More Project Management News

Intervals Reaches $330 Million in Work Managed with Web-based Project Management Software
CSRwire.com — Santa Barbara, CA – July 15, 2009 – Intervals, the growing online project management software from Pelago, has recently reached $330 million in work managed by its customers. As a web-based service accessible from anywhere with a web browser and an internet connection, Intervals is currently in use by small businesses in 90 countries. Collectively, they have used the software to track over 48,000 projects, 282,000 tasks and 2,900,000 hours.

The Intervals team recently completed a significant infrastructure overhaul during the first half of the year, and is continuing to improve the service by increasing response times and adding new features based on customer feedback. New features include the ability to update several project tasks at once and a quick-search enabled page for editing tracked time details. “We really want to make a difference and listen to our customers, which is something many software companies have failed to do,” said Michael Payne of Pelago. Pelago has stated on many occasions that their goal is to differentiate their software by offering superior customer service. “We have quadrupled our numbers since this time last year while adding several new features, many of which were suggested by our customers,” stated John Reeve, also of Pelago.

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Bottom-up view on challenges to project management

Results of a new global study conducted by ESI International reveal project portfolio management (PPM) challenges from a “bottom-up,” project and program management perspective. Leading concerns noted by project and program managers polled in the study included: greater need for PPM improvement given the economic downturn; lack of PPM experience, tools or process in commercial and public organizations; redundancies and conflicts in project portfolios; and inconsistent project reviews with poor follow-up. Survey respondents were project and program management professionals representing government, as well as commercial industries in financial services, telecom, IT, energy, pharma & health, professional services, manufacturing and other sectors in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia.

“ESI’s global Project Portfolio Management Survey provides senior management with insights to guide them in charting a path to increased ROI from their project portfolios,” said Mario Arlt, PMP, vice president of client solutions, ESI. “The survey’s focus on project and program managers rather than senior executives offers a reality check for executives to ponder.”

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Project Management Jobs

Mechanical Project Manager

Location:      Hampshire
Salary:      £40-45k + package
Company:      Management Recruitment Group
Job type:      Permanent

Role Summary:

One of the UK’s leading privately owned M&E Contractors with a proven track record in successful delivery of multi-million £ projects our client is seeking an experienced Mechanical Project Manager / Contracts Manager. Able to demonstrate a successful track record in management of projects values ranging up to £5m you will be responsible for timely completion to budget & spec.

The Company:

One of the UK’s leading privately owned specialist ME&P Contractors our client is able to offer their established client base co-ordinated Project Management service covering HVAC & electrical building services installations. In addition they are able to provide in-house ductwork fabrication, pipework prefabrication, refrigeration, electrical, and controls services. They have also taken a leading role in the monitoring and control of refrigerant gases and the introduction of alternative gases as recommended by the Institute of Refrigeration.

Flood Defence Project Manager

Location:      Bath, Avon
Salary:      unspecified
Company:      Project Resource
Job type:      Permanent

The role:
The client is seeking a Project Manager who has experience in flood defence as our client is a leading provider of integrated river and coastal management solutions.
The Project Manager will be part of a growing team that design sustainable projects for drainage, river, estuarine and coastal environments and help coastal communities adapt to climate change.

The Client:
The client are a leading consultancy with a global presence who specialise in environmental, water and energy projects. Our client is well established within there respective sectors and are at the forefront of sustainable projects.

Location: Wiltshire

Remuneration: Dependant on experience ( Basic salary plus good benefits package.)

Requirements:
The project Manager must have flood defence, coastal or river experience and have come from a technical background within this field as well as over 5 years Project Management experience. Degree qualifications would be preferable but not essential.

5 themes recruiters are looking for

Melanie Franklin, CEO of Maven Training, spoke about the market trends hitting project management at a breakfast event in London, UK, recently.

Franklin, who is the author of three books on the soft skills required for project management, spends a lot of time consulting on what organizations need to do in order to deliver better projects.  She’s in and out of board rooms and she hears what people want from project management professionals.  At the moment, these are the trending topics.

Organizations want:

• Knowledge and understanding of best practice
• Technical project management skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Specialist knowledge in a relevant industry sector
• PRINCE2 on your CV

She also said that there’s a wider trend away from ‘project management’ towards PPM, PPRM or P3.  If those acronyms don’t mean anything to you they are:

PPM:  project and programme management
PPRM:  project, programme and risk management
P3:  project, programme and portfolio management.

At interview you should be able to talk knowledgeably about the fact that PPM is the delivery of organisational change and development capability, as opposed to project management which is ‘just’ getting something done.  At board level the discussions now are about programmes and portfolios, which translates as doing the right thing for the business, and not just doing projects for the sake of it.

Those weren’t the words Franklin used exactly, but she was clear that project delivery is about staying OTOBOS and programme delivery is about delivering an outcome or vision and a more strategic change or business transformation.  In summary, when she is hiring or advising people on hiring, she looks for various key skills as follows.

In a project manager:

• Delegation
• Planning
• Delivery on time
• Cost management
• Quality management
• Risk management
• Change management and managing the impact of those changes
• Requirements gathering
• How scope is presented and checked and how often.

In a programme manager:

• Benefits management and realization
• Stakeholder management
• Ability to manage uncertainty with innovation, problem solving skills and creativity
• Ability to manage problems without constantly referring them up.

For both jobs Franklin said she would look at how recent is the candidate’s investment in their knowledge.  For example, if you are going for a job as a project manager you are presenting yourself as an expert in project management.  So how true is this?  When did you last attend an event or networking evening, training course or seminar?  How is this reflected on your CV?  It doesn’t have to cost a lot (read this article for some ideas on things that you can do without corporate investment) but it does have to be recent.

So now you know what employers are looking for in terms of both wide trends and specific skills – good luck with the job hunting!

Safran’s new Product and a PM Job

Project Manager – Digital/Online Projects
Our client, voted Digital Design Agency of the Year for 2007 and 2008, an ideas driven, design focused and strategically minded design agency is looking for talented Project Managers with Account Management experience for their growing Johannesburg office.

They specialize in the creation of digital campaign solutions for all sectors of business making their clients stand out from the crowd. Services include strategy, design and the technical development of solutions across all digital media space.

Do you like a challenge – being hands on? You will be involved in all matters from client briefing, budgets, traffic and project management?

• Experience working on digital projects is an absolute must!
• Knowledge of digital design as well as knowledge of digital front and back end is essential.
• Experience of working in a creative agency environment (beneficial)

Requirements:
• At least three years Digital Project Management experience
• At least three years of client facing experience
• Understanding of digital design and creative website development and functionality
• Knowledge of digital front and back end
• Running complete online to mobile to integrated campaigns
• Must have technical knowledge (how a website can work & different platforms it can be used on)
• Basic understanding of online and offline.
• Experience producing, trafficking and seeing through the development integrated digital campaigns that involve:
- SMS campaigns.
- Websites, Mailers, online banners (flash, gif and rich-media – must have been exposed to this from a non-technical side.)
- Processes of working with social networks like Facebook, Twitter and mobile marketing.
- Knowledge of programming languages and what is best used in various situations.
- Knowing the difference between an intranet and a portal (for example)

Apply here..

Safran North America Releases Proteus Product into North American Market
Market-tested Project Integration and Intelligence Product introduced to new market

Albuquerque, NM (PRWEB) July 2, 2009 — Safran North America (SNA), one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of project management applications, announced today that it has added Proteus to its product offerings to serve the North American market.

Over seven years in development and proofing in the most demanding project management environments in transnational corporations, Proteus is an integration and intelligence application that connects to project and/or enterprise information regardless of location, database system or underlying application. It is based on .NET it can access geographically dispersed data sources over the web as well as secure networks. In summary, Proteus is a virtual multi-application smart client operating across an organization with security attributes for each user or group of users in addition to any security acquired from the database.

“We are extremely excited about the capabilities that Proteus offers to our market ,” said Safran North America CEO, Nicholas Pisano. “We expect that Proteus will be a game-changer, particularly since it leverages the next generation of tools, by-passing the dead-end reliance on OLAP or Cubes to achieve data integration. Turning data from disparate systems into corporate information aggregated as appropriate based on a user’s role in the organization.”

read the full article here..

Project Manager of the Year Award

As reported in Trading Markets.

New York, NY, Jul 02, 2009 (PRWeb.com via COMTEX) — JW/A | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating — International Institute for Learning, Inc. (IIL) has opened the application process for the 2009 Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year(TM) Award. A global leader in professional training in Project, Program, and Portfolio Management, Business Analysis, Microsoft(R) Office Project and Project Server, PRINCE2(R), and Lean Six Sigma, IIL established this prestigious international award in 2006 to recognize project management professionals who demonstrate superior performance, outstanding skills, and innovative project management techniques, as well as those who make significant contributions in business, industry, government, community, or not-for-profit environments. The Award bears the name of Dr. Harold Kerzner, Ph.D, M.S., and M.B.A., Senior Executive Director of IIL. Considered by many to be “the father of modern project management,” he is an expert in the areas of project, program, and portfolio management and is the author of a number of best-selling project management textbooks, including Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, which is now in its tenth edition. His most recent textbook, Value-Driven Project Management (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) will be released in September of this year.

“Dr. Harold Kerzner is a true visionary in the field of project management and it is with great pride that we pay tribute to his contributions through the Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year(TM) Award,” said E. LaVerne Johnson, Founder, President, and CEO of IIL. “IIL is delighted to reward outstanding professionals for their dedication to the pursuit of project management excellence.”

Previous winners of the award have seen tremendous growth in their professional endeavors as a result of the honor. “Following my selection as International Project Manager of the Year, I have been very satisfied to see my career make a ‘quantum leap’, my network expand, and my credibility grow. The honor has elevated my status in the field, resulting in a new career opportunity that has profoundly changed my life and the lives of my family,” said Scot Hanley, PMP, MCP, 2008 Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year. “I have also been asked to contribute to Dr. Kerzner’s latest book and have been invited to lecture regularly on project management at the University of Alabama.”

To be eligible, candidates must possess the PMI(R) PMP(R) cred