Rejoinder to Project Management as a Profession- Some Things to Consider

In the May issue of Arras People’s project management newsletter, Dan Strayer was talking about the “professionalisation” of project management, and I wanted to add a somewhat contrarian, some would call, heretic, perspective.

First, let me state that I am not an “accidental” project manager. I have over 40 years of project management field experience, mostly related to construction project management and mostly as a general contractor, where my own money was at risk in doing projects. Academically, I hold an undergrad degree in Civil Engineering, majoring in Construction Project Management, my MSc in Project Management and my PhD in Project and Program Management. So my commitment to the practice of project management should be obvious- project management is what I wanted to “do” back in the 1960′s when I was coming of age and project management is still what I want to do when I grow old(er).

My concern, especially with APM’s efforts to obtain Chartered status for project management, but also with the claims of PMI, IPMA and others that project management is a stand-alone profession. As a professional practitioner, I always viewed my PROFESSION to be civil engineering and the approach I used to initiate, plan, execute, control and close those projects to be nothing more than a process, or methodology.

My unease with claims that project management qualified to be a stand-alone profession was sufficient enough that I chose that topic as my PhD dissertation- “Is project management a profession? And if not, what is it?” (Can be downloaded here)

In this research, I looked at project management from the legal, socio-economic and semantic perspectives and compared two case studies- commercial aircraft piloting and construction project management. I chose those, because commercial aircraft piloting does not require a 4 year degree but is generally recognized to be a profession, while construction project management, which evolved from two well established professions- architecture and engineering- has never been quite able to achieve or realize the same professional status as that accorded either the architects or engineers.

So what were my conclusions?

The first is that practitioners are confusing them being professionals with what they do being recognized or accepted as a profession. This anecdote should explain what I see to be one of the root cause problems.

Tiger Woods is unquestionably a talented golfer. One would be very hard-put to dispute the obvious, which that he is very competent at what he does, perhaps one of the best ever. Therefore he meets the first test of being a professional (n) – skill and competence. In fact, he is sufficiently competent that he makes a very handsome living performing for pay what most of us consider a hobby; hence, applying the second criterion, he meets the ‘earnings test’ to be considered a professional (n). He is not an amateur. Having met both tests (highly competent and earning a living at what most do for a hobby) entitles him to be termed a professional (adj.) golfer. However, just because Tiger Woods meets the criteria to be called both a professional (n) and a professional (adj) golfer, golf does not qualify as a profession, although Woods might call it his profession (his paid job).

It is no wonder that many in the community of practice of project management confuse what is means to belong to a profession. There is the tendency to make the connection that if they are in fact professional (extremely competent) in the way they work, then what they do must, by association, be considered a profession. This is false logic and a semantic trap easily fallen into.

In my research, based on a global survey of some 400 practitioners, project management was defined to be a “process, method or system”. Now, here is where we run into problems. Assuming that we can agree that project management is a process, method or system (and Kerzner the Systems Engineers and Systems Dynamics professionals all support that belief) and given that process, methodology or system is embedded in every existing profession (and trade and even into or day to day lives) how can we justify or rationalize trying to build a profession around a process?

To illustrate: Using just about any definition of “project”, a commercial pilot, flying a plane from city A to city B, would be considered a project. To the extent that the pilot must file a flight plan in advance of the flight and close out that flight plan at the completion of the flight. And following the same logic, would everyone agree that a surgeon, in removing an appendix is also initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing a project? The same with an engineer designing a bridge and the general contractor constructing the bridge- all projects, yes? Now, given each of these are projects, at what level do they share any similarities?

My concern with efforts to call project management a profession is that while at some very high level of granularity all projects share similar processes, (initiation, planning, executing, controlling and closing) at the application level, where it really matters, the process of flying a plane from city to city, removing an appendix, designing or building a bridge consist of VERY different processes.

So that raises two questions to my project management colleagues:
1) How can we professionalize a process that is only relevant at the highest levels?
2) Given that nearly all professions and many trades are already licensed, doesn’t their license already measure or test for how the practitioner understands the application the processes, systems or methodology appropriate to their profession or trade?

Given, in most cases, the PROCESS of project management is included or embedded in the specific licenses or certifications- i.e. the process of project management as it applies to commercial pilots flying a plane from point A to point B is part and parcel of obtaining one’s commercial pilot’s license; the process of project management as it applies to designing a bridge is embedded into the process of obtaining one’s Professional Engineer (PE) license; the process of project management as it applies to performing a medical procedure is included as part of the Medical Board Certification process- how can we justify or rationalize trying to turn the process into a separate profession?

As project management processes are embedded in just about every existing profession (and trade) does it make any sense to certify the process separate from or in addition to the practice of the profession, trade or craft?

Asked another way, would it make any sense for a commercial pilot to be required to hold both his pilots license (VERIFYING the fact that he has met the minimum requirements to fly a plane safely) AND another certification attesting to the fact that he knows the process of initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing out a flight?

I think the absurdity of this is or should be apparent.

Is this what we really want to see? Is this really adding any value, enhancing the practice of project management and the image of practitioners, or is this going to end up as another bar or medical association or a pilots or teachers union?

Sorry colleagues. I think many of the efforts to make project management into a profession are driven more by the vested interests of professional organizations, seeking to earn money (what kind of “professional not for profit” has 100 million dollars in liquid assets???) and carve out “turf” for themselves under the guise of “protecting” those who practice project management.

Now I hate to be the skeptic, but what I see are those marginal practitioners (and judging by the rather abysmal success rate of projects there must be many of them out there) who are using these professional organizations as defacto unions- not to increase the level of professionalism, but as a restraint of trade- a way to limit or control the number of practitioners.

Another major obstacle facing project manager’s lies with the fact that when you combine asset, portfolio, program, operations and project management together, haven’t we come full circle and now we are talking about general management? Perhaps Peter Drucker was right all along? That “management is management is management” regardless of the application?

So what should we do about it?

First, we need to stop professional organizations from making false and misleading claims that project management is a profession when there is published academic research challenging this perspective. [Zwerman and Thomas, 2004, Giammalvo, 2007, Jones, 2009] PMI is perhaps the most egregious, but others, including APM and IPMA are also guilty of this. There is simply no legal, socio-economic or semantic evidence to support claims that the process of project management is now or even should be a profession. Probably most importantly, we neither own nor do we control the “body of knowledge” and that is one of the essential elements of any profession, there is no basis upon which to “claim” this turf. (The International Council of Systems Engineers describes project management as an intersection between technical, management and business skills) Worse yet, claims by professional organizations, especially in light of the less than stellar track record of projects is proving to be an embarrassment. If we want the respect and perquisites associated with the professions, then we have to earn them, not seek them through licensing or other legislative or administrative lobbying.

What next?

Respected legal scholar Ronald Rotunda wrote “The only fruitful use of the term profession today relates to individuals, not groups.” The key to improving the level of professional respect lies not through organizations or legislation, but by consistently delivering projects on time, within budget, in substantial conformance to specifications, that substantially fulfill or achieve the purposes for which they were undertaken. When we can do that, and do that consistently, then and only then we will have earned the respect of the consuming public and in doing so, have earned the right to call ourselves professionals.

How can we start?

The first and probably most important step is to recognize we have a fiduciary obligation, not only to our sponsors and clients, but to the consuming public; that as independent professionals, we have the obligation to put the best interests of the consuming public ahead of our own or our clients/sponsors or management’s interests. Until or unless we are willing to stand up to our sponsors, our management and/or our clients, refusing or turning down “Death March” projects, and insisting on the independence to make sound decisions based on BEST (not merely good) practices and be willing to accept the consequences of making those decisions, we will never be able to improve or enhance the professional image of practitioners.

Here are my specific recommendations to raise the professional image of project management:

• Adopt a code of ethics/code of conduct modeled along the lines of those from the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics professionals that require that we QUIT our jobs if management fails to listen to our advice http://www.corporatecompliance.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Resources/ProfessionalCode/SCCECodeOfEthics_English.pdf

• Stop trying to “own” or “control” the Body of Knowledge – there is very little new or profound in managing projects and everything that currently exists in the body of knowledge came from someplace else- most of it from Henry Fayol, Frederick Taylor, the Gilbreth’s, Deming, Crosby and Juran. Put the collective “body of knowledge” into the public domain and open it up to ideas, suggestions and improvements by anyone and everyone.

• Reject knowledge based credentials – It is incredible that any individual or organization would give serious credence to any credential that required 35 hours of “advanced” study, followed by a multiple choice exam with a passing score of 60%.

• Embrace application specific competency based assessments – the only thing that counts is competency. Are people competent or are they not. For the existing professions and trades, the project management processes are assessed through the specific licensing or certification process. We need to look at those jobs who incorporate project management processes but currently do not have a licensing or certification process in place. Generic credentials such as the PMP and PRINCE2 are nothing more than entry level credentials at best.

• Be candid and truthful – to be taken seriously, we must stop making promises we cannot deliver on and blindly accepting the dictates of our clients, sponsors and management. This specifically includes those professional organizations making false and misleading claims that project management is a profession.

• Accept our fiduciary obligations and the consequences of failing to fulfill them – we need to accept financial accountability for our failure to perform. Only then will we realize that accepting “bad” projects is not good for our shareholders, our taxpayers and our organizations and that as practicing professionals, we must look out for their interests as our own.

Image © easywebsites.ky and used with permission.

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