How do you find that something extra? Assessing potential in project managers – Neil Mooney, Provek and Jane Hodgen, Tata Consulting Services

Tata Consultancy needed more programme managers and wanted to recruit from within by ‘talent spotting’ among existing project managers and identifying what was needed in training and development to make them good programme managers.

Training, recruitment and assessment consultancy Provek was called in to help. A three-step process was used:

1. An online assessment benchmarked against APM levels and industry norms and including personality indicators, which was then management reviewed. From an original 130, this identified 55 to go through to the next stage.
2. A scored CV, focusing on experience and asking what skills candidates thought they had. This was also management reviewed and 8 people progressed to the last stage.
3. A structured interview, exploring beyond the CV and which helped to shape the training programme

Even those who did not get through to the final 8 benefited from the process, as the feedback helped them to see what they needed to do to fill the gaps in their own development and skills.

Since then, Provek has aligned its first-stage assessment scoring to IPMA levels A-D. Tata Consultancy feels the process could be further improved by having more management and HR reviews before deciding on the final selection.

Discussion:
What is the difference between project and programme management? For Tata Consulting, the answer was the number of projects and people an individual was managing. But there is a school of thought that says the best programme managers have never been project managers.
Developing programme managers should include leadership training and senior stakeholder management.

Do you believe you are a better than average project manager? Yes 75%
Have you objectively compared yourself against other project managers outside your own organisation? Yes 45%

How do you find that something extra? Building project professionalism across DWP - Ian Anderson, DWP and Tony Teague, MD, Human Systems

Managing complex projects calls for more than basic skills, yet the ‘tough’ skills that make the difference, such as leadership, are in short supply. The focus needs to change.

Research has identified the top three skills that can make a difference:
· A competent project manager
· Processes and planning
· Clarity about technical objectives

The increasing demand and short supply of skilled project managers means that organisations need to grow their own, such as through project academies.

At the DWP, post project reviews revealed that if a project had gone wrong, it was usually people that were the main reason. The department’s project capability is being improved internally through creating communities of like-minded people who develop a common standard of learning and development.

Through sharing knowledge and best practice internally, with other government departments and with outside organisations, benchmarking and assessments to place the best people in the right projects, a supportive infrastructure and with champions to drive this change, the DWP is now moving towards an academy structure.

Among the aims are to be seen as an exemplar and an employer of choice.


Has the project management profession focused too hard on technical processes and skills at the cost of tough leadership skills?
Yes 90%

Do you believe that project management skills are wholly transferable between sectors and organisations?
Yes 65%

Project Networking, Janet Smart, BT Centre for Major Programme Management, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

Skill in social networking sites such as Facebook could be an essential qualification for project managers of the future.

Research at the Saïd Business School indicates that the way people behave on these sites could affect the way they work and has to be taken into account when thinking about the future of project management.

The Facebook generation will bring social networking into the workplace - many people are already using it informally as a way of communicating at work. In the future, organisations will need to enable those working on a project to communicate in this way, sharing information and expertise, problem solving and enabling links.

The academic world has much to contribute to the future, providing an opportunity for awareness and reflection, looking at ways of in which the profession can change and what should be passed on from the general corpus of knowledge.

Next year the Saïd Business School will introduce an MSc in Major Programme Management, encouraging people to think critically about what is being done now and how it could change for the future.

Working on the premise that a project or programme is also an organisation with similar skills requirements, it is taking theoretical knowledge from the design of an organisation and imparting it into the current mindset of project and programme management, moving from a skills base to a more reflective model.

For further details on the course, visit www.sbs.ox.ac.uk

Is a project an organisation?
Yes 78%

Have we got the right people doing the right projects? Bob Assirati, Office of Government Commerce (OGC)

Addressing the shortfall in project management capability at the OGC will lead to greater success in delivering major projects.

The OGC has a big capability gap, which means it has to bring in costly interim and external project managers. Now it is making a collective effort to build a sustainable community with the right skills through tackling the issue at organisational level.

Projects need to be translated into people, and their roles and their competencies, moving away from the traditional profile of a civil servant and looking to recruit, develop and retain project professionals.

Transfer of knowledge across the organisation is being improved while consultants are encouraged through their contract to share their knowledge with OGC staff.

A 10-step plan to introduce a proper, professional career structure is being developed with the vision of ‘a recognised profession that attracts and retains the best people and is valued for its contribution to effective delivery’.

This skills agenda includes an agreed standard approach to best practice, defining roles, qualifications and training, improving the attractiveness of project management as a career and managing talent.

Do you believe Government project management offers an attractive career as opposed to the private sector?
No 74%

Martin Price - Can you align people, process and organisation?

There’s something more interesting than people – groups of people, because of the huge amount of interactions an organisation creates.

Aspects of PM that require leadership – leadership is about showing the way and draw the leadership from others, not by proscription.

Imagine a warship, ready for action, then you take away the crew – the warriors – what’s left can’t function. People aren’t just the heart of the matter - they are the matter.

Two arenas in project management:
Arena ‘A’ systematic necessities or essential tools (methodology, life cycle etc)
Arena ‘B’ the people necessities or vital behaviours (trust, decision making, leadership, collaboration etc).

Question
In which of these arenas are the causes of project success or failure?
A=3 hands, everyone else=B.

Need to address both arenas. There are also two others – engagement (not a competence, the quality of a group) and domain knowledge.

Building organisational capability – address:

• the competence of the project players (professional skill and knowledge),
• the project organisation (leadership, engagement, collaboration) and
• building support from the business (alignment and support from the host business).

Elizabeth Harrin - Can you align people, process and organisation?

The techniques and tools I’m using now are the same I’ve been using for some years, given the rate of change in other professions – is that ok?

We all face shifting business challenges – economic, business models and technology – all the more so in the current environment.

General perception is that projects are failing – why are we still doing the same things?

The economy we’re working in is different to the one that our tools were designed for, this is the Google generation – look at all the sources and outlets we can now use, such as blogs, blackberries, wikis real-time status reports and collaboration tools. We need to be able to use them all within a project environment.

Project management teams need to be able to work with the same tools in the same way as others in our organisations.

We need people on our project teams with excellent communications skills and an openness to business change.

In summary:
• Adoption of new media
• Soft skills in methodologies
• Recruitment focus on emotional intelligence

Peter Simon, champion:
1. Is it important to develop as a complete project manager – professionals who can display the essential tools and the vital behaviours?
Strongly agree 77% Agree 20% Disagree 2% Strongly disagree 2%

2. Is it important for APM to give closer attention to developing human and organisational competence in its 4 level certification programme?
Strongly agree 34% Agree 52% Disagree 11% Strongly disagree 3%

3. My project management team is equipped to face the changing requirements of 21st business practices.
Strongly agree 8% Agree 29% Disagree 51% Strongly disagree 12%

4. My project management style reflects the way others work in my organisation.
Strongly agree 12% Agree 37% Disagree 42% Strongly disagree 8%