R. Max Wideman
Ontario, Canada
1927-2026
Max Wideman, FCSCE, FEIC, FICE, FPMI, FCMI, is a globally-recognized author, consultant and expert. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on modern project and program management. With over 6,000 entries, the Wideman PM Glossary was one of the most widely-referenced lexicons of PM terms and terminology in the world today. Before his passing, it was available free on-line on his web site at www.wideman.com. There you could also find details of smaller but more up-to-date industry-dedicated versions available for download at very modest costs. Max’s personal website was one of the world’s best-known online resources for project and program management.
Max Wideman had over 50 years of PM-related experience in a wide range of projects and industries. He was a registered professional engineer specializing in project management consulting. Max was a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (UK).
Max served on the PMI Board of Directors as VP Member Services (1984), President (1987) and Chairman of the Board (1988). As Chairman of PMI's Standards Board, Max won PMI’s Distinguished Contribution Award in 1985 and Person of the Year Award in 1986. As chairman, he led a team of PMI volunteers to document the PM Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), published by PMI in 1987. In 2018 he cleaned up his hard copy of that document and, together with the Glossary of the day, he made all that available in PDF format via his web site.
Max Wideman was the author of A Framework for Project and Program Integration (PMI, 1991) and Project and Program Risk Management: A guide to Managing Project Risk and Opportunities (PMI, 1992). He contributed chapters to Project Management Handbook (PMI/Jossey-Bass, 1998); Field Guide to Project Management (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1998, 2004) and Project Management for the Business Professional - A Comprehensive Guide (Wiley, 2001). His most recent book was A Management Framework for Project, Program and Portfolio Integration (2004 – Now only available in PDF format).
Max was a former long-time resident of Vancouver, British Colombia where, in 2006 and together with five other enthusiastic PM supporters and a donation of $50,000, he launched the Wideman Education Foundation (WEF). The WEF's goal is to promote project management education through practical project competitions in partnership with educational institutions – in this case with the business department at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby BC.
Profile created July 2026