User:Mdd/International Project Management Association

The International Project Management Association is an international professional organization for project management for both member organizations and individual members founded in 1965, and operation from Zurich, Switzerland.

It was founded in 1965 and 1972 under the name International Management Systems Association and in its early years operated under the name INTERNET for INTERnational NETwork. With the rise of the internet in the 1990s the name of the association changed into the current name, International Project Management Association.

The organization nowadays has about 50 member organizations and 250.000 individual members. Its current president is Reinhard Wagner.

Early events and foundation in 1965 and 1972
The International Project Management Association started as a international initiative under the name International Management Systems Association in 1965, and in its early years operated under the name INTERNET (for INTERnational NETwork). This had started with a small group of European professionals from Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Germany, who had come up with the idea to create an international network to discuss advancements in the tools for the management of projects. Pannenbaecker and Dworatschek (2005) specified:
 * "In 1964, along with an European aircraft project Pierre Koch of France invited Dick Vullinghs from The Netherlands and Roland Gutsch from Germany to discuss the benefits of the Critical Path Method (CPM) as a management approach. CPM shows a way to manage huge projects with international sponsors, uncertain results as well as with complex influences and dependencies from different technical disciplines. This group was chaired by Yves Eugene from AFIRO (Association Française d´Informatique et de Recherche Opérationnelle). Professor Arnold Kaufmann suggested an INTERnational NETwork - INTERNET..."

The next year, in 1965, the International Management Systems Association and INTERNET were formed as "a forum for European network planning practitioners to exchange knowledge and experience." It took another seven years to develop the initial association in a permanent project management society, as Morris (1999) explained:
 * "... A meeting was held in Vienna in 1967 to take stock of the network planning techniques then believed necessary, or at least beneficial, for the management of modern projects. This meeting was entitled INTERNET 67. The subject stimulated such interest that it was decided five years later (after a second INTERNET congress in Amsterdam in 1969) to form a more permanent project management society: the International Management Systems Association (ISMA) was formed after the third INTERNET congress in Stockholm in 1972,..."

The first president of the IMSA was the Olof Hörberg from Sweden, who was president from 1972 to 1976.

Early activities in the 1960s and 1970s
The first visible activities of the ISMA consisted of a number of conferences, most notable the first International World Congress in Vienna in 1967. Pannenbaecker and Dworatschek (2005) explained:
 * "In 1967 the Czechoslovak Project Management Science Group invited to join the first all-state conference on the Methods of Network Analysis in Prague. PhD Vladimira Machova was the host beside the political officials in these day... [Also in] 1967, with the sponsorship of the International Computer Centre in Rome, managed by Professor Claude Berge, the first International World Congress took place in Vienna. From now on INTERNET was the official association name. --- A young organiser of the first World Congress was Gerold Patzak, who became a professorship in Austria and the USA, and who today is an Assessor of PM-ZERT of the German GPM."

Behind the scene the ISMA worked to connect national associations in the field, as Codas (1987) further explained:
 * "In several countries of Western and Eastern Europe, national associations have emerged, which have been interconnected through the Internet, which has become a kind of federation of associations, stimulating the creation of other national associations. The first Internet congress was held in 1967, bringing together delegates from 32 countries, and repeating itself every two years."

The scope in those days was still far more on the tools and not on the management aspects, as Morris (1999) explained:
 * "... still, however, with the emphasis on network planning and the management science aspects of project management tools, which it was to keep for most of the 1970s. ISMA was also different from PMI in having much more independent national organizations. Whereas PMI has local chapters whose function is to organize events at the local level, IMSA has national societies which exist in their own right with their own constitutions, officers and memberships. Project management publications have been created by IMSA at national and international levels. IMSA changed its name in 1979 to the International Project Management Association.

The main event of the association were the congresses, each time under a specific theme. For example the first "all-state" conference in Prague in 1967 was on "methods of network analysis;" the 2th INTERNET congress in Amsterdam in 1969 was on "project planning by network analysis" ; and the 5th INTERNET congress in Birmingham in 1976 was entitled "Project Implementation and Management : Bridging the Gap."

Developing the field of project management in the 1980s and 1990s
A notable event in the early 1980s was the first joint symposium with the North American Project Management Institute (PMI). Codas (1987) explained:
 * In 1981, the PMI - Internet Joint Symposium - Congress was held in Boston, marking the beginning of a process of greater interchange among these associations.

IPMA (2015) summarized:
 * "In 1981, world experts on “Network Planning” were invited to the first joint INTERNET-PMI (Project Management Institute) Congress in Boston. The Chairman was Robert B. Gillis, who was in these days member of the Board of INTERNET. In 1996, AFITEP in France organised the 13th World Congress (1996) in Paris. INTERNET got a namesake – a new international telecommunication system. The Executive Board (ExBo) renamed INTERNET to IPMA (our third and current name), but retained the logo."

Statton (1994-2007) summarized, that:
 * "INTERNET was formed in 1965, originally as a forum for European network planning practitioners to exchange knowledge and experience. It is now essentially an "umbrella" organisation, covering 15 (mainly European) national project management associations. There are currently some 8500 individual members in the INTERNET group."

The main event of the Association were the Internet World Congresses, each time under a specific theme. Some of those themes were:
 * 7th congress in Copenhagen in 1982 : Project Management: Tools and Visions

In the Global Project Management Handbook. Cleland and Gareis (1994) summarized:
 * "... PMI has taken the lead in providing this service. It is the largest of the project-management professional organizations, and is represented in the largest number of countries. The International Project Management Association (INTERNET) has recently taken steps to develop a European certification program along traditional English lines. The Australian Institute of Project Management and the Engineering Advancement Association of Japan, along with INTERNET, have support and working agreements with PMI to help extend the influence of professionalism in Project Management."

Consolidating and representing the field of project management in the new millennium
The main event of the Association were the Internet World Congresses, each time under a specific theme. Some of those themes were:

Timeline

 * 1960s
 * 1965 : Start discussion group of project managers
 * 1967 : First INTERNET congress in Vienna
 * 1969 : Second INTERNET congress Amsterdam


 * 1970s
 * 1971 : Founding of International Management Systems Association
 * 1971 : INTERNET-CH Group initiated by Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects and IMSA
 * 1971-72 : INTERNET(UK) was initiated, the later Association for Project Management
 * 1972 : Internet/IPMA World Congresses 3 in Stockholm, organised by Steen Lichtenberg and Morten Fangel
 * 1973 : INTERNET-A was initiated in Austria.
 * 1974 : Internet/IPMA World Congresses 4 in Paris.
 * 1975 : Danish Project Management Society initiated.
 * 1976 : Internet World Congress 5 in Birmingham.
 * 1977 : Fifth International Expert Seminar was held in Ruschlikon, Switzerland.
 * 1979 : Internet/IPMA World Congresses 6 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
 * 1979 : German GMP Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e.V. initiated after 6th World Congress by Roland Gutsch and others.


 * 1980s
 * 1981 : Project Management Institute and the International Management Systems Association organized the first Joint Symposium in September 1981 in Boston, USA.
 * 1982 : IPMA changed to INTERNET for INTERnational NETwork
 * 1982 : Internet World Congresses 7 in Copenhagen. ;
 * 1985 : Internet/IPMA World Congresses 8 in Rotterdam.
 * 1988 : Internet/IPMA World Congresses 9 in Glasgow.


 * 1990s
 * 1990 : Internet/IPMA World Congresses 10 in Vienna.
 * 1992 : Internet/IPMA World Congresses 11 in Florence.
 * 1994 : 12th Internet World Congress on Project Management, Oslo, Norway.
 * 1994 : INTERNET as "umbrella" organisation covered 15 (mainly European) national project management associations, with "some 8500 individual members in the INTERNET group."


 * 1995 : Present name, International Project Management Association, adopted
 * 1996 : 13th World Congress of IPMA in Paris.
 * 1998 : 13th World Congress of IPMA in Ljubljana.


 * New Millennium
 * 2000-09 : 15th-23th World Congress of IPMA ; London (2000) ; Berlin (2002) ; 2003 Moscow (2003) ; Budapest (2004) ; New Delhi (2005); Beijing (2006); Cracow (2007) ; Rome (2008) ; and Helsinki (2009).
 * 2007 : IPMA has 45 member associations and reached, according to Veikko Valila, approximately 50.000 to 60.000 persons.
 * 2010-15 : 24th-29th World Congress of IPMA ; Istanbul (2010); Brisbane (2011); Athens (2012) ; Dubrovnik (2013); Rotterdam (2014) ; and Panama (2015)

Former presidents
Listing of former IPMA presidents from 1972 to 2017.


 * Olof Hörberg, Sweden, 1972-1976
 * Roland W. Gutsch, Germany, 1976-1979
 * Roland W. Gutsch, Germany, 1979-1982
 * Steen Lichtenberg, Denmark, 1982-1985
 * Eric Gabriel, UK, 1985-1988
 * Roland W. Gutsch, Germany, 1988-1991


 * Morten Fangel, Denmark, 1991-1994
 * Klaus Pannenbäcker, Germany, 1994-1996
 * Gilles Caupin, France, 1996-1998
 * Rodney Turner, UK, 1998-2000
 * Daniel Scheifele, Switzerland, (2000-2002)
 * Miles Shepard, UK, 2002-2004


 * Adesh Jain, India, 2004-2006
 * Veikko Valila, Finland, 2006-2008
 * Brigitte Schaden, Austria, 2008-2010
 * Roberto Mori, Italy, 2010-2012
 * Mladen Radujkovic]], Croatia, 2012-2014
 * Reinhard Wagner, Germany, 2015-2017

Member associations
There are 59 member associations of IPMA on the five continents (3 in Africa, 11 in America, 8 in Asia, 35 in Europe and 1 in Oceania). 4