PM conundrum

The 'P' In PMP: Are We Really A Profession?  Mark E. Mullaly of Interthink provides another thought provoking piece about Project Management over on gantthead.com.  Mark quotes some interesting research on Project Managers (very few formally trained and those that have training don't have much) and refers to a couple instances where PMs are in court for not adhering to standards published in the Program Management Institute's Body of Knowledge.  Anyone familiar with the PMBOK knows that it is a compendium of best practices and practical experience.  But it is not founded on any coherent theory, rigorous evaluation or deliberative process that provide the foundation for professional standards. 

The larger issue Mark raises is should Project Management be thought of as a profession or a job description?  Evidence would suggest the latter.  Mark  illustrates his point by referencing those professions where the certification is formal and published standards are exacting.  There is no doubt that there are some good training available for PMs but no one could seriously argue that the PMI Certification Test is equivalent to sitting for the bar or CPA exam. 

Project Management is not a profession.  The skills that are needed are easily learned and applied.  The PMBOK is a good reference manual for useful skills and those involved with managing projects should know the rudiments of PM codified there.  But it would also be a mistake to see the recommendations and methods of PMBOK as the best way or only way to manage projects.  There are quite a few alternatives developing (Agile techniques or Extreme programming, Critical Chain and buffer management) that are more appropriate for certain projects or environments.

And PM will not likely become a profession, at least in the sense of lawyer or dentist being professionals, until such time that there is a defined need to elevate the practices and processes to professional status.  This would require serious academic effort to validate and develop theoretical justification for substantiating methods and procedures.  And this is just not going to happen.

Comments

[David Foster]

I do believe that there are project management skills which are relatively independent of the field in which they are applied--be it marketing toothpaste or designing diesel locomotives--and that a disturbing number of businesspeople are deficient in these skills. However, the idea that "project manager" in a pure sense is a chimera: to apply the techniques effectively, one must also know something about the problem domain being managed.