subject: What competence is required of a project manager? [print this page] What competence is required of a project manager?
What competence is required of a project manager?
How is it possible to ensure the quality of this competence?
How should competence be defined?
The answer could be: Competence is to know what to do, have the ability to do it. It is also about being able to reflect upon what has been done and realize how it can be done even better. The latter requires experience.
With this description of competence it is possible to divide a project manager's skill requirements into the three following main areas:
-Knowing what to do methodological knowledge
-Ability to get things done leadership
-Ability to learn from experience
Methodological knowledge
The project manager must have knowledge of the principles, models, processes, routines, methods, techniques, tools and resources involved in leading a project. This knowledge can be acquired in many ways; by education, by studying specialist books, by working in projects and by learning from others. Methodological knowledge is an important foundation upon which to build leadership and experience.
Leadership
Good leadership is one of the most important keys to success when it comes to projects. Correspondingly, bad leadership is a common reason for problems in a project. The behaviour of the leader affects both the project and its surroundings. The behaviour is of great importance for both the relationship between co-workers within a project and for the relationship between co-workers and the surroundings. It is therefore important that the project manager is aware of his own behaviour and accommodates to each situation and surrounding of a project. By receiving feedback from others it is possible to develop a better behaviour.
Experience
You can grow and become a better project manager only if you have the ability to reflect upon and learn from your experiences, both positive and negative. But this means you have to make time for reflection! You can, for example, select a number of cases or situations and for each and every case reflect upon what the problem or the challenge was, what you did, what the outcome was, and what you learned from it. These reflections often lead to a need for development of the methodological knowledge and/or behaviour.
The quality assurance of project managers
Quality assurance is all about creating confidence in the fact that something or someone will meet given demands and expectations. Recognition, licensing and certification are terms used in the area of quality assurance. Market needs have led to an increasing interest in certification of project managers. IPMA (International Project Management Association) has developed a unique system of certification. According to this system, a project manager is estimated by assessors in the areas of methodology, behaviour and experience.The candidates receive feedback in their areas of improvement. The certification comes four different steps. For more information on the IPMA system of certification, visit the homepage IPMA: http://www.ipma.ch
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