PMI Today (May 2008): MITPM & Earthquake in China

Shorter version of this publication was published at

PMI Today magazine May 2008 edition

19 June 2008 – PMI IT & Telecom SIG Asia Pacific Half Yearly Report

Reported by SK Khor PMP®, Regional Director, Asia Pacific, PMI IT & Telecom SIG

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PMI IT & Telecom SIG strengthened their presence in Asia Pacific and contributed to the success of the largest ICT focused Project Management event in the Asia Pacific region.

Mastering IT Project Management (MITPM) is an annual international event for Asian based Project Managers and leaders in the Information Technologies and Communications sectors. In conjunction with World IT Congress 2008 (WCIT), the yearly event, that the PMI IT & Telecom SIG has been proudly supporting since it was kicked off in 2005, was brought forward this year to 14-16 May from the usual 1-2 August timeslot.

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The event was themed “Setting the Global Standard”, and successfully attracted more than 530 delegates from various parts of the Asia Pacific region, from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia etc., who gathered in KL to learn, network, and share the latest technologies and project management developments in the IT and telecommunications industries.

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The pre-conference seminar conducted by Professor Hubert Vaughan from Tsinghua University, China, aimed to assist IT project managers to understand a new way to do proper project scoping from often unclear, or even non-existent requirements in today’s ever changing IT project environments. A post-conference seminar was conducted by Dr. Davidson Frame, Dean of University of Management & Technology in Virginia, USA and a PMI Fellow, with a focus on the use of Earned Value Management in ICT projects.

The main conference keynote “Re-thinking the PMBOK, CMM and ISO 9000”, was delivered by the world renowned Dr Davidson Frame. His presentation showcased how different approaches to project management can be used and blended within the context of the PMBOK, CMM and ISO. In his talk he explored ways where waterfall, iterative and agile practices can each be specifically applied to successfully manage different types of projects, and how these methodologies can be blended together. He was a very energizing speaker and set the tone for a highly informative day, that would cover a number of important topics for IT Project Managers.

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Past-Chairman Mr Mark Lurch and current Chair Mr Dave Prior of the PMI IT & Telecom SIG, were invited to share their expertise and experiences during the MITPM Conference. Mr. Dave Prior introduced Agile Methodology to the delegates and shared practical tips on how to implement and use Agile as a project management tool. Mr. Mark Lurch gave a lively presentation on the importance of “Managing IT Projects Like a Business”. As expected, both talks were very informative and delivered with a great sense of humour, and were very well received by the Asian crowd.

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Michael Song, Director of Engineering at Motorola Technology, Malaysia, who spoke after Mark, constituted probably the most fascinating part of the day. Michael arrived just barely in time to give his presentation on “Managing Global Software Projects via Virtual Teams”. Michael, who is based in Malaysia, had gone to China for a business meeting and survived his 4th real life earthquake experience in China just 3 days before the conference started. Michael’s effort and experience to find his way out from China during the first 48 hours after the 7.8 Richter Scale earth quake struck the Chengdu, the city Michael was having his meeting in, was inimitable. His persistency and commitment to the project management profession earned him great esteem from delegates, peers and the conference organizers alike.

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Over the lunch session, Michael was invited to share his first hand experience of the quake, and he also pledged all project managers and leaders to contribute donations to help the victims in China.

Michael’s experience triggered the organizers of MITPM to invite Tsu Tzi Foundation to set up a donation booth to support the relief efforts. Overall they raised over 12000 Malaysian Ringgit (approx. USD3,700) in just a few hours. Mark and Dave represented all members of the IT & Telecom SIG when they donated USD500.00 towards the China earth quake relief.

Dave and Mark also took an opportunity to conduct a video podcast interview with one of the delegates, who had traveled all the way from Nepal to attend MITPM and to meet representatives of PMI IT & Telecom SIG.

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The day ended with a presentation by Professor Vaughan who gave a talk on PMI’s Program Management Standard and its value to an IT Organization as well as a series of lucky draws where Mark and Dave were invited to pick the lucky winners.

In addition to the MITPM event, Mark Lurch, Dave Prior and I had the opportunity to speak to graduate students, lecturers and IT professionals at an event organized by Multimedia University in KL.

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Last but not least, the success of the PMI IT& Telecom SIG’s presence during the MITPM would not have been possible without the excellent efforts of the organization committee, which consisted of the Multimedia Development Corporation (www.mdec.omc.my) , Advanced Technology Studies Center (www.atsc.org), Project Management Institute, PMI’s Malaysia Chapter (www.pmimy.org) , and the Malaysian National Computer Confederation (www.mncc.org.my)

This annual event is most definitely a platform for the PMI IT & Telecom SIG to further develop and cultivate our strong presence in the Asia Pacific region. We are proud to be able to share and network with project managers from the Information Technologies and Telecommunications sectors in Asia Pacific, and we are very much looking forward to meeting again in 2009.

After MITPM, Mark and Dave boarded a plane from Kuala Lumpur to Malta to support the 2008 PMI EMEA Global Congress, reporting on which I shall leave to my counterpart in the EMEA Region, Jose Angelo Pinto, MIS, PMP [jose.pinto@pmi-ittelecom.org] from Portugal, with my best wishes to continue the success of the PMI IT & Telecom SIG in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

SK Khor PMI IT&T

SK Khor PMP(r)

Regional Director, Asia Pacific,

PMI IT & Telecom SIG

regdir-asiapac@pmi-ittelecom