The Status of our Profession
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the status of our profession. Chapter one Organizations will not be able to compete globally without putting in place project management processes and continuing to develop their project managers to become leaders within the organization. Gina Westcott, director of Management Development Programmes, Boston University The big rate will be four project management staff, so you need to ensure these staff are content. Philip Virgo You are I am security general. Project Management is one of the most sought after yet misunderstood professions in existence. It seems that every organization is searching for a strong project manager and is convinced it needs one until it gets one. And it's not just organizations that do not understand which project management really involves. For the last 30 years, the project management profession has been struggling to find an identity, and its practitioners often find themselves searching for answers to questions like What is project management? What value does it provide? How do I perform project management in organizations that does not believe in the principles of project management, and why am I a project manager? Project management is expected to bend both time and space, yet two of the biggest blockers to the success of project management are one. The lack of appreciation of the skills required of a competent project manager and to the unwillingness of organizations to allow the qualified project manager to follow the process from taking the time to develop accurate estimates. Toe identifying potential threats and opportunities to creating a project management plan that has bought into approved, realistic and formalized project managers have been forced to accept project constraints that have no basis in reality and that are often set at the whims of management. It's no wonder the chaos report and other studies indicate such a high failure rate as high as 82% for projects. What is time for a new era? The era of reality, the air that rewards organisations for facing the decisions that cause projects to fail, and eliminating the games that have evolved as a result. Welcome to the new era of project management. To understand where the profession is going, we must first look at the current status of the profession. How did we get here? Why is this profession so misunderstood? The answer lies with two key items. The first item is to answer the question. How did you get into project management? Was it the halo effect Gone wild? The halo effect gone wild. The halo effect means a perceptual bias where we assume that because a person is good at one thing, he or she must be good at others. For example, since a person is a great developer, he or she would make a great manager of a development project to see the halo effect in action. Ask how Maney project managers started their careers wanting to be project managers. The result is a very small percentage. Of course, Project management is offered as a career path at only a few universities, so it may be a bit unfair to rate this as a halo effect. Yet many organizations and companies select project managers based on the other skills they possess. During the research for this book, 200 project managers from various industries were asked how they became project managers. Of those polled, 161 of them, or 80.5% reported that they were selected to run a project while they were employed in another role and continued managing projects after Onley. Eight of those who answered the survey stated that they were asked to become or started their careers as project managers. Where do you fit? Project management could be one of the most rewarding careers in the marketplace, but it requires a tremendous balance of management techniques and political savvy. It is not a job that just anyone can do. Contrary to popular opinion, this brings us to the second item. Not everybody can be a project manager to rephrase this. Anybody can be called the project manager, but not everyone will succeed as a project manager. Not everybody can be a project manager. The belief that anyone can do project management is hindering the growth of the profession. Statistics are published that show an astounding percentage of projects that fail. But what the's statistics rarely indicate is who is running the failing projects. Since unqualified people are being entrusted to do the work of a project manager, too many projects fail, and the project management profession faces an uphill battle to prove the value of project management. For some reason, even though there are many parallels, the other professions project management is not given the same status. Do you think a chief financial officer, CFO of an organization would walk up to a second year employees and ask him or her Did you finish high school math? Great. We're shorthanded in accounting, and I need someone to help close the books. I mean, isn't accounting just math? It is to step it's and credits, right. All you need to know is how to add and subtract. This is obviously not the case. Accounting is a specialized profession that requires education, practice and thoroughness to do the job correctly. Their accounting certifications and the profession requires constant reinforcement and education in new laws and regulations. Accounting is not something you would trust just anybody about another example. Let's look at insurance actuaries. This is a highly skilled profession, requiring a tremendous amount of research and analysis. Essentially, actuaries determine the classes and rates for insurance companies to price their products. Toe oversimplify the profession fair legalized gamblers. Of course, this is just a jest. Actuaries perform an intensive amount of investigation to determine risk for life insurance products. They assess health histories, morbidity tables and large amounts of data to statistically group potential customers into categories. The hope is that the revenue generated from insurance premiums will be more than the insurance company has to pay out in claims. Do you think a CEO would walk up to an actuary and say, I need a budgetary figure? Just throw me a number. I won't hold you to it Yet this is done to project managers on a daily basis. It can be frustrating for project managers toe work in a profession that is devalued so often, I'll say it again. It is time for a new era. It is time for organizations to choose professional project managers and allow them to follow the process and use the practices that they have been trained to use. If the ability to add and subtract does not make one in an accountant and guessing when someone is going to die, does not make one an actuary than creating an activity list. And holding a status meeting does not make one. A project manager