Later this afternoon, the PPSOSIG is hosting their first Local Group for London (PPSOSIG:London), there will be more planned for 2010 but more about that when we blog about it next week.
In March the PPSOSIG focus on something which is so new to the world of project management and PMOs that it doesn’t even exist yet; competencies for the PMO. Much has been written about competency levels for project managers and, of course, there are Competency Frameworks in existence for PMs, but nothing yet for the staff that work within a PMO. The event called “PPSO Competency and Competencies: High Level Performance” takes place on the 19th March in Milton Keynes.
So here’s some thoughts to those of you who work in and manage the PMO.
So, you’ve got your PPSO funding and charter in place – congratulations – that’s the first part of the fight won! All you have to do now is deliver and continue to show business benefit – easy?
Whether you’re in start-up or ongoing operation, isn’t it the case that your business is always looking for better value, and improved project delivery record, and increased PPM leadership from the PPSO? How can you assure progress in this area?
What we’re talking about is capability, and specifically growing that capability. Three key facets of capability are processes, tools and people. Specifically, the next PPSO SIG conference is going to help you understand and grow your people capability in the context of the PPSO, using the approach of competency frameworks.
“Competence” can be simply described as “how well you do stuff”, and can be individual and also organisational, and it’s very important to have a good match between the levels of those two aspects.
It’s also very important to distinguish between book knowledge, practical experience and leadership in the subject areas – after all, anyone can read the manuals and pass the driving theory test, but can they drive a car just by reading them and can they teach others to drive? When was the last time you employed a PPSO analyst purely on the strength of their Prince2 Practitioner’s certificate, without establishing their experience and aptitude as well as their knowledge? Excuse the driving pun, but the phrase “all the gear, and no idea” springs to mind here!
An interesting extrapolation of the driving case is described in Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book, Outliers: The Story of Success
How do you measure and manage competence in an organisations, and how do you know when you’ve got sufficient competence? The conference will help you discover that and many more secrets to building a high-performing PPSO
The PPSOSIG conference has a few spaces left, priced at £115 for each delegate, the price also includes a cop of the APM Competency Framework, to book a place, see the website.
You can also follow the PPSOSIG on Twitter , join us on Linked In or become a member for free.
Twitter: DrPDG
Hi Chris,
AACE, which primarily consists of “project controls” professionals, is in the process of getting their competency based credential- Certified Portfolio, Program and Project Manager (C3PM) endorsed by the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS).
If you are not aware of GAPPS, it is based in Australia but consists of well recognized and highly regarded global professionals who have come together to create competency standards which are INDEPENDENT of particular Body of Knowledge or Methodology and put these standards into the “public domain” under open source or creative commons license.
Anyway, to respond to your posting, AACE is establishing these competency standards and will provide some interesting competition to PMI in this area.
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta
http://www.build-project-management-competency.com