Each year PMI Phoenix Judges support the Future City competition to Arizona schools by providing guidance and feedback to the teams. During the competition, each team is given four requirements to complete in advance of the project deadline to be eligible for the best project plan award. These requirements include creating Project Goals, Project Schedules, conducting Project Status Check-ins, and completing a Project Reflection. PMI volunteer judges evaluate and provide feedback to the teams (via the teachers) to help them improve their deliverables.
- “Guidelines for Setting Goals & Preparing Schedules” project management presentation – This presentation was created specifically for Future Cities teams to further help teams understand the value and processes of project management.
- Overview of schedule and what is involved for the judges:
- The annual competition begins towards the end of October each year with registrations taking place. Once registrations have concluded and all schools and teams are registered, each participating PMI judge is assigned a number of schools which are further divided into teams.
- This competition typically requires ~20 hours for each judge.
- During the month of November, the teams begin preparing deliverables 1 & 2 (Project Goals and Project Schedules respectively). The PMI judges review these deliverables and provide feedback based on best practices. The teams then have the opportunity to incorporate the judge’s feedback into their deliverables.
- During the months of December and January the teams are hard at work with their deliverables as well as creating their models.
- In late January, the PMI judges receive all deliverables created by the students. The judges review all deliverables and have the opportunity to adjust any overall scoring based on feedback the student’s incorporated.
- It is during this time that the Best Project Plan is selected by the PMI Judges. Each team also has the option to be considered for the PMI Best Project Manager Award. PMI judges conduct interviews with the students who wish to be considered and select the recipient of the Best Project Manager Award based on their interview.
- The competition culminates in early February with a regional awards ceremony for the teams.
- Future City 2023 Winners – Each year, PMI Phoenix awards “Best Project Plan Award” and the “Project Manager Award.” Check out the following blog posts to read more about the winners and why they won.
