Beyond PRINCE2

Skills, Methodology & Experience

Project Management education is growing up.  Puzzled by the fact that there are still far too many instances of underperforming projects even after extensive PRINCE2 training, organisations are starting to think more intelligently about the knowledge and capabilities which make for a successful project manager.

At the Best Practice Showcase in London in June, Eileen Roden summed it up neatly with a cooking analogy. PRINCE2 is an excellent recipe - but simply being able to repeat the list of ingredients and process instructions won’t make you a top chef.

Those who are serious about developing their project management careers need “ticks” against 3 distinct aspects of project management:

1. Project Manager Skills. The basic competencies which are needed to be effective. These cover many of the skills exhibited by successful general managers. You need business and financial awareness, leadership skills, planning skills, negotiation skills - as well as technical skills such as planning and risk management.

2. Project Methodology. Organisations that run projects efficiently will have developed processes and language which are applied regularly and consistently. And across many types of organisation you will find the basic elements are very similar. PRINCE2 is a distillation of these good practices. 

3. Experience. As with so much else, wisdom comes from the accumulation of successes - and a few failures. Training can help you understand how to apply skills and methods to practical situations but there is ultimately no substitute for experience.

Some of the County Councils are actively re-assessing their project management training along these lines: one is looking at a blend of APMP, PRINCE2 and a tailored element specific to their needs. There are even suggestions that we may see greater collaboration between APM and the APMG to combine their respective strengths in skills and methodology.

>> PRINCE2 Training Courses
>> APMP Training Courses
>> PMI Certification
>> Download APM and PRINCE2 Training Guides

Blogalot - September 2009

Skills for Successful Project Management

Top 10 Competencies of APM Practitioners

To obtain the Association for Project Management’s Practitioner Qualification (PQ), delegates are assessed against 30 technical and behavioural criteria.

A recent report by Dr Andrew Delo of Provek identified the top ten criteria exhibited by successful candidates.  Interestingly, the top four all centre on inter personal skills.

1. Lead and influence a small team
2. Answer questions relevantly and succinctly
3. Communicate verbally in an appropriate way
4. Present compelling recommendations
5. Define the scope of the project
6. Apply a management process competently
7. Determine stakeholders and their influence/interests
8. Obtain information through use of appropriate questions
9. Understand project context and business case
10. Design the optimal project organisation

Read the full article:
>> Cracking the Code

Test your Project Management Skills
>> Free Online Project Management Assessment

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>> APM Training Courses from Focus

Focus on Training partners with Provek to help individuals and organisations assess project management competency.

Blogalot   July 2009