Call for Papers

 

REPORT

By Emils Pulmanis

International Correspondent

Riga, Latvia

 

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Project Management Development – Practice and Perspectives

Call for Papers for the 9^th International Scientific Conference on Project Management in the Baltic Countries

 

The 9^th International Scientific Conference on Project Management in the Baltic States will be held in Riga, Latvia during 23-24 April 2020. Under the theme “Project Management Development – Practice and Perspectives”; the conference will be held at the University of Latvia.

The Call for Papers remains open, with abstract submission until November 30^th and full paper submission accepted through 10 February 2020. However if you are interested to present or publish your paper you can contact conference coordinators by e-mail Silvija.Bruna@lu.lv  or Emils.Pulmanis@lu.lv.

By the end of March 2019 registration for listeners and those who wish to present their reports without publication still remain.

More information can be found at http://www.balticpmconference.eu/.

The aim of the conference is to discuss results of scientific research in project management issues, to establish new contacts and networking between professionals involved in project management as well as enhance the capacity of project managers.

In 2020 we will have 9^th anniversary that the Research Institute of the Project Management of the Faculty of Business, Management and Economics, University of Latvia in cooperation with the Professional Association of Project Managers organize an international conference on project management, gathering professionals from a number of countries.

So far more than twenty countries were represented (Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Iran, United Kingdom, Poland, Australia, Italy, Malaysia, Palestine, Iceland, The Netherlands, Turkey, Russia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Norway, Singapore, China, France, Finland, Romania, Ukraine, USA, Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria and others ), and this year several others have joined in. The conference aims to host a vast exchange of ideas, thoughts, and experience in the benefits of applying project management to resolving practical problems.

More…

To read entire call for papers, click here

 

How to cite this report:  Pulmanis, E. (2019). Project Management Update from Latvia, PM World Journal; Vol. VIII, Issue X, November.  Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pmwj87-Nov2019-Pulmanis-Latvia-conference-call-for-papers.pdf

 

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About the Author

Emils Pulmanis

Riga, Latvia

 

 

 

Emils Pulmanis is a member of the board of the Professional Association of Project Managers in Latvia and development project manager at State Audit Office of the Republic of Latvia. He has gained a BSc. in engineer economics, a professional master’s degree in project management (MSc.proj.mgmt) and currently is a PhD candidate with a specialization in project management. He has elaborated and directed a number of domestic and foreign financial instruments co-financed projects. He was a National coordinator for a European Commission-funded program – the European Union’s financial instruments PHARE program in Latvia. Over the past seven years he has worked in the public administration project control and monitoring field. He was a financial instrument expert for the Ministry of Welfare and the European Economic Area and Norwegian Financial Mechanism implementation authority as well as an expert for the Swiss – Latvian cooperation program as a NGO grant scheme project evaluation expert. He has gained international and professional project management experience in Germany, the United States and Taiwan. In addition to his professional work, he is also a lecturer at the University of Latvia for the professional master study program in Project management. He has authored more than 50 scientific publications and is actively involved in social activities as a member of various NGO’s.

Emils can be contacted at emils.pulmanis@gmail.com.

To see other works by Emils Pulmanis, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/emils-pulmanis/

 

 

for Project, Program, and Portfolio Management, convenes in Seoul, South Korea

 

REPORT

By Dr Jouko Vaskimo

International Correspondent & Senior Contributing Editor

Espoo, Finland

 

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ISO/TC 258, the Technical Committee (TC) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) set up to work with standards in the field of project, program, and portfolio management, convened for the tenth plenary meeting at Seoul, South Korea, on September 23^rd … 24^th 2019. The plenary participants – 50 representing 21 national standardization bodies – were warmly welcomed to Seoul by Mr Young Min Park, the Chairman of the Korean Mirror Committee for ISO/TC 258, and Mr Sookrae Kim, Director of the Chemistry and Service Standards Division of Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS), the national standardization body of Korea. Subsequent to the TC plenary, the ISO/TC 258 active working groups convened in Seoul on September 24^th … 27^th.

The opening plenary noted the passing of Mr JC Kruger of South Africa, a longtime member of ISO/PC236 and ISO/TC258, and Secretary of WG2. A moment of silence was observed in memory of Mr Kruger.

ISO/TC 258 Seoul plenary meeting participants (photos courtesy Jouko Vaskimo)

ISO/TC 258 main initiatives include Working Group WG9 working towards a revision of ISO 21500 (which will be called ISO 21502 in the future), WG10 working towards an overarching ISO standard explaining context and concepts for project, program and portfolio management (which will be called ISO 21500 in the future), and WG12 working towards Earned Value Management (EVM) implementation guide.

At the time of the Seoul plenary meeting ISO/TC 258 had 36 participating (P) members, 21 observing (O) members, and 11 liaisons.

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States are current ISO/TC 258 P – members.

Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Rep., Egypt, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kenya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mauritania, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Uganda, Uzbekistan are current ISO/TC 258 O – members.

Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering international (AACEi), College of Performance Management (CPM), Global Alliance for the Project ProfessionS (GAPPS), International Project Management Association (IPMA), and Project Management Institute (PMI) are ISO/TC 258 liaison organizations.

ISO/IEC JTC1, Information Technology, ISO/TC20, Aircraft and space vehicles, ISO/TC176/SC2, Quality systems, ISO/TC262, Risk Management, and ISO/TC309, Governance of Organizations are the current liaison committees to ISO/TC 258.

ISO/TC20, Aircraft and space vehicles is the current liaison committee from ISO/TC 258.

More…

To read entire report, click here

 

How to cite this report: Vaskimo, J. (2019). ISO/TC 258, ISO Technical Committee for Project, Program and Portfolio Management, convenes in Seoul, South Korea. PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue X, November.  Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pmwj87-Nov2019-Vaskimo-ISO-TC-258-convenes-in-Seoul-report.pdf

 

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About the Author

Dr Jouko Vaskimo

Espoo, Finland

 

 

 Jouko Vaskimo is an International Correspondent and Senior Contributing Editor for PM World in Finland. Jouko graduated M.Sc. (Tech.) from Helsinki University of Technology in 1992, and D.Sc. (Tech.) from Aalto University in 2016. He has held several project management related positions with increasing levels for responsibility. Jouko holds a number of professional certificates in the field of project management, such as the IPMA Level C (Project Manager), IPMA Level B (Senior Project Manager), PMP, PRINCE2 Foundation, and PRINCE2 Practitioner. Jouko is also a Certified Scrum Master and SAFe Agilist.

Jouko is a member of the Project Management Association Finland, a founding member of PMI Finland Chapter, and the immediate past chairman of the Finnish IPMA Certification Body operating IPMA certification in Finland. Since October 2007, he has been heading the Finnish delegation to ISO/TC 258.

Jouko resides in Espoo, Finland and can be best contacted at jouko.vaskimo@aalto.fi. For more information please navigate to www.linkedin.com/in/jouko-vaskimo-6285b51.

To view other works by Jouko Vaskimo, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/jouko-vaskimo/

 

 

 

REPORT

By Dr Brane Semolic

Global Academic Advisor

Celje, Slovenia

 

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The LENS Living Lab international innovation community successfully concluded the 18th KM FEST event, which was the very first Competence Center (CC) ROBOFLEX Strategic Conference at the same time. This time KM FEST co-organizers, besides LENS Living Lab, were CC ROBOFLEX and TCS – Toolmakers Cluster of Slovenia, with their international industry research and innovation robotics’ innovation community.

More than 50 various thematic experts from 14 different countries (China, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden) and three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa) participated in this 3-days event.

The first-day focus was on the use of collaborative robots and smart factory applications; the second day paid attention to the business models of related competence centers and their innovation ecosystems. The third – last day was reserved for the emerging industry engineering competencies and corporate culture change challenges. We had fruitful round table discussions at the end of each meeting day.

The final report will be available in the LENS Living Lab Newsletter next month. More info about this event at this link: http://kmfest.com/ 

Here is the link where you can find the KM FEST presentations: http://kmfest.3-lab.eu/

 

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About the Author

Prof Dr Brane Semolic

Founder and Head of LENS Living Lab –
International living laboratory
Celje, Slovenia

 

 

Brane Semolic studied mechanical engineering, engineering economics, and informatics; he holds a scientific master’s degree and doctorate in business informatics. His focus of professional interest is industrial and system engineering, innovation and technology management, virtual organizations and systems, project and knowledge management. He has 40 years of working experiences in different industries (industrial engineering, IT, chemicals, household appliances, government, and education), as an expert, researcher, manager, entrepreneur, counselor to the Slovenian government and professor.  He operates as head of the open research and innovation organization LENS Living Lab. LENS Living Lab is an international industry-driven virtual living laboratory. He is acting as initiator and coordinator of various research and innovation collaboration platforms, programs and projects for the needs of different industries (ICT, robotics, laser additive manufacturing, logistics, education). He was co-founder and the first director of the TCS – Toolmakers Cluster of Slovenia (EU automotive industry suppliers). Since 2004 he is serving as the president of the TCS council of experts. Besides this, he is operating as a part-time professor at the Cranefield College.

He was head of project and information systems laboratory at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Head of the Project & Technology Management Institute at the Faculty of Logistics, University of Maribor and professor of project and technology management at the graduate and postgraduate level. He acted as a trainer at the International »European Project Manager« post-graduated program, organized jointly by the University of Bremen.

He was the co-founder and president of the Project Management Association of Slovenia (ZPM), vice president of IPMA (International Project Management Association), chairman of the IPMA Research Management Board (2005-2012), and technical vice-chairman of ICEC (International Cost Engineering Council).  Now he is serving as a director of the IPMA & ICEC strategic alliance. He actively participated in the development of the IPMA 4-level project managers’ certification program. He introduced and was the first director of the IPMA certification program in Slovenia. He has been serving as the assessor in this certification program since 1997. He performed as assessor in the IPMA International PM Excellence Award Program in China, India, and Slovenia.

He is a registered assessor for the accreditation of education programs and education organizations by the EU-Slovenian Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.

He was a Member of Strategic Advisory Board of European Competitiveness and Innovation, as well as the president of the Slovenian Chamber of Business Services.

He got the award as ICEC Distinguished International Fellow in 2008. He received the »Silver Sign« for his achievements in research, education, and collaboration with the industry from the University of Maribor in 2015.

Professor Semolic is also an academic advisor for the PM World Journal.  He can be contacted at brane.semolic@3-lab.eu.   Additional information about the LENS Living Lab can be found at http://www.3-lab.eu/ .

To view other works by Prof Semolic, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/brane-semolic/

 

 

 

REPORT

 

By Ipek Sahra Ozguler

International Correspondent

Istanbul, Turkey

 

 

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Interview with Nurdan Ozdemir

Executive Coach

Ipek Sahra Ozguler (Ozguler):    Nurdan Ozdemir, thank you for accepting the interview invitation of the PMWJ. Please introduce yourself for our readers.

Nurdan Ozdemir (Ozdemir):  First of all, I want to thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts about Emotional Intelligence for project management.

I’m electronics engineer with over 25 years of experience in defense sector. I took various roles in electronics production, software development, team leading, project and program management fields. I worked for defense companies like ASELSAN, AYESAS and METEKSAN Savunma during my career. I have 15 years of experience in project management during which I also enjoyed establishing and managing a project management office in addition to managing prominent defense projects. I have ICF approved Professional Coaching and Executive Coaching certificates together with Six Seconds Brain Profiler and Emotional Intelligence Assessor certificates.

My noble goal is to inspire transformation of leadership. Shaping my roadmap and daily activities with this goal I am coaching leaders and managers for emotional intelligence and leadership. I coach business people whose goals are to inspire others, to build relationships based on trust and to shine with success. I organize emotional intelligence workshops for project managers and other business leaders.

Having values of sharing and contribution to the society, I take part in social responsibility projects. In this respect I am coaching entrepreneurial women, university students and young women as well as mentoring young colleagues in PMI’s mentoring program. I’m one of the volunteers of Association for Coaching Turkey branch.

Ozguler:    You are one of the mentors in PMI’s mentoring program and organise emotional intelligence meetings and workshops for project managers.  Could you briefly discuss the emotional intelligence (EI)?

Ozdemir:      In short, emotional intelligence is being smarter with feelings, as defined by Six Seconds organization. EI is listening both our logic and emotions and use them intelligently to reach our goals in life. It is a set of competencies that allows you to apply thinking and feeling to make optimal decisions. We couldn’t use the power of emotions in business world because we taught that we should leave the emotions at the door. It has been quite long that we have realized emotions are essential to effective decision making and motivation. If you use your EI effectively you’ll be better able to influence others, to communicate, and to stay focused on the critical path. We see some people who just get along with other, respond carefully even in the face of challenge, and truly connect with people. They are proactive, balanced, operate with integrity, and have great insight into themselves and others. All these come from emotional intelligence skills.

Ozguler:     What is the relationship between project management and EI? Why is EI so important in project management?

Ozdemir:    When you look at the soft skills a project manager should possess, like relationship development, team building, negotiating, collaborating, influencing, motivating, coaching, one may think of a person with superhero powers. Today’s fast changing and VUCA environment require project managers to be like a LeaderMan. As you may guess LeaderMan is a kind of super hero who is an exceptionally skillful person. This term, LeaderMan, is first used by my dear friend Gülşah Göktekin for business leaders. Project leaders’ face even more challenges because they have to manage and motive people from various departments and disciplines most of whom are not direct reports.

More…

To read entire report, click here

 

How to cite this report: Ozguler, I.S. (2019). Project Management Update from Turkey, PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue X, November. Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pmwj87-Nov2019-Ozguler-Nurdan-Ozdemir-interview-report-from-Turkey.pdf

 

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About the Author

Ipek Sahra Ozguler

Istanbul, Turkey

 

 

Ipek Sahra Ozguler graduated from the Istanbul University with the Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering and from Middle East Technical University with an MSc degree in Software Management. She became a certified PMP in January, 2012 and a certified SCRUM Master in 2014. She works as international correspondent at PMWJ. Before joining PMWJ, she worked for global multinational companies and leading local companies such as Coca Cola, Deloitte, Turkcell Superonline,Havelsan and TAV IT.  Over the years, she has gained extensive experience in managing various medium and large scale projects, programs and portfolios.

Her article named “When I Decided to Develop Multi Processing Project Manager’s System” was published in the book “A Day in the Life of a Project Manager”.  She has published several articles in the PM World Journal and one in PMI’s PM Network magazine. Ipek is actively involved in sailing, writing and discovering new cultures.  She can be contacted at ipeksahra@gmail.com.

To see other works by Ipek Sahra Ozguler, visit her author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/ipek-sahra-ozguler/

 

 

 

REPORT

By Alfonso Bucero

International Correspondent

Madrid, Spain

 

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PMI Madrid Spain Chapter – Project Management Congress

This year PMI has celebrated 50 years of existence and as every year by November PMI membership will join in Madrid to celebrate their XV! Project Management Congress. At this meeting we will be talking about what is happening in our business environment, the aspects that are affecting us when managing projects and also about what is happening internally. In order to do that we will count on Roberto Toledo member of the PMI Board of Directors, Betsy Kauffman, Leadership and Organizational Agility Coach, Paul Villacorta, Past President from PMI Lima Perú Charter, and somebody else pending to be confirmed.

¡¡¡¡We are going to celebrate our 50th anniversary!!!! We will have a birthday pie

 

More…

To read entire report, click here for (English) or (Spanish)

 

How to cite this report:  Bucero, A. (2019). November 2019 Project Management Update from Spain, PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue X, November. Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pmwj87-Nov2019-Bucero-Regional-Report-Spain-ENGLISH.pdf

 

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About the Author

Alfonso Bucero

Madrid, Spain

 

 

 

Alfonso Bucero, MSc, CPS, PMP, PMI-RMP, PfMP, PMI Fellow, is an International Correspondent and Contributing Editor for the PM World Journal in Madrid, Spain. Mr. Bucero is also founder and Managing Partner of BUCERO PM Consulting.  Alfonso was the founder, sponsor and president of the PMI Barcelona Chapter until April 2005, and belongs to PMI’s LIAG (Leadership Institute Advisory Group).  He was the past President of the PMI Madrid Spain Chapter, and then nominated as a PMI EMEA Region 8 Component Mentor. Now he is a member of the PMIEF Engagement Committee. Alfonso has a Computer Science Engineering degree from Universidad Politécnica in Madrid and is studying for his Ph.D. in Project Management. He has 32 years of practical experience and is actively engaged in advancing the PM profession in Spain and throughout Europe. He received the PMI Distinguished Contribution Award on October 9th, 2010, the PMI Fellow Award on October 22^nd 2011 and the PMI Eric Jenett Excellence Award on October 28^th, 2017.

Mr. Bucero can be contacted at alfonso.bucero@abucero.com.

To see other works by Alfonso Bucero, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/alfonso-bucero/

 

 

 

Project Management skills capacity building programme; Project Management Zimbabwe marks 10 years

 

REPORT

By Peter Banda

International Correspondent

Harare, Zimbabwe

 

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UNDP Zimbabwe Rolls out massive Civil Society member Project Management skills capacity building programme

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Harare Zimbabwe has rolled out a massive training programme worth over USD$50 000 to empower Civil Society Organisations with project management skills. The Programme is being run in partnership with Project Management Zimbabwe (PMZ) from July to November 2019. Over 100 CSO representatives drawn from across the country are being mentored in small groups in the ongoing programme in Harare.

Participants have been segmented into four (4) groups with the largest beneficiaries being the 50 UNAIDS participants who have already gone through the Certificate of Competency in Project Management (COCPM). The other remaining groups have been segmented to receive project management certification based training covering PMP (Project Management Professional) and PRINCE2 (Projects In Controlled Environment) methodology.

According to the UNDP Programme Coordinator Mrs Nokuthula Mujuru, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Zimbabwe and other developing countries have experienced a changing environment in care for HIV over the last few years. There are stronger and different treatment approaches to HIV being implemented mainly by the CSO and yet funding for civil society groups have dwindled. The changing institutional landscape highlights the urgent need for civil society to review, redefine its role and reposition themselves to contribute to the response to HIV and health generally, considering the linkages between HIV and other health issues. It is important that civil society groups adapt to the changing landscape to the response to remain relevant, considering that they are key player in the fight to ending the AIDS epidemic.

The question that arises is “How can CSOs in HIV adapt to respond appropriately to the changing landscape and the clarion call for access to health?”  As Government provides most of the services including prevention and treatment to PLHIVs, civil society groups can focus on support adherence to treatment, support marginalised and key populations to enable access to both prevention and treatment, including providing watchdog roles in the communities.

For CSOs to be able to conduct such activities, there is need to strengthen their individual skills and organizational systems. Is it against this background that UNDP has rolled out this CSOs training programme targeting participants from across the country.

One of the COCPM delegates Mr Kasirai Hweta from Loving Hand Bulawayo, said the course was quite relevant as it is going to improve on the deliverables in their projects.

“As we are going to start new projects we are going to start on a firm foundation as we now know the things that are supposed to be done before a project starts and during the implementation hence an improvement in the outcome.

“Sometimes we do things haphazardly due to poor planning, but with the skills that I have acquired at this course I am even going to improve on the ongoing projects that we are running now”, said Mr Hweta.

Phillipa Mhike from the Sexual Rights Centre in Gweru said the training was very insightful and delightful as it focused on aspects which if applied rightfully can yield positive results. Mhike confirmed that the training touched on other important aspects which in most cases project managers take for granted. “One of the key areas that the training focused on was the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) which most of us take for granted. In most cases we don’t really consider the sharing of duties yet it’s important for a project to be a success,” she said.

In another sentiments, Jabulani Tshabalala from Umguza in Matebeleland north said that the program was really exciting and applauded the facilitators from the Project Management Zimbabwe (PMZ) for coming with such kind of model of training. “I hope for such trainings to be scaled up so that all the CSOs in Zimbabwe funded by various partners can have this kind of approach which can actually perhaps satisfy the needs of stakeholders.

“Our facilitators were very motivating, knowledgeable and very patient with us, with very good time management skills. They managed to compress the long course in few days which is a very skilful approach.

Tonderai Chikono from Development Aid from People to people in Zimbabwe (DAPP), who was also the Group representative echoed same sentiments saying though the program was very educative and informative  there is need in the future of extending duration for participants to really grab the important aspects of the course. Mr Chikono also said that in terms of participation, it was hyper and the participants were also eager to learn. “The participation was a two-way form as both the facilitators and participants created room for interaction,” he said

Following are photos from the programme.

 

More…

To read entire report, click here

 

How to cite this report:  Banda, P. (2019). Project Management Update from Harare, PM World Journal; Vol. VIII, Issue X, November.  Available online at  https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pmwj87-Nov2019-Banda-Zimbabwe-Report.pdf

 

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About the Author

Peter Banda

Harare, Zimbabwe

 

 

 

Peter Banda is an agile Portfolio Manager with Change Management, Marketing & Project Management Skills, and an accomplished entrepreneur with broad stakeholder management experience. He is a founder of Zimbabwe’s largest Association of Project Managers with a membership of over 1000, Project Management Zimbabwe (PMZ – formerly called Project Management Institute of Zimbabwe). He has worked in both the private & public sectors during the last 20 years in Zimbabwe, Botswana & South Africa. Peter is a born & passionate teacher, mentor & trainer with skills ranging from Personal Development Planning to Project Management. Peter has presented & published over 20 papers at high profile international conferences & leading newspapers & publications respectively during the last 8 years.

Peter is currently Secretary- General & CEO of PROJECT MANAGEMENT ZIMBABWE (PMZ). Responsibilities cover strategic navigation of PMZ towards the vision covering board advisory and stakeholder management. He was previously a Higher Education Examiner, Facilitator, Lecturer, Curriculum Developer and Assessor for both local and International Diploma and Degree courses for the Zimbabwe Ministry of Higher & Tertiary Education.  He also served as an Examiner, Assessor and Facilitator on for SpringSoft in South Africa. Peter holds a Bachelors (Hon.) degree and MSc qualification, and is currently studying for a PhD & PMP exams.  A God fearing father of 2 lovely daughters & 1 son, Peter likes reading & researching current affairs, coaching others to realise their dreams, and watching soccer & cricket.

Peter Banda can be contacted at PMIZ National Secretariat Office projectmanagementzimbabwe@gmail.com

To view original works by Peter Banda, visit his author profile in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/peter-banda-2/