The technology magazine, IT-Zoom, published an article about a company called Karl Storz - the world market leader in medical instruments for minimal-invasive surgery and endoscope manufacturer - switching over from Excel-based project management to a Microsoft Project Server and Sharepoint-based system in 2014. The switch-over project was initiated in 2012 when it became clear that changes would be necessary in order to cope with the increasing complexity of project-based business. The new system had to effectively manage globally distributed resources, improve the efficiency of data transfers to SAP and facilitate the provision of relevant documents to different business units via SAP.

We are inviting people in northern Germany who are interested in the IAPM and in particular project management to our first Project Manager Network Meeting in Hamburg this year on 22 February 2016 and hope you will be able to attend. We’ll be meeting up at it-agile, Große Elbstraße 273, 22767 Hamburg. After a brief presentation of the IAPM and its scheduled events in 2016, plus an outline of the evening’s agenda, Arne Roock (Jimdo) and Stefan Roock (Managing Director of it-agile) will present the host company to you at around 7.13 p.m. and introduce the Network Meeting topic of Agile Organisation Development or Agility and Organisational Learning.

“Good work is always based on good relationships“ is the motto of Munich-based coach and personal advisor, Dr Berta Coromayh Schreckeneder. She was a guest speaker at an IAPM Network Meeting in Munich in summer 2015, where she talked on the subject of “Management is Relationship Building“ and shared some interesting insights into her work with the participants. That’s why we’re presenting Dr Berta Coromayh Schreckender in the IAPM blog. Her company Viewconsult provides workshops on relationship building in management and mediation, and its “Relationship Classes“ teach participants how to build a loving relationship with themselves.

In most projects and undertakings, a lot of things depend on whether the people involved are using one-hundred percent reliable computer software or apps. Even in space! Just imagine you’re an astronaut on your very first mission, conducting an experiment in space. You’re floating around the Spacelab (because it has zero gravity) and in front of you there is a chair with wheels on rails, like a kind of space tram.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel is designed to be 57 kilometres in length, making it the longest railway tunnel in the world and Switzerland’s biggest construction project, and it is scheduled to open in 2016. When that happens, both passenger and freight trains will be able to cross the alps in both directions without any steep climbs or descents. The project‘s track development and installation concept is considered to be both exemplary and remarkable because ARGE Fahrbahn Transtec Gotthard, the company responsible for installing the tracks, completed installation work on 115 km of track seven months before the scheduled project close-out.

Every year the IAPM presents its “Project Manager of the Year” award to the Certified Senior Project Manager who achieves the best certification examination result, is verified to have the most extensive experience and receives the most positive feedback on conduct, team work and communicative strengths from colleagues and line managers. This year’s award goes to Stefan Mülstegen, who worked at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics at the time of the selection process. We approached him at the award presentation event to ask him a few questions about project management, stress and communication, and to find out more about him as a person.

The IAPM International Association of Project Managers has announced the name of the person to receive the Project Manager of the Year Award 2015: Stefan Mülstegen, Senior Project Manager Contract Logistics at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics GmbH & Co. KG in Osnabrück. The award was initiated by the IAPM to pay tribute to IAPM-certified project managers for outstanding achievements in project management. The IAPM selects the Project Manager of the Year on the basis of a comparison of the best IAPM Certified Senior Project Manager profiles over the previous twelve months.

The IAPM International Association of Project Managers conducted a survey of its certificate holders in March and April 2015 and we’d like to present the results to you today. We’ve compiled them all in chart format for you. You can download them here: https://www.iapm.net/uploaded_files/documents/certificate-holder-survey-2015-en.pdf As in 2013, we conducted an anonymous survey of project managers about their professional situation, their training-related needs and their satisfaction with the IAPM. In 2015 122 certificate holders filled out the survey - and, once again, the certificate holders are very satisfied with their association. 97 percent said that they would recommend the IAPM to other people and 64 percent have already done so.

We would like to invite you to our IAPM Network Meeting for the central region of Vienna/Austria in Graz where Senior Official Günter Markowitz will be welcoming you to a meeting on the very current topic of Agile Project Management Practices. Agile methods originated in the IT sector as a very effective way of managing software projects. Today they are intrinsic to many everyday work environments; not only in IT but also in other sectors.In the Graz region agile methods are used for computer chip development, marketing and sales, and even entire product development processes.

IAPM Officials for the European Metropolitan Region Berlin, Katrin Schickhoff and Michael Taube, invite you to the Network Meeting in Berlin on October 21, 2015. 2015 is the International Year of Light and Lighting Technology. Appropriately, we will be paying a visit to the Institute of Applied Photonics (IAP) in Berlin-Adlershof on October 21, 2015. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the IAP, Rudower Chaussee 29, 12489 Berlin. We will tour the company and learn about everything that can be made visible using X-rays and micro-textured glass. We will also find out about some of the projects carried out by the institute.

During the holiday period, I received extremely gratifying news. As some of you may already know, this year I agreed to stand as a candidate for election as GPM Delegate. I have been Vice President of the IAPM, International Association of Project Managers, since July 1, 2015, and as of July 31, 2015, I am now also the Delegate for the GPM, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement, - an appointment that means a great deal to me. Let me begin by saying that the IAPM as a trade association focuses on benefits for project managers, and that is why I have decided to make an active contribution within this association.

Even today, only around 12 percent of companies are deriving competitive advantages from project management excellence according to a survey [1] of almost 2,500 project managers around the world implemented by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in January 2015. It may appear to be ‘old hat’ as a central finding, yet it continues to be relevant because the study revealed that one in three projects is still failing and one tenth of investments in projects and programmes are wasted.