Qualifications - Finding the Right Answer
With around 1,000 people sitting various project and programme management exams every week, qualifications are big business. The vast majority of candidates are funded by their employers who do not always understand the differences between the qualifications or, more importantly, the various ways in which someone can be prepared for a qualification.
In a world driven by short termism and a tendency to look for quick and simple wins to complex problems, it is perhaps naive of me to assume that the driving force behind the selection of training is always to develop competent project managers.
In the rush to demonstrate a return on training investment, the achievement of a qualification is often considered to be the answer - in the majority cases, it is not.
The profession has been very effective at developing qualifications structures that provide career development and progression. Where it has singularly failed is in the communication of what each qualification really means in terms of the abilities of the person who holds it.
To understand the qualifications environment it is useful to look at three pairs of characteristics:
Process vs. tools and techniques
To manage a project or programme, a project manager needs to use a range of tools and techniques and also have a process framework in which to utilise them. Many qualifications focus on either one or the other. For example, the APMP from the Association for Project Management (APM) tests tools, techniques and concepts, whilst APM Group’s PRINCE2(tm) Practitioner tests process. Individually, they only tell half the story, but together they make a great combination.
Knowledge vs. competency
Some qualifications only test knowledge, others test competency. In my experience, fresh graduates often fare better in the knowledge based qualifications than experienced project managers.
It’s simply down to the ability to absorb information and regurgitate it in an exam environment. Knowledge is the first step in being able to deliver projects effectively, but it is only the first. The APMP and PRINCE2 qualifications I mentioned before are very clearly, knowledge based exams.
Competency is what allows you to actually deliver successful projects and there are qualifications such as the APM Practitioner and Certificated Project Manager (CPM) that look at competency. Some competency based qualifications do help develop competency but in many cases they look backwards at achievements and simply confirm what you already know about a person. This leads me to the route taken to achieve the qualification rather than just the end product itself.
Destination vs. journey
There is an assumption that all people who have a particular knowledge based qualification have been through equivalent training processes and everyone who has achieved the APMP, for example, has learnt the same amount. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Just like a project, when selecting a process through which to develop individuals we have to make a decision on the balance of time, cost and quality. Many of the base level qualifications are achieved through one week courses.
This is not because the awarding bodies deliberately create syllabi that can be neatly delivered in one week, it’s because commercial pressures on training budgets will only support one week courses (and preferably less). If time and cost are the fixed parameters in a project, we all know that there is only one flexible parameter - quality. One week courses are focused on passing an exam and the time is not available to develop a broader understanding of managing projects.
That said, there is always the choice of taking other routes towards qualifications. This could involve blended training that removes the time constraint without increasing the cost and improves the quality. There is also a significant difference in competency qualifications. Some, such as the APM Practitioner, are based on assessment centres where candidates are observed running a simulated project.
This approach is more developmental than something like the CPM or a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) that review the candidate’s practical experience and, in effect, simply confirm that they have already reached a level of competence.
Alternatively, a more pragmatic approach to development can be taken such as the Diploma in Programme and Project Management from the Chartered Management Institute. The PPM Diploma is based on assignments done in the workplace rather than exams. It develops knowledge and competency in parallel, with individual relevance and doesn’t have the exam pressures.
Qualifications are an excellent way of motivating staff and providing milestones in their career development, but we must not see the achievement of a qualification as the primary goal of training. If training does not produce people who deliver successful projects then it is simply a waste of time and money.
