competence

PM Commentary by Stacy Goff
This topic was inspired during a trans-Atlantic air travel dialogue with a young lady seatmate whose job responsibilities included Knowledge Management in an alternative energy company. We explored, and brought together, a range of the relevant terms and disciplines involved with knowledge acquisition, assimilation, retention, and application. Upon my return, and reflecting on the unresolved parts of our discussion, I scheduled an interview with Knowledge. This was more difficult than I thought, even though I had long-ago attributed traits of anthropomorphism to her. Finding Knowledge was easy. Getting dedicated time to interview her was the difficult part. Her? Of course, Knowledge is feminine in gender. Some men don’t really understand more than Facts, the younger step-brother of Knowledge.

Our Interview with Knowledge

My first question was the title of this posting. She asserted that “No one ever asked me!”  Then, she explained that many of those purporting to “manage knowledge” do have some insights, but most do not understand the entire story. And she pointed out that Knowledge is only one member of her large family of Intelligence, and some of her senior siblings are even less-understood than she. For example, her Grandmother is Wisdom. Finally, she asserted her deep concern that there are whole industries, educational systems, software support, and even certifications based on just her part of her family.

While some, such as Peter Senge, come close to deep understanding, many of his followers only grasp the obvious parts. And, especially disconcerting to Knowledge was her belief that man has had few new insights about her for several thousand years, since the illuminations in China, India, Greece and Egypt. The interview, while wide-ranging and deep in content, was a firehose blast of perspective, all absorbed in a 15 second interview. Ms. Knowledge had other pressing commitments elsewhere.

The Taxonomy of Data

The interview led me to reflect on my own journey toward Knowledge and the rest of her family many years ago. In the 1970s I performed presentations to various professional groups. One of my favorite presentations, especially for groups involving data and information systems, was The Taxonomy of Data. I did not invent the concept; I had read something in 1974 that inspired me.

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PM ChangeAgent Commentary by Stacy Goff.
In project management workshops, I often kick off each class with questions for table-teams to answer as a group, then report to the class:

1. What is your definition of a project?
2. How does a project differ from other work?
3. What is project management?

I began this practice long before Max Wideman’s PMBOK, and Duncan’s PMBOK® Guide. Despite efforts of practitioners and professional associations, there remains a wide variety of answers to my third question, What is project management?

After the teams report, I proclaim that each team’s answers were excellent. I also say, that, at the end of the class, I will share my answer to that third question, which is in the graphic at right.

I will parse this simple twelve-word sentence, and see if we can add any new insights for you, our reader. 

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PM ChangeAgent Commentary by Stacy Goff.
You Might Be a Project Manager If… Several years ago, I had a bit of fun with the title of this posting. I suggested the usefulness of this Jeff Foxworthy take-off for project managers and business analysts to a good friend, Tom Hathaway. He followed through with it at his website, BA Experts. Click his link and see Tom’s results; I think he did a great job!

This year, the “You might be …” set-up came to mind as I was putting the finishing touches on an update to IPMA-USA’s PM-SAT. PM-SAT is a self-assessment of knowledge. It is based on the new, 4th Edition of the IPMA Individual Competence Baseline. What makes this 4th Edition especially interesting is the inclusion of 2-5 Key Competence Indicators for each competence element.

But, before we get into that, and for those who are unfamiliar with the genre, let’s explore the Foxworthy theme. It started with a rather crude statement, then a series of ‘interesting’ indicators. For example, “You might be a Redneck if…”  This was followed by something like, “The taillight covers of your car are made of red tape.” Cute, and fun; and not too outrageous. It occurred to me that people who are friends of project managers probably have the same sayings about us. But are they are too polite to divulge them to our faces.

Re-purposed For Project Managers

You might be a project manager if …
a. You always show up for meetings, dates, or parties, on time. No matter what.
b. When driving, you always watch traffic 3-4 cars ahead.
c. You know how to develop the winning business case to get needed talent.
d. You are really good at creating a shopping list but expect your significant other to do the shopping.

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PM ChangeAgent Commentary by Stacy Goff.
Learning PM Success Secrets From Product Managers: In the early 1990s, a corporate executive and I were talking about the talent in his organization, and he asked me a question: “What’s the difference between a project manager and a product manager?” I knew he had his own answer already, so I asked him: “I can think of a dozen differences, but what do you think is the difference?”

He replied, “The Product Manager has a personality.”

I was shocked. As a practicing project manager and consultant, his reply stung. But then, this company was a major Aerospace/Defense contractor. And, despite the soft skill initiatives of the 1980s, some legacy Project Engineers were still not known for their interpersonal skills. But to make such a blanket statement? Even by 1990, I had had worked with thousands of project managers having great interpersonal skills—and personality galore!

A Product BOK

I was reminded of this discussion several years ago, when PM Consultant Gary Heerkens contacted me. He suggested that I should assist in a new initiative, to develop a Product Management Body of Knowledge. Gary put me in touch with Greg Geracie, who had completed a useful and popular book, Take Charge Product Management). Now, Greg was working with a professional Product Management organization on a Body of Knowledge project.

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PM Commentary by Stacy Goff.
Five Foundations for Advancement: On July 4, 2011 we noted IPMA-USA’s ten-year anniversary. We reflected on our intentions, progress, and achievements in our first ten years—and then, looked ahead at the next ten years. This article focuses on our intentions; but we cannot help but mention our progress. We have helped to advance the practice of project and program management (an ongoing goal). And, we have inspired others to follow our lead: They are now also promoting (their own interpretation of) most of our Five Foundations (see below), and many of our innovations.

We founded IPMA-USA after having been among the key drivers of success of other professional organizations. One example is Project Management Institute (Institute in the rest of this article). Many of us remained members of that great organization, and still do to this day. But we felt it was time for change. And what are project managers, if not change agents?

The Need For Change

Factors in 2000-2001 contributing to the need for change were many. A handful of them became our rallying points. or as we named them Five Foundations for Advancement. They were also ingredients for our analysis in deciding whether to found a new organization, or to continue working to improve existing ones.

• PM advancements, innovations and their sharing had significantly slowed;
• Intellectual Property Ownership issues discouraged involvement of the most-talented practitioners;
• Training and learning funds appeared to be shifting from project and program performance improvement to test memorization;
• Association governance moved from member-driven to organization-CEO controlled;
• Emphasis shifted from all pm sectors to favor Information Technology;
• Levels of engagement shifted from advanced interaction of long-time practitioners to mass-training of simple subjects to newcomers.

Our Founders

Five Foundations for Advancement: A group of long-time pm practitioners founded IPMA-USA. We came from a variety of backgrounds: Practicing project managers; Managers of project managers; pm consultants and trainers; educators and authors. Some were founders of chapters and officers of other organizations. The average pm industry experience of the founding group in 2001 was around 20 years. Some had been involved for 35 years and more.

Most had earned the Institute’s certification (Lew Ireland wrote its first exam). And we realized that a lot more is needed than an exam to accelerate needed organizational results from our discipline. Many of us worked internationally, so we had a grasp of the status of pm practice in many other nations of the World. Thus, this dedicated group set out to advance the practice of project and program management in America.

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PM Commentary by Stacy Goff.
We have received some interesting reactions to our recent posting about Role and Rigor in PM Certifications. Some assert that we place the IPMA Level-D certification too low on the Rigor scale. Others are concerned about whether the average reader can decipher which “Other PM Certifications” are reflected by that basketball. Still others are shocked, shocked, SHOCKED, that their popular certification might be labeled an Entry-level certification. Or, that they are not really certified Project Managers, but instead, certified in project management.

Who is perpetuating this confusion? One answer: Some PM training providers, especially those engaged in Entry-level certification preparation. Read through ads in magazines, on websites, or even in blog and social network postings. In marketing, they might guarantee that you will pass an exam in a week or refund your fees. Some lead you to believe that you are being certified as a Project Manager. These providers have clearly not yet joined the ranks of IPMA PM Competence Enablers. They do not understand the difference between exam-cram methods and improved PM Performance! After all, certifications in project management knowledge and Advanced certification as a Project Manager are two different markets.

The myth is propagated by some practitioners. Having earned their knowledge-based certification, they mistakenly believe that they truly are Certified as a Project Manager. In fact, there are LinkedIn groups filled with those misled and mistaken souls.

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PM Commentary by Stacy Goff.
We see a wide range of opinions, analyses, and presentations that fail to clearly show the differences between PM certifications. This is true for Project Management certifications in the USA, and for those around the World. Certifications from IPMA (International Project Management Association) are particularly misunderstood. This may be because they address specific roles and competence-oriented factors that other PM certifications do not. The purpose of this post is to explain the IPMA PM Certifications, and to clarify how they differ from other PM certifications.

Role Of Certificant

When we speak of Role, we are discussing the primary Role of the certification candidate. Entry-level PM certifications use knowledge-based exams about project management, and do not depend on the PM’s Role. Advanced certifications engage professional assessors in interviews to assess competence in a targeted Role. Some people fill multiple roles; in that case, the Role is the one selected by the candidate as their basis for certification. This is only important in the case of Advanced (higher-Rigor) certifications.

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PM Commentary by Stacy Goff.
Today, we celebrate the introduction of our chapter, about building the future of project management, in a new book. The book is Project Management Circa 2025, published by PMI®. Dr. David Cleland worked with Dr. Bopaya Bidanda to recruit chapter authors and to edit this major achievement.

They asked 28+ PM practitioners to expound on intriguing aspects of PM practice for the next 16+ years. Chapter topics include national, international, sector-specific, and government entities.

Many of the chapter authors are from USA; we have been preparing our readers and customers for the future for many years. Authors whose names you’ll recognize include Lew Ireland, David Pells, Tim Jaques, Jonathan Weinstein, Stacy Goff, and others.

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PM Commentary by Stacy Goff.
IPMA-USA’s Competence Enabler program has been a key tool for my consulting practice since we developed it. We originally called it the Most Valued Provider program. Then, Donna Fitzgerald coined the more-likeable Competence Enabler name.

Competence Enabler Purpose

Its purpose is several-fold:

1. Develop a PM Vendor group that understands how to Demonstrate the Competence Difference. In turn, help match participants with PM practitioners who wish to explore and develop that difference.
2. Identify those rare PM Vendors that have the competence, capacity and desire to actually improve PM Performance. They do so, not only in basic knowledge acquisition, but in competence and performance development.
3. Establish a support system for PM Vendors that assess and help improve individual and organizational PM Competence. Based, of course, on IPMA’s competence standards.

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PM Commentary by Stacy Goff.
If we are to be successful as Change Agents, we need to understand Change. That understanding ranges from the dynamics of Change, to the disciplines involved, even to the terminology around Change. This posting deals with some of the terminology around Program or Project Change.

For example, many years ago, I wrote my first IT PM methodology. I labeled the processes around requesting, evaluating, approving and implementing needed project changes Change Management. In that era (pre-1985), it was more popular to call those actions Change Control.

My rationale was that we cannot control Change. In fact, we are foolish to attempt to do so. But we could manage the process, and manage the impact of the change on the product. Thus, Change Management. There was one concern. If PM is the discipline of Managing Change (as I claimed), then Change Management in Managing Change was too recursive.

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PM Commentary, by Stacy Goff.
IPMA was well-represented at the 3^rd Annual University of Texas at Dallas PM Symposium August 13-14. The theme was Managing in a Changing World. Organizers and sponsors are UT Dallas, the Dallas Chapter of PMI®, and PM World Journal. This was the most interesting US conference I have participated in this year. I presented twice, and IPMA Secretary General Veikko Välilä also presented twice. One of our presentations was in a PM Career Management track, and the other was with Veikko in a Panel discussion about The Future of PM.

In the PM Career Management track, our paper, Essential Insights in Meeting the Rising Demand for PM Performance, was embraced by the audience. They resonated with the theme of moving beyond PM knowledge, to actions needed to increase skills, improve behavioral attributes, and align with enterprise strategy. The intended result, increased PM competence and ultimately, measurably improved PM Performance. A now-familiar theme to most of our members and friends, this was new perspective for many in this audience, and as a credit to their experience, they were excited by the prospects.

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PM Commentary, by Stacy Goff.
Some people don’t know what we mean when we say, in IPMA, “Discover the Competence Difference.” And yet, would you want incompetent performance in your organization, your government? Or, even in your yard service?

Understanding Competence

So while most people clearly understand incompetence, too many fail to understand the competence difference when it comes to Project Management. From one of our presentations, and repeated in a June article, Closing the Gap, the Competence Difference is clear from the following scenarios:

• Would you fly as a passenger in a plane piloted by two “Air Academy” graduates who passed their final exam, but have never taken off or landed a plane (not even in a simulator)?
• Would you consider “going under the knife” for brain surgery by a Surgeon who has attended all the classes, read all the books, passed the exams, but has never wielded a scalpel?
• Would you allow a Lawyer to represent you in a criminal case, who, while having passed the bar exam, has never practiced before a jury?

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PM Commentary by Stacy Goff.
Project Managers are the Change Agents who build tomorrow. Why do we say this? Because we can, and we do! In addition to my consulting firm, I work with our industry’s professional organizations to create beneficial change. I do this both for their members, and for society; thus the wide-ranging set of topics in this blog.

We Build Change Agents! Key to beneficial change are two professional organizations, IPMA and IPMA-USA. IPMA is the International Project Management Association, the world’s first professional association for project managers. It is a unique federation of national associations. IPMA-USA is the USA’s member association of IPMA. 

IPMA members range from young Project Managers to the experienced thought leaders of PM practice. We cover the gamut in experience. Our efforts improve the Competence, and therefore the results, of Program and Project Managers, and their initiatives, stakeholders, and organizations.

The IPMA Certification Program, based on IPMA’s 4-L-C, Four-Level Certification initiative, is the envy of those who desire PM success.  Our Certifications use advanced assessments, with professional assessors, to verify Competence as the centerpiece of your PM Practice.

Learn more about IPMA-USA at the organization’s website. And learn more about IPMA at its website. Meanwhile, if you have comments about our blog posts, I’d love to hear them! Please use our Contact Us page.