Back in June 2010 at the Best Practice Showcase we looked at the professionalisation of project management, specifically we were interested in how we as practitioners view the profession of project management and what was the wider world view
Practitioners at the event saw themselves as professionals and the art of programme and project management as a profession. However there was significantly less confidence that the wider world shared their view, the majority agreeing that it is still seen as an occupation.
You can see the original article that showed the response rates to questions like;
- We asked the respondents to identify how the see themselves, as either practitioners or professionals?
- Identify how they see Project Management, as either an occupation or a profession?
- How they believe the market views Project Management at this time.
The reason we’re revisiting professionalism and project management again – is because we have to! There is still a long way to go to raise the bar – to see project management as a true profession with professional practitioners rather than just another occupation like general manager.
It’s time to dig a little deeper into this and I’m glad to see Ciprian Rusen on his blog Corporate Geek take up the mantle. Ciprian contacted me to ask for your help – he’s like to know your thoughts in a short survey;
The Image of the Project Management Profession >>
“The aim is to understand how people view the project management profession and
compare it with how project managers view themselves. This study should outline many of the gaps between what we think we do as project managers and what we actually achieve in real life. In the survey we ask people to rate the importance project managers have to the delivery of organizational goals, what they like and dislike about them and which are the ideal traits a project manager should have.”
Now you might feel a little survey apathy but I would urge you to take part because it is only until we really know and understand what our customers and stakeholders really think about us – as project management practitioners – that we can start to address this question about true professionalism.
