Dear Practitioner,

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a subject that evokes a range of emotions and opinions in us. While it is a fascinating subject for those of us who are watching it evolve from a distance, it is much more personal for those working closely on AI projects. They speak of unrealistic expectations, frustrations, and disappointments, since the outcomes often do not match the goals. PMI believes there is a lot of knowledge in the community that must be shared, so that project managers do not reinvent the wheel, and can avoid costly mistakes. The PMI-NASSCOM Playbook for Project Management in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Projects is the result of our endeavor to provide our community a useful resource to improve the success rate of AI projects. Read our cover story and download the playbook.

Another article you do not want to miss is Megatrends 2021. It gives you an overview of our recently released Megatrends 2021 report that picks five big themes, including AI, which will dominate the Project Economy.

We are excited to see the response to our new offerings, Disciplined Agile (DA) and Citizen Developer (CD). PMI South Asia was the first to organize a DA conference, and it drew great interest from practitioners around the world. You can now download the document with key takeaways from the conference.

We collaborated with NASSCOM to host a CD-focussed industry roundtable and a series of talks with business leaders. These discussions have helped us begin to assess the opportunity for CD and the role that PMI can play in preparing our community for it.

PMI continues to expand its products portfolio. Do not miss out on the new certifications and courses on offer.

Our first project management related “GAME-A-THON” for college and university students in India elicited huge enthusiasm in the student population. Hearty congratulations to the winners and my sincere thanks to our esteemed jury and our technology partners. Look out for the winning teams in this edition.

I’m glad to announce that the scope of our annual project awards has now expanded to the entire region. The PMI South Asia Awards program launched on 15 February includes Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for the first time. This is your opportunity to nominate projects for this prestigious awards program.

Dr. Srini Srinivasan
Managing Director, PMI South Asia