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What does a shuttle launch, the Olympic Games and a charity fund-drive have in common? Disregard the scale; they're all multi-faceted projects that require a lot of planning and resource management to pull off. Increasingly, businesses are recognizing the need to train their managers to tackle large, complex projects. There's a measure of calculation, know-how and finesse needed to keep things running smoothly. That's where the discipline of project management comes into play.
 
Traditionally, project management was considered the domain of civil and construction engineers overseeing large development projects. While that still applies, the past couple of decades have seen the principles of project management applied to other industries in Canada.
 
I got involved in this business about 15 years ago when large companies like Bell Canada and RBC were starving for better ways to manage their projects, recalls David Barrett, the Program Director of the Centre of Excellence in Project Management at the Schulich Executive Education Centre. Partnering with various universities across Canada, the organization offers a Masters Certificate in Project Management that is meant to address these needs. We don't focus on any one industry, nor any one type of project, says Barrett. Anyone currently making a living managing projects can benefit.

Not only is the program pan-industry, but there are no formal academic pre-requisites, meaning the doors are open to all interested parties.
Ideally, the student should already be in the position of managing some kind of project or in that environment so they can apply what we're teaching them, explains Barrett. This is adult education at it's best ' there's tons of sharing, debates and discussions. What our students bring to the classroom is a major chunk of the benefit of our program.
 
For those looking to complement their post-secondary education, The University of Calgary offers a post-grad Project Management program that is jointly offered by their Schulich School of Engineering and Huskayne School of Business. Most of our students come from engineering and construction, but not necessarily, says Janaka Ruwanpura, Director, Professor and Canada Research Chair of the Project Management program at the university. Technically, we admit students working in the industry, but it's not limited to any market, as long as they have the academic credentials.

There are different branches of the program, each of which requires varying amounts of previous industry experience.
Project Management isn't a field where you can pick it up right away, explains Ruwanpura. People need to see the real world before they apply. For those in the resource industry, the program also has an added benefit. We have a course called engineering management that teaches how to deal with managing electrical, instrumentation, process, piping and mechanical aspects of a project, says Ruwanpura. Specifically in this particular course, it's a highly interactive program that has both industry and academic input, as it's taught by a top engineering company in Canada.
 
In recent years the university has also added its own Project Management Certification Program that is a condensed version of the degree program. There was a large number of industry people wanting to attend our course, and we couldn't always meet the demand, explains Ruwanpura. Being a certificate program, there are academic requirements and it's open to people from any field. We condense a 39-hour graduate course into 12 hours of certificate course, he continues. Content wise it's a little less, but the quality is the same.
 
The common link between these programs, regardless of provider or focus, is that of the formalization of management processes. Managers need the skillset to understand expectations and to deliver the project successfully, says Ruwanpura. People always say, ÔÇÿon time, on cost, on quality', but there's more to it than that -- it's a matter of [a business'] reputation. If a project runs over cost, time or money, people jump at that.
 
This more studied approach to managing large projects addresses a pressing need, regardless of industry. A lot of people out there managing projects are winging it, says Barrett. When people come to our program, they come with a need to understand a more formal approach and understand what they're missing from their projects. They need a process to follow. If those processes results in fewer headaches, more efficient work patterns and the opportunity for risk-management, putting time into improving your project management skills is a no-brainer.