Max Wideman
Robert Max Wideman | |
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| Born | January 19, 1927 Penarth, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British and Canadian |
| Education | B.Sc Honours Civil Engineering, 1947, City & Guilds College, London University, England |
| Occupation(s) | Civil engineer, project management consultant, author, professional speaker |
| Known for | Development of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) |
| Spouse | Audrey Eva Wideman |
| Website | maxwideman.com |
Max Wideman Robert Max Wideman, B.Sc. Eng (Hons), FCSCD, FEIC, FICE, FPMI, P.Eng. was born January 19th, 1927. He is widely known simply as Max Wideman. He trained as a civil engineer, and in his early years practiced as a construction manager. Later the steps required to manage a modern construction contract and subsequently the process evolving into the discipline of project management fascinated him. He is considered the father of the "Project Management Body of Knowledge", a term that he invented. He is perhaps best known for his comprehensive project management knowledge legacy web site that contains over 12,500 pages, 550 "Issacons" ("Issues and Considerations") and 280,000 links (as of September 2010).
Biography
Max Wideman is a registered professional engineer specializing in project management consulting. He is an internationally recognized speaker and has presented seminars or papers in eleven countries on a broad range of project management topics. During his career he has had hands-on experience in the capacity of corporate executive, project director and project manager. In these roles, he has seen the project management process from the point of view of owner, developer, engineer, contractor and government agent.
His projects have included heavy engineering works such as hydroelectric works and construction of major building complexes, as well as systems, social environmental and software projects. As a result of this work he has been honored with Fellow, Canadian Society of Civil Engineering; Fellow, Engineering Institute of Canada; Fellow, Institution of Civil Engineers (UK). Prior to private practice, he was manager of project services, Vancouver office, Acres International Limited, one of Canada’s largest engineering consulting practices.
Max has been active in the US-based Project Management Institute ("PMI") since 1974. In the mid-1980s, he led a team of 80 PMI volunteers across North America to document the institute’s project management body of knowledge, known as "The PMBoK". It was approved and published by PMI in 1987. This document has since been upgraded three times by the distribution of "A Guide to the PMBoK". Subsequent to this original PMBoK work, he was elected President and then Chairman of the PMI Board. He has been honored with Fellow, Project Management Institute.
Max is author of several books on project management. These include: A Framework for Project and Program Management Integration (1991) and Project and Program Risk Management, A Guide to Managing Project Risks and Opportunities (1992) as PMI's handbooks; Cost Control of Capital Projects (Second Edition 1995) and his latest book A Management Framework for Project, Program and Portfolio Integration, Trafford, BC, 2004.
Over the last five years he has dedicated his spare time to researching "best" and even better practices in project management across the entire PMBoK spectrum. This includes the new and emerging discipline of project portfolio management. More importantly, he has made this entire information freely available to the public on his web site at http://www.maxwideman.com