Building Capability to Support Project Management as Mainstream Discipline

8/2/2019 Building Capability to Support Project Management as Mainstream Discipline

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Building capability

to support projectmanagement

as a mainstreamdiscipline

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OverviewProject management is fast becoming amainstream management discipline. This paperexplains why this is the case and identies thechallenges that the project managementcommunity and the general managementcommunity face as project management

develops as a formal skill set required by abroad range of staff.

Project management is the process by

which projects are dened, planned,

monitored, controlled and delivered such

that the agreed benets are realised.

Projects are unique, transient endeavours

undertaken to achieve a desired

outcome. Projects bring about change

and project management is recognised

as the most efcient way of managingsuch change.

PM Body of Knowledge 5th edition

Wide denition recognises that modern projectmanagement incorporates the disciplinesof risk management, change managementand programme management which inturn, involves the management of multiple,interdependent projects. Mainstream meansa major prevailing trend and is applicable due

to the high growth in the number of projectsthat are initiated by those not traditionally seenas project managers.

The reasons for becoming mainstream, andthe pressure that this puts on existing trainingand development concepts, is explored, and amodel for the future is explained.


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This model is based on the premise that wecan no longer train staff in skills or methodologywithout rst being clear about their longer termgoals coupled with the strategic objectives ofthe organisation for whom they work.

In this challenging economic environmentthere is a need to ensure that training initiativesare integrated into a wider programme ofcapability building activities which ensures

that the organisation has sufcient skilledresources for today but is also building skillsand experiences that will be required as theorganisation grows and matures.

Typically departments responsible for projectmanagement have excluded HR from theproject management environment as thewidespread use of project methodologies hasbrought with it clearly dened training pathsleading to recognised qualications. In doingso they have failed to benet from the toolsthat HR have been introducing through theirwork in organisational development, andwhich has translated through to learning anddevelopment functions.

The longer term view of the organisationexists within the learning and developmentcommunity but its application to projectmanagement (and the associated skillsets of programme management) changemanagement and risk management is just

beginning, and is identifying challengeswhich must be addressed if organisations areto create an environment where strategicobjectives and the changes they require aredelivered as a normal part of business - not asone off miracles amongst a sea of projectfailures.

The model of the future outlined in this paperincorporates the longer term approach,identies how project management skillsdevelopment can form part of building awider capability in project management andhow the development of capability supportstalent management and succession planninginitiatives across an organisation.

The management of projects is largely an

intellectual exercise, therefore capability in thisinstance is a product of:

The skills and experience of the humanresources assigned to the project

The number of these human resourcesavailable for project initiatives

The effectiveness of the processes thatthey apply

The capability, taken together with the rateof work of the individuals involved, producesthe available capacity of the organisation forchange initiatives and therefore for growth andthe achievement of strategic objectives.



Project Management

as a management

mainstream discipline

Project management is the vehiclethrough which we deliver change intoour organisations. This means that projectmanagement deals with uncertainty and theexibility required of staff and processes whenentering new territory. Business as usual is anenvironment of relative stability and certaintyof information. Team structures, processes andsystems are built for long term use. The twoenvironments collide as project managementis responsible for creating the future state of the

business as usual environment and therefore,by denition, introducing change into thatenvironment.

Project management in its most recentiteration has been recognised as a disciplinefor the last ten to fteen years. Progress hasbeen made in developing methodologies andframeworks detailing how projects should beconceived, managed and implemented. Thiswork has been supported by the creation of

roles, job descriptions, document templates, ITsystems and training courses that support theformalisation of project management withinorganisations.

This formalisation has led to a maturity inunderstanding of project management withrecognition from the most senior managementdownwards that projects are the way in whichthe strategic objectives of the organisation willbe achieved. It is now much more common forthe board to refer to the need for an initiativeto be established as a project than it was evenve years ago. However this understandingdoes not extend as widely to the idea ofprogramme or portfolio management these

battles are still to be won.

The terminology of project management hasbecome adopted more readily than before,such that project management is no longerseen as the preserve of certain departmentsor industries (such as the IT department orthe construction industry). It is just as likelythat a project team will be formed to launcha new advertising campaign or restructurea department as it is to implement a new IT

system.

This spread of understanding of projectmanagement and the involvement of a muchwider range of staff in its application has ledto the recognition of project managementas a mainstream discipline, as important asthose other stalwarts of management includingleadership and team working.



In addition to the growth in formal education,a signicant amount of training has beenundertaken within organisations in an effortto adopt best practice approaches inproject management and establish a coreset of trained project managers. For example,many organisations in the past ve years havesuccessfully trained signicant numbers of staffin the PRINCE2 methodology.

Whilst this is admirable, there is now therecognition that an understanding of thisprocess driven model is not sufcient to deliverexperienced and skilled project managers.

This realisation is driving the demand for skills-based training to sit alongside the structuralinformation offered by PRINCE2 , ManagingSuccessful Programmes (MSP ), Managementof Risk (MoR ) etc.

There is a growing recognition of the place thatprofessional bodies including the Associationfor Project Management (APM) and ProjectManagement Institute (PMI) have in offeringthought leadership and subject matter

expertise.

The most recent step in the evolution of projectmanagement is the application of specicallydesigned competency frameworks to identifyactual and target skill levels for individuals,teams and organisations. This can providean objective baseline from which personaldevelopment plans and training needs analysiscan be devised and skills gaps closed.

1. The following sites were reviewed during the period June 7th to June 21st 2010: www.jobserve.co.uk; www.totaljobs.co.uk;www.jobsite.co.uk

2. PRINCE2 , MSP and M_o_R are registered trademarks of the Cabinet Ofce

3. PMI is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

As it has become a mainstream discipline thereis an expectation that all staff will possess orwill work to develop these skills. This means thatthe use of specialist project managers is falling.In a recent survey of job sites , the averageproportion of specic project managementjobs across all industry types was in the rangeof 7-13%. However if the search was for projectmanagement skills instead of the job titleproject manager then this percentage rose to65%. This is leading to the expectation in manyorganisations that specialist project managerswill not be recruited but instead existing staffwill be asked to manage projects related to

their expertise, alongside their day-to-dayresponsibilities.

Whilst this is helpful in embedding theapplication of project management across anorganisation, it does put great strain on existingresources who have to balance their dayjob with the time and commitment neededto drive a project through to successfulconclusion. There is unlikely to be a reductionin their other responsibilities so project

management has to be tted around existingtasks. In addition as project management isseen as mainstream some senior managers areassuming that their staff have an immediatecapability to manage or sponsor projects.However in many cases they have beengiven no formal training and no opportunity todevelop these skills other than what they havebeen able to glean from seeing others in therole.

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ChallengesThere is a need for those conceiving,managing and sponsoring projects toensure that the deliverables created by theproject are business relevant - that they arecontributing to the longer term strategicgoals of the organisation. Whilst those insenior management positions can dene the

contribution for large-scale initiatives, this is notthe case further down the hierarchy. If projectmanagement is to continue its climb towardsacceptance as a core business skill emphasismust be given to ensuring that all thoseinvolved in projects, however small, are clearthat the deliverables will help to the take theirorganisation to where it plans to be in the nextthree to ve years.

Currently there is very little attention paid to

the need for commercial understanding andawareness in traditional project managementcourses. However the current economicclimate will continue to force comprehensivejustication of projects before they will befunded. Successful justication relies on a clearunderstanding of the commercial, political,competitive and supplier environments intowhich the project will deliver. Understandingstrategy and the commercial environment iscritical to success in the public and the privatesectors.

Another challenge is to ensure that anysteps taken within the project environmentto develop skills, processes and proceduresare aligned with the approach thatthe organisation takes as a whole to itsprofessionalism. Structures exist to ensurequality, professionalism and ethical behaviourand project management should form a partof this.

For example organisations that are accreditedas ISO9000 require quality proceduresthat include how to manage and sponsorprojects, Investors in People schemes should

include project management training;professionalism may dictate that membershipof professional bodies is mandatory or thatproject management forms part of inductionprogrammes for new joiners.

It would be counterproductive for those inproject management to create structuresthat run counter to these core initiatives, as itwould indicate that project management isnot mainstream but is on the margin of how the

organisation behaves.

The challenge is how to build structurethat develops capability and is practicalenough to be successfully implemented. Aconsiderable impediment to implementation isthe differences in priorities between capabilitybuilding (long term staff developmentand succession planning) and projectmanagement (short term delivery of outputs).

Project managers and project sponsors areincentivised to deliver on time, on budget andto the required level of quality. Essentially thereis a short termism and an urgency in successfulproject management, driven by the need toachieve all of the tasks on the project planoften to an aggressive timescale. Where is themotivation for project managers to go moreslowly than their existing team are capable ofso that new team members can learn the skillsand practice applying them to real life projectsituations?



The productivity dip that we all experiencewhen acquiring new skills has a signicant costto the project in longer delivery times andthe risk of stakeholders waiting to make theircontribution whilst others catch up. There is alsothe cost of mistakes which are an inevitablepart of the process of learning a new skill.Project plans rarely include time and otherresources to perform rework so mistakes willlead to delays and budget overruns.

Another facet of this challenge is that thosemost active within project management rarelyhave a background in personnel development,

education and career planning.

It is essential that new skills are not developedad hoc but are planned as part of theconsidered development of the individual. Thisdevelopment must be in line with their careerplans and the future needs of the business. It isa signicant challenge to those embedded inthe delivery of change to step back from thesehighly demanding responsibilities to ensure thattheir resource pool is receiving this considered

development. It will be extremely damaging ifthe project management discipline establishesits required skill set but does not provide thesupport for its acquisition. For example it will beeasy to lose the impetus and motivation of staffif they complete competency assessments butthe information goes nowhere:

Staff will want access to training, coachingand mentoring and other developmentopportunities to bridge the gap between what

they know now and what they need for futureroles

Staff will want to know that the organisationhas acknowledged their skill set and is makinguse of it in opportunities that it is offering them

To meet these challenges, project professionalsmust enlist the services of their HR functionwho can provide a vital co-ordination role.HR is responsible for delivering a people-based strategy that meets the broadestpossible needs of the organisation. They haveexperience and understanding of activitiesand structures that develop inspired andcommitted staff.

In recent years HR functions have transitionedinto HR business partners who support andenable managers to manage their staffdirectly. HR business partners can enable the

creation of capability building by developinga structure for identifying, tracking andcommunicating with those they identied ashaving the aptitude to excel within a projectmanagement environment. This structure canensure that organisations can successfullydeliver projects today whilst building skills,knowledge and experience that will meetthe needs of current and future resourcerequirements.


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Building capability

This model is a representation of the future that can address the challenges outlined above. Itprovides an example of the sorts of structure that organisations can adopt to deliver successfulchange on a continual basis.

There are seven levels in this diagram, starting with strategic objectives and demonstrating howthese ultimately dene which change initiatives are required. Once change has been successfullyachieved, the strategic objectives are re-conceived for the next time period, representing acontinual cycle of growth for the organisation.

Successfulchangeinitiatives

Interviews

Assessmentcentres

SuccessionPlanning

CareerDevelopmentPaths

TalentManagement

TrainingCPD

Hierarchyof roles

Jobdescriptions

Capability

Technical skillsInterpersonal skills

No. and locationof staff

Processes

People

Maturitymodels

Methodologiesand developments

StrategicObjectives

Servicemenu

Competencies

Structure

Increasing maturity


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Strategic Objectives

These objectives set the longer term directionof the organisation establishing how it willgrow in size, product or service range andmarket position. Senior management requirea comprehensive picture of what projectmanagement excellence looks like if theyare to plan the growth of their organisationsuccessfully and resource it appropriately.

They recognise that those who are responsiblefor successful project and/or programme

delivery need to understand what drivesbusiness performance and ensure that theirproject or programme contributes to this.

This means that traditional projectmanagement training programmes thatonly concentrate on methodology or skillsdevelopment do not go far enough. Projectmanagement training must provide guidancein commercial understanding and themanagement of change.

Services

Project management is a service to thebusiness and, as such, must clearly denewhat it is offering and what the business will beexpected to acquire from other sources.

A service menu provides this clarication bydening the catalogue of services that theproject management discipline offers theorganisation. These services might include

business analysis to support requirementsgathering and scope denition for projects,technical expertise in planning, scheduling,risk analysis and testing of deliverables, andchange management activities to ensurebehavioural change within those responsiblefor adopting the deliverables created by theprojects.

As well as the denition of services that areoffered, the service menu can be used to

dene the likely number of resources requiredto perform each service and the desiredlocation of those performing the service inrelation to the business function they aresupporting. For example I tend to categorisestaff location as Near or Far to identify if theservice can only be performed face to faceor if it is something that can be performedby resources not co-located with the projectteams. A good example of a Far task isprocessing of the expenses connected with

running a project; and an example of Neartask is implementation support with the businessunit responsible for using what the project hascreated.

Competencies

'Competencies' are the behaviours thatemployees must have, or must acquire, toinput into a situation in order to achieve highlevels of performance.

To perform any aspect of project managementrequires a mixture of technical andinterpersonal (people or soft) competencies.This is because whilst there is a need fortechnical ability to plan work, assess risksand control progress none of these activitieswill happen without the ability to persuade,inuence and motivate the project team,the project stakeholders and those who willultimately use what the project is creating.

Project management relies upon manystandard management competencies suchas leadership and teamwork but the mostcomprehensive skill set has already beendened for us in the competencies frameworksthat have been developed in recent yearsby the various professional bodies for projectmanagement.



In the U.K. the Association for ProjectManagement has developed its APMCompetence Framework which identies47 competencies in seven distinct skillareas specic to project and programmemanagement. For each competence, an

individual will assess themselves againsttwo dimensions:

Knowledge an individual has understandingof the subject

Experience an individual has applied thesubject practically

APM is a founder member of the InternationalProject Management Association (IPMA),a federation of over 40 national memberassociations. The APM Competence

Framework is aligned with the IPMACompetence Baseline (ICB). The ICB sets outthe knowledge and experience expectedfrom the managers of projects, programmesand project portfolios. It contains basic terms,practices, methods and tools for professionalproject management as well as specialistknowledge and experience.

Project Management Institute (PMI) alsohas a competency framework, called the

Project Manager Competency Development(PMCD) Framework Second Edition, whichprovides general context for the denition,assessment and development of projectmanager competency. The framework outlinesthe key dimensions of project managementcompetency and identies thosecompetencies that are most likely to impactproject manager performance.

Project manager competency comprises threeseparate dimensions:

Knowledge what a project manager knowsabout the application of processes, tools andtechniques in project activities

Performance how a project manager appliesproject management knowledge to meetproject requirements

Personal how a project manager behaveswhen performing activities in a projectenvironment

The equivalent of competency at anorganisational level is maturity which is usuallyassessed using a maturity model. Thereare many management maturity models

in existence, including those specic toproject management. For example the P3M3model from the Cabinet Ofce assesses thecompetency of an organisation in project,programme and portfolio management,providing an indication of maturity from levelsone (awareness of process) to ve(optimisedprocess).

The Project Management Institute (PMI) alsohas a maturity model called the OrganisationalProject Management Maturity Model, OPM3.

This helps organisations understand theirproject management processes, ensures thattheir projects are tied to the organisation'slarger strategy and measures and guides theircapabilities for improvement.

4. P3M3 is a registered trademark of the Cabinet Ofce

4



Capability

Capability is the ability of the organisation

to deliver its objectives. This ability can onlybe developed if there is clear instruction onwhat capability is in the context of what isbeing achieved. Project management reliesupon matrix management as individuals areexpected to work as part of a project teamand to retain responsibilities for business asusual. As a result the reporting lines and levelsof authority that each individual has in differentsituations must be claried through a hierarchyof responsibilities. Job descriptions are needed

to establish all of the assumptions that aremade about each role within this matrix.

Effective training must be coupled witha programme of continual professionaldevelopment which encourages individualsto take responsibility for acquiring knowledgeand experience relevant to their careeraspirations. Organisations can use their trainingbudgets for courses and workshops butindividuals can increase the effectiveness ofthese events through the additional supportoffered by membership of professional bodies,subscription to professional journals, joiningcommunities of practice, contributing theirexperiences to action learning sets etc.

Talent management

"Talent consists of those individuals whocan make a difference to organisationalperformance, either through theirimmediate contribution or in the longer

term by demonstrating the highest levelsof potential."

CIPD Talent Management Research Insight,June 2007

By establishing career development paths,talent management provides a routefor individuals to participate in their owndevelopment and therefore generates supportfor continual professional development.

Career development paths, integratedwith Personal Training Plans and ContinualProfessional Development programmes,are important in the matrix managementenvironment that projects rely upon. Whenstaff are asked to participate in projectmanagement, questions arise over who theirreal manager is line manager or projectmanager/sponsor, who is helping to plan theircareer, who understands their contribution tothe organisation and their future potential.

One challenge is building a career frameworkthat incorporates the different project roles

without creating a structure that only addressesproject responsibilities at the expense ofbusiness as usual activities. Earlier in this paperit was stated that organisations are movingaway from specialist project roles to includingproject responsibilities within other roles in theorganisation. Therefore a career developmentplan solely for project and programmemanagement does not reect the environmentin which individuals are expected to perform.Maturity and experience in their ability to

manage projects has to dovetail withinincreasing ability in other skills in their chosenspecialism.

The following diagram provides an exampleof how organisations are creating careerpaths that have levels reecting managementgrades but that are not specic to job titles.This enables an organisation to future proofjob descriptions as roles evolve and minimisepotential claims for unfair or constructive

dismissal as roles adapt and gain or loseresponsibilities. This is a sensible approach asin a fast moving environment (often driven bytechnology, economic and legislative changesand customer demand) there is a danger thatjob descriptions will only describe a role usingpast and present responsibilities and not thoseof the future which may not even have beenconceived.



The approach shown in the diagram avoidsa constant round of updating of these

documents. Job descriptions becomemodular with a module for each specialism(management or technical). The modulesspecify the skills and competencies requiredrather than describing the activities and tasksinvolved. This enables exibility and speed ofchange to meet the innovation that is partof organisational development in the 21stcentury.

This approach also allows for the inclusion ofthe multiplicity of job titles that is a result of jobtitle ination, which is often a product of non-nancial reward that has taken place duringthe recession, and which is likely to continueas bonuses are cut and pay freezes come intooperation.

Succession planning

"A process by which one or more

successors are identied for key posts (orgroups of similar key posts), and careermoves and/or development activities areplanned for these successors. Successorsmay be fairly ready to do the job (short-term successors) or seen as having longer-term potential (long-term successors)."

HIRSH, W. (2000) Succession planning demystied.Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies

In the past, there has been a tendency for

the main determinants when forming projectteams to be past history with the projectmanager and availability. Whilst these factorswill always be important, the increasingimportance of successful delivery of projectsrequires a move to a more objective basisfor selecting project staff. This is also a naturalextension of the application of career pathsand competency frameworks. Interviewsand assessment centres can be devised toreview the required competencies and levels

of experience and ensure that promotionsdeliver individuals who have progressed in theirunderstanding and ability.

For one or two of the competencies, an L3 may have L4 ability,but overall is still an L3 grade until the other areas develop to L4

For one or two of the competencies, an L3 may have L2 ability,

but overall is still an L3 grade

L5

L4

L3

L2

L1

Specialistskill

Specialistskill

Projectskills

Managementskills

Changeskills

Specialistskill

Specialistskill

Role 1 Role 2

Job descriptions and career paths



ConclusionProject management continues to grow in importance toorganisations and is being adopted across all roles andfunctions. Adoption into a wider set of job functions is impactinghow project management is treated as a skill set. It is becominga mainstream management discipline.

This means that the development of project management skillsis maturing away from individual training courses to become apackage of capability building measures that deliver certaintythat the organisation has the project management capacity tomeet its strategic goals.

The project management community has much to gain froma greater integration with the HR function, as partneringorganisational development with project management skillsand competencies will drive further professionalism in projectmanagement.



Maven can assist you to address project management in the wider context of organisationaldevelopment. We cannot x all of your problems we are not, and do not claim to be, amanagement consultancy. We are however experts in capability building and can work with youto align programme, project, risk and change management with the organisation you wish tobecome. We have the expertise and experience to do the alignment for you but it is our ethos totransfer the skills into our clients so they become self-sufcient going forward.

Our services are designed to tap into initiatives designated as transformational changeprogrammes, talent management strategies etc. - in other words to take our services outside ofthe narrower denitions of project management and of training.

We apply a staged, structured approach to capability building by addressing:

The situation: we gather information on the objectives of the organisation and the goals and keyperformance indicators that need to be met

The people: we use best practice competence frameworks to assess current capability

The structure: we conduct a maturity assessment to demonstrate where the organisation iscurrently in relation to running its projects and, equally importantly, how it canprogress to the next level of maturity

Maven

Company Overview



This approach has been successfully applied with our clients and Maven will be pleased to discussits applicability to your organisation in more detail.

The diagram below illustrates the approach in more detail:

Data gathering Results Action Plan

Situation

Assesment

Capability

Assesment

Maturity

Assesment

Organisational context:

Strategic objectives

Assumptions, risks,constraints

How do we move from current

to future position?

Size of gap will inuencecomplexity of assignment

1. Summarise current position:

Organisational maturity

Staff capability

2. Clarify desired future position:

Organisational maturity

Staff capability

3. Explain the relevantintervention for each theme:

Workshops

Training courses

Assurance services

Mentoring and coaching

Performance support

Career paths

Talent management

Succession planning

People context:

People

Business and commercial

Context

Techniques

Planning the strategy

Executing the strategy

Organisation and

governance

Structural context:

Management control

Benets managment

Financial management

Stakeholder management

Risk management

Organisational governance

Resource management



Melanie has an impressive track record in the successful realisation of business changeprogrammes across private and public sector organisations. She is the founder and ChiefExecutive of Maven Training and is highly experienced in the delivery of board level guidanceand mentoring.

She takes a very practical approach to change, programme and project management withpriority on the realisation of planned benets, working closely with her client base to ensure thatthe desire to implement best practice does not result in bureaucracy for its own sake. Eachsolution that Melanie proposes to clients is based on sound practical advice and experience withguidance on how it is likely to be received by staff, how resistance to change can be overcomeand how stakeholders can be engaged from the outset.

Melanie is a talented communicator and has a reputation for delivering complex information withhumour and passion. She draws on her wealth of practical experience to illustrate concepts andto engage her audience in lively debates on advantages and disadvantages of each approachthat she outlines.

Melanie is the author of a number of books and whitepapers about project and changemanagement including the recently launched Managing Business Transformation: A PracticalGuide

Biography:

Melanie Franklin


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For further information about Maven Training

please contact:

Melanie Franklin

Telephone: 020 7403 7100

e-mail: [email protected]

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Building Capability to Support Project Management as Mainstream Discipline