Developing Professional Project Managers: The Myths, and What Works!

Developing project management capabilities is a challenging task. The solutions are often entangled in difficulties that lack a coherent framework of resolution. In the project management world, we experience this issue as a source of endless arguments and debates throughout the industry. There are countless examples of CxOs reduced to tearing their hair out, as their best intentions in developing (or hiring) seemingly professional project managers lie in ruins, in the face of ineffective performance.

In our effort to concoct the perfect recipe (read an effective reference framework) for developing professional project managers, we have gone through several iterations, each of which has involved diving deeply into our widespread training experience while working with organizations in the project management space. It’s a recipe that has been liberally spiced and flavoured with thoughts and concerns of experienced project portfolio managers from organizations worldwide.

Along the way, we encountered a few myths that are entrenched in the mindsets of some leading industry practitioners. Here is a dispassionate look at some of them.

Where things can go wrong!

Myth One: Push the guy into the deep end, and he will learn how to swim!; This sounds great in theory! And it’s an approach that is not without its benefits, which is why a number of organizations use it. However, without a mentor, rookie project managers tend to under perform and can be surprisingly ineffective. The reasons are manifold but the main one is the absence of relevant, constructive feedback. Feedback from a practicing PM makes a huge difference to the development of a professional project manager. However, there are no programs that offer aspiring PMs this opportunity (formal training and on-the-job mentoring).
Myth Two: Certification is a reliable indicator of requisite skills; While certification may be on the must-have list of all recruitment managers, they are hardly a reliable way of assessing a Project Manager’s practical capabilities. In the current scenario, there is widespread insecurity among aspiring PMs which has led to a rush towards certification. With certification becoming a prerequisite to get an interview call, development of PM professionals is caught in a vicious cycle. A formal introduction for many candidates in PM happens in an exam preparation program, which covers the competencies required with, at best, a narrow exam-oriented focus.
Myth Three: Project Management is mainly about great interpersonal and soft skills!; Time and again, we have interacted with CxOs and senior management, who emphasize the importance of soft skills, but assume that core PM skills are a given. This only adds to the confusion of aspiring PMs, who then tend to believe that development of great interpersonal skills is good enough to be a good PM. Not that soft skills are not important (they most certainly are!) but without the core PM capabilities in place, it is more like trying to make an omelette without an egg.
Myth Four: Anyone with the requisite skills will become a good PM professional!; Not necessarily. There are other things besides skills that matter. Talent, the right attitude and a proactive focus on using feedback consciously for continuous self-development are also vital requirements in terms of creating professional PMs, but these tend to be overlooked especially in organizations that focus on developing and promoting talent predominantly from within.
Myth Five: One size-fits-all training will create good PMs!; We have consistently observed and also demonstrated that contextualized training that is relevant to organizational and even role contexts (as opposed to generic plain vanilla programs) is crucial to creating successful PMs.

How to set it right - Project Management Competency Development Framework

While formal training and learning settings provide the aspiring manager with the appropriate knowledge and theoretical background, it is the combination of this knowledge with competencies that needs to be applied and evaluated in the context of the project and organizational setting.

What exactly is a competence?

Competence is a demonstrated ability to perform activities within a project environment that lead to expected outcomes based on defined and accepted standards (Crawford 1997).

Competence has 3 dimensions:

Knowledge Competence:

when professional managers know the application of process, tools, and techniques.

Performance Competence:

how the manager applies the knowledge to meet requirements on most endeavours, most of the time.

Personal Competence:

how the manager behaves while performing activities within the environment; her attitude and core personality characteristics.

Our experience has led us to 8 core professional competencies which are a key requirement for any PM who aspires to be professionally effective. These have been culled after extensive research, which included industry standard frameworks such as PMI Competency Development Framework – Second Edition, GAPPS (Global Alliance of Project Performance Standards), IPMA Competency Baseline, among others.

The eight core competencies along with their associated performance criterion are outlined in the following table.

Core Competency Performance Outcome Tasks	Performance Criteria
I] Project aligned to the needs & requirements of the customer/business	Defines the mission statement, objectives and align them Determines project outcomes and MOS Determines the high level scope required to deliver the project outcomes Documents the project high level assumption and constraints Develops a high level project management strategy
II] Project Scope defined and approved	Defines project deliverables using a WBS Aligns deliverables and the acceptance criteria Documents Scope Management Process
III] Project Schedule and Cost Plan prepared and approved	Defines activities to deliver defined scope Estimates time for completion of each activity Identifies internal and external dependencies Develops schedule as per resource requirement, availability and sequence Estimates costs and develops budget based on resource requirements
IV] Stakeholders identified and engagement activities prepared	Identifies relevant project stakeholders Identifies stakeholder interest, profile and needs from the project Determines communication approach and plan for stakeholders
V] Project related risks identified and response plans documented	Identifies the projects risk Identifies and quantifies major risks Leads/delegates the effort to find response strategies for each identified risk
VI] Project issues effectively managed and status tracked	Simplifies project issues for analysis and define the management process Defines and secures acceptance of deliverables Manages transition between phases Updates project tasks and tracks them
VII] Project changes managed and controlled	Establishes the change control process Identifies and manages changes to the baseline plan
VIII] Project performance analyzed and reported	Executes the process for capturing project information Prepares project report with an action plan to address any variations to plan Collects project and product metrics

The effort has been to narrow down the focus down to core competencies that are critical for effective development. After developing and demonstrating these competencies and their related performance outcomes, the focus can turn to adding interpersonal and soft skills capability.

Structure of the Competency Framework

The professional role of a manager can be broken down into basic competence units – elements, which reflect the activities in which the manager is expected to be competent. Each of these elements is then described by performance criteria that specify the actions required to demonstrate competent performance. Each performance criterion is achieved by producing specific proof that the action has been completed (evidences).

The elements and performance criteria are intended to be generally applicable across most projects but require to be further substantiated by organizational and industry specific requirements. In practice, evidences are typically process templates or application of a technique and at PM Academy we have developed Toolkits to not only standardize knowledge application and facilitate habit formation but also to provide a performance support to the managers. All of this forms the basis for both competency development as well as assessment.

In a nutshell

The first step towards developing professional project managers is to select the people with the right talent and attitude. We have looked at the requisite core competencies, tailored to the context, which any professional PM then needs to develop in order to perform and achieve project and organizational objectives successfully. These need to be complemented with interpersonal and soft skills such as effective communication, expectation management, decision making, conflict resolution, and an ability to delegate, among others. Continuous on-the-job mentoring and feedback and an organizational focus on self-learning is equally vital.

If done the right way, our recipe can ensure that the uncertainties related to the development of professional PMs are alleviated in substantial measure (if not eliminated altogether), and can deliver PMs for whom effective performance and achievement of desired organizational outcomes becomes a habit.