The Practicing IT Project Manager

New project management articles published on the web during the week of December 20 – 26, 2010.  We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to!  Recommended:

• Brad Egeland draws on his vast experience as a consulting project manager to offer three expectations that clients have, but might not share with you.
• Ty Kiisel puts project management software in historical perspective, and suggests that the “dirty little secret” of modern software is that’s it’s too complicated.
• Mary Weilage offers a year-end list of Tech Republic’s most popular IT project management downloads of 2010.
• Bas de Baar, the Project Shrink, writes, “I view projects as a set of social interactions.”  He also refers to project managers as a “human shield” between the sponsor and the software developers.  Definitely a must-read …
• Peter Taylor, the Lazy Project Manager, shares his New Year’s resolutions.  I like the one about “scaring your kids” by addressing their class.  Peter and Bas need to talk.
• John Poelstra has put together a list of open source project management tools.
• Jim De Piante asks, how do you define a successful project management career?

Enjoy!

The Association for Project Management (APM), the UK member association of the International Project Management Association, has developed their own credential, The APM Registered Project Professional (RPP).  With 17,500 individual and 500 corporate members, the APM is the largest professional body of its kind in Europe.

Based on “a broad understanding of project management” as defined in the APM Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition, achievement of “successful outcomes through responsible leadership,” 35 hours of continuing professional development over the past 12 months, and adherence to the APM code of professional conduct, the RPP assesses both knowledge and experience across a range of different competencies.  According to the APM web site, “Candidates will complete an online application and e-portfolio of evidence which includes:

• Short statements providing evidence of competence in the critical competences
• A project-based CV to support the statements of competence
• A record of CPD carried out in the previous 12 months
• Named referees who can confirm a candidate’s suitability
• Evidence of academic and professional qualifications

“The applications will be assessed and successful candidates will be invited to a 45 minute professional discussion,” presumably at their headquarters.  This new credential is intended to “recognise all professionals across projects, programmes and portfolios including specialists,” and will be rolled out in early 2011.  It’s not clear how the APM will market this new credential to “all professionals,” or to employers, but it joins a crowded field of certifications and credentials:

• Project Management Professional (PMP) from PMI.  With over 400,000 credential holders word-wide, it is the most widely recognized project management credential
• CAPM, PgMP, PMP-SP, and PMI-RP, the “other” PMI credentials
• PRINCE2, from the Office of Government Commerce in the UK, in Foundation and Practitioner levels, with exams administered by the APM Group
• Project+, from CompTIA, the IT industry trade association
• Advanced Project Management Certification (APMC), from the International Institute for Learning (actually just a package of five online courses)
• Master Project Manager, from the American Academy of Project Managers (“Advanced standing is given to those with recognized degrees and MBAs, members of the Military, and Veterans with Project Management experience and training”)
• Certified Project Manager, from the International Association of Project and Program Management

I’ve only been able to find numbers of current credential holders from PMI, but that’s probably more a reflection of my luck in finding the data than anything else.  Still, to paraphrase David Lowery, what the world needs now is another project management credential like I need a hole in my head.

New project management articles published on the web during the week of December 13 – 19, 2010.  We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to!  Recommended:

• Joseph Flahiff writes about scope management in Agile projects, and the difference between project management and product management.
• Clifton Hill reports on a presentation given by outgoing PMI President Greg Balestrero, where he stressed the need for excellence in project management of socially conscious and “green” projects.
• Linda Tucci writes about lighter-weight SaaS project management applications, and how they fit in with the future predicted by the recent Gartner Group 2011 prediction report on project and portfolio management.
• For those Linux users out there, Jack Germain does a quick review of three “primo” open source project management applications.
• PMI’s Career Central offers an inside look at an advanced project manager’s resume, with comments from a career coach and a senior managing consultant at Career-Resumes.com.
• Dave Nielsen writes about enterprise risk management, and how an organization’s appetite for risk is related to the “best practices” espoused in the PMBOK.
• Dick Billows offers his insights into creating a work breakdown structure, and admits that micro-management works some of the time (but not most of the time).
• Brad Egelend offers his list of what you should cover in the kickoff meeting, in parts one and two.

Enjoy!