DOHA: Engineers in various fields of expertise in Qatar have become aware about the importance of project management, a new trend to enhance performance in the overall operations of their respective organisations and eventually successfully implement projects.
A project management seminar conducted by Qatar Society of Engineers Corporation in cooperation with Project Management Institute Arabian Gulf branch at the Hotel InterContinental on Monday has enlightened participants on the new management trends that will also help their professional careers become more competitive.
Lofty Sabry, Managing Director of Dubai-based Experts Project Management Co., explained in his presentation how project management has evolved in the last five years that new standards were also applied to programme management, portfolio management and other related organisational structure which became an effective tool to successful project implementation.
"Project management these days is all about collaboration," said Sabry, a project management expert who already earned the distinction of being among the respected global consultants advocating such new management trends.
Khalid Kamal Naji, PhD, President of the PMI-AGC Qatar, in his overview emphasised to participants that they have been aggressive in promoting project management since they want the regional PMI charter to be among the top three charters worldwide.
So far, Naji said, Qatar with 321 members is third in GCC region just behind Saudi Arabia and UAE and the notable rise of its membership can be gleaned in 2004 to 2008 during the construction boom in the country. Worldwide, GCC with over 4,000 members is in seventh place.
Naji cited major activities that PMI Arabian Gulf Chapter held including state-of-the-art specialised training and awarding of professional certificates to many of its members.
For his part, Sabry also underscored top three issues related to project management affecting practitioners nowadays on the perspective of employees which include career development, competitive salary and flexible work schedules, based on a research released by Society of Human Resource Managers in the US in 2006.
" Increased employee retention and satisfaction can be attributed to process improvement by developing career framework," Sabry said noting that such issues bring to the fore the significance of project management.
He said project management is already valued by top company executives since they realised in the study that 67 percent of organisations do not have any career path. The project management expert also noted a report by Arabian Business News on March 20 which disclosed that GCC earning will be worth two trillion dollars by 2020 but such scenario will face tougher competition to attract a skilled expatriate's workforce.
By Chris V Panganiban
© The Peninsula 2009
