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Welcome to the April 2022 PMWJ

 

WELCOME

By David Pells

Managing Editor

Addison, Texas, USA


Welcome to the April 2022 edition of the PM World Journal (PMWJ), the 116th monthly edition. This month’s PMWJ contains 32 new works by 30 different authors representing 14 different countries. This is another diverse edition featuring a wide variety of works in 10 different categories, exactly as we had planned back in 2012 when the journal was launched. The only type missing is a case study; perhaps one of you can offer a good example soon, a story of a project or project management experience with lessons for others.

As some of you will know, we issued a call for papers about the war in Ukraine and in support of those fighting for their lives, their country and democratic values everywhere.  Several excellent articles are included this month as a result. But before introducing this month’s contents, I want to briefly mention…

The Missing Editorial

In last month’s welcome article, I mentioned that I was working on an editorial about the War in Ukraine, and that it would be forthcoming in a few days. Sorry to say that it’s not done yet.  Each morning after watching more news coverage of the war with their reports and images of more Russian bombardments, unnecessary destruction and the deaths of more civilians, I want to say more. Each week brings new repercussions, new sanctions, new dimensions of the international impact of this war.  It’s all terrible, and either has already affected most of us or certainly will soon. Is this already World War 3?

In addition to the immediate issues, the war also brings me back to important themes that I have discussed at length in previous editorials, papers or presentations, including the impact of significant disruptive events (1998, 1999, 2009, 2016), emergency response and disaster recovery projects & PM (2007, 2017), black elephants (2020) and a higher purpose for project management (2021). It is only appropriate that I return to some of those themes now, however briefly.

And finally, I’ve had some new thoughts on risk and how it might be the single most important aspect of planning and managing projects, especially those that demand rapid decisions and actions.  This line of thinking raised some new thoughts on the continued rate of project failures (or simply poor outcomes), which might in fact be based on missing or weak risk analysis, not just bad planning or poor performance.  Could this be another reason so many project business cases are so bad? So my missing editorial is now tentatively titled “War changes everything, old themes revisited, black elephants (again) and a new view of risk”. It will be coming soon; in the meantime, please wish me luck.

Now, this month in the Journal

Two Letters to the Editor are included this month, both related to the war in Ukraine, either directly or indirectly.  The one from Dr. Ken Smith in Manila includes an anecdotal story to accompany his advisory article elsewhere in this edition on war gaming, along with a closing comment on the war.  The one from Federico Minelle in Rome comments directly on the misuse of project management during the war.

Two Interviews are also included, thanks to our correspondents Yasmina Khelifi in Paris and Yu Yanjuan in Beijing.  Yasmina has interviewed French PM expert Kik Piney, author of the book Earned Benefit Program Management.  Yu (Spring) has interviewed well-known American PM thought leaders Dr. Harold Kerzner and Dr. Al Zeitoun.  Piney, Kerzner and Zeitoun are also frequent contributors to the PMWJ, so we are happy to provide them with more visibility and readers…

More…

To read entire welcome article, click here

How to cite this paper: Pells, D.L. (2022). Welcome to the April 2022 PMWJ; PM World Journal, Vol. XI, Issue IV, April. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/pmwj116-Apr2022-Pells-welcome-to-the-april-2022-pmwj-3.pdf


About the Author


David L. Pells

Managing Editor, PMWJ
Managing Director, PMWL

 

 David L. Pells, PMI Fellow, HonFAPM, ISIPM, PMA, is Managing Editor and publisher of the PM World Journal and Managing Director of the PM World Library. 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) in Italy; and Project Management Associates (PMA) in India.

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/