A Trainer's View of Worldwide Certification and You

Feb. 23, 2011 - PRLog -- Words: Simon Harris, Logical Model

Call me a cynic but I believe that a lot of project management training is low value. Perhaps I've an unconventional view: 1,000 words won’t take you long to decide if there is any value for you in my opinions and approach. The unconventional dimension includes the fact that my training materials are available for free download to individuals using them for personal development.

As a project management consultant and trainer of project managers I hold the PMP, IPMA-D, PRINCE2®, M_o_R® and CGEIT qualifications. I was a PRINCE2® examiner when it was essay-based and taught a variety of PM-related topics. It has been my experience when achieving these badges myself and subsequently teaching exam-crams that project management qualification-oriented training in particular is often very thin on real-world value.


Must-Have Badges
Of course in the contract market exam-crams give a must-have badge: lack of a badge, particularly PRINCE2® in the UK, is an agency filter for CVs into the WPB*. However the skills a non-exam event provides are the job-keeper, stress-reducer and rate-enhancer.

* - Waste Paper Bin


Purpose of PM Qualifications
All entry-level PM qualifications provide the same challenge: “show that you know the vocabulary and framework in our book”. That way, two similarly qualified individuals can discuss how to adapt the framework to a specific project.

Having an opinion in these exams is generally a bad idea; it is about "what do we say", not "what do you think". Higher level qualifications demand the lower as entry criteria and do expect opinion via dissertation or viva.


Which Qualifications Might Help
A mix of some facts and my highly subjective view is:

PMP [from the Project Management Institute (PMI): www.pmi.org] is globally recognised. In some circumstances, organisations like the US Department of Defence, and industries like oil and gas insist on sub-contractor staff holding it.

PMP is only available to those with an auditable history of 5 years project involvement (3 years with a Degree) – not hard for anyone involved in non-routine roles to demonstrate. The exam is a long, tough and subtle multiple choice test of your knowledge of “A Guide to The Project Management Body of Knowledge”. Questions require the “best” answer from several correct answers. Exam entry criteria include 35 hours training. Realistically, you won’t pass without ‘schooling’ in how to approach the questions and lots of practice. There are some good exam-prep books out there.

There is a lower-level PMI exam called CAPM – I’ve never heard it mentioned in any industry context I’ve worked in.

APMP (or the IPMA-D qualification from www.apm.org.uk). The APMP syllabus is arguably the best for the real world. The exam does not require experience, but leads to higher level qualifications that do. APMP is not mandated anywhere I know of (e.g. the UK's largest budget holders: the NHS and Ministry of Defence do not insist sub-contractor staff is APMP qualified). I've never had it specified as a must while PRINCE2® and PMP frequently are.

It strikes me as a Betamax solution – technically better but losing the volume battle. A less commercial asset to you. Of course APM would (and the UK defence industry might) refute that. It is just my impression as a consultant and trainer across engineering, oil and gas, defence, pharmaceuticals, banking and finance. I’ve worked in Baku- Azerbaijan, Rome and many other places where the recognised badge is PMP. Outside the UK it seems to be squeezed by PMP and in the UK by PRINCE2®.

The APMP syllabus, body of knowledge and a sample of the three-hour written exam are freely downloadable from their web site.

Comparing PMP to APMP is unfair. My observation is that recruitment agency awareness and industry penetration seem to equate them. Knowledge and experience-wise, the comparison should be CAPM to APMP and PMP with APM’s APM-PQ (Practitioner Qualification). APM-PQ leads to APM membership and APM are to be the UK’s professional chartering organisation.

PRINCE2® is a funny one. For any UK-based PM job in the general commercial world, it is almost a ‘must-have’ to avoid being filtered out by the agencies before the interview stage. But it also seems to be universally ridiculed as a tool that is NOT to be used in reality (including in the public sector!)

P2 is a CONTROL regime that sits on top of the capabilities PMI and APM describe. P2 assumes you already know how to plan a project, track progress, and manage staff and procurement. These topics are largely omitted from the manual and thus from the exam and thus absent from exam-cram training: there are courses out there that aim to bring P2 into practical application in the real world, mine included. The best course along those lines hammers home what the practitioner truly wants and needs. By contrast, an exam context course rarely provides it.

I know of only one ATO other than mine that say clearly that to be usable P2 training must be extended beyond the manual and this isn’t possible in an exam-cram week. However, when extended, then P2 plus insights from either PMI or APM is the bee’s knees.

There are many 'Accredited Training Organisations' (ATOs) like mine licensed to run P2 exams. We all find that industry demands 'a certificate in a week'. You should be wary of a couple of things:

1) As is reflected in the theme of this article, I suggest the certificate is the training’s target not actual PM competence;

2) When faced with a claimed 100% pass rates ask yourself what you are not being told – e.g. “Is there an elimination test mid-way through your course to protect their statistics?” I only have 90-something % success rates - that’s because some course attendees don't put the effort in. Anyone with 80% plus pass rates is giving what the "average" attendee needs to pass.

Ultimately, taking the P2 exam requires no real-world experience. Taken without real experience or a grounding in the omitted and assumed techniques will not equip you to run projects, although it will allow you to avoid agency filtering.


Conclusion
If your focus is general commercial or public sector you need PRINCE2®. Just don’t expect mainstream exam-cram training to equip you to know how to run projects if you don’t already. If you do, find a suitable trainer and then do the open exams. If you look overseas or to a global sector like oil and gas, then realistically PMP is the only recognised benchmark. Finally if big-bucks is your target, research becoming a trader with Goldman Sachs!

Simon Harris, PMP, CGEIT, IPMA-D, MoR, PRINCE2® is Principal of Logical Model Ltd (available online in the Arras People Training Directory @ http://www.arraspeople.co.uk/project-management-training-...). Simon speaks, consults, mentors and trains on Project Management. LML no longer trains just to the exams - their training uses a two-part approach: 1) how to do the job for real and optionally, 2) exam preparation. Email arras@logicalmodel.net or call 084 52 57 57 07.

PRINCE2® is a trademark of the Office of Government Commerce in the UK and other countries.

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Project Management Recruitment Specialists, focused on programme management, project management and project support.