Advanced Project Management Certifications
Greetings and salutations! Welcome to the asapm Certification Program Blogsite. If you’ve gotten here, you probably know that asapm is the USA Member Association of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). You may also know that PMCert is the independent Certification Body for asapm. And there is also some chance that you know about the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS) which develops performance-based competency standards that asapm uses as part of its assessment process to certify individuals within the USA version of IPMA’s Four-Level-Certification program (4-L-C).
This blog will be about project management certification and will generally address something related to one of these organizations and their certification offerings. The emphasis will be on advanced certifications that assess actual, on-the-job performance, although we will occasionally delve into topics related to Level D, our knowledge-based, entry level certification.
Enjoy!
Bad question, bad exam
I stopped by a website recently whose proprietor specializes in training people to take a certification exam offered by one of our competitors … “That Other Organization” or TOO. Here was the Question of the Month offered by this training provider:
“Ten stakeholders need to receive communications on an important change. You and your team of 40 are concerned that everyone needs to receive these changes. What is the formula to calculate communication channels on a project? How many communication channels are there?
Now, I realize that this is an open-ended question rather than multiple-choice, and so it may not be truly representative of what’s on the actual TOO exam. I also don’t know if this person has attended an item-writing session, so I don’t know what expertise they have to construct questions.
But this question does illustrate some of the reported problems with the construction of other project management certification exams. As a result, it also illustrates some of the problems that you will not have with our Level D exam.
First, the questions asks about an important concept: the fact that the number of communication channels goes up exponentially as the size of the project team increases. However, I could be well aware of this fact and still:
- Not know the formula.
- Have forgotten the formula.
- Recall the formula incorrectly.
- Do the calculation wrong.
So there is a good chance here that I know the concept and still get the answer wrong. By definition, that means this is a bad question.
Second, has anyone ever used this formula on a real project? I’m going to guess that the answer is no. At asapm, we try to avoid asking questions that are of academic interest only.
Next, the question itself has an excess of information that does not affect the answer. The first two sentences are completely irrelevant and simply slow the examinee down. Change the numbers from 10 and 40 to 3 and 7. Same question. I’m guessing that the item-writer was trying to provide context, but extra text does not equate to context. Context is when I give you information that is relevant to your choice of an answer.
Now let’s look at the question itself:
- “Ten stakeholders.” Not clear whether these 10 are part of the team or not.
- “You and your team of 40.” Are you part of the team? Is the team 40 people or 41?
- Both NYT Style Guide and the Chicago Book of Style counsel against mixing number forms. So if the first two sentences were needed, they should read “10 … 40″ or “Ten … forty” to make it easier to absorb the information.
- “Everyone needs to receive these changes.” Who is “everyone”? The team? The 10 stakeholders? Some other group?
- Let’s assume that we want to send the information to the 10 stakeholders. That means there are ten channels since this is a one-way push, not a discussion. So the formula may be irrelevant. This starts to sound like a trick question.
Our promise to you: No trick questions. No excess verbiage. No useless knowledge.
Debate about merits of various PM certifications
The following link takes you to a LinkedIn discussion with lots of information, different perspectives, and even a couple of personal attacks! Good reading if you have the time …
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers&discussionID=7074372&gid=35313&commentID=8959122&trk=view_disc
Designing a Certification Program: How to Certify (2)
Recapping from “How to Certify (1)” … certification is about assessing competence. Competence is intangible so it must be inferred from some kind of evidence. That evidence can be input-oriented or output-oriented. At asapm, we have decided to focus on outputs or results.
Why? Simple logic. If someone has already done the job successfully once, there is a much better chance that they can do it successfully again.
After looking at a number of alternatives, we decided to use a performance based competency standard (PBCS) as our measuring stick. Lots of reasons:
We became a founding member of the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS) and worked with GAPPS to develop a PBCS that would be compatible with IPMA’s Four-Level-Certification. Some of our assessors were initially skeptical, but they were won over the first time they did an assessment. Explicit, pre-defined criteria provide a higher degree of validity than any other approach currently in use. A comprehensive set of questions enhances inter-rater reliability.
Not only that, but the candidates themselves were equally delighted. One of my favorite comments came from a Level B (Senior Project Manager) candidate: “Wow! I actually learned something in the process of being assessed!”
The GAPPS standard is available for FREE from www.globalpmstandards.org.
From LinkedIn: Which Certification Best Represents…
This is an extract from a recent post of mine in a LinkedIn discussion group. Thought some of you here might be interested.
The question asked was this: which certification option best represents the holder’s skills, knowledge and abilities as a Project Manager?
Full disclosure … I have not been a big fan of PMI’s certification program since about 1998. Our differences led to a lawsuit in 2000 that cost me over $100,000. If anyone wants details of the suit, please feel free to contact me directly.
To begin, there are really only three internationally recognized options worth mentioning. In alphabetical order:
- Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards. GAPPS doesn’t actually certify, but it does provide a performance-based competency standard that is used by others.
- International Project Management Association. IPMA and its member associations have been certifying individuals as project managers since the late 1980s.
- Project Management Institute. PMI’s Project Management Professional was introduced about the same time as IPMA’s program.
Here’s how I view the various approaches. In the interest of fairness, I’ll reverse the order.
PMI’s approach lacks rigor. The experience requirements are drawn too loosely, and the quality of the experience is never considered. It’s not even clear that someone must have worked as a project manager in order to sit for the exam. The education requirements do not ensure knowledge since it seems that a significant percentage of applicants meet the requirement through exam prep courses which emphasize how to pass the exam rather than how to manage a project. The first time pass rate for native English speakers who take a prep course appears to be well in excess of 90%, so it wouldn’t appear that the wholly multiple-choice exam itself is very difficult either.
IPMA’s approach is far more rigorous. IPMA requires the same amount of experience as PMI, but it requires that the experience have been obtained as a project manager. IPMA’s exam includes short answer essay questions in addition to multiple-choice. Finally, it also requires a written report describing a project you managed and an interview with 2 assessors that typically lasts about 2 hours. The main weakness in the IPMA program is the lack of defined criteria to justify the decision. IPMA’s assessors are all experienced project managers, and based on what I’ve seen, they do an excellent job, but if anyone challenged a negative decision in court, the lawyers would be the only winners.
The core of the GAPPS approach is the most rigorous with over 50 defined performance criteria that must all be met in order for a candidate to be assessed as “competent.” Another plus is the CIFTER which is used to assess project management complexity. Weaknesses include the fact that GAPPS only requires a single assessor (as opposed to IPMA’s 2), and that it allows the organizations that use its standards to set their own length-of-experience requirements. One more plus: the standard itself is FREE. Anyone can use it.
At asapm, we’ve blended the GAPPS and IPMA approaches to deliver what I think is the best of both worlds: a challenging exam and defined performance criteria assessed by two experienced project managers.
Designing a Certification Program: How to Certify (1)
I’ve left this for last since it is the hardest issue to address. In fact, I have several books on my shelves that cover how to assess competence, so trying to answer that question in a few hundred words does seem more than a bit presumptuous. So please think of this entry as an introduction or an overview. If there is interest, I’ll get into more detail later.
First, remember that competence is intangible. You can’t see it, touch it, feel it, or smell it (although I have heard that incompetence has a distinctive aroma). Because competence is intangible, we must infer it from some type of evidence. Thus “how to certify” is fundamentally a question of what kinds of evidence will you require and how will you evaluate it.
In this regard, there are two broad schools of thought. One is input-oriented and the other is output-oriented. The input-oriented folks look at the characteristics of individuals who have been successful in a particular role, and then infer that someone else with those same characteristics will be successful as well. Here are some simple examples:
- Most successful professional basketball players are tall, so we infer that height is an aspect of basketball competence.
- People who do well on the Law School Aptitude Test (LSAT) tend to do well in law school, so we infer that someone who does well on the exam will be a competent law school student.
- Exam-based certifications assert that competence is a function of knowledge, and they infer that someone who can pass a well-constructed test will be able to apply their knowledge in the real world.
As you can see, the input-oriented school tends to be predictive in nature. It asks, “are you likely to be successful?” rather than asking, “have you been successful?” Since there are so many potential factors involved in being competent as a project manager, we elected to adopt the output-oriented approach. We look for evidence of actual performance as a project manager.
Designing a Certification Program: Why Certify?
This might sound like a simple question to answer, but it really isn’t. There are many possible reasons:
- Because individuals want a credential that will help them get a new or better job.
- Because individuals want something to brag about.
- Because hiring managers want a tool to “screen out” some of the resumes they get.
- Because line managers want a way to “prove” that their staff is skilled.
- Because line managers want a way to “prove” that their PMs are more skilled than those of their peers.
- Because line managers want a way to help them decide who to promote.
- Because buyers of services want to know that their providers are competent.
- Because sellers of services want a competitive edge.
- Because professional organizations want to make money.
- Because professional organizations want to limit entrance to the profession or discipline in order to increase the salaries of their members.
Some of these reasons are more altruistic; some are less. And each reason has the potential to influence the design of the program. For example, if you want to help someone get a new or better job, marketing the credential may be more important than the quality of the assessment process. If you want to assess promotion potential, you will be looking at different factors than if you are evaluating a candidate’s ability to do their current job.
At the same time, there is a lot of overlap and there are some feedback loops. For example, if the certification program does what it claims to do, then everybody wins:
- Certified individuals will find it easier to find new and better jobs.
- Hiring managers will feel comfortable screening-out non-certified individuals.
- Buyers of services can be more confident about the level of competence of their providers’ staff.
- The sponsoring organization can make a lot of money …
Sorry. Had to mention that last one. Project management certification today is big business. The world’s best known certification has generated an estimated $150,000,000 (yes, seven zeros) in “profits” for its sponsoring organization in the last 10-12 years. Two lesser known programs have generated substantial income for their sponsoring organizations. Several major international enterprises have developed their own internal certification programs because of the selling advantage it provides. And certification preparation is big business. Stop by any LinkedIn project management group and you will see that a huge percentage of the “discussions” are actually advertisements for certification preparation products.
So … why is asapm doing this? One major reason: we felt there was a crying need for a performance-based credential. Our founders were disappointed with the quality of the certification programs in the market, especially those available in the USA. We wanted to develop something that would actually assess a candidate’s performance, not just their knowledge and experience. We wanted to develop a credential that was based on verifying that the candidate had actually worked as a project manager. On verifying that the candidate could provide evidence of successful performance.
I think we’ve succeeded. We have clearly built a better mousetrap. Now the question is … does anyone else care? Here’s the question I’ve been asking: Would you rather go to an interview saying “I got a D- or better on my exam and no one evaluated my experience,” or “I’ve got two skilled project managers who questioned me in detail for 2 hours about over 50 explicit performance criteria and found me competent.”
Defining a Certification Program: Where to Certify?
There are three aspects of “where” that all have to do with marketing considerations.
The first aspect is, of course, geographic coverage: local, national, international, or global? The broader the coverage, the greater the expense. In addition, trying to offer a product or service globally also requires knowledge of local customs and languages. On the other hand, operating in only one country limits you to organizations that also operate only in your country. At asapm, we think we have the best of both worlds through our membership in IPMA and use of IPMA’s Four Level Certification program. IPMA provides the basic structure and relies on its National Member Associations to tailor the program to local needs. This way, asapm and PMCert can focus on what is needed and useful in the good ol’ U.S. of A. while still providing a credential that is recognized and valued around the world.
The second aspect of “where” also addresses geographic coverage, but on a more micro scale: do we offer assessment interviews in just a few cities and make our candidates travel to us? Or do we attempt to to provide local assessors in all major cities? The travel-to-us model has worked well among IPMA’s European members with their relatively small countries. In the USA, we have opted for the latter approach and are busy recruiting qualified assessors throughout the USA. Our plan is to have at least two assessors within a one-hour drive of 90% of the US population.
The final aspect of “where” has to do with industry emphasis. Focusing on just a few market sectors would mean lower costs and a simpler product. For example, there would be no need to address the fact that the oil and gas industry uses the term “contingency reserve” to describe what the aerospace and defense industry call “management reserve.” However, project management is used in pretty much every field of endeavor from medicine to construction to software development. It is as vital to success in the public sector as it is to success in the private sector. And one of asapm’s organizational objectives is to address the societal impact of poor project management, so we decided that we would not limit ourselves: our certification program is open to all industries and application areas despite the challenges that choice creates.
Designing a Certification Program: When to Certify?
In looking at when to certify, we are not addressing season or time-of-day. We are looking at in a project manager’s career to certify. In this case, we went along with Jacqueline Susann and decided that once was not enough.
Our first certification, for the very start of a possible career in project management, is Project Associate (IPMA Level-D®). This is an exam-based certification that requires only six-months of experience working on projects. The exam has two parts: multiple choice questions to verify the candidate’s knowledge of project management fundamentals, and several short answer questions to verify understanding of key concepts. Reviewing the USA-NCB should be helpful, but any introductory book or course on PM fundamentals should be adequate as well. By design, you should not need any special “exam prep” courses to pass our test.
Our second certification comes after you have made a commitment to the discipline. This certification requires three years of full-time equivalent work as a project manager with real project management responsibility for reasonably complex projects. We use a version of the CIFTER table developed by GAPPS to assess project management complexity. You can find full details about the CIFTER on the GAPPS website (www.globalpmstandards.org) as well as an article about it on the asapm website.
This second certification is IPMA Level-C®. In addition to satisfying the experience requirement, you must also provide documentary evidence of your performance as a project manager. Preparing your evidence usually takes about 4-6 hours. Finally, you must demonstrate that you actually understood what you were doing and why by providing satisfactory answers to questions from two experienced project managers during a face-to-face interview.
The third certification (IPMA Level-B®) is for much later in your career when you have become a Senior Project Manager. Typically, you must have been managing projects full-time for over six years in order to qualify. The process is essentially identical to that for IPMA Level-C with one major difference: the management complexity of your projects must be significantly higher.
And if the practice of project management hasn’t driven you crazy, we’ll soon have a fourth certification for old hands who have experience as program managers.
Designing a Certification Program: What to Certify?
We’re looking at the who, what, when, where, why, and how of designing a project management certification program. In this post, I’ll focus on WHAT to certify. The options pretty much all fall into one of the following six categories:
- Specific skills?
- Potential?
- Experience?
- Attitudes?
- Competence?
- Knowledge?
The first letters form a useful acronym, SPEACK, pronounced “speak” as in “speak to me about why you should be certified.”
Specific skills and attitudes could be assessed, but there is little agreement about what skills and attitudes are needed to be a successful Project Manager. The question of the relative importance of technical skills and management skills is especially acute in some fields. We could try to assess potential, but this is essentially what a job interview does. Bill Oncken tells us that we never hire the best person for the job; only the least bad person that applied. Hardly good criteria for a certification program!
Experience is also tempting because it is so easy to measure: how many years have you been working in your current position? But experience doesn’t really tell us anything. First, there is the old joke about do you have 10 years of experience or did you have 1 year of experience 10 times. Second, it’s possible that a candidate could have been less than successful. Employers will have little respect for a certification program that approves those who have not been successful.
Knowledge can certainly be assessed. In fact, our entry level program, Level D, assesses knowledge. Tests are easy to administer and grade. Unfortunately, tests are subject to Hume’s Law: all they prove is that the candidate was able to obtain a passing score on the day they took the test. Even a test that includes situational questions cannot provide assurance that the candidate will choose the right answer when faced with a real world problem. Grading also presents a can of worms: do you pose hard questions and allow low scores to pass? or do you ask easier questions and make the passing grade higher? do you require passing grades by topic area? or do you allow someone who misses every question related to risk management to pass?
If you’ve been keeping score, the only thing we are left with is competence. Although there are many definitions of competence, the one that we use is this: “the ability to perform according to the standards expected in employment.” So what we assess is this: can you demonstrate competent performance.
Designing a Certification Program: Who to Certify?
I recently revised the presentation that I give about PMCert’s Certification Program to include a few slides about the factors to consider when designing a certification program. I’ll provide a brief narrative of those slides in a series of posts here. If anyone wants a copy of the entire presentation, write to me care of asapm.
The basic factors should be familiar to all of you: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Some of those are easier to answer than others. Let’s start with “who.”
When I asked that question at the conference where I first used the slides, I was met with a degree of incredulity. “Why, project managers, of course!” most in the audience said. But there are many others who can affect the success or failure of a project: sponsors, team members, customer, clients, users, program managers, resource providers, and contractors to name just a few. In many application areas, there are also cost estimating specialists and full-time, professional schedulers who can make or break a project. And let’s not forget the senior managers who decide which projects to approve or cancel, or the project portfolio managers who provide recommendations to the decision-makers.
Maybe a less-than-competent project manager could still succeed if all the other stakeholders were competent?
Nonetheless, we decided that our initial WHO would be project managers. But that is still a rather wide range of possibilities. How do we decide who is a “project manager” and who isn’t? Just looking at titles doesn’t always help:
- In defense and aerospace, a project manager is often called “program manager.”
- In many IT organizations, the person with the title of project manager is often a controls clerk who collects timesheets and prepares status reports while someone else deals with problems and makes decisions.
- In many construction projects, the owner and each of the various contractors will have a “project manager.” In the spirit of the old TV show To Tell the Truth, “will the real project manager please stand up!”
So we decided to ignore titles: if you manage a project, we will consider you a project manager regardless of your title. Unfortunately, we’re now faced with the Clinton-esque question of what does “manage” mean? PMCert decided that you manage what you are accountable for. When we get to the discussion of what and how, we’ll come back to this issue.
Simple, no?