Vladimir Voropaev, Maria Voropaeva-Cates, Alexandr Tovb, Grigory Tsipes

(Russian Project Management Association SOVNET)

1. History

Russian Project Management Association SOVNET was established in 1991 and became the world widely recognized professional organization. SOVNET and PMI local chapters are very active in promotion of the Project Management (PM) profession in society and in development of PM professional community, which today has more than 25 000 persons all over the 11 time zones territory of Russia from Baltic to Pacific.

About 1500 person were at various times members of the professional organizations (SOVNET, PMI chapters).

SOVNET established the network of regional branches (Saint Petersburg, Perm, Nizhniy Novgorod, Far East, Ural, etc). There is close cooperation of SOVNET with local PMI chapters in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

2. Key achievements of professional Project Management in Russia

There are a lot of PM events on a regular basis are carried out in Russia:

§         Since 1991 on regular basis SOVNET has carried out the International symposiums (in Moscow 1991, 1993, 1995, 1999; in Saint Petersburg 1997, 2005; in Nizhnyi Novgorod 2007).

§         The 17th IPMA World Congress on Project Management, titled: “Project – Based Business and Society” was successfully hosted by SOVNET in Moscow, June 4-6, 2003. It was a huge success and became one of the finest achievements of the professional community with strong influence on the further development of PM profession in Russia.

§         Since 2004 in Moscow the International conferences of Moscow PMI chapter are annually carried out.

§         Since 2006 in Saint Petersburg International conferences of St.-Petersburg PMI chapter are annually carried out.

§         Leading companies are carrying out their own annual PM conferences, e.g. PMSoft, Tekora, PMExpert, etc.

There are fast growing PM education, training and certification IPMA and PMI:

§         Plenty of seminars, trainings and master-classes and other course on the various subjects of PM are offered in all major cities. Over 10 000 persons have been trained in universities, academies, institutes and various educational centers.

§         In 1999, SOVNET initiated and successfully launched the National Program of Project Management Certification. The program is based on the IPMA 4-level International Certification System, and was officially validated by the global PM community. To the end of 2007 more than 1000 specialists have been certified in this program, and their credentials are accepted internationally.

§          More than 200 persons are certificated on PMP PMI. 

During last 5 years the publication of the professional literature became more active:

§         It is issued in Russian about 100 textbooks, monographs and other literature on PM and related issues.

§         SOVNET and GREBENIKOV publishing house are prepared and released in 2005-2007 12 quarterly issues of International Journal: «Management of Projects and Programs». It is the first professional Russian language PM scientific and technical scholarly journal. It has earned the reputation of a modern project management knowledge source. Several distinguished authors and leading professional practitioners are among members of the journal’s International Editorial Board. The Journal has become a means for Russian integration into the PM global community.

§         Moscow PMI chapter since 2004 publishing magazine «Project Management».

3. The main directions of integration of Russia in world PM community

The Russian professional organizations, commercial structures and separate experts are taking active participation in the international professional life, act with reports at the international forums, and contribute to international professional editions.

SOVNET is IPMA member from 1991 and helped to establish of PM professional organizations in a lot of the countries (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, India, China, Serbia, Bulgaria) and continues to cooperate actively with many national PM associations: PMI – North American-based Project Management Institute; CEPM – Centre of Excellence in Project Management (India); PROMAT – Korean Institute of Project Management and Technology; Project Management Association of Serbia and Montenegro (YUPMA); Azerbaijan Project Management Association (AZPMA), PMRC – Project Management Research Committee China, JPMF  – Japanese Project Management Forum.

The SOVNET System Model of Project Management and its application in the development of the international PM standards is recognized as the major contribution to international development of PM methodology.

There are very advanced scientific research works in the field of mathematical methods of new generation of network scheduling including stochastic cyclic models.

A lot of Russian professionals are participating in the in the international projects.

There is a growing amount of well-known PM books translated into Russian.

SOVNET representatives actively participate in the governing bodies of IPMA, its Global Congresses, and other international Forums; they participate in working groups and committees, and help to develop IPMA normative documents; they are members of International Editorial Board of IPMA Journal of PM; they are active participants of the journal, members of Global Advisory Panel, Contributing Authors of World Web portal PMForum.org and eJournal PM World Today.

PM Software product SPIDER, developed in Russia had been several times successfully implemented in other countries (Romania, Brazil, etc)

4. The analysis of interests of the Russian companies and professional community

We can judge interest to PM methodology according to certification statistics. If a plenty of certificated from IT and the consulting companies is quite expected, the occurrence among leaders of representatives of such branches as energy, the industry, construction testifies to serious and positive changes in mentality of the top managers of these companies.

It is swept up as well growing interest to Project Management in the state structures that is quite explained – the main form of realization of scale social and economic transformations in Russia today are Priority National Projects, governance of which is carried out at a level of the First Deputy of the Prime Minister of Russia.

The similar result gives also the analysis of statistics of publications of the Russian authors in professional editions (SOVNET Journal «Management of projects and programs» and Symposiums in 2005-2007 - all about 250 articles and reports). Here it is necessary to note also the big interest to innovative and research projects which is connected to rise of creative activity in design and scientific research institutes, universities, design bureaus (offices).

At last, it is interesting to analyze interests of the Russian experts and from the point of view methodologies and technologies of Project Management. The statistical data tells us about a priority of corporate management of projects (project governance), training and certification, it is very precisely characterizes a today's excessive demand for PM in large and average Russian business. At the same time other areas of Project Management as professional discipline are under development also.

5. The basic achievements of the Russian experts in the field of development of methodology

One of the major directions of work of the Russian experts in the field of methodology is development of models of management by projects. Among the results recognized as international professional community we shall note:

§         The SOVNET System Model of Project Management, which is widely used directly as the training methodology of PM, and for the analysis of completeness and completion of various PM standards.

§         Models of “Third Wave” in Project Management, in which advanced and strategic PM will grow as senior level executives begin to understand and embrace the value of modern PM.

Interesting results have been received in the field of standardization of management by projects:

§         Development of enterprise PM standards, taking into account country, industrial and individual specific

§          Studying of sources of uncertainty in projects, and an introduction in the Russian market of contracting methodologies based on institutional economy,

§         Expansion of a traditional zone of the responsibility of the Project Manager, inclusion in a zone of his (her) responsibility of a pre-project and post-project activities.

The big interest is shown and to active use for management of projects методологий, developed in adjacent areas of management, first of all, such as: 

§         Knowledge Management, creation of knowledge databases of in project oriented organizations,

§         Development of the Balanced Scorecard Systems for project oriented organizations,

§         Management of business-processes in project oriented organizations,

§         «The human (soft) factor» in projects, conflicts, crises, wars in projects.

 6. The conclusion. Immediate tasks and prospects

Among the major tasks the nearest years we see:

§         Creation of the national legislative and normative base promoting development of Project Management.

§         Development and commissioning of national of Projects Management standards.

§         Creation of mechanisms of interaction of professional communities with the state and business.

§         Improvement of higher education on Project Management. Introduction of Project Management discipline of in the list of professional specialties of Higher Attestation Commission and Federal agency by education of the Russian Federation.

§         The organization of mass retraining of management of all levels for familiarization of them with methods, tools and approaches of Project Management, carrying out of mass certification of experts on Project Management.

§         Implementation of the National Project Excellence Award and introduction of IPMA Project Excellence Award in Russia.

§         Harmonization of education, training and certification with ICB 3.0 IPMA.

§         Further development of international cooperation in the field of professional Project Management.