Project management plays an essential role in economic development. China has raised the importance of project management professional cultivation to a strategic level, as stated in the National Medium and Long-Term Talent Development Plan (2010-20).

Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading professional association for project management, began holding an annual PMI China Congress since 2010.

At the 2012 congress, Peter Monkhouse, Chair of PMI Board of Directors, shared his views on the changes and the role of project management and issues related to PMI's development with Beijing Review reporter Deng Yaqing. Edited excerpts of his views follow:

Beijing Review: From the founding of the PMI in the 1960s to today, there have been changes in the essence of project management. From your years of practice, can you share with us these changes?

Peter Monkhouse: When we go back to the 1960s, project management was very technical. It was about how to get the best schedule and build the best cost estimates for the project. There was a lot of focus on tools and techniques.

But in the 1990s, computers were dealing with lots of these technical skills, and even though we got these project managers trained to do these technical skills, projects were still failing.

So when I started to get involved in the 1990s, there was an emphasis on soft skills, the beauty of communicating and negotiating and the skills to work with teams. We recognized that project managers needed to know how to talk to their customers and how to tell their project team members.

In the next stages we have to make sure, as project managers, we are working on projects that are clearly aligned to strategic objectives, so when we recognize there is a problem in the project, we will get the support of the project sponsors and project executive.

China's economy is experiencing economic restructuring, so what role could project management play in it?

What project management can help China do is to make sure these projects are delivered on time, on budget and on scope. When we talk about the downturn of the economy, you want to make sure your projects are done on budget, so you don't need to spend extra money to complete the project, and you can use that money elsewhere.

It really doesn't matter where you are in the economic circle, project management can help organizations, companies, countries and government agencies make sure they are doing the right project and get it done the right way.

Which company do you think has done a good job in project management amid the economic downturn?

Whenever there is a downturn, there is an opportunity. We look at companies like Huawei, who have continued to grow and expand and have really embraced project management to help them do that.

Huawei has been very good at picking the right technology and the right market where they feel they have a competitive advantage, so they can be successful.

Globally, the one I would like to talk about is IBM. It has embraced project management for a number of years. They created a center of excellence in project management, they have specific career path for project managers, and there are training programs for project managers, so they can help develop resources. IBM has been able to use that to successfully deliver projects for their customers.

PMI has a very important organization called the Global Executive Council. How does the council operate? There have been two Chinese companies aboard. Will you accept more Chinese companies in the future?

Two years ago, we created the Global Executive Council. That was out of a lot of thinking about how to best support our members' practice in project management.

We gave them tools and training, but what we started to realize is we have to help them train their bosses. The senior level of an organization has to help select the right project, and has to be able to know how to support their project managers to deliver their projects successfully.

We have 72 international companies that get together twice a year to share how they support project management in their organization.

When we accept companies into the council, we are looking for organizations, which we call qualified "discussion partners" that have the sight, the experience and the maturity in project management. They can add value to the other members of the council.

We also want to make sure that we have senior people as members, people who hire project managers. They can be active in making a difference in an organization by implementing training programs and building a career path for project managers.

Absolutely, we will accept more Chinese companies in the future. We are looking for qualified "discussion partners" and encourage them to join the council.

The question is about project management and corporate culture. Chinese companies may have a different corporate culture from other regions.

Project management in general largely has to do with skills. I don't feel the culture has to be independent.

For every project, I need to find out what the goal is and what needs to be done. How I go about doing so will change between industries, between countries, and between cultures.

In some organizations, the boss will say, "This is what has to be done, go do it." In other organizations, you get together as a group to discuss what should be done and how to do. It's the "how" that will be different.

And that's why we allow art come into project management to decide the best way to get the task done.

Background

Currently there are over 900,000 people who have received project management training in China and project management professionals (PMPs) number more than 50,000. China has become the country with the most PMPs after the United States. Many of these PMPs took positions in a variety of China's mega projects such as the gas pipeline from southwest China's Sichuan to the Asian Games in Guangzhou.

(Source: PMI China)