Call for Papers (download PDF)
 

CONFERENCE THEME

Growing Project Management in Africa

In recent years, Africa has gone from being described as ‘The Hopeless Continent’ (Economist Magazine, 2000), to ‘The Hopeful Continent’ (Economist Magazine, 2013). This hopefulness may be attributed to sub-Saharan Africa being home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world; the improving business climate and interest from foreign investors; and transforming governments and governance to name just a few positive indicators.

Infrastructure is central to Africa’s development and contributes significantly to the continent’s per capita growth rate through global sentiment and enhanced productivity.

For Africa, infrastructure means far more than bricks and mortar. It means IT systems, enhanced financial services, enabling telecommunications solutions, governance protocols, improved service delivery, new sources of energy, and optimisation of our endowments of natural resources. In short, infrastructure means progress, and infrastructure means projects.

With investment estimated at $93 billion for new, rehabilitated and maintained infrastructure on the continent, the time for the skilled African project manager is now.

In 2014, Project Management South Africa celebrates the professional practice of project management and its relevance on the African continent, acknowledging the determination, innovation and creativity applied to overcoming some of the challenges associated with achieving project success in Africa. Through its Biennial Conference, PMSA aims to explore the nature of projects in Africa and what it takes to achieve success and contribute to a body of learning that can guide strategic project management and thus serve contemporaries in the project disciplines across the spectrum of industries.

Many of our good practices and project innovations were grown right here in Africa. Others have been borrowed from the ‘developed’ world and made relevant to our local reality. Still others have yet to be discovered while we develop a better understanding of what Africa needs and how the stakeholders in project management can provide it.

• Best practices: Proven methodologies and success stories on projects grown and / or delivered in Africa
• Research and Innovation: What we’ve learned and what we know about overcoming challenges that prohibit project success in Africa
• Insights into the nature of project management as it applies to the continent, how it is different or similar to trends in the rest of the world
• Technology: How IT and telecoms are enabling better project management on the continent
• PM for the greater good: Applying project management to social causes. Including people, planet and profit in our project practices and realising some of the socioeconomic imperatives on the continent.
• Applying ethical practice as project practitioners
• Updating the project toolkit: Tips, tools and techniques that pave the way for effective project management.
• Project People: Individual characteristics and traits that serve companies and individual practitioners well when rolling out projects in Africa.

Project Management South Africa (PMSA) cordially invites researchers, practitioners and enthusiasts to submit a high-quality, original abstract followed later by a final research paper for presentation at the PMSA National Conference 2014 and publishing in the official conference proceedings.
 

The purpose of research papers is to grow the body of knowledge with knowledge that has been gained through a formal, verifiable and repeatable process.  Research papers are not opinion based and need to adhere to the de facto criteria for scientific research.

With the above theme explanation in mind, kindly consider the following suggested topics:

CONFERENCE TOPICS

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Any relevant Project-, Programme- or Portfolio Management (3PM) topic including:

•       Knowledge areas, processes, life-cycle

•       Standards, methods, methodologies, tools and techniques

•       Measuring the outcomes of projects, programs and portfolio

•       Maturity

•       Competence structures and standards

•       Professional development, training and education

•       The human factors

•       Cultural issues in project management

•       Project, programme and portfolio offices

•       Governance

• The management of different types of projects, programs and portfolios
• Project, program and portfolio management in different sectors (government, IT, engineering, construction, business, etc.)
• New trends (local and global)
• Managing projects during an economic downturn
• Projects, programme and portfolio leadership
• Managing mega-projects
• Risks, case studies and lessons learnt.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Step 1 - Abstract submission

Abstract Submission Deadline: Thursday, 29 May 2014

Authors must submit an abstract not longer than 500 words in English, to the following e-mail address: authors@pmsaconference.co.za

The abstract should contain at least the following information:

• Background - what is the context of the article?
• Problem statement – what is it that the article is going to address and why is this important?
• Solution – how is the article going to address the problem
• Benefits – what benefit does the information in this article hold for the PM community?

Abstract are evaluated by a sub-committee of the Programme Committee based on relevance and fit in terms of the conference theme.  The outcome of this evaluation process will be communication to authors by Wednesday, 4 June 2014.

Step 2 - Full Paper submission

Full Paper Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 9 July 2014

Upon acceptance of the abstract, authors are invited to submit a full paper, not longer than 12 pages, in English. A template and details for submission will be sent to authors whose abstracts are accepted. Do not include any author information in the paper as this would negate the double-blind review process.

A double-blind peer review process (anonymous by two reviewers) is used to evaluate the quality of submissions.  PMSA is privileged to call on its Review Committee, consisting of international and national experts, to review all submissions.  Each submission will be evaluated by at least two Review Committee members using the following criteria:

• Significance - How significant is the article to the discipline? Will conference delegates find it useful?
• Originality - How original is the topic covered in the article? Is there any new knowledge?
• Technical quality – Is the article technically and factually correct?  Is it based on credible data and/or references?
• Relevance - How relevant is the article to the conference? Would attendees benefit from hearing it?
• Presentation – Is the quality of the article acceptable (layout, graphs, diagrams etc.)? Are there any grammatical errors?

The outcome of this review process together with the reviewer comments will be communication to authors by Wednesday, 30 July 2014.

Please Note:

• The official conference language is English
• Papers must relate to project, programme or portfolio management
• Papers must either contain new knowledge or show current knowledge applied in a new way
• Papers must be free of commercial sales content
• Full papers should not exceed 12 pages
• At least one author must register and pay to attend the conference
• A maximum of two presenters per paper
• All accepted papers must be presented at the conference
• A discounted Conference Presenter Rate will be applicable

For more information, a document that provides guidelines on writing a paper and details of the review process, please contact: authors@pmsaconference.co.za, call the National Office on +27 11 257-8003.