This July, we are thrilled to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on the truly exceptional Victorious Eche! Victorious isn't just a volunteer; she's a dynamic leader, an inspiring speaker, and a passionate community builder whose impact resonates across multiple spheres.

Victorious brings a wealth of experience from her impressive track record in finance, transformation, and strategic leadership, honed during her tenure as a former Vice President at Citibank. Currently a graduate student in Business and Women’s Leadership at Texas Woman’s University, she uniquely blends corporate insight with a heart-led approach to empowerment.

On Memorial Day, the PMI Fort Worth Chapter was profoundly moved to be part of the #FlagsForFallenVets initiative. It was a powerful and humbling reminder of the immense love and sacrifice that built the freedoms we cherish today. To every hero we had the honor of remembering, we promise to carry your memory forward. Your legacy is etched in the liberty we experience every single day.

The moment you've been waiting for is finally here! We're thrilled to officially announce the theme for our highly anticipated PMI Fort Worth Chapter Professional Development Conference (PDC) 2025: "Better Together - Back to Basics." Mark your calendars, because on October 10, 2025, we're diving deep into the core principles of project management right here in Fort Worth.

In today's fast-paced world, with new tools and trends emerging constantly, it's easy to get sidetracked. But at FWPMI, we believe that the foundation of every truly great project—and every successful project manager—lies in mastering the fundamentals. "Better Together - Back to Basics" isn't just a theme; it's our vision for this year's conference. We're dedicated to revisiting, strengthening, and celebrating the timeless core principles that genuinely drive project success.

June Dinner Meeting was a fantastic success, and we owe a massive thank you to our very special guest speaker, Scott Brown! An Executive business coaching and corporate training, Leadership development, organizational alignment, Data strategy and supply chain management expert from Project Made Easy.

His insights on resource management were incredibly valuable, and we're grateful for him sharing his expertise with the FWPMI community. We'd also like to extend our sincere appreciation to everyone who attended. Your engagement and participation made for a lively and enriching learning opportunity.

The November dinner meeting was very energetic and inspiring from the time that the speaker started presenting!  Jay Arbetter is a Financial Planner and he spoke about Professional Networking.  He did this through a workshop format and he gave a lot of personal examples from both his professional and volunteer work.   Jay started off his presentation by saying that “Your attitude determines your opportunity”!  This was very eye opening and then he encouraged everyone to identify their ambassador/advocate.  This is the person that has your best interest in mind and will help you to get to where you want to go.

Last month, four of our chapter leaders had the opportunity to attend the 2023 PMI Global Summit in Atlanta, Georgia. VP of Professional Development Dionne Beer, Director of Membership Kim Collins, Director of Communication Tristan Martinez, and Past President Cindy Vandersleen networked with over 3,500 fellow project management professionals from around the world.

The summit featured over 50 educational sessions focused on hot topics like AI, human-centric leadership, risk management, and emerging workplace trends. Our members were able to bring back key learnings to help prepare our chapter members to lead projects successfully into the future.

Our very own Director of Academic Outreach Kevin Bast and VP of Professional Development Dionne Beer can attest to that. After connecting with staff from Texas Christian University’s Neeley School of Business at a recent nonprofit roundtable, they secured an invitation to present project management concepts to business students on November 16.

Kevin and Dionne tag-teamed an engaging session covering numerous PM-related topics:

- The benefits of membership with the Project Management Institute, our global parent organization

- Core project management principles and methods, including waterfall versus agile approaches

- Critical skills like risk management and adapting PM strategies in a post-COVID age

- Diverse career paths for those pursuing project leadership roles

Centralizing Change Management

The recently released Project Management Body of Knowledgement, PMBOK ®, Guide 7th Edition, reveals a growing emphasis on change management, with more than 30% more content on communications and stakeholder engagement compared ot the 6th Edition. As projects aim to deliver change across organizations, project managers are increasingly responsible for easing transitions. For more evidence on PMI’s commitment to change management, you can look no further than the fact that it took up more than 24 key sessions at the PMI Global Summit. Change management knowledge paired with soft skills like empathy and influence are now core PM competencies.

The evolution of project management seems to have mirrored the evolution in general management, starting with a focus on ‘scientific’ (or hard) processes in the early years, moving to a soft skills focus in the 21st century. This trend is clearly demonstrated by analysis of papers published in the International Journal of Project Management which shows a drop from 49% to 12% for task focused papers (scheduling, etc), offset by increases in papers on ‘soft’ subjects such as leadership and stakeholder management. Similarly, many of the new ‘tools’ entering the market in the 21st century are directed towards collaboration, communication and stakeholder management including the innovative Stakeholder Circle system.

Table of Contents:

1.Understanding Product Management

2.Strategic Approach: Product Management in ML/AI

3.Product Manager's Responsibilities in the Complete ML Lifecycle

a. Scoping

b. Data

c. Modeling

d. Validation

e. Deployment

4.Additional Considerations

5.Tools and Techniques