A posting appears to be the only way to forward the question which has been bothering me (and, I would be free to assume, many others) for at least last 18 years of my practice.
Could we appeal to have the name of Project Management Professional certification changed to something more appropriate, such as Project Management Introduction (or Overview) or Project Management Professional In Training?
Current name of Project Management Professional indicates that the holder is an accomplished and rounded "fully cooked" practitioner, which is not the case. This is only an entrance point to the profession.
I have come in my past years across too many horrifying and damaging examples of PMP holders with utter ignorance (and/or unwillingness to implement) of any of the tenets of PMBoK.
As an example (out of hundreds, thousands, heard every day by very arrogant and confident practitioners, holding PMP, and having 10 or even 15 years of experience leading them to final position of Project Manager, with final nail in the coffin of arrested development being the PMP): -coming across a schedule where none of the activities is connected, and without even any of the usual cheats like enforced constraints. Just sitting there in mid-air. Dumbfounded, you ask the PM what is that. The answer is "When we click F9 (which happens to be the "recalculate" as widely known), it just creates a mess". While your jaw is touching the floor, your mind is trying not to scream over the depth of ignorance, where you can see that this excludes any chance of any planning, communicating, tracking etc. You can just go through PMBOK table of contents and uncheck every single box.
As already written, thousands of such, every day, for decades. By "seasoned" Project Manager or even Project Controllers, where you cannot dispute anything, because they have a seal of approval by PMI, the PMP.
While mentioning the table of contents, I have to say that I have passed the PMP twice, and both times, the all it took was to memorize the structure of the table of contents, run through about a dozen of question examples from any of those $10 e-books, and bring Macs earplugs to the examination. And I am far from being a genius.
That should say something about the certification obtained by the examination. As stated, every respect to PMBOK and the examination, but the scope of validity and competence should be stated, including the very name of the certification.
Project Management Introduction or Project Management Professional In Training are much more appropriate. PMI can then work on developing a real PMP certification, which would be deeper, and more along lines of PRINCE2 or AACEi scope and their detail of the examinations.
PMI should strive to enforce the quality. This way, we just encourage and facilitate incompetence. We should not be surprised at all why such large majority of projects fails (regardless of project-ending spins which rosy-up the picture), when we, the PMI, the champions of quality and consistence, practically turn the blind eye to bad practices beyond lip service.
Yes, it does create lots of work for project management consulting companies, along the lines of futile efforts known from "dead horse project management practices" (those who may have not heard about the term, can easily google it), but it neither improves the projects nor the project management practitioners' lives. It just becomes equivalent of mechanics who, while doing one repair, damage another car part, just to create more work and income for themselves.
We are not like that, and we should not be like that. Let us start with a look at ourselves, and re-assessment followed by improvement, as professed by our own PMBOK.
Please. Pretty please. Decades of suffering in this profession are pleading you to go forward and improve, long past the years of me and our many suffering colleagues. Literally, though sounding as a real battlefield cry, I have seen too many lives ruined, and people even dying, for real, because of bad project managers and badly managed companies and projects, where even dogs in the street could tell many years in advance that pretty much everything was done wrong. Many times with PMP labels around.
You (as distinct from "we" I utilized before) have the clout with corporations and government bodies. Please, act instead of enjoying the self-adoration laurels.
I apologize for any leftover typing errors I may have left in this text. Note that I am a mere mortal, unlike superhumans damaging trillions of dollars worth of projects.
Boris Konrad PMP, PMI-SP, AACEi PSP, AACEi CCP, PE (NY, TX, CA) Saving Changes...
Boris - The PMBOK Guide and PMP certification are well-written and provides credibility to individuals, who want to be part of our profession. The PMI has done good job of setting-up CAPM for new comers to this profession.
I would not consider any individual as 'expert' ..merely based on their certificates. The person must demonstrate expert-level knowledge in the related fields to gain trust. Just like other reputed professions (Medicine, Finance, Engineering, you name it), there will be some individuals, who will exploit the system. Despite their ability to pass exams, they remain clueless in basic concepts. This is almost impossible to weed-out such bad actors as they'll find new weakest links in the system and exploit them.
Fellow PMI Members.
Everyone could have a view and we need not be disrespectful to others only because someone else views do not match ours.
Above said , I don't think anyone would continue in any job just because of the credential or degrees. People can see through . There is no dearth of people with qualifications, experience and energy.
Only people to survive would be who would get the things done.
Regards
Bharat Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Clearly Mr Konrad has a different view of 'insult' than most but I guess it is his prerogative. Sadly he does have some grounds for his gripe but it is a bit out of context and the blame is put in front of the wrong door. The certification process requires that you provide evidence of applied practical hours and this must be supported by the manager/supervisor etc. who worked with you during that time. I have personally come across many instances where managers support applications of individuals who do not meet the minimum criteria for certification. PMI cannot audit every single individual but I do think that they can improve the process, I know of PM's who got certified while they were not even in the job market for long enough to amass the required hours.
So Mr Konrad, your request is denied but you are free to lodge an appeal.
BTW it is true for almost all certifications/qualification. You get surgeons amputating the wrong limb, leaving tools inside people, lawyers unable to get innocent people set free etc. Saving Changes...
Boris - The PMBOK Guide and PMP certification are well-written and provides credibility to individuals, who want to be part of our profession. The PMI has done good job of setting-up CAPM for new comers to this profession.
I would not consider any individual as 'expert' ..merely based on their certificates. The person must demonstrate expert-level knowledge in the related fields to gain trust. Just like other reputed professions (Medicine, Finance, Engineering, you name it), there will be some individuals, who will exploit the system. Despite their ability to pass exams, they remain clueless in basic concepts. This is almost impossible to weed-out such bad actors as they'll find new weakest links in the system and exploit them.
Very well said Ashok.
Regards
Bharat Saving Changes...
Mahabubur RahmanProject Manager Structures-Bridges| Department of Infrastructure, Government of Nothwest TerritoriesYellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
I think PMP certification process is always evolving and any new ideas or appeal to PMI for further improvements should always be encouraged........ Saving Changes...
With over 20 years of professional experience under my belt by the time I applied for my certification, I wouldn't have bothered if it was a "Project Manager in Training" or something of that ilk. That's the sort of credential I would expect from someone straight out of college and if I was still "in training" after 20 years, that would be a red flag rather than an asset. Saving Changes...
