January - February 2003 Featured Papers
PM Knowledge - The Three Competencies
Judy Saxon Hallstrom
Early in 2002 I was tasked with creating a development plan and path for an internal PMO group. The goals for the project were to provide:
- PMO staff with a definition of just what knowledge and skills they needed to gain and apply to succeed in the project management office at our organization; and
- a means for gaining and demonstrating these.
The first step was to define the knowledge and skills needed. I believe that if you want to be the best, you need to find out what the best are doing and do what they do, adapting of course to your environment and applying your own creativity and learning. We began by reviewing the literature, reading the books, conducting on line research, and asking our peers in NewGrange, PMI, and other professional PM communities. In addition, I called on old friends in internal PMOs across industries.
The Three Competencies: Business, Technical and Management
After much sifting sorting and filing, we were able to identify three knowledge/skill domains that were common to most successful PMO groups. These are
- Business Acumen - what you need to be able to effectively manage projects at our Enterprise
- Technical Acumen - the knowledge and skills that are specific to Project Management, and
- Management Acumen -the knowledge and skills needed by anyone supervising others but specific to the project management arena where one may be managing people on a project that are not direct reports.
Full text of PM Knowledge - The Three Competencies
"Earned Value... the concept... the requirements... the rewards"
Quentin W. Fleming
The earned value management concept was originated over a hundred years ago by the industrial engineers working in American manufacturing plants. The industrial engineers would first establish their "planned factory standards", and then determine the "earned standards" to compare with the "actual hours" spent to measure the performance of their production work.
The relationship of the completed earned standards versus the actual hours expended gave them an accurate reflection of the true cost performance being achieved in the factory. Many corporate executives today do not understand this critical point and are content to compare the planned costs against actual costs as a way to monitor their resource utilization.
In the early 1960s, the earned value concept was initially adapted to the management of single major projects by the United States Department of Defense in the acquisition of their new highly complex weapon systems. To their pleasant surprise the technique worked, providing them with a performance perspective not available with any other project management tool.
Once again, it was the industrial engineers who took the initiative to compare the completed physical tasks against the costs used to complete these tasks, and were thus able to focus on the true cost performance of their one-time, non-recurring projects. What had previously been strictly a production management technique was suddenly transformed into an effective tool for the management of unique one-time projects.
For more on Earned Value read Quentin Fleming's MS Powerpoint presentation. This slide presentation provides:
- A quick earned value tutorial
- The requirements of earned value
- The rewards of earned value
Quentin's presentation in PDF format
How Earned Value Got to Primetime: A Short Look Back and Glance Ahead
Wayne Abba
Vice President, Integrated Management Services Dekker, Ltd.
For Earned Value Management, PMI 2000 will be remembered as a major milestone for reasons other than its millennial significance. The Project Management Institute conference in Houston is the first to feature a track dedicated to performance management, sponsored by the College of Performance Management. The College considers EVM to be an essential tool for effectively integrating technical, schedule and resource (or cost) management on complex projects. Until now, EVM had limited exposure at PMI conferences, usually courtesy of the Aerospace and Defense Specific Interest Group. That affiliation reflects EVM’s origins in defense contracting. Before becoming part of the PMI family, EVM disciplines were championed by the former Performance Management Association (now the College of Performance Management).
So the College bids a fond adieu with thanks to the Aerospace and Defense SIG. This first paper to be presented under College of Performance Management auspices will review how EVM arrived at this point in the history of project management and speculate on how it will evolve. The purpose is not to teach EVM, but to explain its context in the world of project management and to introduce to the broader PMI community the performance management resources available through PMI’s first college.
© 2000 Wayne F. Abba. This paper was originally presented at the Project Management Institute Seminars and Symposium in Houston, Texas in 2000.
About the Author:
Wayne
Abba was appointed Vice President for Integrated Management Services for Dekker,
Ltd., a leading provider of project management software and decision support
services, in August 1999 following a distinguished career with the United
States government. In 1999, he received the Project Management Institute's
Distinguished Contribution Award for advancing project management in the public
and private sectors. At Dekker, Ltd, Wayne continues his leadership through
development of new management and analysis tools. He can be reached at 703-658-1815
or
w.abba@dtrakker.com.