August 2005
Project Manager Today
www.pmtoday.co.uk
In “Developing the competence of project
management personnel”, Professor Rodney Turner draws together
research by several experts. Definitions of what constitutes project
management competence often vary on a geographical basis. In general
terms:
• In North America an input approach to
competency is taken. This sets down the knowledge, skills and personal
attributes required by an individual. This definition underlies
the Project management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) produced by the
Project Management Institute.
• Europeans tend to favour the process
approach which focuses on what people need to be able to do in order
to deliver their projects (cf knowledge and skills required).
• In Australia the focus is more towards
what people are meant to deliver – the output approach. Competence
is related to demonstrable performance albeit in accordance with
professional and organisational competency standards.
Professor Lynn Crawford of UTS has combined the input and output
approaches into an integrated view.
The paper goes on to discuss explicit knowledge (structured, codified)
and implicit knowledge which is built up through experience and
the reinforcement of one on the other. There is growing evidence
that explicit knowledge is only an entry ticket to competence –
more does not make a person more competent. Exams such as the PMP
test the basic level of explicit knowledge.
Finally the paper looks at different ways in which organisations
can assist their staff to develop competencies.
This issue of PMT is a valuable source of information on various
qualifications in project management and the accreditation bodies.
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