Project Management Careers
by Tan Heng Meng, MBA, BSc (Hons), PMP
When I run training classes on project management-related topics, I frequently get the following type of questions from the course participants:
- Is project management the right career choice?
- What are the career paths for project management?
- What new skills do I need in order to get a promotion to the next level?
Why Project Management?
A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result (Project Management Institute, Inc., 2013). From another perspective, a project is about deciding what works need to be done in order to get the results that we wanted. Thus project is the art and great means of turning our dreams into reality.
From an organization’s perspective, Project Management is very crucial for achieving business results and outcomes. “The delivery of business outcomes is realized through the success of projects, and in essence that is the way that project management strategies drive organizational success,” says Adrian McKnight, PMP, program director at Suncorp-Metway Ltd., a financial services firm in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (Project Management Institute, Inc., 2010).
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More specifically, many organizations are applying disciplined project management practices in order to realize their business strategies, as follows:
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So, Project Management is a very critical skill that is important for us to realize our dream and to achieve what we wanted. It is also a critical skill sought after by many organizations.
For those who have the right aptitude and attitude for the roles in Project Management, there is a challenging and rewarding career ahead of them.
Career Path
What are the career choices of those who are involved in doing projects? Are they going to do project after project for the rest of their working life?
Based on the information available on the website of the National Infocomm Competency Framework (NICF, 2011), a model for the career path for project management is derived as shown below:
New entrants to the job market usually hold position related to the discipline that they are trained in. For example, many new IT graduates will start their career as an application programmer or a test engineer. In these roles, they usually work as a member of a project team.
Gradually, some of the new entrants might be promoted to become a Project Team Lead. In this role, he will lead a small team and be responsible for managing the work related to some work package assigned by a Project Manager. He will begin to learn the ropes of managing a team.
The next progression for a Project Team Lead the role of a Project Manager. He finally becomes a full-fledge manager who manages multiple technical resources to help solve business problems. This is a very critical point in the career of a technically trained person. If he succeeds in transitioning from a techie to a manager, he might be able to climb higher in the corporate ladder.
A successful Project Manager is someone who consistently delivers results to help his organization to exploit business opportunities or solve business problems. His track records will make him very credible in the eyes of his senior managers. There are quite a wide variety of senior management positions that he can progress to. These include, but not limited to, IT Manager, IT Outsourcing Manager, Project Director or Business Process Consultant. Opportunity permitting, he might even become the CIO or CEO of an organization.
How am I doing as a Project Manager?
As Project Managers, we often have to tame many new challenges. Thus it is crucial that we constantly learn new skills and maintain high level of project management competency. How can we know whether we have all the skills needed to be a competent project manager?
Again, we can turn to the National Infocomm Competency Framework (NICF) for answer. The “Find Closest Job Role” query will list the following details of the relevant role:
- Job role description;
- Career path possibilities; and
- Job role competencies.
As an example, the job role competencies of a Project Manager are:
- Relate to client on a business level;
- Manage project integration;
- Manage project quality;
- Manage project scope;
- Manage project timeline;
- Manage project cost;
- Manage project risk;
- Manage project procurement;
- Manage project team;
- Manage project knowledge and communication; and
- Manage complex projects.
The “Relate to client on a business level” is further defined as follows:
- Analyse the organisational service standards, values and culture in order to understand the organisational environment
- Identify client service needs and preferred level of service
- Develop a draft service-level agreement for the client based on the service needs and preferred level of service
- Negotiate the service-level agreement with the client and record alterations if required
- Monitor organisational systems and procedures to monitor progress in achieving client support service targets
- Make adjustments to client support service based on client feedback and organisational guidelines
These are specific skills and competencies we can use to identify our skill gaps. Any tasks that we are unable to perform or do proficiently represents the skill gaps that we need to close or signifies an opportunity for improvement.
Now we have a tool to assess ourselves. We can become better and more proficient project managers by frequent elimination of our skill gaps.
What new skills do I need to get promoted?
Suppose that I am now a successful project manager and I am aiming for a more senior position in the company. How can I prepare myself for the new position?
The “Compare Job Roles” query on NICF’s website can provide the help we need in this situation. Let’s say I want to switch from my current role of Project Manager to the target role of Business Process Consultant. The query produces the following results:
- Develop transition strategies for business process outsourcing
- Implement process re-engineering strategies in an organization
- Plan process re-engineering strategies for business
- Relate to clients on a business level
The “tick” mark on the fourth competency indicates that I already acquire that competency as a Project Manager. Thus I need to focus on acquiring the first three competencies in order to get myself ready for the target role of Business Process Consultant.
Epilogue
Project Management is a challenging, exciting and rewarding professional. As technology advances, the projects that we handle will get more complex and challenging. It is important for project management practitioners to constantly learn new skills to meet with ever changing and new challenges in the project environment. To this end, a competency model such as the NICF can be used to help us to identify our strengths and opportunities for improvement. Failing to learn continually will render us irrelevant in this rapid changing world.
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Mr. Tan Heng Meng is a seasoned IT professional with over thirty years of working experience. His professional practice specializes in Project Management, Business Analysis, IT Service Management and Service Quality. He has held positions of Director for Asia South Region, Division Manager, Consulting Business Development Manager and Engineering Manager of several US multinational and local companies. Currently he is serving PMI Singapore Chapter as a Board Member and the Chair for REP Relationships. |
Works Cited
NICF. (2011). NICF Overview. Retrieved 08 14, 2013, from National Infocomm Competency Framework: http://www.nicf.sg/
Project Management Institute, Inc. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA: Project Management Institute, Inc.
Project Management Institute, Inc. (2010). PMI White Paper - The Value of Project Management. Newtown Square: Project Management Institute, Inc.