What do you really need to know in order to be a great project manager?
A paper in the Project Management Journal* has gone into this in a lot of detail, and analysed the Project Management Competency Development (PMCD) framework with the aim of identifying whether project managers are developing their skills in the right areas - the areas that employers actually want.
The whole thing revolves around an understanding of what makes a project manager competent, in other words, whether they are capable of doing a good job.
I'm curious to know whether I am doing a good job and what makes up the competency framework that would dictate whether I can be assessed as doing a good job, so let's take a look at the framework in more detail.
The PMCD framework, according to the researchers, covers three main dimensions of project manager competencies: knowledge, performance and personal.
Knowledge
This dimension is pretty straightforward: it covers what the project manager knows about project processes, methods, tools and techniques.
As you would expect, it is fairly easy to assess this given the range of qualifications and credentials on the market.
The researchers conclude that the PMCD framework is not industry or country specific and it is assumed that the same generic knowledge area competencies apply to all projects, regardless of size, scope or complexity. I think that there are some areas where domain knowledge is essential in order to be performant, so project management knowledge alone won't necessarily make you a competent project manager. I know of highly capable IT project managers who would not feel comfortable managing a civil engineering project (and vice versa) - the domain and industry knowledge should be taken into account when assessing a project manager's ability, in my opinion, even though the vast majority of project management techniques can be applied cross-industry.
Performance
This dimension looks at how the project manager applies their knowledge to meet the requirements of the project. The researchers say that this can be assessed by looking at project outcomes for projects led by those project managers. In other words, project managers who are performing well will have successful projects. They also share the view that organisations have a role to play in project manager's (and projects') successes. The support that the individual project manager receives is linked to how successful they can actually be: therefore the link between performance and competency is complex.
To give you an example, the chance of success for a project does depend on a number of other factors outside how well the project manager can apply their knowledge of project methods. The buy-in levels from senior management, the governance and management oversight, the quality of decision-support data and so on all play a part in making sure that a project completes on time, on budget and to the required scope and quality criteria. This goes beyond attitude and 'invisible' support to tangible support like the use of a library of templates, software products for planning like Seavus Project Viewer and timesheet and knowledge management apps - even including things you might take for granted like the provision of a company mobile phone.
Personal
Finally, the personal competency dimension covers how the project manager behaves in a project setting, so this relates to their attitude and personality as well as how they carry out their project activities. This is the soft skills competency area.
The type of skills you would expect to see in a project manager that fall into this area include delegating, negotiating, influencing, leadership, coordinating people and tasks, defining roles and responsibilities, handling conflict and decision making.
The researchers conclude that a number of studies have shown that personal qualities make for a good project manager and account for some of the successes in a project - and I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone reading this.
Project managers who perform in all three dimensions are considered to be competent at managing projects. That translates to people who can use their knowledge and personal qualities to increase the likelihood that their project performs well. The good news is that most of these areas, if not all, can be learned and developed. If you aren't good on the knowledge side and need to brush up your skills in, say, risk management, then there are plenty of courses, books and websites that will help. If you feel that you need more experience in putting this knowledge into practice, working on projects is the best training you can get. You can't change your fundamental personality but you can acknowledge it and work with it to understand how it influences your project. If you feel that some of your soft skills need work then again, there are courses, mentoring schemes and professional development pathways that will help you improve in these areas.
You may already be a competent project manager, or you may just be starting out in your career. The PMCD framework as I have explained here is a good tool to use to think about your skills, knowledge and competencies so you can help evolve your abilities to lead to greater project success.