The Professional Project Manager

There is something weird (and unique) about the profession of project management and its view of credentials.

Often on LinkedIn you will see an opinion or post expressing doubt about the usefulness of credentials and qualifications, and quite loudly proclaiming that experience is the only thing that matters.

What’s weird is that I’ve never seen the same attitude from accountants, engineers, dentists, lawyers, plumbers, or builders. Those professions take it for granted that experience is best, but should be built on credentials and qualifications.

When I’m looking to recruit or appoint a project manager I always look at their experience AND their credentials/qualifications. Their credentials tell me a lot about their breadth of knowledge and can sometimes indicate levels of competence (and also their commitment to professional development).

The answer is, and always has been, that a project manager needs both experience AND credentials just like any other profession or trade. You wouldn’t use (or trust) an accountant or engineer that said their experience was all that mattered and they didn’t need credentials. Heck, you wouldn’t employ a plumber who said the same.

And for all those project managers out there without credentials and qualifications wondering if I’m dismissing your years of experience, I’m not because experience rules. But, generally speaking, you would be better project manager with some credentials and qualifications.

Now in terms of what credentials are best, well that depends on the type and complexity of your projects, the industry you are in, and obviously the credential itself - they aren’t all created equal. For me, anything that comes from a reputable professional organisation (PMI, IPMA, or APM) means the credential has been through a rigourous process in development, and also aligns with internal and external standards (eg ISO17024). Any tertiary level qualification (e.g Bachelors, Masters, or PhD in project management) from a reputable university is also a good one as I know there was academic teaching and assessment. When it comes to the commercial methodology credentials (eg Prince2, Scrum) they’re great as an indicator someone can attend a 3-5 training course and has at a minimum knowledge of a particular approach (I would have to learn more about their experience to know how well they can apply it).

So, you should always value experience without a doubt. But you need to place equal value on credentials and qualifications (and become familiar with what each one represents).

And yes, it is long overdue that the profession of project management actually becomes a regulated profession with definitions of who can call themselves a project manager. If we are entrusting complex initiatives into the hands of people and hoping for successful delivery then it’s about time we defined the expectations in terms of experience and credentials that we have of those people.

Professional training is an important investment made by organisations to enhance their staff's level of competence and ultimately performance. But like all investments, it requires careful planning, clear objectives, and robust assessment processes to ensure it works and achieve its goals – otherwise it’s just an exercise in attendance.

It helps if you start to look at investing in training as you would any other investment you could make. This means that you take a look at the costs of the investment and clearly outline the expected returns from it. This is useful to help you even choose the type of training that you should be sending people on. You should have a really clear idea of what sort of training you want people to go on for example will it be assessed or is it simply a matter of attending a course. Will it require practical demonstration of skills, will it result in a professional certification or qualification. Each of these provides different levels of training and teaching and as such different levels of competence development. So carefully consider the business case for each investment in training and have clear expectations about what you need the

Next, when looking at different types of training look carefully about how the training has been put together. Is it a simple mishmash of opinions of a particular subject matter expert or has it been put together using something like blooms taxonomy which will clearly indicate what the level of teaching or training is aimed at and what the expected outcomes from participating and completing in the training will be. This is definitely a question that you should be asking any training provider so that you can move away from training that does not have defined learning outcomes.

Once people have been on the training and completed it you then need a way to determine whether it was worthwhile and whether you achieved the expected results from it. I'm always surprised at this point that a lot of people simply assume that attendance at training will lead to the expected and desired uplift and competence. But this isn't always the case and you will need to have in place some way of measuring an uplift in competence and a change in performance. My personal preference is to use Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model, which provides a framework to assess training efficacy at different levels:

• Level 1: Reaction - How did the participants feel about the training? We often refer to this as the happy sheet completed at the end of the training which asks people how did you feel about the content, the facilities, the trainer, and even the catering. You can see that simply getting level 1 doesn't really give you any insights into the application in your skills.
• Level 2: Learning - What did the participants learn? Completing this level of training efficacy will mean that you have some sort of test that you will put people through to see if they have learned something from the training. Obviously some forms of training particularly those based on awarding credentials or qualifications will have this built into them. You will probably want to know what the pass mark is, how the pass mark was determined, how the questions were written (for example were they written in accordance with ISO 17,000 and 24) in order to determine how valid the testing actually is.
• Level 3: Behavior - How did participants apply the knowledge? This level will require you to either ask the participants how they have managed to apply the knowledge they have gained, or for you to observe them applying the knowledge.
• Level 4: Results - What tangible results emerged from the training? The top level of this model requires not just an assessment of an increase in knowledge and a demonstration of applying the new knowledge or skills, but also and assessment of actual improvements in performance for the individual and the organization as a result of the investment in the training.

Using this model, organizations can evaluate the immediate and long-term impact of training on both the individual and organizational levels get a really clear picture of whether or not the training has had the desired impact or not.

Every organization, and indeed every individual, has unique needs. Training programs need to be tailored to address these specific needs to be effective. A well-thought-out training program, developed with clear objectives in mind, ensures that it addresses these needs.

Professional training is not just about conducting sessions and workshops. It's about ensuring that these sessions lead to desired outcomes, transforming both individuals and organizations. Using tools like Blooms Taxonomy for defining objectives and Kirkpatrick's model for assessment ensures that training is both comprehensive and effective. Remember, training without thoughtful planning and assessment is an exercise in futility. Invest wisely!

(For those keen on diving deeper, Blooms Taxonomy and the Kirkpatrick model have been extensively discussed in academic and professional literature. A quick search can provide numerous resources for further reading.)

In our daily interactions, whether we're mentoring a colleague, guiding a friend, or even giving directions to a stranger, the art of giving advice or passing on knowledge plays a crucial role. However, the way in which we deliver this advice, or knowledge, can make all the difference.

I’ve been seeing a lot of advice lately which focuses on the bad types of managers, the bad types of leader, the bad types of project management, the bad types of sponsor …. you get the picture. Somewhere it is implied that you need to watch out for, avoid, or actively manage these ‘bad’ examples. I think that if you read enough of these you will think that the world is only full on this type of person. You may also develop the belief that if you do the opposite of what the bad persons characteristics are, that this will mean you are doing ‘good’. This isn’t necessarily the case. The opposite of bad can actually be worse instead of good.

I appreciate that the authors of these pieces are genuinely trying to educate and pass on knowledge but there are much better ways to do this focussing on what is bad.

Imagine you're lost in a city somewhere, and you ask a local for directions. If they spend 10 minutes explaining all the routes you shouldn't take because of the bad things that can happen, you'll probably be more confused than before, and not really know where to start. On the other hand, if they give you a clear and direct good route, with perhaps a brief mention of roads to avoid, you'll be on your way in no time. The same principle should apply to the advice we give or receive in life.

Sure, it's essential to be aware of potential pitfalls and challenges. It gives a realistic view of the situation at hand. But, when the narrative becomes solely about what not to do, it can create a sense of fear or anxiety. The person seeking or receiving the advice might become overly cautious, second-guessing every step, and missing out on potential opportunities.

On the flip side, focusing on the positive aspects, the 'do's rather than the 'don'ts, can be empowering. It provides a clear path forward and encourages proactive action.

So maybe start to move away from a total focus on what’s bad, and start to focus on what’s good – there is a school of thought called Appreciative Inquiry that focusses on the positive and by repeating what is good hopes to crowd out the negative (very simple description btw).

Here are some benefits of being positive with your advice:

1. Clarity and Direction: Just like letting people know the direct and ‘good’ route in my earlier example, positive advising offers a clear path. It's easier to follow a roadmap of actionable steps than navigate a maze of warnings and what to avoid.
2. Boosts Confidence: Hearing about the potential successes and best practices can instil confidence in people. It reassures them that they are capable of achieving their goals. Let them know that good exists and is possible.
3. Promotes Optimism: A positive outlook can be contagious. By focusing on the good, you're fostering an environment of optimism and encouraging others to adopt the same perspective.
4. Builds Trust: When you offer constructive advice, it shows that you believe in the individual's potential. This can strengthen your relationship and build trust.

While the emphasis should be on the positive, it's also important to strike a useful balance. A brief mention of potential challenges or routes to avoid in any advice or learning can be beneficial. It ensures that people are well-informed and prepared for any eventuality.

So, the next time you find yourself in the role of the advisor or educator, or even LinkedIn influencer, remember the lost traveller metaphor. Guide people on the good route, highlight the positives, and watch them confidently go forward.

The purpose of this blog is to introduce you to some concepts that you will find useful for developing project management practitioner competency. I will introduce you to the concepts of competency and capability, and will also introduce you to some of the more widely known competency models, and take you through defined steps for building your own competency assessment tool.

The expected outcomes are that you will have an awareness of what project management competence is and why it is important for project and strategic success; you will also understand the difference between some of the more popular models for defining and assessing competence, and you will have some basic tools to begin developing or improving your own project management competency assessment tool. 

Defining Competence

Let’s begin by defining exactly what competence is. The Project Management Institute (PMI), in the third edition of the Project Manager Competency Development Framework (PMCDF) publication, defines competence as “the demonstrated ability to perform activities within a project environment that lead to expected outcomes based on define and accepted standards”. 

This definition is a little bit broad and after reading it you may still be wondering what exactly competence is, and exactly how is competence different from capability. Let’s begin by defining what a capability is. A capability is a description of how an expected task should be carried out. For example, you could require a project manager to have the capability to drive a car. Now you can go ahead and describe exactly how you want the car driven but without a description of the competence you won’t know how well somebody drives the car. Are they a learner or a world class rally driver?

Obviously, using this example there are many levels of competence when it comes to carrying out this particular task, driving a car. So, for particular roles you may want different levels of competence to be displayed for different capabilities. This is particularly important when you want senior project managers to demonstrate higher levels of competence of a particular capability than junior level project managers.  

Why is Practitioner Competence Important?

Before proceeding it is important to discuss why exactly that assessing and defining project manager competence is important. We must start by reminding ourselves the projects are not delivered by processes, tools, methods or techniques. Instead projects are delivered by competent individuals. Furthermore, they are delivered by groups of individuals working as teams. So, it is the personnel that deliver the project, and the more competent the personnel are the higher the chances of success are for the project. Developing practitioner competency is a critical part of project success, as it is individuals that deliver projects not processes, tools or techniques.

As such, appropriate competency assessment and development ensures that each individual working on the project has the right skills, experience, aptitude, and attitude to appropriately and effectively contribute to project success. 

In addition to identifying different levels of competence for different levels of practitioners there are a number of organizational benefits from having a well-developed and tailored competency development framework for practitioners. These benefits include the following:

• A reduction in staff turnover due to an increase in staff morale because they feel supported in their professional development, and they are being allocated to projects which they can manage.
• Increased competency in your project management practitioners which leads to increase in the success of projects and ultimately this leads to organisational strategic success.
• A well developed and regularly applied project management practitioner competency framework will also make the organisation attractive to new staff and make recruiting easier.
• A competency framework can also provide a rational basis for rewards, promotions, transfers and succession planning.
• And finally, an organisation can use its individual competency assessments and build these up to ensure that organisation wide it has the correct spread of experience and skills, and can plan for any forecast shortages or excess skills in the future.

There are also a number of individual practitioner benefits from having a defined project management practitioner competency development framework. These include: 

• Having a defined career path and job description,
• Visible and defined developmental goals,
• Increased confidence at completing assigned tasks
• Organisational support for ongoing professional and personal development for the individual practitioner.

Having a practitioner competency framework is also an integral part of organizational project management maturity. The research is very clear in this area, that higher levels of organizational project management maturity are a clear indicator of greater project success. Therefore, committing to fleshing out all aspects of your organizational project management maturity including practitioner competency is a way to ensure greater project success.

Competency Assessment Models

What all models for competency assessment have in common is that they seek to assess, develop and continuously improve practitioner capability and competence. Regardless of which model that you’ll end up using you will find that they start by addressing at least the following two questions:

• What is usually done in this occupation, profession, or role by competent performers?
• What standard of performance is usually considered acceptable to infer competence?

The three most widely used competency models for project management practitioners are:

1. The Project Manager Competency Development Framework (PMCDF) from the Project Management Institute. Version 3 of this document takes into account portfolio, program and project management competencies. Furthermore, it also aligns with the talent triangle from the Project Management Institute.

2. Another competency framework is from the International Project Management Association (IPMA). The IPMA provides a competence baseline for the project management practitioner and it is called the eye of competence. It separates the competencies into either behavioural competencies, technical competencies or contextual competencies.

3. The third and final model is from the global alliance on project performance standards or GAPPS. This can be viewed and downloaded for free from http://globalpmstandards.org/ 

Note that there is currently an ISO standard under development, ISO 21510 Project manager competencies. This is a new release and still undergoing review.

Let’s take a closer look at the project manager competency development framework from PMI. 

It begins with three foundational elements of personal competencies, knowledge competencies and performance competencies. 

• Personal competence reflects how the project manager is expected to behave when performing activities within the project environment and reflects the attitudes core personality characteristics and other traits including their communication skills, management ability, their leadership ability and cognitive ability and effectiveness. Proof of personal competence is through observation and documentation and support of the competence.
• Knowledge competencies are a description of what the practitioner is expected to know in terms of professional knowledge.A closer look at the knowledge competencies reveals that it is up to the project manager to be able to demonstrate that they have a grasp of an understanding of appropriate professional knowledge proof of this can be via professional credentials such as the PMP or similar credential. The regularly updated role delineation study that defines the PMP exam outlines the tasks that a competent project manager should know.
• Performance competencies are what the practitioner can demonstrate that they can actually do in practice. A performance competence reflects how the project manager applies the knowledge they have to the actual management of a project. Proof of this is gained via observing the project manager in practice or by gathering documentation in support of their performance.

There are two additional elements to this model that allow you to tailor it and make it reflect your particular organisation and your industry. These two additional elements are organisational competencies and industry specific competencies and they are not defined at all within the model as they are left up to you to define.

As a side note Crystal Consulting has developed our own competency assessment tool which utilises all five aspects of this model.

Developing Your Own Model

When it comes to developing your own model don’t be put off by the apparent complexity of the models. While they may appear at first glance to be complex they are in fact quite simple, and often involve merely documenting what may be part of institutional knowledge or within the heads of experienced project management practitioners already. Elements of your own competency model will be easy to develop and some will be hard though. You may choose to buy or use consultancies for some of the more complicated elements of developing your own model.

Please keep in mind that your own competency model must reflect and help deliver your organisational strategy. Also, the more that you customise your own model leads to greater competitive advantage as is difficult for competitors to replicate it so put some effort into making accurately reflect both your organisation and your industry.

Take the time to align it with established project management standards and frameworks for legitimacy and access to credentials. There are many of these from the Project Management Institute, the International Project Management Association, the Australian Institute of Project Management, the Association for Project Management and also a rapidly developing set of ISO standards as well. You are certainly not left wanting when it comes to establish project management standards and frameworks. My advice would be to start by aligning it with the PMI Project Manager Competency Development Framework and to keep an eye on the ongoing development of the ISO standard covering the same topic.

You will probably find that the development of your project manager competency framework has to be done by your human resources or organisational development department, as it will be able to be used for recruitment, remuneration and reward programs within the organisation. If this is the case, and it probably will be the case, then make sure that your practitioners, and if you have a PMO, are actively involved in the development of the model, the ongoing auditing and use of the model, and also the improvement of the model.

We are a firm believer in the KISS principle (Keep It Seriously Simple) when it comes the development of your own tool. We have provided the following 10 steps for you to follow to develop your own tool:

1. Gather all of your existing job or position descriptions. Note where none exist as these will need to be developed in order to make your framework complete

2. Ensure that all of the current or developed job or position descriptions contain clear descriptions of expected capability, competency, education and experience.

3. Standardise these descriptions across the organisation. We say this because we have come across a number of organisations that have wildly different job descriptions for the same role. The situation only leads to confusion and a lack of clarity about who does what.

4. Once again, and just to reinforce the point, take note of any missing documentation as this will need to be fixed.

5. Translate those competencies, education, and experience into your own tool. It’s pretty simple to do this you can start by using a MS Excel spreadsheet to list all the competencies and then use additional columns to indicate which roles should have which level of those competencies.

6. Once you have put all the competencies down into a spreadsheet, indicate very clearly an expected level of competence for each role in the organisation. Please keep in mind that it is always useful to involve practitioners, the PMO, and your human resources department in this.

7. Once you have the tool developed begin to assess individual practitioners against the various benchmarks of competence you have established. Note any discrepancies between what is expected of a practitioner and what they are able to demonstrate or be observed doing.

8. Using the information that you have gathered go on to develop individual professional development plans to ensure that everybody reaches the required level.

9. It’s a good rule of thumb to base all professional development on the 70:20:10 rule. This rule says that 70% of professional development should come from being assigned challenging assignments, 20% professional development should come from mentoring and coaching, and the final 10% of professional development should come from formal education and training.

10. Remember to review individual progress, reassess competency and adjust professional development plans accordingly.

There are some final points that I’d like to make. The first of these is that competency assessment is not a one-off activity. Instead it is an ongoing endeavour that starts at recruitment and is completed at regular intervals throughout an employee’s engagement with the organisation. You will use your competency framework during the recruitment process to ensure that you get the right people on board. You will then usual competency framework to take junior practitioners and turn them into senior practitioners. Your framework can also provide senior practitioners with clear guidance on where their career is heading as well.

I want to reiterate that:

• we know that organizations achieve their strategic goals with successful projects,
• that competent and capable practitioners produce high performing competent and capable project teams,
• that competent and capable project teams deliver successful projects
• therefore practitioner and organizational project management competency as a key contributor to organisational success and competency development is not a cost it is an investment in organisational success.

If you have any questions about the information in this blog, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am always happy to chat about any aspect of the profession of project management.

Sean Whitaker

Let’s talk about personal wellbeing.

It’s not the normal topic I talk about. Usually when I post it’s about technical skills like maturity assessments, cost and time estimating, or practitioner competency development. If I talk about soft skills I talk about skills like leadership, communication and team development.

The thing I noticed about all of these skills is that they are all outward facing. They require the leader or the project manager to give something to someone else. I realized that maybe it’s time to start looking after our own wellbeing first. By doing this we can be healthier people and be better prepared for our personal and professional challenges.

This post is also founded in my own personal experience of letting a state of “ill being” sneak up on me in very small barely noticeable steps. I won’t go into too much detail but there was a point in 2018 when I had to admit that I had let several years of stress and lack of good health practices adversely impact my overall state of wellbeing. I am not the only hard working professional to end up like this, I won’t be the last and maybe you can relate or know someone who can.

What helped me recover and return to a state of wellbeing was positive psychology, signature character strengths and learning resilience techniques.

I’m going to leave you to google the science of positive psychology and it’s founder Martin Seligman from the University of Pennsylvania. The elements of positive psychology that have helped me most have been learning about and focusing on my signature strengths, mindfulness and gratitude. If you bought one of his books I would recommend “Flourish”.

The science of resilience is an incredibly powerful set of tools and insights from Karen Reivich & Andrew Shatte, which at its heart teaches us that it isn’t the event we experience that shapes us, but the way we respond to it, and we can learn to have more control over the ways in which we respond. I’m going to encourage you to get their book “The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life's Hurdles” and learn some practical techniques for improving your levels of resilience.

If I could pass on two basic tips that you could use immediately to increase your levels of wellbeing it would be to start a simple gratitude practice. Each evening before you go to bed either write down, or share with someone, three things you are grateful for that happened that day. It’s a great way to end the day and it’s been proven that gratitude increases wellbeing.

The second tip would be to find out what your signature character strengths are and begin to leverage these more in your personal and professional life. Everything seems easier and takes less effort when you use your signature strengths. You can take the free assessment at the link below.

So, let’s keep sharing great ideas about leadership and project management. Let’s exchange ideas about Gantt charts, kanban boards and earned value management. Let’s debate agile versus waterfall approaches. Let’s keep inspiring others with stories of great leaders, communicators and team builders. But let’s also start to talk and share stories about our own wellbeing, and what works for each of us.

Find out your Character Strengths here:

https://www.viacharacter.org/www