The IAPM’s objectives are to promote the development of project management personnel, to ensure the widespread communication of project management knowledge and to improve competence in the field of project management. With these objectives in mind, it has introduced a new certification called Certified Junior Project Manager. It could be described as the ‘little brother’ of the Certified Project Manager certification. It is inexpensive and it certifies basic knowledge.

Harald Kiendler, Group Leader for Chassis Development at Siemens AG Austria, Mobility, Mainline Transport, Bogies in Graz, was named Project Manager of the Year by the IAPM in December 2014. This is the third time that the award has been presented to the most outstanding IAPM-certified Senior Project Manager in the preceding twelve months. In addition to his excellent performance in the certification examination, Harald Kiendler’s managers have confirmed his outstanding leadership qualities.

Michael Taube has been an IAPM International Association of Project Managers official training partner since October 2014. In his blog contribution he introduces himself and his company, and explains why he decided to collaborate with the IAPM: I’ve spent my entire career in projects. And I’ve always loved the fact that my profession involves trying out new things, as well as the development and implementation part. My two favourite sectors are the ICT industry and higher education.

The IAPM International Association of Project Managers is delighted to present Harald Kiendler, Bogies Development Group Leader at Siemens AG Austria, Mobility, Mainline Transport, Bogies in Graz, with the IAPM Project Manager of the Year Award. The IAPM selects its Project Manager of the Year on the basis of a comparison of the best Certified Senior Project Manager profiles over the last twelve months. It has chosen Harald Kiendler for several reasons.

We recently came across an article that immediately caught our attention on the eteoBoard (ETEO is a German abbreviation for “one team one office“) by Saxonia Systems AG, a digital task board for project managers. It has been on the market since the beginning of 2014 and is a pioneering innovation for agile project teams. Developed specifically for agile projects, this planning tool could become indispensable to distributed agile project teams.

The IAPM is increasingly being discussed by other renowned project management organisations. This shows us that we are becoming more strongly perceived by the public and that we can no longer be ignored. Companies are showing more interest in the IAPM’s certifications and we are receiving certification enquiries daily. In this process, our IAPM (Senior) Officials and our executives are being approached with important questions, most of which relate to the following subjects and are answered below.

Bad news is good news - sad but true. You can see evidence of it everywhere - on TV, on the internet and in the print media. And it also applies to the project industry. Just think about what’s been said in the news about German projects such as the Berlin Airport, Stuttgart Central Station or the Hamburg Opera House. It all gives the impression that projects swallow up mountains of money and are regularly run aground. Who pays the price? Tax payers, operagoers, train users and air travellers.

The Rosetta spacecraft was launched into space on 2 March 2004. Just over 10 years later, it arrived at its destination, the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (or Chury for short). The culmination of the Rosetta mission was the rough landing of its Philae probe on the comet’s surface, generating - quite rightly in our opinion - extensive media coverage.

The IAPM International Association of Project Managers resolved at its Annual General Meeting in 2014 to award honorary IAPM membership to Professor Rupert Gerzer. Professor Gerzer has been Director of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in Cologne since 1992 and Chair of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the RWTH Aachen University‘s Faculty of Medicine.

There’s been an empty lot round the corner from my home for some time now. It’s got hoarding up but frankly it’s an eyesore. The delay to putting up the new houses, I found out last week, is that the proposals from the builders have been rejected. Now it seems like we’ll be waiting for the local authorities to review a new proposal and maybe that one will get the green light. The builders would have prepared a project proposal for consideration, and this is the document that also kicks off other projects.

The IAPM‘s Senior Official Udo Schmidt hosted the Metropolitan Region of Hamburg’s third IAPM Network Meeting of the year on 15 September 2014. It was attended by IAPM certificate holders and their guests. The event was also open to everyone in northern Germany with an interest in project management and publicised by the PMI, GPM and DGQ regional organisations. Hermes Logistik Gruppe Deutschland GmbH in Hamburg-Langenhorn provided the venue.

The Chairman of the GPM Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement, Reinhard Wagner, recently wrote an article in the GPM Blog entitled “IPMA or IAPM – Original or Copy“, (read it here: http://gpm-blog.de/ipma-oder-iapm-original-oder-nachahmer/), which we would like to comment on.