PMI Global North American Congress 2009: Day 2

For me, the most thought-provoking--and controversial--presentation at PMI's Global Congress this week was by Gary Heerkens, President, Management Solutions Group, who took on what he called "The Dark Side" of Project Management, something, he says, we all know exists but no one wants to talk about. According to Heerkens, project managers, as well as the profession of PM, have suffered a significant loss of respect over the last 15-20 years.

Heerkens asserted that many PMs lead a challenging existence, putting in 60-70 hours and it's still not enough. PMs receive very little respect from management; individuals are called PMs when they are less than fully competent in their ability to manage projects. There are PMs who simply want to get out.

He cites multiple contributors to this state of the profession:

• Senior management/execs
• PMs themselves
• Professional Associations
• Training/Consulting companies
• Standards setters
• Authors/textbook authors

Causing eyebrows to rise in the presentation, Heerkens called for PMs to be more assertive--less "soft", and for "professional associations" to focus more on growing the profession and less on driving membership numbers.

Interestingly, the current issue of PM Boulevard has a related article on how/why both project managers and business analysts are in jeoparady of being trivialized. Let's hope Heerkens gets an invite back next year....this was a much needed gut check for the profession and, as I talked with others who attended the session, was one of those sessions that just stays with you and makes you think. We need more of those.

Love to hear any thoughts. Did anyone else attend this session?