A Balanced Competency Model
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
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By Mario Trentim
A successful project requires a combination of technical and managerial activities at every stage to jointly deliver the final result and its benefits.
If you have high levels of maturity in project management without the equivalent technical knowledge, your project is doomed to deliver a poor solution. On the other hand, when you have best-in-class technical knowledge without project management maturity, your project is also doomed to be inefficient and maybe even inefficacious.
Many organizations have already developed competency models to encompass technical and managerial aspects of projects, describing overlapping areas and highlighting essential project management and systems engineering foundations of successful projects.
Consider the U.S.’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) competency model, which “outlines distinct competency areas for project managers and systems engineers, as well as shared competencies that encompass both disciplines.”
Examples of defined project management competencies include:
- Stakeholder management
- Safety and mission assurance
- Cost estimating
- Risk management
- Project control
Examples of defined system engineer competencies include:
- Technical requirements definition
- Product verification
- Configuration management
- Technical data management
- Interface management
Examples of shared competencies include:
- Workplace safety
- Communication
- Team dynamics and management
- Safety and mission assurance
- Knowledge capture and transfer
You might be asking yourself what does NASA have to do with your own daily projects? Most of us are working in projects and programs far simpler than building space systems. However, my objective here is to call attention to the best in class so that we can contextualize and tailor their model to our own reality.
Of course, in order to achieve a proper balance in your projects, thoughtful tailoring is essential. Take the International Council on Systems Engineering’s handbook, A Guide for System Life Cycle Processes and Activities:
“On smaller projects, where the span of required communications is small (few people and short project life cycle) and the cost of rework is low, Systems Engineering activities can be conducted very informally (and thus at low cost). On larger projects, where the cost of failure or rework is high, increased formality can significantly help in achieving project opportunities and in mitigating project risk.”
Even small and medium projects can benefit a lot from the proper combination of project management and systems engineering. Systems engineering is helpful not only in developing complex products and services, such as a spaceship or an air traffic control system, but also in less sophisticated products such as a bicycle or an alarm system. In fact, systems engineering is even helpful when you are designing your new house.
What product development approaches are you using today? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Posted
by
Mario Trentim
on: April 03, 2018 01:00 PM |
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Comments (23)
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Thanks for a brief but holistic view into project management and it's competency challenges.
Michael Hilbert
Director of Project Management| TuWay Communications
Bethlehem, Pa, United States
Excellent breakdown of roles and responsibilities for the entire team.
Ejakpovi Lucky Ewhrudjakpor
Project Team Lead, Revenue Protection Dept| PORT HARCOURT ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANY
Port Harcourt, Rivers, Nigeria
This is indeed insightful. I agree totally that thoughtful tailoring is essential to project success. The NASA competency model can be tailored to both small and large Projects across various sectors. Great article!
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