Fourth PM Forum took place at MT&DCs training center in Falenty on 11 December. The subject of the meeting was Building Project Management Culture in Organization. A lecture was delivered by Urban Aderklint experienced project manager and holder of Project Management Professional title. Mr. Aderklint has managed complex projects in his extensive professional career (over 17 years of experience in project management), e.g. for nuclear power plant in Sweden.

Building project management culture is a process which lasts a few years. In todays reality the need for change is not one-time phenomenon. The task is not to establish one or two projects, the real challenge is to institutionalize the process of project management so that the organization can continue to change and adapt to whatever demands are placed upon it. The important element of building project management culture is awareness of the role of project manager within organization. Still there are a lot of companies where project managers have less authority than functional managers. Such situation is connected with the fact that not all organizations perceive project managers as managers who can make business.

During the lecture, Mr. Aderklint used the case study approach to talk about IBMs consistent approach to project management and establishing a professional project management function within organization. The interesting element of this approach was e.g. establishing four project management training levels in IBM.

After Urban Aderklints lecture there was a short presentation prepared by Zbigniew Traczyk from IBM who explained the idea of creating PMI Warsaw Poland Chapter. Project Management Institute (PMI) is independent non-profit association founded in 1969 in Filadelfia and associates thousands of project management professionals all over the world. PMI is the worlds leader in creating standards for the project management profession. PMIs premier standards document, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) is the words standard for project management knowledge and practices. PMIs methodology is improved by chapter created from PMIs members (in every 4 years there is a new edition of PMBOK Guide the next one will be in 2004) .

The purpose of PM Forum is to create a Project Management community in Poland and establish a PMI Chapter. Although the PMI Potential Chapter Sponsor was appointed prior to the meeting, it was the PM Forum on Wednesday that saw the actual formation of an initiative group. The initiator of PMI Potential Chapter is Mr. Zbigniew Traczyk, an experienced project manager from IBM, while MT&DCs role will be to integrate project management professionals in Poland. In 2003 there will be another PMI Convention, where PMI Chapter Poland will be recognized as officially established. Furthermore, according to PMI rules, it will be the only PMI Chapter in Poland.

According to the tradition of PM Forum, after the experts speech the evening continued with a more informal discussion on various aspects of project management at a buffet dinner where all guests (more than 70 people!) could hear the short speech about tasting of wine connected with tasting, of course

2002-12-11