Dr. Paul Gardiner, Prof. Jim Ritchie and Jean Binder debated live on Dubai Eye Radio: Is Dubai "Global Project Management Ready"?

·         Global projects are a unique set of projects that require special consideration for success. ·         Global projects usually have the following characteristics: participants from more than one location, more than one time zone, multiple cultures, more than one language, multiple organisations. ·         This makes them complex compared to most projects. ·         Jean's research has developed a set of 25 success criteria, within five dimensions that are considered important for project success. ·         Dubai is the home of large and complex projects ... but are the project managers in Dubai ready for global projects?

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Dr Paul Gardiner

Jim Ritchie is Professor and Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, specialising in teaching and research in the domains of design, manufacturing and management.  Recent funded research has investigated the use of digital tools, especially virtual reality, for the automatic generation of design and manufacture process mapping and knowledge acquisition. Future projects in this area will include project management. Other funded projects have included quality methods in the food industry, design process analysis, logistics for  SMEs and capability maturity modelling. With over 130 joint publications, he is also Director of his University’s Advanced Manufacturing Unit.

Jean Binder, from the GlobalProjectManagement.org, presented a very interactive workshop, where particiapants learnt some practical solutions to increase the efficiency of global project teams. The workshop consolidated the vast experience from the participants on multi-cultural project management, discussed the key challenges and combine presentations with group exercises. By the end of the evening all participants developed their own set of cross-cultural success factors for global projects.

Click here to download a copy of the presentation.

Click here to download the flip chart results.

Jean Binder, from the GlobalProjectManagement.org, made a presentation about effective communication in Global Projects. Click here to learn more.

It was a very interactive session, and participants learned some practical solutions to increase the efficiency of distributed international teams. After the initial presentation, they brainstormed in teams on the key factors for the success of global projects, and shared the results with the other participants.

Click here to download the results.

Jean Binder, from the GlobalProjectManagement.org, presented the Model of Success Factors for Global Project Management at the 23rd IPMA World Contress 2009, in Helsinki (17 June 2009). Click here to download the full congress programme.

Jean Binder, from the GlobalProjectManagement.org, made a presentation about effective management of Global Projects at the PMI Global Congress EMEA 2009, in Amsterdam.

In this presentation, over 150 people reviewed the key framework concepts from the book and discussed the main areas of knowledge that companies must consider to achieve a high level of efficiency on global projects.

Using a mix of theory and real-life examples, Jean presented different processes and methods for effective collaboration on projects that involve people in different countries and time zones. Some questions answered during the presentation include:

- What are the main cross-cultural differences and how can they affect global projects?

- How to build trust over distance?

- How to avoid and resolve conflicts across borders?

- How to use brainstorming and mindmapping with distributed teams? 

Images ©2009 Felix Ludosan 

Dr. Derek H.T. Walker, from the RMIT University in Melbourne, reviewed the book "Global Project Management" for the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business (volume 2, issue 1, pages 160-163).

Dr. Walker considers that the book "is one a very few available texts in this domain with a project management focus and as such it makes a valuable contribution to project management practice", and that "the [Global Project Management] framework provides a neat way of presenting and organising the book being a globe figure with latitude and longitude lines to segregate it into 25 chapters of varying length and five major themes: Global teams; global communication; global organisations; collaborative tools and collaborative techniques".

The review concludes by saying that the book is a very useful tool and "a long waited primer for those struggling with managing global [project management] teams", representing "one of the pioneer books in an important area of focus for [project management]".

 Jean Binder, from the GlobalProjectManagement.org, made a presentation about effective communication in Global Projects. Click here to learn more.

Using a good mix of theory and real-life examples, we discussed different processes and methods for effective communication on projects that involve people in different countries and time zones. What are the main communication challenges from global projects? What strategies can be used? How to use communication techniques to increase commitment of global stakeholders? All participantes came to the presentation with ideas to answer these questions, and brought other challenges faced by global project managers. The result was captured in a mindmap with key elements suggested by the audience.

Dr. Ginger Levin reviewed the book "Global Project Management" for the Project Management Journal (volume 39, issue 4, page 115), from the Project Management Institute.

Dr Levin evaluates that "For project professionals working on virtual or geographically dispersed projects, Global Project Management by Jean Binder will be a valuable reference. It could serve as a textbook for universities that offer programs in project management and wish to or have a course on the virtual and global environment. ... In a number of areas, Global Project Management adds to previously notable work".

The peer-refereed academic and research quarterly of PMI, Project Management Journal® features state-of-the-art management techniques, research, theories and applications. It addresses the broad interests of the project management profession, and maintains an editorial balance of content about research, technique, theory and practice.

Click here to read the full review

In case the link above does not work, please download the review from the pmi.org website (Select "Resources" > "Project Management Journal" > "Read past issues of the journal" > "September 2008") 

"Using the book you don’t need to spend time surfing the web and online bookstores to find different pieces of information. The framework provides the main recommendations, and also references to other sources of information, for the readers that want to have a deep understanding of selected topics."

Click here to read the full interview 

Jean Binder, from the Global Project Management.org, presented a webinar to more than 140 members of the PMOSIG (The PMI PMO Specific Interest Group). The webinar "Strategies and best practices for a global PMO" reviewed the different areas of knowledge that are essential for effectiveness of global projects, and the various types and objectives of a global PMO, suggesting innovative ways to foster innovation and to improve the effectiveness of global programs and projects.

During the presentation, case studies from a number of global projects were presented and combined with the answers to the participants’ questions, providing best practices and techniques that can be applied directly by a global PMO.

Members of the PMOSIG can click here and download the presentation.