WELCOME
By David L. Pells
Managing Editor
Addison, Texas, USA
Welcome to the April 2021 edition of the PM World Journal, the 104th monthly edition. This is another full and diverse edition, with 30 works by 32 different authors in 20 different countries. The diversity of topics is especially interesting, ranging from managing effective meetings to pandemic risk prevention to housing projects in Nigeria to rework on engineering and construction projects.
Many of you may be happy to see that I’ve concluded my long editorial on “project management needs a higher purpose” this month. In the concluding part 4, I offer some thoughts on future developments in the PM field, and what steps both organizations and professional might take to engage in confronting the black elephants, those global problems we all know about but have a hard time dealing with – like climate change, pandemics, homelessness and others. I firmly believe the current pandemic has shaken many of us our of our career silos, awakened a new sense of social responsibility. We all know that big problems can only be solved through big programs and projects, the very initiatives that many in our field study and manage on a daily basis.
I also wanted to bring more attention to the importance of project management for disaster response and recovery efforts. Many emergencies and disasters are no longer unpredictable. With the drought continuing in America’s southwest, we know there will be many wildfires again this Spring and Summer. We know that every hurricane season brings big storms from the Atlantic, that flooding will occur near rivers, that oil and chemical spills will occur, that migrations will continue, that new diseases will emerge, that extreme weather and conflicts will happen. We as a profession need to create models, guides and networks for emergency response projects; as I’ve suggested in my editorial, the way forward is by cooperating with other organizations and experts who already have experience on these types of projects.
The two interviews this month are very interesting, and quite different. Ipek in Turkey has interviewed Ms. Sierra Hampton-Simmons, PMI’s Director of Certification Products, on recent changes to the PMP certification exam, including reasons for the changes. Spring in China has interviewed Gary Nelson, game designer, project manager and author of a series of books on project management written for children. This was the first I’ve learned about Gary’s Project Kids Adventures series of six books, brilliantly created as stories about projects that young people can understand and related to. Don’t miss these interviews.
Eight featured papers are included this month, by authors in five countries. From Italy we have two papers directly related to the ongoing pandemic. The first by Marianna Spezie and Damiano Bragantini is titled “Promoting the Development of a Pandemic Risk Prevention and Monitoring System in Health Organizations for Post Covid-19 Restart.” Massimo Pirozzi and Dr. Lidia Strigari have authored “Project Management for Healthcare: the Case of Translational Research.” These are serious efforts to expand project management into the critical medical research and delivery sectors, so much more obviously important now.
More…
To read entire welcome article, click here
How to cite this paper: Pells, D.L. (2021). Welcome to the April 2021 PMWJ; PM World Journal, Vol. X, Issue IV, April. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/pmwj104-Apr2021-Pells-welcome-to-the-april-2021-pmwj.pdf
About the Author
David L. Pells
Managing Editor, PMWJ
Managing Director, PMWL
David L. Pells, PMI Fellow, HonFAPM, ISIPM, PMA, SOVNET is Managing Editor and publisher of the PM World Journal (www.pmworldjournal.com) and Managing Director of the PM World Library (www.pmworldlibrary.net). David is an internationally recognized leader in the field of professional project management with more than 40 years of experience on a variety of programs and projects, including engineering, construction, energy, defense, transit, technology and nuclear security, and project sizes ranging from thousands to billions of dollars. He occasionally acts as project management advisor for U.S. national laboratories and international programs, and currently serves as an independent advisor for a major U.S. national security program.
David Pells has been an active professional leader in the United States since the 1980s, as founder and president of several PMI chapters, founder of PMI’s first SIG (Project Earth), and member of the PMI board of directors twice. He was founder and chair of the Global Project Management Forum (1995-2000), an annual meeting of leaders of PM associations from around the world. David was awarded PMI’s Person of the Year award in 1998 and Fellow Award, PMI’s highest honor, in 1999. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM) in the UK; the Instituto Italiano di Project Management (ISIMP – Italy); Project Management Associates (PMA – India); and the Russian Project Management Association (SOVNET). In 2010 he was made an honorary member of the Project Management Association of Nepal.
Former managing editor of PM World Today, he is the creator, editor and publisher of the PM World Journal (ISSN: 2330-4880). David has a BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington and an MBA from Idaho State University in the USA. He has published widely and spoken at conferences and events worldwide. David lives near Dallas, Texas and can be contacted at editor@pmworldjournal.com.
To see other works by David Pells, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/david-l-pells/
