Professional career path

You’ll remember the old days … when you needed a project run, you’d find someone who was available and give it to them. Easy! Of course, there were performance problems: things done poorly, things not done – but you were used to that!

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 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. In the absence of a good competency model and a technique for assessing individuals against it, the recruitment process was a little ‘hit and miss’. Without doubt experience is the best indicator – but some CVs turn out to be ‘imaginative’.

Perhaps as worrying is the lack of a coherent approach around the management and deployment of the PMs, once recruited. Some organisations do group them into a central pool and have them treat the PMO as ‘home’, but it is by no means the ‘norm’. Of the 67 per cent of project-using organisations that have some form of PMO, 22 per cent were responsible for recruiting and selecting project managers, and 31 per cent ended up being responsible for managing all or most of the PM population. That means that out of 100 organisations, 79 – the overwhelming majority of organisations – manage their PM population within their normal functional line.

The problem is that research on human resource management in project organisations, strongly suggests that resource management practices in the functional line are not particularly well suited to the more dynamic environment required by project-oriented organisations.

And the consequences? The development of PMs depends upon the assignments they undertake, and as the best project managers are generally also ambitious, without sensitively managed career and development support, the only option they may see for themselves may be for the individuals to ‘career develop’ by moving on to their next job, in another company! So it’s your choice; provide a stimulating and progressive career path and enjoy the consequences, or stick with the ‘availability’ criteria and you may not have many ‘good ones’ to choose from!