A PM Competency GAAP?

Both seem to focus on planning and progress. I do miss measurements with respect to scope, people/resource, issue, risk, change, supplier, finaincial and knowledge management, procurement, and governance, .

With all respect for the hard skills both are suggestion I would suggest a matrx with vertical the topics as forementioned and on the horizontal axis the 4 stages of a project; initiating, planning, executing and closing. Each of the topics require a different attention and priority in each of the stages.

I do agree also the personal skills need to be assessed because these will determine the effectiveness of the project manager. Knowing PMBOK is not sufficient applying it in the right way makes the difference. A way to measure is to have the candidate is to request a 360 including the own view of the candidate using a standard form describing the personall skills which are important in your company as a proejct manager

Let me know what you think

Hans

Posted: Feb 26, 2009 8:47 AM

I have to disclose from the beginning that I am biased in my response, as I was part of the Core Team leading PMCDF 2nd Edition, directly leading the personal competencies chapter.

The major improvement 2nd Edition brings over all significant competence frameworks available at the time (and we studied all public and many private frameworks) is that it provides evaluation criteria (as specific as possible) and examples of evidences that one can use – even on his/her own – to assess project management competence.

These were analysed by the team to be general enough (“most projects, most of the time”) but also specific enough so they can be used by PMs or companies to refine it into their own assessment tools based on their specific needs and situation. For example, a company that runs small projects with the same team over and over might not even consider team building as required for a project manager – it is already taken care of as part of the organizational management.

The other major focus we had was to make the assessment as objective as possible when you’re dealing with a highly subjective area (e.g. what does “commitment to the project” really means?). The list of criteria and potential evidences is not complete by any means, but I certainly think it’s a good start by representing what a large team of PMs around the world considered as important and universally applicable. PMBOK was a starting point but PMCDF goes way beyond it – a graphic of most important alignment points is presented in the introduction chapter.

Moreover, the standard (especially examples of evidences) was written having in mind at all time the self-assessment need: either done by an experienced PM to see “what’s missing” (and not necessarily wanting to share this with others), the junior PM that is seeking justification to ask for courses, or even a non-PM that is simply assessing if project management is something he/she would be good for, or interested in moving toward.

One word of caution about PMCDF, GAAP and any other global frameworks: never take them as such, they need to be adjusted to fit your specific needs. The same as PMBOK is not a methodology but a standard, PMCDF represents a standard in competency evaluation and improvement. And the same as each company adapts PMBOK in a methodology aligned with their specific needs, each person or company needs to adjust it for the corresponding particularities. Some directions on how to do this are given in competence improvement chapter.


Posted: Feb 26, 2009 10:27 AM

Both frameworks are adequate for the PM component of a project manager''s competence. But at a minimum PMs need to have a tripartied balance of PM competence, business competence, and technical competence. So, as a self-planning or professional development tool to measure the competence of PMs, the PMI and GAAP frameworks are focused too narrowly to do this effectively. Nonetheless, either of these frameworks can be used as a starting point from which business, technical, and other competence components can be added. As Hans suggests, use of 360 reviews are an excellent measure of PM exhibited competence.

Posted: Feb 26, 2009 10:34 AM

Hans, I think that a 360 is a great way to gather (as Mark put it) "exhibited competence". As long as the judgments that people make about you are kept private, a 360 could be a great part of a comprehensive self assessment.

George, your work on the PMI competency model is really terrific. I apologize if I came off as disparaging in any way. I just think there are inherent difficulties (some of this stuff is necessarily subjective) in building any sort of competency model. You guys did a great job however and as you said - its a great basis for any company to build an in-house version.

Posted: Feb 26, 2009 11:06 AM

From the GAAP web site...

"GAPPS (the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards) was founded by a group of highly motivated individuals, experts in project management, who saw a need for a new class of global standard, and who were willing to devote their own time and resources to satisfying this need. They recognised that government agencies, global corporations, and mobile project practitioners were thirsty for standards that:

* Have global application throughout the program and project management community.

* Are independent of any proprietary standards.

* Would support globally recognised and transferable qualifications. "

Is it important to keep this sort of assessment separate from existing standards? What do you see as the value in the separation?

Posted: Feb 26, 2009 11:10 AM

Care must be taken on both approaches. Neither has performed the quantitative statistical analysis to show any connection of being assessed at a defined competency level of the increase in the probability of success for a project.


For an example of how to make this connection see...



www.ncmahq.org/files/Articles/JCM07_pp21-33.pdf



In the absence of the cause and effect assessment, only common sense can prevail. And as well all know:



"Common Sense is neither common nor sensical. Much of what passes for common sense is not based on any underlying principle it’s just anecdotes that have worked for the current situation." - Benjamin Franklin

Posted: Sep 14, 2009 7:49 PM