amenable to your way
of doing things,” he says. “Put the time
in up front to identify what needs to be
done and what your requirements are.
Then set the standards for expectations
and make sure they comply.” EXPLORE MORE ON
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 PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:07 AM Page 42

CASE STUDY
A CLOSER LOOK: NOVELL,
MULTISOURCING can be an
awfully scary prospect as companies try
to choose—and then manage—a long list
of vendors scattered around the world.
But some companies are forging a dif-
ferent path. Software giant Novell, for
one, taps into a handful of vetted vendors
with established satellite teams fluent in
the ways of the local culture. Armed with
greater multisourcing options, Novell can
then pick and choose where its IT projects
land without so many of the risks and
uncertainties that come with trying out
brand-new relationships.
Novell doesn’t want its projects to be
limited by geography, says Dave Wilkes,
engineering vice president of the
Workgroup Solutions Business Unit at
Provo, Utah-based Novell.
“We believe in the global war for tal-
ent,” he says. “From Novell’s perspective,
talent can be located anywhere in the
world.”
Responding to this demand from
Novell and many other clients, IT services
vendor Softtek has aggressively launched
offices in multiple regions. Last August,
the company expanded its operation into
Asia when it acquired China-based IT
service provider I.T. UNITED.
“We think a successful vendor can
integrate offices around the world,”
says Beni Lopez, CEO of Softtek Near
Shore Services, Garza García, Nuevo
León, Mexico. Looking to lend a sense
of continuity to clients even as they
launch projects using multiple offices,
Softtek implements similar workplace
and project management models across
its 30 offices in Latin America, the United
States, Europe and Asia.
Dave Wilkes, Novell

A software
42 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG by cultivating
PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:10 AM Page 43

PROVO, UTAH, USA

PHOTOS BY JUSTIN HACKWORTH

company extends its global reach

relationships with a small stable of vendors.
PMN0408 44 REV 3/10/08 10:52 PM Page 44
“ Vendors who have multiple locations help us ga i
As a global shortage of IT
talent rages on, this model
also ensures Softtek and its
clients can find the people
they need to successfully
complete projects—even if it
means locating those projects
in several regions of the
world.
“We’re not putting all of
our eggs in one basket,” Mr.
Lopez explains. “We hedge
our risks and the risks of
our clients by maintaining
access to multiple alterna-
tive sources of talent.”
Having locations around
the world ranks high on Mr.
Wilkes’ list of criteria when
he selects vendors. But the
U.S. company thinks there’s also something
to be said for the near-shore appeal of
Softtek’s headquarters just south of the
border. “Because they also have offices in
Mexico, we can always get a hold of some-
one if we need to,” Mr. Wilkes says.
SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE
Mr. Wilkes currently works with three IT
vendors that have teams spread across the
globe—India, Mexico, China and Eastern
Europe. “Vendors who have multiple loca-
tions help us gain access to new markets,”
he explains. “That’s very appealing.”
Last January, Novell shipped a localized
version of its Identity Manager product in
China. The approximately three-month
localization project relied on a vendor with
teams in the country.
“We get Chinese rates and native speakers
who can be sure our software does what it
is supposed to do in both traditional
Chinese and simplified Chinese,” he says.
And, Mr. Wilkes gets to work with a
company he trusts and has done business
with for years. “As we expand our presence
in China, we wanted a vendor that could
help us grow,” he says.
Using the same vendor in multiple coun-
tries gives Mr. Wilkes the added benefit of a
44 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
pre-existing management model across
multiple teams. “We use the same purchase
orders and the same reporting processes.
That’s a big plus,” he says. Not having to
establish and manage new contracts and
communication strategies with an unfamiliar
team means less ramp-up time and greater
consistency across projects.
But having a pre-established team
management process in place only goes so
far. Mr. Wilkes says any successful vendor
relationship, regardless of the location or
duration of the work, requires regular
structured interaction that has been clearly
defined up-front.
Before he even considers a team for a
project, his staff defines the project objec-
tives and the scope of work in as much
detail as possible, including delivery goals
and accountability, as well as reporting and
communication expectations.
Once the scope is established, Mr.
Wilkes evaluates all new and existing ven-
dors against a series of criteria including
work quality, translation skills and price.
Mr. Wilkes also travels to the vendor site
at least once to assess both the vendor and
the community, looking at the political and
economic stability of the country, and pro-
jected costs of doing business in the region
over the next three to five years. And he
THE NOVELL
REPORT CARD
Once a project scope has
been defined, Dave Wilkes
sits down and grades the
vendors on a variety of
issues, including:
 Quality of work
 Translation skills
 Price
 Ease of access
 On-time delivery
 PMN0408 44 REV 3/10/08 10:53 PM Page 45
a in access to new markets. That’s very appealing.
meets with local consultants and universi-
ties to assess the curriculum offerings and
long-term viability of the labor pool.
“A lot of these areas are resource-
competitive, and we aren’t the only ones
going there,” Mr. Wilkes explains. “Having
an ongoing supply of workers is a key
aspect of a successful project.”
And unlike some companies that see
outsourcing as a way to avoid talent man-
agement, Novell often invests heavily in
developing a skilled workforce by helping
the vendor establish training and career
planning for Novell team members.
“In some countries turnover is high, and
it’s easy to jump jobs,” he says. “We want to
be sure our vendor teams see Novell as a
long-term relationship with an established
career path.”
A LITTLE HEALTHY COMPETITION
Before a project is launched, Mr. Wilkes
works closely with the vendor to clearly
spell out the parameters for delivery and
review. “We spend a lot of time defining a
cadence of communication and developing
management processes that include how
we track progress and establish accounta-
bility meetings,” he says. “It sounds simple
but it’s so important.”
Novell also brings vendor teams to its
U.S. office at the beginning of projects for
training in the company’s technology and
project methodology.
One or more Novell project managers
are assigned to each project—some are
based in the U.S. office and some reside at
the vendor site. These managers collect
daily status reports from the vendor, review
test-run reports, and participate in daily or
weekly meetings with developers.
Once a project kicks off, whether it’s at
a new vendor site or a well-established
one, Mr. Wilkes conducts quarterly reviews
to be sure teams are meeting their progress
and quality goals.
“A lot of companies will set up vendor
projects and let them go unchecked until
the fiscal year review,” he says.
But that’s a mistake.
”
—Dave Wilkes
“The quarterly reviews help
us to be sure we are getting
the work we paid for and to
change the team’s direction if
need be,” Mr. Wilkes explains.
This is particularly effec-
tive when vendors complete
key milestones, such as soft-
ware testing for a product
release. “Because we com-
municate more frequently
with the vendors, we can
quickly scale back those
resources when a milestone
has been achieved and reallo-
cate them to another product,”
he says. “Without the review
process, they’d just keep
doing what they were doing.”
We’re not putting all of our eggs in
one basket. We hedge our risks
and the risks of our clients by
maintaining access to multiple
alternative sources of talent.
—Beni Lopez, Softtek Near Shore Services, Garza García, Nuevo León, Mexico
To add a sense of urgency to the review
process, Mr. Wilkes ranks the performance of
each vendor team against its rivals—publicly.
The move is designed to keep vendors on
their toes and to be sure they know who
they’re up against.
“The rankings give vendors an honest
view of how they are doing, where they
need to improve and who their biggest com-
petition is,” he says.
Mr. Wilkes also uses the rankings to
make decisions for future projects. Vendors
with the highest ratings get more work;
those ranked lower get less.
“The competition diversifies our risk
and helps us motivate our vendors to
deliver quality work,” he says. “Sometimes
a little rivalry among vendors can help
boost quality.” –Sarah Fister Gale
APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 45
PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:30 AM Page 46

it’s a

46 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:30 AM Page 47

EVEN ON
THE WORLD’S
BIGGEST
PROJECTS,
IT STILL
COMES DOWN

world
TO THE MINOR
DETAILS.

BY TEGAN JONES
ILLUSTRATION BY OTTO STEININGER

ALL FIGURES QUOTED ARE IN U.S. DOLLARS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:31 AM Page 48

T
here’s no denying the allure of
working on a mega-project—the
power, the prestige, the glamour,
and, of course, hopefully, the payoff. From
Chile to China, and all points in between,
public and private organizations alike are
pouring billions into massive projects that
aim to do more than meet market
demand. They’re out to set the standard
for years to come. They won’t settle for just
being bigger. They want to be better, too.
But that doesn’t always happen.
Mega-projects have become some-
what infamous for ballooning budgets
and extended deadlines. It’s not always a
fair assessment. Yet given the staggering
level of resources required to take the
leap from proposal to plan, some stake-
holders and sponsors can be somewhat
skittish about mega-projects.
Nagaraja also supervises the $2.1 billion
extension of another rail line as well as the
construction of a $900 million ferry ter-
minal and a $950 million transit center.
To keep the rail projects on track, Mr.
Nagaraja meets with program managers
and the MTA executive board on a regu-
lar basis. These conversations connect the
work of the MTA’s program managers,
who are accountable for every aspect of
their initiatives from planning to close-
out, to the executive managers, who pro-
vide strategic and financial support.
And it’s program managers who are
more likely to have a better understand-
ing for how stakeholders feel about the
project, he says.
Local church members, for example,
initially objected to the construction of
an East Side Access ventilation plant,

Around the
Projects of this magnitude take a claiming it would be an eyesore. So Mr.
distinct breed of project leader. Often Nagaraja and his team went back to the

World in 8 overseeing several multimillion-dollar

Mega-Projects
Project: Panama Canal Expansion
Location: Panama
Timeframe: 2007–2014
Budget: $5.25 billion
Scope: Five miles of new channels,
two new sets of locks and wider
shipping lanes
Key Challenge: Remain agile while
managing international contractors,
large-scale construction and a global
shipping hub
Solution: Reorganize the Panama
Canal Authority to focus on the highest
priority tasks
contracts simultaneously, these project
executives must be able to focus on the
big picture while still making sure indi-
vidual initiatives stay on deadline
and within budget.
POWER CENTER
Looking to ensure its approximately
$15 billion project portfolio
was managed efficiently, the
Metropolitan Transit Authority
(MTA) in New York, New York,
USA, centralized the work of its
agencies under a single entity
called Capital Construction Co. in
2003. Mysore Nagaraja was named
president, and since taking charge
of the portfolio he has secured federal,
state and local funding and approval for
two long-imagined mega-projects: a
$6.3 billion extension of the Long Island
Rail Road, also known as East Side
Access, and the $4 billion initial phase of
the new Second Avenue Subway.
After decades of deliberation, the
projects received $2.6 billion and $1.3 bil-
lion respectively, the largest U.S. federal
grants ever awarded to individual projects.
While managing these initiatives, Mr.
designers, who moved most of the facility
underground and attached a park to the
plan. When he took the new design
back to the church members, they gave
it their okay.
“In a mega-project, you have to be
more than a project manager,” Mr.
Nagaraja says. “You’re not managing
just a contract or two. You’re managing
the politics of it, the financing of it and
also making sure that the communities
are behind you. You’ve got to be able to
look people in the eye and get their nod
that you can deliver.”
Leaders must also increasingly pay
attention to the toll their mega-projects
will take on the environment.
In Sandouping, Hubei Province,
China, project leaders have come under
heavy criticism for miscalculating the
damage the Three Gorges Dam would
have on the surrounding communities.
Measuring 1.4 miles (2.25 kilometers)
long and 607 feet (185 meters) tall, the
dam is believed to be the world’s largest.
The project’s benefits are obvious.
The dam will use 26 hydropower tur-
bines to produce up to one-ninth of
China’s power and is expected to protect
1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres)
PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:31 AM Page 49
of farmland and towns inhabited by
roughly 15 million people from devas-
tating seasonal floods.
But the dam’s long-term impacts on
the environment remain unclear. As the
water level in the 660-kilometer-long
(410-mile-long) reservoir continues to
rise, landslides in the area have become
increasingly destructive. The project’s
critics fear even more local residents
will be displaced, adding to the
1.2 million people already relocated at
the project’s inception.
The Chinese government seems
committed to the effort, but project
leaders are also keenly aware of the need
to tackle the lingering sustainability
issues. At a September 2007 forum dis-
cussing the dam, Wang Xiaofeng, direc-
tor of the government’s Three Gorges
Project Construction Committee, said
addressing environmental concerns
would be a “long and hard road” and
that environmental work was necessary
to prevent “future disasters.”
PLAYING POLITICS
Beyond securing public support,
understanding an area’s political land-
scape can help project leaders decide
when and where to unveil their mega-
vision. In London, England, for
example, identifying where public
interest and political agendas aligned
helped get another long-debated transit
mega-project off the ground.
For years, business owners in London’s
Canary Wharf district complained about
the inefficient transit routes linking the
city’s economic center to Heathrow air-
port. Looking to improve traffic flow, the
Department for Transport submitted a
bill to the U.K. Parliament in February
2007 that proposed connecting 118.5
kilometers (73.6 miles) of existing rail
lines and 21 kilometers (13 miles) of twin
tunnels across central London. The idea
was to create a direct route from Essex to
Heathrow via the city’s business hub. Yet,
without strong support from the govern-
ment, the project couldn’t get the funding
it needed to proceed.
Project: Iskandar
Development Region
Location: Johor, Malaysia
Timeframe: 2006–2025
But when the Secretary of State for Budget: $116 billion
Transport, Alistair Darling—a supporter Scope: Five development zones
of the rail-expansion project—was covering 2,216.3 square kilometers
appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer (855.7 square miles)
last June, he seemed to jumpstart the Key Challenge: Centralize and
process. coordinate investor and developer
The initiative also got a major boost activities to improve project
efficiency
from a stakeholder consultation cam-
Solution: Increase cooperation
paign launched by Cross London Rail between key stakeholders through
Links (Crossrail), a joint venture promotions and seminars
between Transport for London and the
Department for Transport formed to
promote and develop rail links
across the city.
Simon Bennett, consultation and
petitions manager for Crossrail,
organized a number of sub-projects
that created consultation docu-
ments, public-awareness exercises
and exhibitions aimed at building
acceptance of the initiative.
After four more months of debate
and discussion with constituents,
investors and stakeholders, his team’s
work paid off. Last October, the
Prime Minister announced a £16
billion funding package. The deal Project: Three Gorges Dam
included a compromise: The national Location: Sandouping, Hubei
government and London’s transportation Province, China
authority would fund most of the Timeframe: 1993–2009
project, while a new business levy and Budget: $25 billion
revenue from fares would make up Scope: What might rank as the
the difference. world’s largest dam encompassing
one of the world’s largest power
ONE VISION plants
Although the Crossrail compromise Key Challenge: Adequately
address the project’s impact
cooled many fiscal concerns, there are on the region’s environment and
fears the project will strain the city’s communities
skilled trade industry and overburden its Solution: Conduct a continuous
infrastructure as London prepares for analysis of environmental factors
the 2012 Olympics. and resettlement stipends for
Project leaders have adjusted accord- displaced residents—with only
moderate success
ingly. The design and execution of the
project has been planned so the two ini-
tiatives will scarcely overlap, Mr.
Bennett says.
“We work closely with the Olympics
Delivery Authority to anticipate and
manage interface issues,” he says.
This type of cooperation, however, is
difficult for mega-project managers
working with limited or incomplete
APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 49
PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:33 AM
Project: Metropolitan Transit
Authority Rail Expansion
Location: New York,
New York, USA
Timeframe: 2003–2014
Budget: $15 billion
Scope: Construct a rail line and
extend two others, build a ferry
terminal and a transit center
Key Challenge: Manage stakeholder
expectations and address commu-
nity concerns without halting the
project’s progress
Solution: Compromise with com-
munities over controversial project
plans and educate residents about
the initiative’s benefits
Project: Crossrail
Location: London, England
Timeframe: 2010–2017
Budget: $31.2 billion
Scope: Lay 118.5 kilometers (73.6
miles) of track and build 41.5
kilometers (25.8 miles) of tunnels
to provide a single rail line that
connects the east and west sides
of London
Key Challenge: Connect an intricate
system of existing rail lines to large
sections of new track without
disrupting national transit traffic
Solution: Provide commuters with
information about alternate routes
and schedule the most disruptive
work during off-peak times
Project: Hidroelectrica La
Confluencia
Location: Tinguiririca Valley, Chile
Timeframe: 2007–2010
Budget: $300 million
Scope: Create enough carbon-free
fuel to power roughly 386,000
homes
Key Challenge: Coordinate the
efforts of a multicultural and
multidisciplinary project team
Solution: Appoint project leaders
with strong communication
skills and experience leading
diverse teams
Page 50
infrastructure. When one part of a
mega-project is pitted against another
for access to resources such as roads,
ports and materials, collaboration can
quickly break down.
Aware of such risks, project leaders for
the Iskandar Development Region, a mas-
sive economic zone in Johor, Malaysia,
have focused on building a unified project
community. With the project scheduled
to close in 2025, much of the region’s
infrastructure is developing alongside its
commercial, residential and indus-
trial initiatives. And because the
$116 billion project encompasses a
wide range of independent organi-
zations, they all have to figure out
the best way to allocate resources.
Educating investors and con-
tractors about collaborative
opportunities is one of the best ways
to help them look beyond their
individual projects to the mission of
the Iskandar region as a whole,
says Noor Azwa Mohd Noor,
senior vice president, economics and
business, Iskandar Regional Development
Authority, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The group holds joint seminars and
discussions aimed at connecting key
players and providing strategic interpre-
tations of their project goals.
“At the end of the day, we would like
to ensure that every stakeholder knows
our role and how we can work together
to achieve the overall target of develop-
ing Iskandar,” he says.
At Dubai World Central, one of the
largest urban planning projects in the
United Arab Emirates, project leaders
must address similar access issues. With
mega-projects dotting almost every inch
of Dubai’s landscape, the emirate’s infra-
structure is often operating at or above
capacity.
And that level of developmental
density can frequently leave project and
program managers scrambling to secure
the resources they need.
“The way to remedy that is to be able
to track the value,” says J. Garrett Ralls,
managing director of TTech LLC, a
consultancy with offices in Los Angeles,
California, USA, and Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia. “What is the opportunity cost
for not having that? And when you start
tracking those costs you begin to under-
stand that it may justify additional
expense or investment to smooth the
logistics out.”
Dubai World Central’s Al
Maktoum International Airport is a
prime example of how addressing
big-picture logistics can help ensure
mega-projects in highly compressed
areas can still be completed quickly.
At what’s slated to become the world’s
largest passenger and cargo hub, the first
runway was completed in 600 project
days, which project leaders say is a
record for a landing strip of that size.
Yet, Dubai World Central’s chal-
lenges don’t stop there. When the first
passenger terminal is completed near
the end of the year, project leaders will
have to maintain the project schedule
while the hub services an estimated
7 million passengers annually. It’s a com-
mon obstacle for many mega-projects,
which must work in harmony with
existing enterprises while still affecting
large-scale change.
CULTURAL AFFAIRS
Dubai perhaps snares the lion’s share of
attention for its exorbitant and lavish
initiatives. But in this era of massive
globalization, mega-projects are popping
up just about everywhere—often with
multicultural crews.
In Tinguiririca Valley, Chile, the
Hidroelectrica La Confluencia hydro-
power plant promises to produce 700
gigawatt hours per year, enough to
power roughly 386,000 of the country’s
homes. The project is expected to create
1,200 jobs for local residents, but
many of the construction and engineering
firms involved in the initiative are based
outside of Latin America. So Héctor
Llanos, project manager for La
Confluencia Tinguiririca, spends a lot
of his time making sure nothing gets
lost in translation.
PMN0408 32-51 3/6/08 12:33 AM Page 51
“The biggest challenge in managing
this project is the cultural diversity of the
people who are involved in it,” he says.
“We need to gather together different
interests and transform them into a com-
mon goal suitable with the project goal.”
Any contractor or project leader work-
ing outside of his or her own region has to
work closely with local subcontractors to
understand the legal, environmental and
labor challenges unique to a given loca-
tion, says Jorge Quijano, executive vice
president, engineering and program
administration for the Panama Canal
Authority (ACP), Balboa-Ancón, Panama.
The agency is leading the $5.25 billion
project to expand the canal, but realized
it also had to pay attention to cultural
issues within the organization as well.
The ACP determined its tendency to
divide its focus among several initia-
tives could put the project budget and
schedule at risk. So before the project
broke ground, the agency underwent a
reorganization aimed at centering its
functions exclusively around the expan-
sion and operations.
Performing an extensive risk analysis
in the initial planning stages helped give
the project an early edge in terms of readi-
ness and foresight. And risk assessment
continues to be an integral part of every
project process, Mr. Quijano says.
“Risk management starts with the con-
cept. It isn’t just started it when you start
construction,” he says. “There is a risk reg-
ister that guides us into what areas we
should focus on and we update that regis-
ter to ensure we take care of those risks as
they pop up during the execution phase.”
And even on projects of this magni-
tude, organizations must be flexible
enough to make both targeted and sweep-
ing changes when necessary. “Agility to
make decisions is very important to the
organization so that it can respond in a
timely manner to questions or issues
brought up by the contractor,” Mr.
Quijano says.
Even the most elaborate of risk
assessments and contingency plans can
sometimes come up short, though.
Project: Horizons Oil Sands
Location: Wood Buffalo, Alberta,
Canada
Timeframe: 2005–2011
For the Horizons oil sands project Budget: $10.8 billion (2005 estimate)
in Wood Buffalo, Alberta, Canada, not Scope: Construct an oil field capable
even a C$700 million contingency of extracting 500,000 barrels of
fund could keep the project on budget. synthetic crude oil per day
The rising cost of oil-production sup- Key Challenge: Maintain the project
plies and a series of labor negotiations schedule and budget despite rising
across Alberta have pushed the project supply costs and a series of labor
negotiations
nearly C$1 billion into the red.
Solution: Attempted to use a
It’s hardly alone. Mega-projects
phased project management
have a bit of a reputation—deserved or approach for greater flexibility
not—for running over budget and far and include a contingency fund
beyond deadlines. as a budget buffer, but issues
Itemizing the possible contingen- remain
cies can help prevent unforeseen cir-
cumstances from throwing a project
off course, Mr. Bennett says. “The
main way [to stay within budget] is
making sure you have a good estimate
before you start,” he says.
The Horizons project is just one
example of why risk mitigation in
mega-projects must cover a wider range
of governmental, environmental and
economic factors to be truly effective.
“Risk mitigation in large projects
and in mega-projects is going to entail
more variables,” Mr. Ralls says. “Risk
mitigation has to take a broad view of Project: Al Maktoum
the landscape.” International Airport
Ultimately this means that mega Location: Jebel Ali, Dubai, United
project leaders need a wide-lens view of Arab Emirates
their project, better reporting from the Timeline: 2006–2015
ground and a much more flexible Budget: $8.1 billion
approach to change, he explains. Scope: Build what would rank as
Creating a virtual command center the world’s largest airport, capable
where individuals can log and track spe- of handling up to 150 million pas-
sengers and more than 12 million
cific project tasks is one way executives,
tons of cargo per year
program managers and project managers
Key Challenge: Accommodate a
can identify changes, problems and steady flow of commercial airline
opportunities as they arise and make traffic while much of the airport is
effective decisions in a timely manner. still under construction
“Nothing ever happens as the engi- Solution: Design the final stages of
neers intend it to, so you have a lot of the airport’s construction around
the completed terminal, giving it
reporting by people,” Mr. Ralls says.
enough room to operate
“And the easier you make that reporting
and the more you steward it, the higher
the probability you will approach any
bottleneck with a good, adaptive solu-
tion—or you’ll avoid the bottleneck
altogether so it doesn’t impact you.”
Otherwise, you just might end up
with a mega-problem. PM
APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 51
PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 12:47 AM Page 52

worldvi
BY SANDRA A. SWANSON

FACTS &
FIGURES
Population: More than 3.7 million people
live in Melbourne’s metropolitan area. With
those numbers and recent rapid growth,
the city could pass by Sydney as the coun-
try’s largest city by 2028, according to
consulting giant KPMG.
Melbourne is the capital of Victoria,
Australia’s smallest mainland state in area,
but its most densely populated.
Language: The official language is
English. But there are more than 100
languages spoken by residents here—
including Mandarin, the most common
non-native tongue.
Currency: Australian dollar (AUD)

AUD$1 = US$0.92 IT’S BOOM TIME IN

AUD$1 = €0.62 THIS COSMOPOLITAN
AUD$1 = ¥99 CITY, WHERE THE
Economy: Business services account for
the largest number of employees in this city,
where half of Australia’s 10 largest corpora-
NEEDS OF A GROWING
tions are headquartered.
The Port of Melbourne is the country’s POPULATION ARE
SPARKING AN
largest shipping hub (and one of the top five
ports in the Southern Hemisphere), handling
AUD$75 billion in trade annually.
Goods aren’t the only thing coming ashore
in Melbourne. There are plenty of tourists, too. OVERWHELMING
DEMAND FOR SAVVY
In 2006, nearly 10.8 million people visited the
city and helped bolster the local economy by
more than AUD$5 billion.

Sources: City of Melbourne, Bernama, The Australian, BRW PROJECT LEADERS.

PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 12:48 AM Page 53

ew
MELBOURNE,
AUSTRALIA

MELBOURNE

IMAGES COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

PMN0408 52-55,58-71 3/6/08 10:28 PM Page 54

A
lready entrenched as a vital Australian
metropolis, Melbourne now looks poised to
take over Sydney’s slot as the country’s largest
city within the next 20 years, according to con-
sulting giant KPMG. The need to accommodate
all those residents has triggered a spate of new projects in
everything from infrastructure to IT—as well as a heightened
demand for project leaders. And not just any project leaders.
These days, organizations are showing a more refined appre-
ciation for the profession, voicing more specific requests for
skills and certifications. The result: a talent crunch that has leftdesire to avoid future encounters with so-called “accidental
companies scrambling to secure the right people.
“There are not enough project managers in Melbourne to
meet the demand,” says Simon Garlick, principal at MetaPM pty
Ltd., a Melbourne-based project management consulting firm.
PORT PROJECT DREDGES UP CONTROVERSY
That’s great news for qualified professionals. “Good
project managers are in hot demand, and salaries and
contract rates are abnormally high,” Mr. Garlick says.
Companies are placing a premium on project management
skills—and they want some reassurance about qualifications.
“Today, more so than before, our clients are requesting that a
project manager show evidence of their capability through rec-
ognized accreditation,” such as the Project Management
Professional (PMP®) credential, he says.
Mr. Garlick suspects those requests stem from clients’
project managers.” Too often, a subject-matter expert is
handed the role of project manager with minimal or no train-
ing. “With all best intentions, they embark on managing the
project with little knowledge of what steps are required to
ensure success—and nine times out of

10, they do not achieve the objectives

PHILLIP BAY SERVES AS THE GATEWAY TO AUSTRALIA’S required by the project stakeholders or
LARGEST PORT, the Port of Melbourne, which handles nearly 40 per- sponsors,” he explains.
cent of the nation’s container trade. In recent months, it has also served The current environment marks a
as a battleground for economic and environmental interests clashing continuation of the fairly strong value
over an AUD$969 million project to deepen the bay. the Australian market has placed on
Officials at the Port of Melbourne Corp., which is overseeing the certification, says Lynda Bourne, DPM,
project, argue the port clearly needs an upgrade. During the last quar- PMP, director of training at Melbourne-
ter of 2007, 44 percent of container vessels could not enter or leave based Mosaic Project Services pty Ltd.
the port fully loaded. The organization hopes to alleviate that problem “The demand for PMP, [Certified
by dredging about 23 million cubic tons of sediment from the bay, Associate in Project Management]
deepening the channels by 12 meters to 14 meters (39 feet to 46 feet). CAPM®, PRINCE2 and other [certifica-
Government officials contend the added depth will boost the local
tions] seems to be building from this
economy by AUD$2 billion over the next three decades.
established base,” she says.
But to achieve that, the environment may pay a high price,
opponents say. The bay contains more than 1,000 marine plants
THE LONG VIEW
and animals and 500 fish species, which may be threatened by
toxic plumes and other hazards. Melbourne’s growing population has
Local business owners, particularly in the diving and fishing helped spur new projects and renew
industries, say dredging will destroy not only the environment, but demand for project managers. But
their source of income. there’s a downside to the city’s popu-
Even port officials concede the bay’s entrance will take up to 30 larity: the issue of how to accommodate
years to recover from the effects of the dredging. the influx of residents without depleting
In early January, 200 protesters held a candlelight vigil, and and degrading local resources.
opponents of the Already a thoroughly metropolitan
project took their area, Melbourne is now forced to
concerns to fed- take its development to a new level
eral court. while contending with myriad envi-
In a devastat- ronmental challenges.
ing blow to those Melbourne hasn’t been caught
opponents, the
unawares by its population dynamics,
court relaxed re-
though. This is a city with a big-
strictions on the
picture plan.
dredging, allowing
Dubbed Melbourne 2030, the
it to continue in all
but one area. strategy first started to take shape
in December 1999. Essentially a
roadmap that helps foster a sustainable

54 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 12:49 AM Page 55

worldview
The focus on sustainability
is shifting the project manager’s
AIRPORT PROGRAM TAKES FLIGHT role, says Christine Wyatt,
industry director for environ-
Looking to better accommodate all the
mental management and plan-
tourists flooding in, the Melbourne Airport
ning at the Melbourne office of
kicked off an AUD$330 million upgrade of its
international terminal, T2, which dates back engineering giant Maunsell.
to the late 1960s. “Environmental influences
Approximately 4.5 million international are changing the way we look at
passengers currently pass through mega-projects and infrastruc-
Melbourne’s airport annually. And by 2020, ture projects,” she says.
that number could jump to about 8 million, “There are increased expecta-
airport officials say. Federal Minister
tions around best practice,
for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional
Development and Local Government Anthony sustainability and climate
Albanese called the program “a great step in change. Projects are subject
the development of one of Australia’s most to far more scrutiny now.”
important pieces of transport infrastructure.” Approximately The result: Projects must
The AUD$330 million expansion will create 4.5 million meet government and envi-
25,000 square meters (269,098 square feet) of international passengers ronmental standards while
additional space, including a new passenger currently travel through also satisfying the concerns of
concourse and a 5,000-square-meter (53,820
Melbourne’s airport annually. the community.
square-foot) retail area.
To help the airport maintain normal operations, the By 2020, that number could That’s no easy task, as
expansion program has been planned as a series of jump to 8 million, illustrated by the controversy
projects with staggered launch dates. airport officials say. stirred up by mega-projects
The airport’s history of delivering major construction such as the proposed dredg-
projects on time and on budget should mean passengers and airport visitors ing of Port Phillip Bay.
will notice minimal changes during the construction, says Melbourne Airport CEO
As with many cities around
Chris Woodruff. “Ensuring Victorians do not experience any inconvenience during
the world, Melbourne has found
the works will be a key focus of the expansion projects,” he says. “We are acutely
aware of the importance of having an efficient, comfortable international ter- the balancing act between
minal to serve Victorians—regardless of development plans.” economic and environmental
Mr. Woodruff also emphasized Melbourne Airport’s focus on worksite safety. interests to be a precarious one.
“The safety of our staff and our passengers has been, and will always be, our “Environmental concerns
absolute No. 1 priority,” he says. “Together with our partner John Holland Group, are a major consideration at the
we achieved no workplace injuries or incidents during our award-winning runway- start of most major engineering
widening project in 2005, for example. We will take this same ‘no nonsense’
projects, and frequently differ-
approach to our works over the next five years.”
ent strands of the environment
movement seem to be at odds
with each other, making the
approach as the city expands, the plan combines input management of the pre-construction phase of many projects
from government, the private sector, and residents of difficult,” Ms. Bourne says. “Dealing effectively with these
Melbourne and its surrounding area. stakeholder management issues is time-consuming and
Even with such a grand scheme, the city continues expensive, but critical to the success of many projects.”
to grapple with the implications of large developments,
such as the proposed suburb of Lockerbie. The company GROOMING THE NEXT GENERATION
behind the AUD$4.5 billion project is pitching it as an The massive growth in green projects is putting even more
innovative, green community and is sweetening the strain on Melbourne’s already stretched talent supply. One
deal with an offer to pay for public transport infra- example is in the flood of water-related projects, a result of the
structure, according to local newspaper, The Age. But government’s push to secure the sustainable water supplies
the suburb’s location—about 30 kilometers (19 miles) that have become increasingly tight in recent years.
north of Melbourne, would stretch the city’s bound- Melbourne had only 2,974 millimeters (117.1 inches) of rain
aries beyond those the city introduced in Melbourne from November 2001 to October 2007. It was an unwelcome
2030 to slow urban sprawl. record-breaker, beating the previous six-year low set in 1904.

APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 55

PMN0408 56-57 REV 3/6/08 10:37 PM Page 56

PROJECTS ACROSS AUSTRALIA

GETTING THROUGH A DRY SPELL
Drought has plagued Australia in recent years, and climate change
isn’t helping matters. Victoria hopes to address the problem with an
AUD$3.1 billion seawater desalination plant built in the Wonthaggi
region. Upon completion in 2011, it would provide 150 billion liters
of water each year for more than 5 million residents.
Locals agree more potable water is needed—but disagree on the
means to that end. Opposition group Your Water, Your Say contends
the proposed plant would harm the fish needed by Phillip Island
penguins, fur seals, migrating whales and other parts of the local
food chain.
The project faced a serious glitch last November, when dinosaur
bones dating back 115 million years were discovered on the pro-

PHOTO © GETTY IMAGES

posed site near Wonthaggi, southeast of Melbourne. But the
Victorian water minister says the plant’s pipes will be placed below
the bones, leaving them unscathed.
Late last December, the Victorian Planning Minister Justin Madden announced that a year-long study
would be conducted to further investigate the plant’s environmental impact, as well as its effect on Aboriginal
heritage. But the minister also said the study had little chance of blocking the project’s progress.

RAIL PROJECT FINALLY IN THE STATION

It was years in the making, but the Perth-to-Mandurah railway MANDURAH
STATION
made its official grand debut last December. The project was
first envisioned in 1999, although construction didn’t begin on
the 74-kilometer (46-mile) route until February 2004.
The massive rail project required new tunnels and stations as
well as extensive bridge work. Speeding along at approximately 120
kilometers (75 miles) per hour, the rail system should reduce travel
times for commuters who previously lacked public-transportation
options. It’s expected to carry 50,000 passengers each day of the
workweek, according to the Australian Associated Press.
But schedule and cost overruns pushed the effort off track. It
came in about five months late and exceeded its initial budget
(set in 2002) by 17 percent.

TELSTRA NOT EXACTLY A RINGING ENDORSEMENT FOR AUSTRALIAN TELECOM

TELEPHONE Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom, may not have the best project management
EXCHANGE,
PHOTO COURTESY OF LONGHAIR

track record. A recent AUD$240 million overhaul of its billing system

KARAWINNA,
was dubbed by The Age as “an example in a university course of what not
VICTORIA
to do.”
But the company is in the midst of a much more ambitious endeavor. In
2005, officials announced a five-year, AUD$11 billion project to transform its
networks, systems and services.
Part of that plan includes an AUD$1.5 billion project to cut the number of
Telstra’s IT systems from 1,250 to 250. By 2010, the company intends to inte-
grate business support systems such as customer relationship management,
sales, marketing, billing, operational support systems, network inventory and management. The goal is to give
the telecom’s employees a single place to find all customer data.
Telstra hopes the program will significantly cut costs, too. One of its vendors, IBM, says the telecom is on
track to achieve at least USD$183 million in cost reductions from the IT overhaul.

56 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

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worldview
PART OF THE EBB AND FLOW
With the advent of the 1850s gold rush, Melbourne’s
Docklands area became a hub of activity, resulting in the
creation of Victoria Harbour. By the 1960s, however, its
maritime heyday had ended after its sheds and wharves
could no longer accommodate huge containers and Docklands fell into disuse.
Now the tide is turning once more. During the past decade, government and developers have invested more than AUD$10 billion
in the area, making it the largest urban-renewal project in Australia’s history. Currently, Docklands has about 4,000 residents and
7,000 workers at local businesses. By 2010, the number of residents is expected to double, while the number of workers could reach
more than 20,000.
The renewal process began in 1991, with the creation of the Docklands Authority (now VicUrban) to oversee planning for the area.
So far, only a third of Docklands has been built, but the area is already attracting high-end real estate. In December, Australian devel-
oper Mirvac put 27 waterside townhouses up for sale, with some properties priced at AUD$5 million. In a matter of hours, buyers
grabbed all of the homes, which totaled more than AUD$60 million.
More improvements are on the way. Last January, the Melbourne City Council proposed other changes to Docklands during the next three
years, including more trams, buses, water taxis and ferries, improved pedestrian and bicycle paths, and a redesign of the area’s esplanade.

An area AUD$3.1 billion desalination plant is in the works It also helps ensure they’ll stick around.
to help combat the severe dry spell but there are also con- “There’s a big challenge now in keeping the [younger]
cerns it will harm the local food chain. generation engaged, keeping them interested to stay long
Such projects demand a sophisticated skill set—one enough so we can train them up,” Ms. Wyatt says.
that’s increasingly difficult to track down. “There is a shortage To keep younger workers engaged, project managers
of project managers, particularly in water, given that it is an should take extra care when assembling teams and assign-
emerging market,” Ms. Wyatt says. ing tasks. Consider the skill sets required for the job, as well
“In Maunsell’s environmental management and planning as career opportunities that would appeal most to up-and-
division, we find there are more people with the specialist comers, she says. “Expose them to new skills or give them
or technical skill but little project management experience,” a new role within the team,” she says. “Give them variety.”
she says. “There’s a need for people who can adapt from With the array of projects on offer in Melbourne, that
the specialist area to the project management focus and shouldn’t be too tough. PM
vice versa.”
To curb the talent shortage,
Maunsell is also putting more empha-
sis on teaching project management FREEWAY UPGRADES AIM FOR A FASTER, SAFER RIDE
skills than in years past. “Project With a population of more than 5 million, Victoria continues to grow—and the state
management is now embedded into government is determined to adapt to those changing needs. During the next decade,
some specialist training courses,” Ms. it will invest AUD$10.5 billion in the
Wyatt says. “Whereas previously, state’s transportation system, includ-
MONTASH-CITYLINK-WEST GATE
training courses may implicitly have ing a revamp of the Monash-CityLink-
covered some project management, West Gate. One of the state’s busiest
routes, it’s currently used by 160,000
now it is far more explicit.”
cars and trucks daily, including
Another way to keep the talent 20,000 heavy vehicles.
pool replenished, of course, is to Scheduled for completion in
reach out to the younger generation. 2010, the project is designed to
Ms. Wyatt recommends experienced improve both congestion and safety
project managers “focus on the (with a stated goal of reducing
strategic advisory role and give the traffic-accident fatalities by up to
20 percent). The state government
day-to-day tasks to up-and-coming
has provided AUD$1 billion in fund-
project managers.” That allows ing in a public-private partnership
younger team members to develop key with Australian infrastructure com-
stakeholder relationships, setting the panies VicRoads and Transurban.
stage for future projects where they The upgrades will include the construction of more lanes and the addition of stop-
can take on more strategic decisions. lights to entrance ramps.
PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 12:51 AM Page 58

CHILDREN
TURNED
OUT TO BE
THE TRUE
DESIGN
EXPERTS
WHEN IT
CAME TIME
TO BUILD
CANADA’S
FIRST
PEDIATRIC
HOSPITAL IN
25 YEARS.

LIS
PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 12:51 AM Page 59

UP
TEN BY JOHN BUCHANAN
PHOTOS BY ANDREW QUERNER
PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 12:52 AM Page 60
W
WHEN MILTON GARDNER unveiled
the initial plans for Canada’s first new
children’s hospital in more than 25 years,
the response was less than positive.
One kid put it bluntly: It looked like
a jail.
They thought the sketches were
dull, says Mr. Gardner, principal of
Kasian Architecture Interior Design
and Planning Ltd. Operating out of
offices in Vancouver and Calgary,
Canada, the firm was responsible for
the hospital’s design.
At that moment, the entire con-
cept of the project changed. The team
decided to engage children in the hos-
pital’s design.
It was a risky move, but it paid off.
Today, the C$253 million Alberta
Children’s Hospital in Calgary is cited
as a breakthrough in family-centered
healthcare. But to its architects, devel-
opment team and sponsor, the project
served as a revelation about listening-
based design.
THE MISSING PIECE
Most project owners might have been
alarmed by such a dismal assessment of
their project, but Ken Chiang says he
was relieved by the change in plans.
“We all had a sense that we were get-
ting stuck with the design, that we were
COMPANY DOSSIER
Company: Kasian Architecture Interior Design & Planning Ltd.
Founded: 1985
Project management approach: Since 1997, Kasian has champi-
oned the role of project managers. Just how many work at the
firm? “A lot,” says principal Milton Gardner. Why? “Our people
thrive when they are part of a team—empowered, appreciated
and supported to achieve their career-development goals,” he
says. “If someone here wants to be a project manager, and many
do, they are supported in that endeavor and they are mentored
by some of the best project managers in the business.”
Secret to success: “We listen,” Mr. Gardner says.
Projects currently under way in: Canada, China, India and
United Arab Emirates
60 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
just regurgitating the same old thing,”
says Mr. Chiang, project director for
Calgary Health Region, the hospital’s
governing authority.
Many of the area’s facilities date
back to the 1960s and are “grounded
in brick and that solid, institutional
look,” he explains. “Healthcare archi-
tects typically tend to focus more from
the inside out. … You start with func-
tion, and you end up with a building’s
shape. This results in less attention
being paid on the aesthetics and feel of
the building. And if you keep doing
the same institutional building, are
you really helping anybody? So, we all
just looked at the original design and
said, ‘Something is missing.’”
Bob Holmes, senior vice president,
planning and capital development, for
the Calgary Health Region, viewed the
initial lack of enthusiasm as a key turning
point in involving the stakeholders—
families, children and staff—in
the project.
“We were attempting to engage the
stakeholders, but there didn’t seem to be
a lot of traction,” Mr. Holmes says. “So
when I heard the news that the children
were less than enthusiastic about it, I was
actually pleased to hear it. That told me
the engagement with the stakeholders
had finally taken hold and that there
was traction.”
Traction is an understatement. In
fact, an inexorable force of nature—the
powerful, whimsical visions of children—
had been unleashed.
Catherine Morrison, manager of
Southern Alberta Child & Youth Health
Network, would eventually harness that
force into an advisory council that, over
the next nine months, would transform
the project from the ground up.
“To be perfectly frank, it didn’t surprise
me that Kasian’s perceptions would be
way off, because only when you really
get close to kids and their families can
you appreciate how they really feel about
their experience,” she says. “That’s what
family-centered care is all about. And I’m
not sure that architects who haven’t gone
PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 12:59 AM Page 61

PROJECT TEAM

From left,
Oliver Agustin,
Jim Ebbels and
Milton Gardner
of Kasian
Architecture
Interior Design
and Planning Ltd.;
Bob Holmes and
Ken Chang
of Calgary
Health Region

down this road before could appreciate Several universal themes emerged,
that aspect and pay attention.” including vivid color, bigger windows
To their credit, the team members at and landscaping that created a fun
Kasian started paying attention. environment.

CHILD’S PLAY
Working with The Institute for Family-
Centered Care, based in Bethesda,
Maryland, USA, Calgary Health Region
and Kasian formed a creative consor-
tium to engage children in a collabora-
tive design process. Ranging in age from
8 to 22, the 41 participants included
chronically ill patients, siblings, children
of hospital staff members and local
students recruited from the school system.
Most of these kids were then merged
into a Southern Alberta Child &
Youth Health Network advisory coun-
cil that’s still going strong today.
For two consecutive Saturdays,
children worked with the architects
and partners to brainstorm ideas for
the hospital design. There was the
usual discussion, but then the kids
were put to work. Putting colored
pens to paper, they conjured up their
visions for the hospital.
“The drawings were pretty extraordi-
nary,” Mr. Gardner says. The architects
and designers involved were quick to
embrace the ideas—some of which
helped to solve long existing issues with
the building’s design.
“What’s interesting is that we had a
scale problem with this building.
Although it’s only four stories on one
side and five on the other, it’s the same
height as about an eight- or 10-story
apartment building.”
Inspired by the drawings, the archi-
tects discovered that by using residential-
style, four-paned windows that were two
stories tall, they could actually create the
illusion from a distance of a smaller
building with fewer floors. “That gave
the place a sense of home, as well as a
sense of scale,” Mr. Gardner says.
It would also turn out to help
patient healing. “In the old hospital, the
kids would lose their day-night cycles
because there were so few windows,”
ANIMAL
HOSPITAL
Drawings by the children led to
several design innovations, includ-
ing an area where patients can
receive visits from all the members
of the family—even the four-legged
ones. “All of the pictures had pets
running around,” says Milton
Gardner, Kasian Architecture Interior
Design and Planning Ltd. “As a
result, we ended up adding a
pet visitation vestibule to the
hospital, because we heard the
children say their pets were
important members of the family.
It’s a good example of listening-
based design.”

APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 61

PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 12:59 AM Page 62

says Lois Ward, administrative director of
the child and women’s health portfolio
for Calgary Health Region.
The children also inspired the
designers to create a vibrant color
palette, a central gathering space in the
lobby that features a retractable stage
for theater performances, a sunroom
and an art studio. And a revamped
landscaping plan includes elevated
wooden walkways, elevated wooden
bridges, gardens, treehouses, birdhouses,
an orchard, and an End of Life Garden
for terminally ill patients to visit with
their families.
BUILDING BLOCKS
1990s A series of studies by Calgary
Health Region determines the need for a new
Alberta Children’s Hospital to replace an existing
series of buildings dating back to 1952.
1999 Government of Alberta, Canada
commits to development of the new hospital.
March 2001 Design contract
awarded to Kasian Architecture Interior
Design and Planning Ltd.
August 2001 Kasian begins
master planning and creation of functional
schematics.
All of these changes in design, how-
ever, brought about another challenge:
how to build the hospital the kids envi-
sioned without it costing a lot more
time and money.
But in fact, the revolutionary process
would bring the project in on budget
and three months ahead of schedule.
The solution came in what Mr.
Gardner found to be a refreshingly
innovative process.
“We sat around a table with the
major building trades and the construc-
tion manager to make design decisions
together—and we made decisions to suit
the construction manager’s priorities,”
he says. “As a result, major design con-
struction and cost decisions were made
very quickly, in the same room, by all
who influenced those decisions. This
cut design time, eliminated con-
structability issues and improved the
building schedule.”
With the added budget and schedule
pressures brought on by the revisions,
Kasian and Calgary Health Region
learned another vital lesson: the value of
collaboration. To ensure everyone was
working toward a common goal, Mr.

May 2002 Initial schematic concept

of hospital’s exterior is presented to a family
advisory group—and rejected by children as too
institutional. As a result, a Child and Youth
Advisory Council is created to provide feedback
to Kasian and Calgary Health Region.

July 2002–March 2003

A series of creative workshops and ongoing
collaborations are held with the Child and
Youth Advisory Council.

July 2003 Construction begins.

August 2006 Construction
completed on budget and three months ahead
of schedule.

September 2006 Dubbed “the

Lego building” because it resembles colorful
building blocks, the hospital opens to critical
and community acclaim.

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OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES

“I always liked big windows.”
At 10 years old, Carmela Desireau answered an ad in the Calgary Herald and became a mem-
ber of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Child and Youth Advisory Council. “My idea was the big
windows,” says Ms. Desireau, now 15. “If I were in the hospital, I’d want big windows, so I could
see outside even if I couldn’t go outside.” For the architects, Ms. Desireau’s contribution had a
more significant impact: It visually downsized the exterior scale of the building.

“We just wanted something pretty.”

For years, Leah Sullivan, now 20, had visited her two chronically ill brothers in the old facility. “I
hated that hospital,” she says. At 14, she and her peers envisioned a place with cheerful land-
scaping. “We just wanted something pretty,” Ms. Sullivan says. “When you went out of the old
hospital, it was pretty grubby. We wanted a nice, peaceful place. It’s like a fun jungle gym
incorporated into the landscape.”

Gardner and other principals and associ-
ates at the firm met regularly with a core
team that included the construction
manager, the building trades, interior
designers and engineers.
“Too often, there’s an ‘us’ and ‘them’
mentality,” Mr. Gardner says. “Everybody
stakes out their turf and they do battle.
I’m the architect, you’re the contractor,
you’re the engineer and that’s the way it
is. Being able to blur those distinctions
by saying, ‘Okay, we’re all professionals
trying to get this built, so what do we
do next?’ really was a great experience.
We listened and we cooperated. Too
often, architects are prima donnas.
With this project, the kids transformed
There was the
much of the way our firm thinks.” PM usual discussion,
but then the kids
were put to work.
Putting colored
pens to paper,
they conjured up
their visions for
the hospital.

APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 63

PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 1:01 AM Page 64

STRETCH
PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 1:01 AM Page 65

B Y S I M O N K E N T

ED THIN
FOR PROJECT MANAGERS
ON THE EDGE, STRESS
MANAGEMENT IS PART OF
THE JOB DESCRIPTION.

APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 65

PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 1:03 AM Page 66
T
here are no two ways about it: Project
management is stressful. But clearly there
is a point at which it becomes too
much—when the swirling mass of project
details, deliverables and deadlines simply
becomes overwhelming.
Part of it is just the nature of the
beast. And project managers better
learn to deal with it. They are, after all,
the ones tasked with all the problems
and grievances that occur when diverse
contributors and departments try to
work together.
Still, there are some ways project
managers and the organizations they
work for can avert a complete meltdown.
TAKE A WALK
Stress is no stranger to Beatrice Kessler.
As an IT project manager at Credit
Suisse, Zurich, Switzerland, she takes
over projects as they reach a critical stage
of implementation. In one case, she found
there was disagreement over the architec-
ture of the solution being developed,
resulting in a slowdown of the project.
Even away from the office, she
couldn’t keep her mind off the situa-
Stress Test tion. “I knew I was stressed because I
met some friends on the weekend and I
Top 6 Signs You’re was still thinking about that prob-
Headed for Burnout lem,” she says. “My friends looked
at me like I was an alien and I real-
1
Inability to “switch off” work ized I had to calm down.”
problems or issues As part of her “de-stressing”
regime, she prioritizes everything at
2 Disturbed sleep patterns work—from e-mails to specific
tasks—and assesses what needs to be
done next and what can be delegated.
3
Lack of pleasure in leisure
And if a meeting doesn’t go
activities outside work
quite as planned, she gives herself
time to wind down. That’s usually
4
Difficulty concentrating or accomplished by walking around
making decisions the Credit Suisse building, which,
with around 7,000 employees and
5
Increased tendency to get 12 floors, provides plenty of space
angry quickly or resort to for her to wander around and clear
aggression her head.
At home, she meditates and has
6
Lack of energy outside interests, including diving
and golf, that let her leave all the
work talk at the office.
66 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
“You need to set your own rules and
live by them,” Ms. Kessler explains. “If
something annoys you there is only
one question: Can you change it? If
you can, then do it. If not, then don’t
think about it.”
Sometimes you just have to let it go.
IN CONTROL
It helps if project managers can learn to
be self-aware—to spot the signs that say
they’re on edge.
“The problem with stress is that
you become acclimatized to it,”
explains Stephen Simister, Ph.D., head
of the project management master’s of
business administration program at
Henley Management College, Henley-
on-Thames, England. “You don’t realize
the stress you are carrying with you until
you find it takes five days for you to
unwind when you go on holiday.”
Dr. Simister recommends project
managers keep a journal, taking time to
reflect on their working experience and
identify when they are at risk of burnout.
“The key to not getting stressed is to
do with control,” he says. “But you can’t
always be in control. The analogy I use is
that you might be driving your car
according to the rules of the road, but you
still get someone tailing you because they
don’t think you’re driving fast enough.
That person’s actions can still induce stress
in you even though the actions you are
taking are perfectly reasonable.”
In such instances, being aware of the
control you do have and how someone
else’s actions are making you feel may
mean you’re better equipped to deal
with the situation without letting it
affect you adversely. In some cases, it
means working around that project
sponsor who seems oblivious to the fact
that turning in numbers three days late
might affect the schedule.
For Dr. Simister, exerting control even
extends to ensuring the environment in
which you are working is a positive place.
“Good chairs, nice surroundings will help
you relax more whatever work you are
doing,” he says.
PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 1:03 AM Page 67
And that’s where companies can
come in to rescue—or at least help
out—the frazzled project manager.
IT’S NOT ALL BAD
Menlo Innovations operates under the
philosophy that stress doesn’t have to be
an entirely negative experience, says
Lisamarie Babik, PMP, who works at the
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA-based IT
consulting firm.
The company operates out of a sin-
gle open-plan room, where everyone is
part of the action. Project details and
timetables are displayed on the walls
with easy color-coding to show how
each project is progressing—for better
or worse. Regular “show-and-tell” ses-
sions let everyone, including the client,
see what has been accomplished so far
and what still needs to be done.
“This removes the stress of not
knowing how we are doing and replaces
it with the much healthier stress of
knowing how we are doing,” Ms. Babik
says. “Sometimes we are not doing well,
but at least we know it.”
And if a piece of code doesn’t work or
presents a problem, it’s written up by a
team member and passed to the project
manager for revised scheduling. That
doesn’t mean any late nights, though.
At Menlo, overtime doesn’t exist—for
anyone. When a new project manager
joins Menlo, Ms. Babik asks them how
many assignments they can handle. At
the first sign of work piling up, the com-
pany adjusts the load.
If there’s more work to be done than
can be accomplished in 40 hours, addi-
tional resources are brought in rather
than demanding that team members
work extra hours. “As we say around
here, it’s not that there’s not enough
time, it’s that there’s too much to do,”
Ms. Babik explains.
Proper resource allocation can certainly
go a long way to relieving the pressure on
a stressed-out project manager frantically
trying to finish off a project.
“The organization can help project
managers by providing them with the
optimum number of projects at a given
point of time along with the right com-
position of the team working with him
or her,” says Rakesh Dadhania, a project
manager at Manipal Acunova, a pharma-
ceutical company in Bangalore, India.
“I also feel that not only should project
managers be made accountable for these
projects, they should be empowered in
their projects,” he says.
This empowerment can only happen
TIP
if the project manager is truly able to do
what’s required for project success—
and it needs to be established before the
project starts. Banish the
It all comes back to “extremely good
project planning,” Mr. Dadhania adds. BlackBerry?
“There needs to be clear identification Perish the
thought.
of each team member’s roles and respon-
sibilities and there should be continuous
training for team members.” It would seem like the
Even armed with a solid plan of easiest way to avoid
action, project managers are still facing burnout would be to ignore
higher and higher levels of stress. all those phone calls, text
One reason is that the focus of projects messages and e-mails
themselves is no longer just on technical
coming in 24/7. But
matters, says Alexander Matthey, PMP,
managing director of consulting and Rakesh Dadhania at
training company 3PM Experts Sàrl in Manipal Acunova finds
Vaud, Switzerland. mobile technology actually
“It used to be engineers who were helps reduce stress. “You
the project managers,” he says. But are always reachable so
today’s project managers need people your team feels comfort-
skills, and unfortunately, most of the able in seeking your help
rank and file isn’t there yet.
or opinion,” he explains.
“Being a project manager requires a
level of maturity and more education,”
“I have seen that technology
Mr. Matthey explains. “It will take a helps in making the right
decade for the discipline to catch up decisions on a project at a
with what is required.” crucial time.”
At the end of the day, though, he
believes organizational change is the only
way to reduce high stress levels.
“Businesses need to move into a
more projectized mode,” Mr. Matthey
says. “Some will need to acknowledge
their operation has become complete-
ly project-based and as a result the
people leading those organizations
will need good people skills. That
in itself will make life easier for the
project manager.” PM
APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 67
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68 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 1:05 AM Page 69

B E S T O F C O N G R E S S PA P E R S

P
R O L E
EVERY
A
PROJECT PLAYER

TO FILL.
Y
HAS A PART

BY MARCIA JEDD

APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 69

PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 1:05 AM Page 70
ust about every project
manager out there has gone
J
through it. The project
scope is slowly creeping
out of control, the budget
is ballooning and the team
is verging on mutiny. So
the project manager reaches
out to senior management.
And, nothing happens.
Part of the problem may
be that executives don’t know anything
is supposed to happen.
Think of a project as a play in which
everyone has a part, says Michael
Campbell, PMP, managing director at
Holland & Davis LLC, management con-
sultants in Houston, Texas, USA.
Referencing the book Change is the Rule
[Winhope Press, 2004] by Dutch
Holland, Mr. Campbell says for the play
to succeed, each character—including
project sponsors and executives—must
know his or her lines.
Only senior management can require
certain actions, when a project requires
mandatory compliance related to a deliv-
WHEN INCLUDED
erable, for instance. So only senior man-
IN THE PROJECT agement can communicate that message.
CHARTER, Upper management may also need
to step in when functional groups are
CHAMPIONS at odds and unable to agree on how
ARE THE something should be done.
“The sponsor knows that a project
DIRECT LINK manager cannot negotiate between war-
ring functions,” Mr. Campbell says.
TO THE BUSINESS “He or she will have to get involved
with that type of negotiation.”
SIDE OF THE But senior executives may need some
PROJECT. prompting on their lines—they’re not
always aware of what they need to do to
guide projects along at bottlenecks or
trouble spots.
“Most senior managers do not have a
role description for their role as sponsor,
so they rely on the project manager to
tell them when their input or authority
is required,” he says.
WHAT MAKES A CHAMPION
Project sponsors aren’t the only ones
who need their roles defined—so do
70 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
project champions. Often just below
senior management in director and vice
president positions, these people can be
the project manager’s greatest ally in
their ability to communicate expertise
and drive projects through critical terrain,
Mr. Campbell says.
Ideally, a project champion is:
• A trusted subordinate to the project
sponsor.
• A seasoned manager with a broad view of
the way things operate—not just con-
cerned with the goings-on of their silo.
Project managers should get to know
project champions and their preferences
for communication. “You can probably
get daily or weekly meetings with this
person if only for 15 minutes,” he says.
“So when you do run into a problem
that a project sponsor needs to counsel
on, the senior executive will take the
call from the champion.”
When included in the project charter,
champions are the direct link to the
business side of the project.
But project champions are rarely
written into the script up front.
“In a lot of projects, there’s no such
thing as a champion,” he says. If that’s
the case, go directly to the sponsor or
see if a champion can be assigned.
WORK IT OUT
For major projects, Mr. Campbell advises
forming a working committee consisting
of the project manager, the champion and
six or seven members, each representing
functional areas of the business affected by
the project or key stakeholder groups.
Working committees bring expert
business understanding to the project
and can serve as a “communication con-
duit between the project and the rest of
the company,” he says.
The committee should establish
rules and a regular meeting schedule,
such as every two weeks.
In concert with the working commit-
tee, project sponsors or project champions
can also step in to communicate key mes-
sages about the project via forums such as
brown-bag lunches or town hall meetings.
PMN0408 52-71 3/6/08 1:06 AM Page 71
BANKING ON STRUCTURE
Within the last few years, more structured
project development processes have pro-
vided executives and project champions
with a more hands-on role at Swedbank, a
retail bank operating in Scandinavia,
Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic region.
“The stronger role has come also
from our project management office
owning the development process and
not having IT run the development
process,” says Rolf Blomberg, senior
project manager in IT development at
Swedbank, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mr. Blomberg is among some 70
project managers who run IT develop-
ment projects at the growing company.
He and his colleagues, along with
another 350 employees in the IT devel-
opment organization, are typically
responsible for 100 large IT projects at
any given time—including anything
from online banking to IT architecture.
Project steering committees provide
guidance and serve as a critical conduit
between the business side and senior
management. Each committee consists
of roughly five to eight members,
including an IT account manager and
several business owners who act as project
champions, Mr. Blomberg says.
“When project issues are encoun-
tered, the protocol is to reach out to the
account manager first to discuss the
issue and then the appropriate steering
committee members are informed of
the problem in advance of their monthly
meeting,” he says.
“Many problems are of course better
solved internally and need not be
brought to the steering committee. You
should really spare them too many
details and use them for the really
important issues,” Mr. Blomberg says.
“When doing this, it’s important to
prepare for the meeting with the infor-
mation and do some lobbying for the
desired decisions.”
If the problem can’t be solved at the
committee level, it’s then up to the
business owner on the committee to go
higher up the chain of command.
SPEAK UP
You’ve hit a roadblock mid-project. Now
Mr. Blomberg is called in
how exactly do you reach out to upper
early and often to provide
management for help? For starters, use
input, such as project esti- an executive’s time only when absolutely
mates and viability. “We are necessary, says Michael Campbell,
much more structured around PMP, with Holland & Davis LLC. “That
our development process in way, when you do engage them, they
initiating projects, monitoring know it’s serious,” he adds.
milestones and initiating Alert them to the potential problem
execution,” he says. as you become aware of it—along with a
plan to address the issue. This way,
Likewise, project champi-
sponsors aren’t surprised and have
ons, as committee members, “already probably begun working the
take on roles as outlined in the problem in their heads if not in their
project directive and develop- actions,” he says.
ment process documents. But there’s no need to get into the
The defined roles and minutiae.
structure from the committees “Don’t bore senior management
with details on the status of projects,”
makes tackling project road-
Mr. Campbell says. “Bring them in on
blocks easier. “We all adapt to the problem and tell them what you
the situation at hand,” Mr. need from them. Most sponsors I have
Blomberg says. “But generally been involved with will absolutely fol-
we are quite comfortable con- low the script and role description if it
tacting committee members is reasonable and well-thought-out.”
to do some lobbying or prepa- Be concise and to the point. For
example, outline the two problems you
ration for an upcoming com-
have and then request decisions by a
mittee meeting.” certain date. Of course, project man-
On the project level, the agers must temper their directness
company has introduced a according to the etiquette and protocol
balanced scorecard that’s of the organization they’re dealing with,
updated monthly. Some of the Mr. Campbell says.
areas monitored are process Lastly, reserve e-mail for casual
compliance, efficiency, and communications, not to discuss major
problems.
adherence to agreed and esti-
mated delivery dates and
budget. That means Swedbank
can identify troubled projects early and The article is based on material in the
white paper “Managing Senior Executives:
take proactive measures. Scorecards are Getting the Right Support, at the Right
Level, and at the Right Time for Your
also rolled up to portfolio level to mon- Project,” presented by Michael Campbell,
PMP, at the PMI Global Congress 2007—
itor the performance of the entire devel- North America in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
opment organization.
Since Swedbank has made the
changes, a greater awareness of project
process has taken hold. Recent enhance-
ments include training given to business
owners as steering committee members.
“It’s very natural to work this way,”
Mr. Blomberg says. “Both the IT and
business do cooperate regarding process
development and enhancement, and
the contribution from each party is
equally valuable.”
There’s one play where everyone has
prepared for their parts. PM
APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 71
 PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 10:42 PM Page 72
(SOFTWAREREVIEW)
BY DAVID E. ESSEX
ARE
MEETING OF THE MINDS
eams need to talk—but face-
WEB CONFERENCING
GIVES TEAMS THAT
“IN THE ROOM”
FEELING—NO
T to-face interactions aren’t
always possible in today’s
global project environment.
Wikis, blogs and instant messaging (IM)
all let team members share information,
MATTER HOW FAR
yet they fall short of recreating the expe-
APART THEY ARE. rience of meeting in person. That’s what
sets web conferencing software apart. It
allows users to incorporate the raw
materials of projects—Gantt charts,
spreadsheets, memos, PowerPoint presen-
tations and whiteboards—into virtual
discussions. It also lets participants—no
matter where they are—collaborate
directly on creating and editing key project
documents.
In simple terms, conferencing software
uses the internet to bring people and docu-
ments together in a virtual conference room
that hosts common applications. It’s gener-
ally accessed over the web, where it runs on
servers hosted by the software vendor.
I recently tried three of the most
widely used “software as a service” (SaaS)
offerings—and here’s how they fared:
GOTOMEETING CORPORATE 3.0
Citrix Systems promotes its GoToMeeting
as a quick-and-easy tool, especially for
hosting ad hoc gatherings. The idea was to
offer fewer features in exchange for
easier setup and use, making the software
more popular with small- to medium-
sized businesses than large enterprises.
I tested the corporate version, which
allows an unlimited number of meeting
72 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
SOF
organizers and up to 25 attendees—in
contrast to the basic version, which sup-
ports only one organizer and 15 attendees.
The GoToMeeting user interface cen-
ters on an odd-looking control panel. It’s
difficult to minimize, but you can move it
to less obtrusive spots on the screen.
Because simplicity is the product’s selling
point, the panel also has big, easy-to-find
buttons for common functions.
MICROSOFT OFFICE
LIVEMEETING 2007
Microsoft’s offerings have evolved
significantly in recent years, from the
ubiquitous, but often criticized
NetMeeting to the vastly improved
LiveMeeting. The software supports
1,250 attendees or 2,500 if you pay for
Microsoft Event Services.
The latest LiveMeeting offers beefed-
up recording support, hybrid voice over
internet protocol/public switched tele-
phone network audio, virtual break-
out rooms, and a new RoundTable
feature that gives panoramic views of
the conference room.
The Windows version offers an
elegant user interface that makes
LiveMeeting as easy to use as
GoToMeeting, despite its greater com-
plexity. In contrast, the web version is
simplistic and less attractive, as web ver-
sions of PC-based software tend to be.
It was easy to set up meetings and send
e-mail invitations from both my regular
e-mail and directly from LiveMeeting.
 PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 1:23 AM Page 73

SOFTWARE•SOFTWARE•SOFTWARE•SOFTWARE•SOFTWARE•SOFTWARE•SOFTWARE•SOFTWARE•SO

And I could quickly choose which pro-
grams I did and did not want to share. I
liked the question-and-answer feature,
though it was little more than a chat
window. Also cool are the color-coded
status lights that let users wordlessly con-
vey thoughts such as “slow down” and
“need help.”
WEBEX MEETING CENTER
WebEx relies on a unique and useful
one-click option to make setting up meet-
ings quick and easy—although, honestly,
it takes several clicks. Teleconferencing is
also made simple with a pop-up screen
that gives each attendee the toll-free
number, meeting number and attendee
identification to use.
WebEx’s participant privileges and
sharing controls are considerably more
refined than those offered by its rivals,
with neat forward and back arrows for
moving through document pages. Its
annotation tools (colored highlighter,
pointer light, movable arrow and the like)
are more varied than in the other two, are
easy to find and use, and can work on top
of shared applications. A polling feature
helps keeps attendees mentally engaged.
The company says large customers
such as Boeing also use WebEx’s portal fea-
ture as a type of corporate-branded hub
for scheduling and attending conferences.
But I don’t understand why WebEx
requires a second “client entry” browser
screen to stay open, even on the meeting
organizer’s desktop—the others don’t.
For some reason, I could not always
“X out” of shared documents, and it’s
not obvious how to turn off the other-
wise smooth-working annotation tools.
THE VERDICT
These programs differ greatly in how
they trade off ease of use for feature
richness, speed and price.
Users can get meetings moving fast
with GoToMeeting—the software loads
quickly in the background, while
LiveMeeting and WebEx need slower
downloads of larger installation files. And
GoToMeeting’s shared screens refreshed
almost instantly, even when you’ve granted
someone remote control of your desktop,
something LiveMeeting does with an
extremely annoying lag. But GoToMeeting’s
lack of high-end features seems more of a
drawback than a virtue.
I liked LiveMeeting’s sleek, minimalist
look and convenient customization. But
it’s slower than the others to set up and
use, which even its superior user interface
and decent feature set can’t quite over-
come. Still, “Microsoft houses” will want
to take it seriously.
For my money, though, the venerable
WebEx is the gold standard for online con-
ferencing. It remains the most capable,
affordable tool for serious use, with ample
features and pricing options to support proj-
ect teams. PM
David E. Essex is an Antrim, New
Hampshire, USA-based journalist
specializing in IT.

GOTOMEETING MICROSOFT OFFICE WEBEX MEETING

QUICKFACTS

CORPORATE 3.0 LIVEMEETING 2007 CENTER

Requires: Standard web browser
Price: $59 per month per organizer
(minimum 5 organizers; up to 25
attendees per organizer; includes
GoToWebinar for up to 1,000 atten-
dees); individual licenses start at
$49 per month or $468 per year
(one organizer, up to 15 attendees)
Requires: Standard web browser
Price: Professional license $15.42
per month per user (minimum five
users, up to 1,250 connections);
Standard license $4.58 per month
per user (minimum 5 users, up to
15 connections); 25 cents per
minute with monthly commitment
Requires: Standard web browser
Price: $375 per month (includes
five organizers, up to 15 atten-
dees each); $75 per month per
additional organizer

At-a-Glance Review (5 s is best) At-a-Glance Review (5 s is best) At-a-Glance Review (5 s is best)

Ease of Use: Ease of Use: Ease of Use:
Feature Richness: Feature Richness: Feature Richness:
Performance: Performance: Performance:
Project Management Support: Project Management Support: Project Management Support:
Value: Value: Value:

www.gotomeeting.com www.microsoft.com www.webex.com

APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 73

PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 1:25 AM Page 74

>>>INTHEFIELD
REPORTING IN BURNS & McDONNELL,
Engineering and architectural firm Burns & KANSAS CITY, Burns & McDonnell’s project manage-
MISSOURI, USA
McDonnell manages an array of projects at ment needs while supporting its security
Challenge: Improve reporting and
airports, military bases, water-treatment data-sharing capabilities across mul- systems objectives. And once the software
tiple project management, human
facilities and power plants. But the company resources and IT applications was in place, the firm was quickly able to
was using several software applications to Solution: Oracle Business Intelligence recreate its reports and management dash-
keep its complex project portfolio straight. Suite Enterprise Edition, Oracle, boards using Oracle Portal.
Redwood Shores, California, USA
And that meant hours of extra work for the www.oracle.com So far, the results have been promising,
IT department, which had to put its com- ROI: Reductions in reporting times and says Dana Witthar, enterprise applications
requests
puting work on hold to create reports based programming manager for Burns &
on data from all those applications. McDonnell.
To increase efficiency, Burns & McDonnell needed a project “We expect our overall reporting times to be reduced, the number
management system that could share data across applications. of ad hoc reporting requests to be greatly reduced and our software
Last November, the company hired Ciber Enterprise Solutions to licensing fees to decrease, as Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise
implement Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, a Edition has replaced several applications for which we are currently
suite of business intelligence infrastructure that could deal with paying annual licensing fees,” she says.

>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>

GROWING PAINS
After accounting records showed Nutra-Flo lost $150,000 due to “Project4Domino
delays and poor planning, company president Eric J. Lohry knew has allowed us to have NUTRA-FLO, SIOUX
he needed a better way to manage projects. A growing worldwide one location to develop CITY, IOWA, USA
Challenge: Manage project infor-
manufacturer and processor of animal and crop nutrients, feed and store all of our mation from multiple teams in a
and fertilizers, Nutra-Flo had recently opened several new processing project-related material,” growing number of facilities

plants and upgraded existing facilities. And it needed a system Mr. Lohry says. “All Solution: Genius Project4Domino
V 5.0, Genius Inside, Lausanne,
that could manage the flow of project information from multiple members of the team Switzerland
www.geniusinside.com
facilities and a growing list of clients. can access it and, more
ROI: A centralized database of
“We knew we needed a solution to help us keep our resource importantly, they can project information accessible to
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relied on Word documents, e-mails and spreadsheets, trying to keep affects other team mem-
on top of and share the massive amounts of information across all bers and the project as a whole.”
members of the team, but it was becoming next to impossible.” Since the initial implementation, Nutra-Flo has also used
In October 2007, the company started using Genius Genius Project4Domino in its marketing department and within
Project4Domino V 5.0 to help management keep tabs on the safety-auditing team. And Mr. Lohry says he plans to take it
resources, he says. corporate-wide in 2008.

TO SUBMIT INFORMATION ON A NEW PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRODUCT OR CASE HISTORY, SEND RELEASES TO PMNETWORK@IMAGINEPUB.COM AND PMIADS@TOWNSEND-GROUP.COM.
PM NETWORK EDITS SUBMISSIONS FOR CLARITY AND STYLE. APPEARANCE IN PM NETWORK DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A PRODUCT ENDORSEMENT.

74 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 1:25 AM Page 75
PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 1:27 AM Page 76
>>>PRODUCT
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COMPANY: Program-Ace LLC, Kharkiv, Ukraine
CATEGORY: Project Life Cycle Management
FEATURES:
» Organizes project records and statistics using
task trees, progress reports and updates
» Includes Gantt charts, an organizer and a
technical support module
» Features extended real-time communication
options, such as teleconferencing and
videoconferencing, desktop and applica-
tion sharing, remote PC control, dynamic
annotation and text chat
» Records selected project conversations, in
voice or text, and stores them, with direct
connections to specific project tasks
www.aceremoteproject.com
>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>
EPM Live Workgroup
COMPANY: EPM Live, Carlsbad, California, USA
CATEGORY: Enterprise Project Management
FEATURES:
» Enables users to publish and share
Microsoft Office Project 2007 files with
any EPM Live online workspace
» Lets team members access project details
and documents from their web browsers
» Provides single-view options for project
managers to request, review and approve
task progress and updates
» Incorporates built-in workflows to enable
initiation, participation, tracking and
reporting for common project activities
www.epmlive.com/workgroup.aspx
TO SUBMIT INFORMATION ON A NEW PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRODUCT OR CASE HISTORY, SEND RELEASES TO PMNETWORK@IMAGINEPUB.COM AND PMIADS@TOWNSEND-GROUP.COM.
PM NETWORK EDITS SUBMISSIONS FOR CLARITY AND STYLE. APPEARANCE IN PM NETWORK DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A PRODUCT ENDORSEMENT.
76 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
ActionThis
COMPANY: ActionThis Ltd., Wellington,
New Zealand
CATEGORY: Web-based Team Management
FEATURES:
» Provides a centralized system for
managing projects, work assignments
and other business information
» Allows users to assign and manage
action items across teams
» Works in conjunction with common
business tools, including Microsoft Office
www.actionthis.com
Project Clock® Pro
COMPANY: CyberMatrix Corp. Inc., Vernon,
British Columbia, Canada
CATEGORY: Project Time Tracking and Billing
FEATURES:
» Allows time entry on most operating systems
» Uses a simple, intuitive graphic interface
» Includes Project Clock Palm, which runs on
handheld computers using PalmOS and
can sync data with Project Clock for
Windows
www.cybermatrix.com
ROUND
UP
Enterprise 21
COMPANY: Technology Group International,
Toledo, Ohio, USA
CATEGORY: Project Life Cycle Management
FEATURES:
» Plans and defines project phases and
lower-level tasks including start dates,
end dates, and cost accumulation and
tracking
» Provides online tutorials and exams
» Offers a scaleable interface for one to
thousands of users
www.tgiltd.com
Wrike
COMPANY: Wrike Inc., Palo Alto, California,
USA
CATEGORY: Web-based Project Management
FEATURES:
» Features dashboard and timeline views for
organizing daily tasks and parallel projects
» Sends automatic reminders regarding
project changes and deadlines
» Allows users to assign tasks to them-
selves and others using e-mails
» Gives users the ability to work with many
projects simultaneously and store one
item in several folders
www.wrike.com
PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 1:28 AM Page 77

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 PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 1:29 AM Page 79
E FEATURED BOOKS
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 The project manager functions as a
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agement process and implementing the
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 Project management is universal.
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APRIL 2008 PM NETWORK 79
PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 1:30 AM Page 80

SHAPE YOUR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL FUTURE

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19 –21 May 2008, Malta, Hilton, St. Julians

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Making project management indispensable for business results.®

©2008 Project Management Institute, Inc. All rights reserved. “PMI,” the PMI logo, and “Making project management indispensable for
business results” are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 1:53 AM Page 81

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PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 11:55 PM Page 82

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Have you found an article in PM Network®
you’d like to use as a presentation tool?
Would you like to distribute a project
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Contact the Project Management Institute
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distribute them (permissions@pmi.org).

SEND THE RIGHT MESSAGE

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Have you found a PM Network®
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sending a related article to your customers?
To order a reprint, contact the Project Management
Institute at pmipub@pmi.org.
PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 11:57 PM Page 83

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PAGE ADVERTISER URL PAGE ADVERTISER URL

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PMN0408 72-84 3/6/08 1:55 AM Page 84

»
endRESULT
the
After an earthquake rocked Kashmir, Pakistan in October 2005,
Stockholm, Sweden-based telecommunications giant Ericsson
helped connect relief organizations working in the area.

OVERVIEW FIRST THINGS FIRST

At the request of the United Nations Office for the
Kashmir, Pakistan Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the first Ericsson
team to arrive in Pakistan was tasked with establishing
The nine-month pro bono network connections for each of the relief organizations.
project aimed to improve
disaster relief by providing

“
technical resources and IT
support to non-governmental
agencies working in the region. There were simple logistical
issues, like finding a power
At the heart of the project was a wireless local supply and locating a clean dry
WIRED IN

area network system designed to bring communi- spot for the equipment to be
cation technology and internet access directly to placed. And when we arrived,

”
disaster sites. In remote locations, such as
Kashmir, it lets relief organizations work on the the camps weren’t even built.
same telecommunications infrastructure, which
improves communications and increases cooperation
—Brent Carbno, on-site project manager and team
and the efficiency. leader for technical support in Ericsson’s Montréal,
Quebéc, Canada office

GETTING THE BUGS ON THE CLOCK: The project grew

OUT—QUICKLY
Internet access was provided through a
two-way satellite ground station con-
nected to the United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) offices in New York, New
York, USA.
“It was the first time we had used
the system in the field, so there were
a lot of bugs to work out,” Mr. Carbno
admits. “There was quite a bit of trou-
bleshooting and we had to reconfigure
the satellite several times, but we worked
out the problems as we went along.”
A JOB WELL DONE: LAST OCTOBER,
ERICSSON RECEIVED PMI’S
COMMUNITY ADVANCEMENT
THROUGH PROJECT MANAGEMENT
AWARD FOR ITS WORK IN PAKISTAN.
even more complicated with the inconsistent
arrival times of technology and other
resources. The satellite—the fundamental
technology for the project—was supposed
to be delivered before Mr. Carbno’s arrival.
Instead, the team had to wait two weeks,
but learned to take the delays in stride.
“Timelines have to be very flexible in this
kind of situation,” he says, adding that
trucks often got stuck on the roads for
days at a time. “We just tried to do things
as quickly as we could,” he says.
It worked. Within six weeks, all of the
groups were connected to each other—and
their respective headquarters.

84 PM NETWORK APRIL 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG

 PM NETWORK CUSTOMIZED MULTISOURCING APRIL 2008, VOLUME 22, NUMBER 4
Page 1
11:31 PM
3/6/08
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