Present and Future of Project Management in Mexico. By Alejandro Acevedo, PMP and Mario Landa, PMP

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1 Present and Future of Project Management in Mexico By Alejandro Acevedo, PMP and Mario Landa, PMP A lot has been said of the notoriety that professional project management has taken around the world in recent years; of the relevance of recognizing it as a competitive asset, and how important it is for organizations to provide a PM career path for their employees; this with the sole purpose to generate more interest in their training, to strengthen their knowledge and abilities and, in some cases, to pursue the certification as Project Management Professionals. Mexico is not the exception, and truth be told, there are many multinational corporations operating within our borders, that have adopted project management methodologies because their main offices abroad has adopted them; likewise there are many others whose origin and operation is 100% made within our country and have not been so exposed to the evolution of such methodologies, especially in recent decades. Moreover, those organizations that have had the opportunity to use such enterprise methodologies used in other countries, implement only the aspects that suit their way of working, underestimating the experience acquired in other sites. This is partly due to the fact, of the different fashion currents that organizations mimic in order to implement various practices that cover a wide range of aspects and needs pertaining the operation of the business. When a new method is implemented, there is not enough time allocated for it to fully work, neither there is appropriate follow up to measure its effectiveness; which in turn makes it very difficult for people to grasp the benefits they might obtain. The evolution of project management can be summarized in the following three stages: Traditional, Renaissance and Modern, according to Harold Kerzner s, PhD latest book What Executives Need to Know About Project Management (Refer to Table 1). Nowadays the project objectives are mainly focused to the business from a technical perspective (decisions are oriented to the business benefit). Likewise, there is a large tendency to involve more and more sponsors within each project, as their foundation; changes within the organization are more fast and the project s success is highly influenced by the client s perception. There is more emphasis in cooperation and team work, as well as the need to have a proactive management style instead of a reactive one. We can envision in the near future of project management the importance of generating value, therefore, the fulfillment of the triple constraint and acceptance from the client, are not the only success factors within projects; success can be reached when all benefits for which the project was undertaken, are delivered. These benefits are related, among many other aspects with: profitability, client satisfaction, trademark value, usage of new markets, usage of installed capabilities, etc. It is important to mention the need to have an enterprise project management methodology, which will be the only constant within the three previously mentioned stages. We also consider that in the near future, a very important need will be to give and have the elements that support a decision to cancel a project that will not deliver the expected benefits, and if it applies, use the remnant funds to maximize the benefits of such projects that in the end will yield an added value.

2 The vision proposed by Dr. Kerzner was born from research and various evaluations that were applied to large international corporations. Due to globalization, Mexico supposedly should also be influenced by these tendencies. From our point of view, we can locate our county, Mexico, in the Renaissance stage of project management, because the current development of project management has inherent characteristics as a reactive management style, absence of project charters that can sustain all assignments, power and authority issues, lack of planning in which projects are executed, required sponsorship instead of mandatory, among many others. The acknowledgement of a systematic project management, even though it has grown in later years, cannot be compared to the level used in countries that are considered as leaders in the topic. First, this can be due to the fact of the late incorporation of these methodologies in Mexico, probably because of the commercial trade agreements established during the late years of the 1980 s, which evidently put the county, in front of a delay of 20 years in order to compete in global markets; this generated the need to obtain better results in a more efficient manner; in simple terms, achieve more with less. Also, when this trend started, the offer of methodologies to maximize efficiency within business was overwhelming and many of these were adopted only half way, leaving the impression that they were a passing fancy. Nowadays the industry moves cautiously in the event of any methodology, regardless of its objective, because apparently it is unable to wait for the appropriate results. Another factor that prevents a consolidated professional project management methodology is our own local business culture, among its effects we can find a high personnel rotation, mainly due to the fact that there is a lack of a career path within some organizations, mostly small and medium corporations; that its main objectives is only trying to subsist in a very complicated business world. Professionalization is considered a luxury, leaving the execution of such practices, only to the large corporations, to the transnational corporations. Likewise, training is a very large issue, because only a very small percentage of the population has access to higher education; the development of all project management training activities is positioning itself as an additional discipline that can only be studied through specialized courses. The certifications awarded by the Project Management Institute PMI, are focused to the professionalization of practice standards that have been accepted worldwide, this certifications seek to endorse the required competencies within the disciplines associated to project management. In Mexico we have experienced a sustained growth since 2002 in the number of certified individuals, as you can clearly appreciate in graphics 2 and 3. From the more than 360,000 PMP s certified worldwide at the end of 2009, in Mexico we had around 1,600 professionals with a valid accreditation, it is important to mention that Mexico City has more than half of certified professionals, while only a third part of the total is distributed in only 3 states, leaving the other 14% distributed among the other 23 states, finally there are 5 states with no certificate professional at all. (Refer to Graphic 1). Beside the small quantity of certified individuals within our country, it is important to mention that some PMP s are faced with terrible difficulties to apply best practices and appropriate knowledge due to the

3 lack of understanding of the subject by most high ranking executives. The same executives that are resolute to have among their ranks several certified individuals, due to the status they bring to the organization, without really using their capabilities to benefit the organization. Some high ranking executives still believe that planning and formal documentation are a waste of time, expressing phrases like: Projects within this organization that is so dynamic, force us to get involved from the beginning; we cannot afford to waste time defining and planning a project that beforehand and due to our experience we know how to execute. It is true that we are far behind the best practices in project management; it is also a reality that the acceptance of these practices is exponentially growing and can be reflected in the sustained growth we have seen in the last 8 years. It is accurate to say that we have located Mexico in the Renaissance stage, and reality has caught up with us, which most certainly will force us in a general manner to reach the maturity of the modern age, within a shorter timeframe than the one established in Dr. Kerzner s research, we will be incorporating ourselves into that era once executives can take hold of the importance of supporting best practices in project management and support adequately all project managers. To maintain this evolution, it is a must for all Mexico s PMP s to document and publish successful case studies from the region that reflect the most highest specific conditions of our country, only through this it will be possible to reach better results and to add value to all projects undertaken in any type of industry.

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6 Bibliographic References: Kerzner, Harold & Saladis, Frank. What Executives Need to Know About Project Management, United States: International Institute for Learning, Inc/John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Kerzner, Harold & Saladis, Frank. Value Driven Project Management, United States: International Institute for Learning, Inc/John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Project Management Institute, Inc. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Fourth Edition, United States: Project Management Institute (PMI ), About the Authors: Alejandro Acevedo (Electro mechanic Engineer, PMP y MCTS) is currently serving as project management consultant and trainer for the International Institute for Learning México, where he has been in charge of implementing Project Management methodologies within Dirección General de Obras Públicas del Gobierno del Distrito Federal (Department of Public Works at Mexico City), the Automatization of the Project Office at INFONAVIT, where he has also delivered training courses for various audiences. He also has ample experience as a consultant in problem solving and decision making for international organizations from the automotive an consumer industries, knowledge he acquired while being at Kepner Tregoe México. Mario Landa (Civil Engineer, PMP, MCTS y MCITP) is currently Project Director at the International Institute for Learning México, where he has collaborated or has been in charge of offering project management services and solutions for corporations in Mexico, Venezuela, Spain and the United States, in companies such as Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV), CANTV from Venezuela

7 (Televisión), BANESCO (Bank), PEMEX (Oil), Consorcio Red Uno (Telecommunications), Grupo Nacional Provincial (Insurance), Comisión Federal de Electricidad (Electric Utilities), Grupo GEO (Construction), Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP) (Revenue Service), the last transition team for the Office of the President of the Republic, Pfizer, Maxcom, Repsol YPF (Oil), Iberia (Air Transportation), Gobierno del Distrito Federal (GDF) (Mexico City Government) y Microsoft. He has also served as trainer, risk analyst for oil industry projects and tool specialist regarding project management with programs such as MS Project and MS Project Server, among other technologies.