Project management

Articles

Professional career path 
It turns out that availability isn’t a project management competency – but what is? In the analysis of a survey of 500 companies we ran recently, there was a distinct trend for organisations to now recruit professional project managers (PMs) to project management roles – which is a good thing. But, what is a little worrying is that there is no consensus about exactly what skills and competencies should be used to identify a good PM. 
Dr Christopher Worsley, CITI
2008

A leap of faith - engaging the CEO
Need to convey the importance of project management to a new upper-level manager or CEO? Want to know how to not put them on the defensive? Need to get your CEO’s attention? Nick Dobson, CITI Principal Consultant, explains how.
Nick Dobson, CITI
2007

The leadership gap
How do we successfully bring about change in the public and private sector? With continuous demands upon organisations to adapt and transform, the question is both urgent and important. 
Bernard Murray-Gates, CITI
2006

A framework for change
There is an unrelenting pressure on organisations, and the individuals who populate them, to change and develop. It places unprecedented demands on change management communities especially the project and programme managers.
Jill Spencer, CITI
2006

Trial by stealth 
There is a battle being fought for the hearts and minds of our project management community – and it’s going to affect both the future project performance and our financial success in the world markets! It is a strange battle with unexpected alliances and it is all the more worrying for its stealth. 
Dr Christopher Worsley, CITI 
2005

The right mix
So what does it take to be a complete project manager? It’s easy enough to recognise one. Things happen around them. They are in touch and in control. The sense of purpose and achievement is palpable. But how do we create them? Do we wait to see if they’ll come good, or watch sadly while their project drifts into failure, a day at a time?
Dr Christopher Worsley, CITI 
2005

White papers

Managing project manager resources

With the increasing recognition of project management as a separate and distinct management discipline one of the major debates has been where best to position, manage and coordinate these resources.  Maintaining project management capability in functional units is attractive to line managers as it ensures that the project managers are ‘close to the problem’, have a good domain understanding and, most importantly, are available when needed.

This white paper looks at the various models that have been adopted for managing project resources.  CITI has conducted a literature review and interviews with a selection of clients in the financial services and public sector.

Louise Worsley, CITI
2009

Project complexity

It is generally accepted that organisations are now operating within a more challenging environment than previously, and that this environment is likely to continue becoming more challenging for a number of years yet. In this white paper, a project view of complexity is developed that distinguishes it from concepts with which it is often confused; notably, ‘complicated’ and ‘uncertainty’. As well, an approach to characterising complexity in projects is developed, to provide a basis for organisations to meaningfully measure complexity across their portfolios.
Dr Thomas Docker and Geoff Vincent
CITI 2008

KASE profiling: Improving the practices in the selection of Project Managers 
This paper is an initial analysis of the data obtained from profiling the knowledge, attitudes, skills and experience (KASE) of 3,600 project managers. The data was captured on assignments where assessment centres and internet-delivered questionnaires were used to profile practising project managers. It is representative of a wide spread of sectors and ‘levels’ of project manager. During 2008-9 this data will be extensively analysed in further funded research undertaken by Middlesex University, The National Centre for Project Management in the UK. 
Louise Worsley, CITI 
2008

Project manager profiling: a review of the approaches available (Part 1) 
This paper examines the various tools and techniques used to assess and support the development of project managers throughout their career. The strengths and weaknesses of the approaches are reviewed in the light of our experience, and suggestions are made as to when to apply what. 
Louise Worsley, CITI 
2007

Project manager profiling: behavioural competency and potential (Part 2) 
This paper introduces project management specific competency models as provided by the major Professional bodies and focuses in particular on the assessment of behavioural competences as a way of identifying underlying capability and ‘potential’. Behavioural and personal competences are often cited as critical to overall project management performance. They are, however, the most difficult to assess and sometimes the most controversial to act upon. 
Louise Worsley, CITI 
2007

Profession-centric IT
Moving organisations to a position where they will demand IT staff to be members of the professional body requires the society to demonstrate clear benefits of doing so to those organisations and to the individuals. This is not easy to do — where, for example, is the evidence that shows that using BCS certificated members guarantees success, when not using them does not? It should be possible to build up such evidence — if it is indeed true — but this will take effort and the support of organisations using IT staff. 
Dr Thomas Docker, CITI 
2004 

PM Profiling – project and project manager profiling
The paper discusses models and techniques for the assessment of organisations and their individual project managers, and provides a unified approach for the practical development of project management capability within an organisation. The development is based on thirteen years’ applied research across 210 large organisations involving more than 6,000 project managers and their projects.
Dr Thomas Docker, Peter Collin, David MacLeod, CITI 
2001