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Headache relievers unite Project managers band together to form new industry organization
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 18, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
If road construction is stalled by community opposition, or if employees are anxious about new technology being introduced in the workplace, a missing ingredient for success may be a project manager.
Certified GNWT project managers Kristen Cook and Bob Horton are working with their colleagues in the public and private sectors to develop a new professional organization in the territory. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo |
These professional logisticians and trained communicators dedicate themselves to bringing public and private projects to completion on time and on budget with as little stress as possible for management.
To help achieve these goals, certified and practising project managers in the city are exchanging insights and business cards as part of the NWT Project Management Group, a new, informal organization designed to bring industry professionals together.
The group was founded earlier this year by Bob Horton, manager of information systems and technology in the shared service centre for the departments of Environment and Natural Resources and Industry, Tourism and Investment.
"Any project manager is always encouraged to get together with other project managers to help continue to sharpen and enhance their skills," Horton said.
To help project managers achieve this goal, the group plans to establish the NWT branch of the Northern Alberta chapter of the Project Management Institute, an international not-for-profit association representing industry professionals throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
The Edmonton-based chapter, which has 1,650 members, is preparing to rejig its constitution this fall to permit the Yellowknife-based branch to form next spring under its umbrella, Horton said.
Every three years, certified project managers are required to accumulate a certain number of professional development units - by doing coursework, volunteering, or undertaking independent study, for example. Failing to do so requires one to retake a rigorous, four-hour exam to re-certify.
A formal organization would create professional development opportunities to help project managers maintain their certification and keep abreast of industry trends and best practices, Horton said.
About 60 per cent of the NWT group's members are certified, he added.
"We're not requiring people to be certified to come out," he said.
"Part of what we're hoping to do, for those who aren't yet certified, is to encourage them, help them, work on their skills and prep for writing the exam."
A professional organization would also signal to southern investors that the NWT is home to trained and experienced project managers who understand Northern regions and follow industry standard best practices, saving businesses the expense and uncertainty of having to import southern professionals, said Kristen Cook, a change management leader with the Department of Finance.
"To be able to manage your stakeholders up in the Beaufort Delta or down in the Deh Cho area when the hub tends to be in Yellowknife can be a challenge," she said.
On Sept. 10, the group hosted a talk by Edmonton-based consultant Roxane Fast.
"When you're doing a project and you're going out and you're impacting people, what you want to do is you want to engage with them, not just engage with people who are positively affected by your project, but also negatively affected by your project," Fast said, citing the need for project managers to open dialogue with communities.
"At the end of the day, if you don't do that you end up spending a lot more money to get your project done or you don't get your project done at all because you've got those roadblocks in the way."
The group's next gathering is being planned for late October.
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