"I have a strong interest and would love to learn and work with anything that relates to project management within civil engineering."
Mohammed, one perspective to consider is the need for systems thinking, and management
"Influence Lines" to be considered when one considers forming a project. The deliberate transformation of a group of individual technical experts into a functioning project team is not done by simply referring to this group of assigned individual professionals as
"Our Project Team." Given the
"Screaming Need" for common project management systems to be developed and tailored to fit the uniqueness of specific types of projects, you may find the following thoughts of interest.
Background
Executive management sets C-Suite Leaders in place for those critical operating sectors of the organization that strategically are intended to lead and manage the diverse segments of the organizations collaboratively, cooperatively, and communicatively to achieve the organization's objectives.
For example, accountants work within a defined system of management, established, audited, and maintained by their CFO.
IT/MIS professionals work within their defined system of management, established, audited, and maintained by their CIO.
And for those organizations who derive their revenue mainly from the execution of project work, project professionals work within a . . . . Whooops . . . .right!
Basically, it varies, with most "Systems of Project Management" based on "Who you get is what you get."
Are there exceptions to this?
Of course!
Do project management professionals and their executive/senior management wish to be continuing victims of an "Exceptions Management" approach?
This Post's Hypothesis
1.1 Project managers are to work within the "System of Project Management" provided, resourced, maintained, and controlled by the executive/senior management of their organization.
1.2 Project managers and their staff work within that system.
1.3 Executive/Senior Management are to work on that system, improving it with the help of the Project Managers and their project staff,
who work and live within it.
Even HBR Misses The Mark
this HBR article postulates some seven C-Level jobs; a couple known, predictable, but not one coming close to the "Screaming Need" for a Chief Project Officer (CPO).
Management of The System of Projects [2]
The Project Management Institute recently commented that organizations are, in increasing numbers, seeing added value from appointing Chief Project Officers.
According to Rebecca Langdon's piece on Morgan International's Supply Chain Blog, the Chief Project Officer (CPO) is responsible for providing governance over an organization's internal projects. Specifically, he/she:
- Ensures every project supports the right business goals
- Links all projects to business strategies
- Drives efficiencies and linkages between projects
- Manages resource requirements across the project portfolio
- Ensures that every project as an effective project manager
- Implements and oversees implementation of a project management methodology
Chief Project Officers, which are more common in some industries than others, are sometimes seen as preferable to project management offices because project management offices may not have board-level influence and therefore can't accomplish their strategic priorities.
Langdon pointed out that chief project officers are in the ideal position to raise the profile of the project portfolio, and to demonstrate the importance of projects to business development and maturity. "The CPO can also ensure that projects are resourced effectively. In organizations in which there is no chief project officer representing the needs of projects, projects might suffer for resources compared with other functions that shout louder," she said. "A CPO is also a cost-effective option than a full-scale PMO."
Thanks for reading and considering my thoughts
Cheers.
p.s. And to be clear, a PMO is NOT a solution for this system-process vacuum.
[1] Source: https://hbr.org/2011/03/the-new-path-to-the-c-suite downloaded 21JUN20172017.
[2] http://www.quickbase.com/blog/the-newest-member-of-the-c-suite-is-a-project-management-guru
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William Hayden Ph.D., P.E., CP, F.ASCE
Management Quality By Design, Inc.
Amherst NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-09-2017 11:56
From: Mohammad Ahmad Jamal
Subject: Project Management
Hi,
I am a civil engineering student from Pakistan, working on my 8th semester at the University of Lahore. I have a strong interest and would love to learn and work with anything that relates to project management within civil engineering. I've done my specialization certification in construction project management, including financial engineering, and risk analysis courses from Columbia University.
I'd love to hear from anyone in this community who has taken this route in their career. Any advice would be much appreciated!
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Mohammad Ahmad Jamal S.M.ASCE
Rawalpindi
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