Project Management

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Is Project Management a true

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Don Kim PROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunities Sacramento, CA, United States
A quite heated discussion got spawned on a Yahoo group and I noticed a thread on this site also discussed this heatedly. I think project management is a "growing" about to be profession and that the PMP certification is the best first step towards this.



Below is an excerpt from the discussion:




--- In [email protected], "Dr. Paul D. Giammalvo, PMP, CCE" wrote:
This hypothesis was born out by my own PhD dissertaion, which followed up on research done by Bill Zwerman, Janet Thomas et al, and funded in part by PMI. In Zwerman's research (which was published by PMI) they concluded "Project management is not now, nor is it likely in the near future, to qualify as
a profession".




Though I think the above statement is a bit too strong, you do definitely bring up some valid points. In the final analysis, if I were pressed to provide a more valid definition of project management, I guess I'd say its not a "profession" in the strict sense as doctor, lawyer, or engineer is, but is more a discipline that is a sub discipline of the overall profession we know as "Management".



For example, I have recently seen the increase of project management as a specialization of certain MBA programs, and MBA programs are generally known for developing individuals who will go on to work in the profession of business management. And in general, it is widely held notion that a person who has acquired the general knowledge of business administration and management taught in MBA programs, would be able to apply this knowledge to any industry, since the general practices have been proven to be valid irrespective of the industry to which it is applied to (e.g., marketing, accounting, finance, etc. would be readily applicable whether the business is selling hamburgers or silicon chips).



In addition, though I am no historian in this subject, my feeling is that prior to the acceptance of these principles, that most people who were promoted into a general management position, usually proved themselves highly capable in some technical area, got promoted to start managing people in that particular technical area, and moved higher up till they became what we would typically know as executive managers.



I would imagine that a couple things happened, 1) people throughout industries found that what managers were doing, were similar throughout industries, and 2) the way they were applying them were erratic and unsystematic. No doubt college and universities caught on to this, and developed programs to teach a unified approach to the profession of management.



Likewise, a similar event is occurring in the project management (still developing) profession or discipline to be more strict to modern definitions. ;) Any project management text will tell you in the introduction that the field as we know it started probably during the development of the "Manhattan Project" and later grew from the defense field to engineering and construction.



But I would say it was the last 10-15 years that the trajectory for the growth of project management has really come to fruition. It was the rise of Information Technology and the need to manage projects to set up IT infrastructure and departmental projects that has really given prominence to the importance of managing projects well.



And when you look at the parallels to how general management techniques developed, it is quite striking. Most everyone who are project managers were people who displayed high technical competence, and once they reach the peak of their technical abilities (which is typically pretty fast in IT/software), they were usually promoted to the role of "project manager".



Likewise, because of this some pretty big problems occurred: 1) Project Mangers were not applying well know principles and methodologies (if they apply any at all) to their projects; 2) Just because someone exhibits excellent technical skills, does not automatically translate to good management skills; 3) Finally, the demand for training in project management best practices and methodologies were born and is growing.



To me, the PMI and the PMP certification process is currently the most widely accepted and most unified development into turning project management into a "profession" or discipline that I've seen to date.



Will project management ever reach the status of a true profession? I think it might, and developments such as PMI's PMP to me is a good first step.



This does not mean it is without problems. All the issues this thread has pointed out are all valid, and in addition, to me, the PMBOK is still mired in the old serial, command and control linear movement assumption of managing more traditional engineering and construction projects, and is not agile enough for the kinds of fast moving high tech products and services being built today (On this note, the PMBOK does acknowledge that not requirements are know up front and do emphasize progressive elaboration or "rolling wave" planning. A aspect the Agile/Scrum evangelist always miss when bashing PMBOK).



Thus I welcome anything that helps with the development of project management which I'm engaged with on a daily basis, to be one day held in regard to a "profession" in the strict sense of the term.



What do you all think?



-Don Kim

www.donkim.info
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Donald Hennington New York, Ny, United States
Mr. Anonymous - IMHO you are confusing job performance with PMI certification. The only thing PMP will tell you about an individual is whether or not they are familiar with the principles and methodologies supported in PMI best practices, and that they have a baseline level of experience. The person who graduates last in their class at medical school is still called Doctor....
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Shawn Belling Chief Technology Officer and Adjunct Faculty| Geno.Me/University of Wisconsin Fitchburg, Wi, United States
This is almost a silly discussion. Of course project management is a profession.
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Violet Weed Fort Worth, Tx, United States
the PMP is just another certification like so many others. The only thing it proves is that someone read the PMBOK (and probably a PM book or two) then took the test and parroted the test's expected answers. Like Anonymous, I have half a dozen PMPs reporting to me but the only effective PM is someone without the certification but who actually knows how to manage a project. It's a worthless certification as far as I am concerned. I agree that the Six Sigma Blackbelt is worth more because it at least shows the holder of that certification knows something about statistical analysis and probability theory.

I don't hire anyone based on their certifications, I hire them on what they can DO (based on my interviews with them).
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Shawn Belling Chief Technology Officer and Adjunct Faculty| Geno.Me/University of Wisconsin Fitchburg, Wi, United States
I do agree to an extent that the PMP is just a certification. I am especially inclined to look down my nose at people who get theirs by taking a week of classes that end with the exam. That said, I sense that the majority of people bashing the PMP are people who don't have one. I got mine the old-fashioned way (study hard for a few months) a few years ago after 12 years in the profession, and having it definitely gets my resume closer to the top of the pile. That's one of the main benefits - it shows you take your profession seriously enough to take the time and effort to obtain this credential. I've got more to post on this - see my blog: http://sdbelling.blogspot.com/
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Aditya Chinni Sr Project Manager| JELDWEN Klamath Falls, Or, United States
I'm very surprised to see that all PMPs of your organization failed to manage Projects where a non PMP could do it easily.


PMP is a knowledgebase which is not a framework. I mean they just teach how projects should be managed but can't induce experience. The application process filters out inexperienced applicants.


Probably those PMPs are very new to the organization and don't know the processes, it is just matter of time before they really start performing. Or some organizational training should straighten things out.

In general I’ve great respect to PMPs. It is wonderful certificate.


Thanks

Aditya369.com

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Anonymous
Pure and destined to believe, that this mundane certificate, makes a true PMP.
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catherine Banham Essex, United Kingdom
i wish that was the case if you look at most jobs for the UK market they are all calling for some form of certification and mainly Prince2 which puts you off applying for the job

so far my experience is having done some courses on the job knowledge and reading some books but I have been driven down that route in order to advance my prospects
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Steve Hill Principle Consultant| LiquidHub Inc Reading, Pa, United States
All very good points and in my experience, a certification is documentation of passing a test, a modicum of experience and nothing more. It verifies knowledge but it does not validate skill. There is no requirement to have any essential leadership qualities in any of the certifications. A project manager without the ability to lead is a project administrator. It’s a recipe for failure if assigned to a project that requires someone to drive the project to success.




This thread, however has digressed from the original point. Is project management a profession? Inarguably yes. “Profession” is a vague term simply implying that a group of practitioners that requires a common set of skills. This would not require licensure or regulation. There are many jobs in society that are inarguably “professions” and require no license to practice. Consider the role of a software developer, mayor, a CEO, an artist, a postman, an actor, a carpenter. All of these would be acknowledged as a profession and while some may require membership in and verifiable experience, none are universally licensed.




We are in a profession. We apply our common skills, knowledge and experience to the realization of success using a relatively standardized set of elements. It is not something that can be done successfully over time by a layman. The necessity of knowledge, skill and experience differentiate Project Management from simply a job.
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Don Kim PROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunities Sacramento, CA, United States
I think the reason why the PMP gets involved in any discussions regarding the profession of project management, is that rightly or wrongly, that designation is currently being viewed as the "gold" standard for PM competency.



But its like this analogy, there is no certification process needed to become a CEO, but many assume you would have to go to business school and get an MBA to become one, but just like the PMP, it is neither a prerequisite nor a true measure of whether a CEO or potential CEO is good or not.



But I'm currently a project manager and I consider myself a professional.



-Don Kim, PMP

www.donkim.info
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Bipin Lekshmanan PMP Project Manager| Wipro Technologies Edison, Nj, United States
Well said, Don. Completely agree.
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