Project Management Theory and Practice

Gary Richardson is the PMI endowed professor of project management at the University of Houston College of Technology graduate project management program. This program serves both the internal and external professional community in regard to the theory and practice of project management. He comes from a broad professional background including industry, consulting, government, and academia.During the early phase of his career he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force, followed by industry stints at Texas Instruments as a manufacturing engineer, and then by consulting assignments at the Defense Communications Agency, Department of Labor, and the U.S. Air Force (Pentagon) in Washington, D.C. The latter half of his career was spent with Texaco, Star Enterprise (Texaco Aramco joint venture), and Service Corporation International in various IT and CIO-level management positions. Interspersed through these periods he was a professor at Texas A&M, the University of South Florida, and the University of Houston, and also did other adjunct professor stints at three other universities. Gary has previously published four computer-related textbooks and numerous technical articles.Through his experiences in over 100 significant sized projects of various types, he has observed frequently encountered management issues and has been an active participant in the evolution of management techniques that have occurred over this time. Gary received a BS in mechanical engineering from Louisiana Tech, an AFIT postgraduate program in meteorology at the University of Texas, an MS in engineering management from the University of Alaska, and a PhD in business administration from the University of North Texas. He currently teaches the PMP Prep course and other graduate-level project management courses at the University of Houston, plus various continuing education courses.