News - iCompetences interviews Jamal Moustafaev

Submitted by Jamal Moustafaev on Thu, 05/01/2014 - 15:57

Interview with PPM2012 speaker: Jamal Moustafaev, MBA, PMP, Author of the book – Delivering Exceptional Project Results

We are pleased to announce that PPM2012 speaker: Jamal Moustafaev, MBA, PMP, Author of the book ‘Delivering Exceptional Project Results’, has given an exclusive interview with iCompetences in the run up to his speaking session at the Strategic Program & Portfolio Management International Seminar.

 

Farid Yandouz, iCompetences: Today we are talking to Jamal Moustafaev, MBA and PMP from Vancouver, Canada. Jamal is an internationally acclaimed expert and speaker in the areas of project/portfolio management and an author of the book titled “Delivering Exceptional Project Results: A Practical Guide to Project Selection, Scoping, Estimation and Management”.  Jamal, thank you very much for agreeing to chat with me today.

Jamal Moustafaev: It is my pleasure, Farid. Thank you for the invitation.

Farid Yandouz, iCompetences: So, Jamal, let us start at the very beginning: what is project portfolio management?

Jamal Moustafaev: My favourite “textbook” definition of project portfolio management is:

The science and the art of selecting the best  (i.e. optimal) project mix for the organization subject to known internal and external constraints.

In other words, as a leader of my organization how do I ensure that I deliver the best possible mix of products or services to my customers while respecting my human and other resource constraints?

Farid Yandouz, iCompetences: Why is project portfolio management becoming so popular lately?

Jamal Moustafaev: It has been recently estimated that approximately 40% of our project investments fail to deliver their intended results partially because of our poor delivery and partially because we end up selecting the wrong projects for implementation. To put this in perspective, that is more than $5.2 trillion wasted worldwide. That is trillion with a “t”!

So, especially in the light of recent worldwide economic difficulties, it is not a great surprise that shareholders and the boards of directors of various organizations – both “for profit” and government – are demanding a more disciplined approach to project  investments.

Farid Yandouz, iCompetences: You wrote a book about project management and project portfolio management? Can you tell us a couple of words about it?

Jamal Moustafaev:Yes, thank you for mentioning that. I think this is the first book on the market that  considers all three fields – project management, portfolio management and scope definition in context of each other and analyzes their influences and interactions with one another. It is based on three simple premises:

  • In order to deliver great projects the company must select the most promising ideas
  • In order to deliver great projects the company must ensure that the number of projects does not exceed its throughput capacity
  • In order to deliver great projects the company must have a good grasp of scoping, estimation and other project management techniques

The argument that I put forward is that an organization must have all three of the above-mentioned ingredients in order to deliver successful products and services.

Farid Yandouz, iCompetences: That is a very novel approach. Thank you for your time, Jamal

Jamal Moustafaev: My pleasure, Farid. See you at the conference in Casablanca!

 

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About the Author

Jamal Moustafaev, MBA, PMP – president and founder of Thinktank Consulting is an internationally acclaimed expert and speaker in the areas of project/portfolio management, scope definition, process improvement and corporate training. Jamal Moustafaev has done work for private-sector companies and government organizations in Canada, US, Asia, Europe and Middle East.  Read Jamal’s Blog @ www.thinktankconsulting.ca

Jamal is an author of two very popular books: Delivering Exceptional Project Results: A Practical Guide to Project Selection, Scoping, Estimation and Management and Project Scope Management: A Practical Guide to Requirements for Engineering, Product, Construction, IT and Enterprise Projects.