The Project Management Institute (PMI) Project of the Year (POY) Award is used to reward and make known the most successful project, the performance of its team and successful completion of successful projects. This essay is a brief analysis of the projects that have won the Award against the set guidelines of nomination as well as provisions of project management practice. The essay points out the specific features that made the project worthy for nomination as well as for winning the Award. Specifically, the analysis focuses on the 2012 and 2011 projects that scooped the Award.
This year’s POY Award went to the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility Operations Phase, Hermiston, Oregon, USA. To begin with, the project met all the 2012 requirements for nomination. According to the year’s guidelines for nomination, other than the project not surpassing the $ 100 million budget, the project heavily borrowed intensive project management techniques and methods. In the words of PMI, the project exhibited a great deal of superior performance and strict execution of ideals of project management. Specifically, the project was accomplished 935 days before its life cycle was completed. Since this completion was carried out in line with enormous risk, it was named POY.
Secondly, the Prairie Waters Project, Aurora, Colorado, USA, was named the 2011 POY. The project did not only adhere to the 2011 nomination guidelines but was also completed two months earlier than the scheduled time. A closer scrutiny of the operations of the project team is evidence of a great deal of cooperation and meetings. It appears that this was mainly motivated by the fact that lack of water in the arid areas made the team more creative and innovative. As a result, the project scooped the 2011 award. There are also outstanding features for the projects that scooped the same award in the previous years.