The goal of this blog is to share information about project management in and around China (which is where I have lived for the past 6 years.)  I’ll share my experiences and observations and hope that you will also.  My experience comes from two perspectives – teacher and business leader.  First,  I’ve been teaching information technology project management for more than 3 years at Zhejiang University which is the oldest and, at last count, largest university in China.  Second, I’m a senior manager at a leading Chinese software vendor with responsibilities for software development and maintenance.

My university is in Hangzhou in the province of Zhejiang about 2 hours by car from Shanghai.  To put some perspective on the source of local interest in studying project management, Hangzhou is a city of about 6 million people and has been chosen the past few years as the #1 city in China for business by Forbes.  There is great economic vitality and growth everywhere you look.  Called the “Silicon Valley of China,” it is home to large R&D centers for such companies as Motorola, Nokia, UTStarcom and several of the top domestic software companies such as Hundsun, Insigma, and Sunyard.  There are nearly 400,000 college students attending more than 25 colleges and universities and 55,000 new graduates every year.  So there is intense competition for the top talent and great individual drive to distinguish yourself from your peers.  There is also a severe lack of skilled project managers.  Not surprisingly there has been a significant upsurge in recent years with respect to study in project management.  At Zhejiang University we offer a few courses in IT Project Management.  Other universities in the area offer similar courses.  And one college offers a Masters Degree in Project Management in partnership with a Canadian University.  There are also several companies that offer training and which claim status as being registered by the PMI.  The Masters Degree program is wait listed far in advance.  Once I taught a class in IT PM at a satellite campus and unbeknownst to me registration was opened to local industry (probably to recoup costs.)  I arrived the first day to a class of 145 students.

So from my vantage point as a teacher in China there is great interest in project management.