Collectively the offerings on the web related to project management are underwhelming. I didn’t have good look at what might be available through some of the university sites however and if what is on offer here fails to inspire then that might be another place to search. Part of the problem was that unlike other branches of managerial science much of the research on offer was only available to members of the various associations and institutes that have websites. Membership fees were generally reasonable however.
www.pmforum.org If you go to no other website on this page, then at least go here. The Project Management Forum is comprehensive website for project management and all resources are free and user friendly. There are too many tools and resources to list here, so go there and have good look around. The site contains comprehensive directories, access to “expert” advice in IT, consulting services, careers, training and development sectors, and two-year calendar of events. There is information about the Global Project Management Forum, an initiative which aims to “advance globalisation of the project management profession by promoting communications and co-operation between and among project management organisations and professionals around the world”. The Forum also publishes the online publication Project Management World Today.
www.pmi.org The website of the Project Management Institute based in Pennsylvania in the United States. The Institute has 90,000 members worldwide and aims to be “the leading non-profit professional association in the area of project management”. It is involved with establishing project management standards, organising seminars and educational programmes as well as offering professional certification programme in project management. Research resources require membership for which you can join online. Individual membership is US$119 annually, students can join for just US$30 so long as they are enrolled in project management related course.
www.aipm.com.au Probably the most visually creative offering of collectively bland bunch of websites, but the Australian Institute of Project Management has little to offer the non-member apart from course information and employment opportunities. You’ll need to pay up to get hold of research material, reading lists, journal articles and notes from conference proceedings.
www.apm.org.uk This is the URL for the Association for Project Management, an association set up as tool “to assist project managers to progress their professional careers”. Similar to the last two sites but also offers comprehensive links to industry specific project management sites eg architecture, health, engineering etc.
www.ipma.ch As the name suggests, The International Project Management Association exists to promote project management internationally. It runs the World Congress for Project Management conference biennially, the proceedings of which are available to members of the association, non-members can also purchase proceedings for the conference. The association also publishes the International Journal of Project Management which comes out eight times year (you can get free sample if you send an email to: [email protected]). M
Damon Birchfield is an Auckland-based freelance writer.
Email: [email protected]
