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There is an old PM saying that goes like this: Projects don’t fail at the end... they fail at the beginning. But when exactly is “the beginning”? Is it scope definition? The kick off meeting? The creation of the charter?

For Jamal Moustafaev, PMP (www.thinktankconsulting.ca) it is even earlier than that. A project starts at project selection, which is why he wrote a book about it called Delivering Exceptional Project Results: A Practical Guide to Project Selection, Scoping, Estimation and Management. In today’s interview we are going to take a look at project portfolio management and how it helps companies to deliver these exceptional results.

Here is what Jamal wrote about his book on Amazon:

I hope that, after reading this book, junior project managers and technical team members will feel compelled to share it with their superiors so that these superiors can learn how to select projects properly and gain an understanding of the daily challenges faced by project managers. It is also hoped that senior managers who read this book will realize that there are still some improvements to be made to their project management practices and will pass this book on to their colleagues.

Portfolio management can be considered part of strategic and business management, and you may recognize that term from the PMI® Talent Triangle. We're always looking for ways to help you earn 60 PDUs towards your recertification requirements, so I hope you enjoy the episode. There are plenty more PMP PDU Podcast episodes available to you, so you can always have something to listen to as you go about your day.

As always, when we have an author on the program to discuss his or her book, we are giving away two copies. One copy automatically goes to one lucky premium subscriber and the other one is up for grabs. Please stop by at facebook.com/pmpodcast and look for the book giveaway notice. EDIT: Please note that the giveaway is now closed.

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Even though our industry has quite a bad track record of failed projects, that doesn’t mean that we need to stick our head in the sand. Joel Fleiss (www.eppora.com) is one of those thinkers who looks at the problem and tackles it head on.

In part one of the interview we looked at 7 areas of project portfolio failure and right now you are going to hear about 4 more: We start out with a recap of part 1 (just in case you’ve already forgotten what we talked about) and then we will see how Cost Estimations. Workflow and Warnings, Staff Productivity and Labor Resource Allocation can lead to project failure and what can be done about it.

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Many of you will remember Joel Fleiss (www.eppora.com) from our past interviews with the PMI LA Book Club. We heard him review one of Patric Lencioni’s books. But Joel is more than just a book reviewer, he is a senior project manager and project management consultant in his own right.

He has worked in our industry for several decades, both as a project manager and in development of project management software and he has seen the good, the bad and the ugly projects. And it’s the ugly projects that fascinated him most as he was wondering: Why do we have such a bad track record in successful projects and what can we do about it?

The answer to this question can (and does) fill several books, so it’s not surprising, that we had to cut his interview and his answer up and deliver it to you as a two-part series.

In part 1 of our look at portfolio failure, Joel and I are going to look at  a Definition of Project Failure, Project Methodology Evolution, Goals and Tactics, Project Selection, Requirements management, Schedules and Testing. Joel will explore what the problems are and what he recommends can be done about it.

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The first Thursday of November is just around the corner, which means that another year has gone by and we are heading for another International Project Management Day (http://www.internationalpmday.org). Frank Saladis, PMP, is the founder of this day and we’ve had him on the program once or twice in the past talking about the event.

So I figured that inviting him back and only talk about the IPM Day would be rather boring for everyone. However, Frank is also an accomplished and very experienced senior project manager. So I decided to tap into his vast knowledge of our profession and dig deeper.

In the interview, Frank and I begin with a quick review of the international PM day, but then we immediately move on to other PM Topics. We look at how the project management profession is regarded by the general public, what we as PMs can do to help those around us understand what exactly it is that we do and then Frank takes the pulse of the industry. He looks back to see where we are coming from, gives us his view of the current state of project management and then we glimpse into the future to see where he thinks that we are headed.