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Nader K. Rad

minimalist project management architect

Nader K. Rad

I started working with projects about 28 years ago: first, as a project planner in construction projects, and then I moved to large process-plant projects. In parallel, I was also involved in IT projects and startups.

I gradually moved from project planning into the wider project management domain by helping project managers and companies improve their project, program, and portfolio management systems.

Nowadays, I'm spending most of my time contributing to standards (P3.express, NUPP, PRINCE2®, PRINCE2 Agile®, and the PMBOK® Guide), and developing eLearning courses in our company, Management Plaza.

My biggest passion in project management is methods and systems; i.e., things that can help many projects rather than ad hoc solutions for individual projects. I spend a lot of time learning them, contributing to them, and helping others learn them. The following are my major contributions, in addition to smaller ones such as working as a reviewer for PRINCE2® 2017, PRINCE2 Agile®, and MSP®.

NUPP

Nearly Universal Principles of Projects

Methods help people run their projects more efficiently. Sometimes, however, it seems that more fundamental issues are at stake, and the use of methods is reduced to empty rituals. I believe it helps to start with the basic principles, and then move on to the methods. NUPP is an answer to this need: A set of principles that can be helpful in any project, at a very fundamental level. NUPP is libre (non-proprietary) and published under a Creative Commons license.

nupp.guide

P3.express

The minimalist project management system

Despite all the effort that's put into fundamental project management resources, most project managers don't use them because they are too complicated for their real-world projects. That's why we've developed P3.express, which is an easy-to-use method for small, medium, and large projects (but not micro or mega projects) that provides most of the potential benefits of structured project management with the least effort. P3.express is libre and published under a Creative Commons license.

P3.express

PMBOK Guide 7

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge

I've been one of the 12 members of the core development team for the seventh edition of the PMBOK Guide. Unlike the previous editions that built on top of each other and used a process-based approach, this version is written from the ground up and uses a principle-based approach, making it more applicable to all types of projects and easier to expand in the future.

pmi.org — pmbok.guide

P5.express

The minimalist portfolio management system

P5.express is a libre, minimalist method for managing portfolios of projects and programs. It comes from OMIMO, which is a family of modules that includes P3.express as well. However, its use is not limited to organizations that use P3.express to manage their projects and can be used in any environment.

P5.express

Books

I love to write! I've written about 50 books in my native language, Persian. Many of them are related to project management, but not all. Many of the project management books I wanted to write had a limited audience, so I used to make special deals with publishers to write a book with a high sales potential (e.g., AutoCAD) in exchange for writing one about a topic I preferred (e.g., developing well-formed Work Breakdown Structures).

Since I started working in an international environment, I've written a few books in English, such as PMBOK® Guide 7, Underneath the Surface, Agile Scrum Handbook, Project Scheduling Rules, Understanding the PMBOK® Guide, and Percent Complete Fields in Primavera P6. I haven't written as many books as I used to because I've been concentrating on creating eLearning courses and contributing to standards. However, I'm really looking forward to having more time to write books again.

Presentations in Conferences

I like to travel to different countries to give presentations. In addition to the primary goal, I also use it as an excuse to spend more time and visit new cities, check the cafés, take photos, etc.

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eLearning Courses

Well, you can see here that I do a lot of things that are not for profit, such as contributing to standards. The main reason I can do these things and still keep a roof over my head is the eLearning courses we make :)

Our company, Management Plaza, is known as a boutique elearning course provider, and we really like to keep it that way: Instead of trying to publish as many courses as possible, we take our time and build something that can really help the audience. This makes it very expensive for us (e.g., it took us 6 months to build our PMP® course), but the audience seems to appreciate it.

Here are the courses, sorted from new to old (which shows you how we've improved our development process, and how I lost weight while traveling back in time):

We have a quite unique approach: The first 30% of each course is free because we really believe in the quality of our work :)

Awareness Courses

I've written a few email-based introductory courses on project topics because I thought it would be a great solution for busy people: You only have to spend a few minutes a day, and after a few weeks, you'll have a general understanding of a topic. Based on the feedback I've received, the idea seems to work :)

About 110,000 users have completed these courses so far. The courses are also recognized by many organizations, including AXELOS.

These are the current courses:

Interactive Stories

I think interactive stories (aka interactive fiction) are great for experiencing what you've learned and filling in the gaps. I've prepared two of them so far:

If you like this kind of story, you can find many of them in the Interactive Fiction Archive. Don't expect to find stories about project management there, though!

Degrees & Certificates

I have a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a master's in philosophy of science. Civil engineering was more or less interesting to me, but I didn't love it, which is why I switched to working in the project management field instead. Philosophy, on the other hand, has always been one of my main personal interests.

My field in philosophy of science was philosophical logic, and in that, I was focused on the practicality of logical systems. My thesis showed that multi-valued and fuzzy logics could not do anything more than what the two-valued logic does.

I have a few certificates related to my work, including the following. Since I became involved in standards, I've stopped getting new certificates.

Besides Working...

I am passionate about many things! The most important is probably photography. In fact, the first book I wrote was about photography, and its success was the reason publishers became interested in working with me. I took that as an opportunity to write books related to my work. While photography has never been a career for me, I've spent a lot of time doing it, and besides personal satisfaction, I've had a few achievements: I've had a few solo exhibitions, and my works have been selected for a few photography biennials. Curious? Here's my online photo gallery.

I used to build abstract sculptures many years ago. It's not easy to do that without a workshop, so I gradually replaced that with photography – although I still do it sometimes, and I sometimes even combine my familiarity with building things with other domains, such as my interest in mechanical keyboards. The result is a small collection of keyboards I've built for myself.

Update 2025-04-02: There's a small room in my new house and I'm going to turn it into my first dedicated sculpture workshop! Stay tuned!

If you've read the contents of this page (do people still read?!), you can guess that I have a serious interest in philosophy and logic. This interest has shifted from pure/general forms of it to practical aspects that I can inject into my other works; e.g., critical thinking. Many people find it a bit annoying, which means it's working!

In the early days of the Internet, just after the BBS era, I had an active blog with my short writings about society, people, etc. It was, like most online things in those days, pseudonymous. I stopped writing there when the paradigm shifted from that early form to the meaningless social media of today. To fill the void, I sometimes write short stories, and I've been working on my first novella for a while now. It's a science fiction story that imagines a time when some of our current natural behaviors and beliefs are no longer natural. I also write articles here; take a look!

I started using computers and simple programming when I was 10, and I still consider myself a computer enthusiast. I love Linux and the open source concept. I'm concerned about privacy and human rights and try to raise awareness whenever possible. I sometimes write programs too; for example, h-m-m (Hackers Mind Map).

Contact Information

I'm relatively active on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/naderkrad/. You can connect with me there to stay informed of my activities, and also contact me within the platform.

You can also contact me via my email address: me@nader.pm

I usually shut out the world for a few days, or even a week, when I'm working on an interesting project, and don't respond to messages. Some people find this annoying, and I don't disagree, but I can't sacrifice my productivity :')