I,m Back

I’m Back

I took a six month hiatus from my blog. Working on a grant proposal, developing a new course for the University and supporting the University in developing and deploying a new Competency Based Learning (CBL). This left little time for the writing I enjoy.

It has been an interesting six months. I continued to read articles in the Project Management Journal (PMJ). Some would make interesting blogs. I attended the Project Management Institute Research Conference, in Portland, OR, which deserves a couple of full blogs. So, I hope to have some interesting blogs in the next few weeks.

 I also developed a research grant proposal for PMI. I proposed exploring the efficacy of a tool process introduced by PMI this year.  Published by PMI in 2014, the Navigating Complexity: A Practice Guide provides an approach for assessing the complexity of a project, conducting a resource gap analysis, and developing an action plan that is fully integrated into the project management plan. The process is complex and PMI is now Beta testing the tools/ processes. I was hoping that PMI would be interested in an independent researcher evaluating the effectiveness of the tool. The grant proposal was accepted for round two but was not accepted in the final round. I was both disappointed and relieved. I was disappointed because I am very interested in the topic and wanted to continue explore project complexity and tool for better understanding our projects. I was relived because the research would consume lots of time and energy.

I suspect PMI was not ready for an independent researcher to evaluate their tool. I asked for feedback on the grant (always looking for improvement ideas) but sadly, PMI said they did not have the resources to provide feedback to people who submitted grants.

So, I am back and will share some ideas about project management. Next week, the 2014 PMI Research Conference, “leading edge or treading water”?

Russ