Well, I never expected it, but I’m really glad.  What am I talking about?  The International Project Management Association (IPMA) and The APM Group have announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which will enable the two organisations to support and recognise each other.



I’m very impressed that the project management discipline is coming together in this way.  Maybe the Chartered debate is helping the groups – in the UK anyway – align their objectives more effectively in order to support project managers as a whole.



The alliance of the two parties is designed to achieve the following objectives:



  • To publicise the mapping between ICB.3® and PRINCE2®


  • To encourage IPMA members and PRINCE2® qualified people to research and write articles comparing and contrasting the ICB.3® and PRINCE2®


  • To recognize that PRINCE2 provides knowledge and understanding of a number of the concepts included in the ICB.3® and in due course IPMA will develop supplementary exams to enable PRINCE2® Practitioners to achieve appropriate IPMA qualifications (this will be at levels C and D on the IPMA scheme)


  • To raise awareness of the IPMA member association's individual membership schemes among the APM Group's examination candidates.


  • To bring the IPMA member associations´ corporate membership schemes to the attention of the APM Group's Accredited Organizations.




It’s a pity that this doesn’t go as far as saying that if you have IPMA Level C that equates to PRINCE2 Practitioner and therefore you can be recognised as having Level C.  Unfortunately it means that project managers will still end up having to sit different exams to be recognised by different professional bodies.  We could go further, in my opinion, but this is at least a step in the right direction, and Brigitte Schaden, President of IPMA agrees.  "This is IPMA's first alliance with another international certification organization,” she said.  “We believe it will bring benefits to both organizations and more importantly to our Member Associations and their members.”



IPMA does not have a huge UK presence, but it is a world leading non-profit project management organisation, representing over 50 national project management associations internationally – in the UK it is the Association for Project Management.



The memorandum is going to last three years, so we have some time to evaluate whether or not it does make a difference to members of either group.  Alan Harpham, Chairman of The APM Group believes that it will.  “We think this alliance will be of great benefit to those with PRINCE2® qualification seeking a wider knowledge of the art & science of project management,” he said.  “We're delighted to create an alliance with IPMA to further professionalism in the fields of project and programme management. We thoroughly look forward to working with them more closely in the future for the benefit of those working in project oriented environments.”