Last Friday saw the 17th gathering of the PPSOSIG at the Open University in Milton Keynes. Entitled PPSO Competence and Competencies – High Level Performance, the conference was a unique step forward in many ways as it gave delegates the chance to gain an understanding of their own competence level in PMO and how that relates to the APM’s Competency Framework. CPD is clearly a hot topic this year, with a greater emphasis in the PM community now being placed on actual ability to do the job in a practical environment as well as having the theory to back it up.
Prior to the event delegates were invited to complete an outline assessment of their own competence levels, the overall and individual results of which were discussed on the day. The survey is incredibly detailed and I advise anyone doing it in the future to set aside at least an hour to get it done properly. The results were interesting though especially in terms of the collective, as they threw up some interesting trends that could hopefully be used by the APM if moving this forward with PPSO staff. Namely that at present the framework needs thoroughly researching in terms of how a competence is classified before attempting to complete it. One of the themes that ran through the results as discussed by Eileen Roden of Aikona Management was that delegates were under-selling themselves in terms of what they were capable of doing / had done in their work. This really comes down to understanding what each of the competence levels really means before attempting the survey. If organizations are planning on using the framework they really would need to ensure that candidates were all on the same page before diving in.
In terms of the day itself we were introduced to the framework by Richard Anstley, a key member of the APM who contributed to the development of the framework. This was followed up by a practical example of how the framework had been used in a PMO environment by Dean Taylor from the Open University. All good interesting stuff that provided a useful intro to the afternoon interactive sessions.
John Zachar has now become the interface between the PPSO and the APM and as such led the afternoon session aimed at developing the framework with more of a focus on PPSO roles and responsibilities. As a delegate this was an interesting session to take part in if only to get a grip on other peoples understandings of the various roles in the project world. John is going to take the results to the APM with the intention of moving the framework forward for PPSO staff so hopefully we will hear more soon!
Following a Question and Answer session with the experts of the day Arras’ Lindsay Scott brought the conference to an end with a wake up call in terms of how competence is being used in the job market and what employers are expecting for their money. It is clear that PPSO and PMO is still a growing trade in the Project Management world and that the profession still has plenty of scope for advancement but Lindsay’s overall message was one of positivity in terms of moving forward and brought the day to an encouraging and affirmative end.
Another good conference from the PPSOSIG team then who as always did a great job in terms of running things smoothly and making people feel at ease. The next conference in September will be the 10th anniversary of the PPSOSIG and promises to be the biggest yet so if you are interested in finding out more take a look at the PPSOSIG website for upcoming news.
