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March 2006

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Why I believe that Project Management IS a Profession

by David L. Pells

The question as to whether project management (PM) is a profession or not may be one of the most important issues facing the world of project management today. The outcome of this debate might affect many aspects of our professional lives, including education, licensing, career opportunities, income, even where we live and who we work for. It seems to me that there are some fundamental issues underlying this question that have not been adequately recognized. It also seems to me that there is potential danger in the current direction that this question may be taking the PM world. Or is this question irrelevant?

After careful consideration, I have decided that I disagree with those who argue that PM is not yet a profession. I disagree with the definition for profession and the arguments contained in the research report on this subject commissioned in 2004 by the PMI Education Foundation (Zwerman, Thomas, Haydt, Bruyere & Williams) that found project management not to be a profession. I believe that project management is a profession, can be considered to be a profession by people who have devoted their careers, businesses and lives to modern PM, and because it seems to fit most of the definitions that I can find for the word itself. In fact, I have five main reasons for believing that PM is already a profession.

First, project management seems to fit the definition for the English word “profession” in Webster’s and other commonly used dictionaries. My 25-year-old Webster’s dictionary contains the following definition for the word “profession”: “4. a. a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation; b. a principle calling, vocation, or employment; c. the whole body of persons engaged in a calling. These definitions are repeated in Webster’s current online free dictionary as follows: “Profession” - 4 a : a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation b : a principal calling, vocation, or employment c : the whole body of persons engaged in a calling. See at: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/profession

Checking a few other online definitions of the word “profession” turned up the following:

By those definitions, it seems to me that modern project management could surely be considered a profession, at least by those who wish to do so.

The definition used in the PMI study seemed too academic to me, and I don’t think it was entirely accurate. Who, for example, gets to define English words in this world today? Why has the word “profession” now been defined in terms of “recognized by law” or “recognized as an occupation for statistical reporting purposes”? “Core characterstics of a profession” were offered in the study as actual elements of the definition of a “profession”, stating that a profession “must” (1) monopolize use of the name; (2) define and lay claim to an esoteric body of knowledge; (3) define the field of operation; (4) control education and accreditation; and (5) introduce certification and licensing. These may or may not be good ideas for the profession. But allowing such characteristics to define a profession suggests a dangerous direction to me, towards licensing and control by a few professional organizations, governments or people. This in turn would seem to limit the usage and applications of modern PM. When so much more and better PM is still needed in so many organizations, industries and locations around the world, this does not seem positive to me.

The authors of the study indicated that the primary bases for their findings were a survey of association executives and a survey of association websites. Yet who gives the right to define a word to any group of executives, academic researchers, bureaucrats or anyone else. It seems to me that definitions are better derived from practice and usage, often among the general population. In the words of the researchers themselves, the defintion of a profession itself should rest with the professionals in that profession. In that case, I choose to define profession differently, more like Webster.

My second reason is that, In fact, a web search for definitions of “profession” displayed a number of examples of other fields of endeavor that also now claim to be “professions, including the following:

If an archeologist, librarian or historian can consider himself or herself to be a professional and member of a profession, why not those in project management? The research report mentioned above also dealt with this question, rather defining such fields as “semi-professions” The primary points of reference were the occupations of social workers and nurses. Yet this distinction is entirely based on their earlier definition of “profession” in terms of the five “core characteristics” mentioned above. This seems like academic license and splitting of hairs.

From Australia I found the following interesting definition:

Definition of a profession

“While there is no agreed definition of a profession, the ACCC has adopted the definition proposed by the Australian Council of Professions which defines a profession as: 'A disciplined group of individuals who adhere to high ethical standards and uphold themselves to, and are accepted by, the public as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised, organised body of learning derived from education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to exercise this knowledge and these skills in the interest of others. Inherent in this definition is the concept that the responsibility for the welfare, health and safety of the community shall take precedence over other considerations.” See more at: http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/277772

Third, I do not believe that the definition of “profession” is dependant upon whether a profession is regulated or licensed. It seems to me that some of the debate is related to what degree of qualification should be associated with a given “profession”. For example, the often quoted “traditional” professions of engineers, doctors and lawyers are all subject to strict licensing and regulation. So perhaps they might be better defined as “regulated professions”. Such professions as historians, family counselors, librarians, social workers, statisticians, mathematicians, etc. might be considered as unregulated or self regulated professions. The world’s oldest “profession”, prostitution, has generally been unregulated except in certain countries and states. Regulated professions are generally those whose members’ practices can affect the safety, health or security of the general population. In that case, it might be argued that PM in industries where public safety might be affected, such as PM on some construction projects, might one day be subject to licensure or regulation. (This might be one arguement for such licensing now for construction PM in China.) The real distinction seems more closely to be a matter of recognition, licensing and regulation.

And yet, the argument that a “profession” requires licensing or regulation loses credence when project management is considered on a global basis. In some countries, project management is, in fact, already regulated. Perhaps the best example is Ukraine, where the federal government has now introduced project and program manager clasifications into the federal employment code, along with associated educational and professional qualifications. In those countries where national standards for PM have been introduced, I think PM may already considered to be a profession. Can PM be a profession in some countries but not in others?

My fourth reason is that the question as to whether PM is a profession is related to the often confused debate over “project manager” vs “project management”. This is not a trivial question. If the definition of profession rests on the definition, role or qualifications of the project manager position, then it might not be considered a profession. However, if you consider the broader field of professional project management, incuding various roles and functions of critical project team members, then it certainly is. This, in my opinion, is one of the reasons that PMI has been so successful – PMI leaders understood from the beginning that project management is a team effort, that project success usually requires good project management, and that few project managers are successful without a good team on the project, good project management processes, and attention to important PM concepts. In that case, I think there are many professionals worldwide who have devoted their careers, and in some cases their entire lives, to working on project teams, in one project management role or another, and advancing the PM profession in the process.

I must add that the research report referenced above also mixed the discussion with somewhat interchangeable usage of “project manager” and “project management”. This suggests a lack of appreciation for this important distinction, which must be addressed in any debate related to licensing or regulation. So now are we talking about the “project manager” profession or “project management” profession? If the “profession” is defined in terms of regulation and licensing, it will be turning back the clock on the wisdom of professional leaders (at least in the USA and UK) who recognized many years ago the value (and potential growth) of team-based PM.

My fifth reason is the very growth and now very widespread use of projects and project management throughout the world in various organizations and industries. Based on my own experience, a majority of the work underway in every organization that I have been associated with since leaving college has been project work. One of my greatest surprises when I entered the professional workforce was how much work was projectized, versus the operational orientation of all of the courses that I studied at university. With so many projects, project managers and project teams in the world now, and with so many persons certified by AACE, IPMA, PMI and others, certainly there are many persons working at a very high level of PM quality and performance. Certainly there are many PM professionals working at a high level of professionalism.
And with so many PM professional associations, standards, qualifications and activities around the world, in conjunction with so many PM professionals in the workforce, it seems to me that a very strong argument can be made that project management is already a profession. In fact, in my experience, it is not governments, universities, professional organizations or any other formal bodies that form professions. It is exactly the opposite. When a profession emerges in the marketplace, then professional aspects are formed around it, some regulation is assigned, certifications and control within countries occurs, etc.

In this case, projects and project management have been used in industry and government worldwide for decades. And yet, most major universities are still emphasizing operational and functions management in business and engineering schools. That is changing, but too slowly. This is one of the main reasons, in my opinion, that there is now such a robust PM training industry. It seems to me that the PM profession already (de facto) exists in the marketplace. The acadimic debate now seems to be how to characterize, regulate and control it.

Perhaps this last point is an emotional argument. In that case, I want to refer to Professor Alfred North Whitehead (Mathematician, Philosopher: 1861-1947) for some historic perspective, as follows: From: Adventures of Ideas, by Alfred North Whitehead.

“The term Profession means an avocation whose activities are subjected to theoretical analysis, and are modified by theoretical conclusions derived from that analysis. This analysis has regard to the purpose of the avocation and to the adap-tation of the activities for the attainment of those purposes. Such criticism must be founded upon some understanding of the natures of the things involved in those activities, so that the results of action can be foreseen. Thus foresight based on theory, and theory based upon understanding of the nature of things, are essential to a profession. Again the purposes of a profession are not a simple bundle of de-finite ends. There is a general purpose, such as the curing of sickness, which de-fines medicine. But in a multitude of ways every human body might be in a better state of biological fitness, and might easily be worse. 'there has in every case to be a selection of ends dependent partly on intrinsic importance if attained, and partly upon practicability of attainment. It is for this reason that the practice of a profession cannot be disjoined from its theoretical understanding and vice versa. We do however find it necessary to specialize even further, not only within some department of that profession, such as surgery, but also either to a major consideration of its theory or to a major devotion to its current practice.”

“The antithesis to a profession is an avocation based upon customary acti-vities and modified by the trial and error of individual practice. Such an avocat-ion is a Craft, or at a lower level of individual skill it is merely a customary direction of muscular labour. The ancient civilizations were dominated by crafts. Modern life ever to a greater extent is grouping itself into professions. Thus ancient society was a co-ordination of crafts for the instinctive purposes of com-munal life, whereas modern society is a co-ordination of professions. Without ques-tion the distinction between crafts and professions is not clear-cut. In all stages of civilization, crafts are shot through and through with flashes of constructive understanding, and professions are based upon inherited procedures. Nor is it true that the type of men involved are to be ranked higher in proportion to the dominance of abstract mentality in their lives. On the contrary, a due proportion of crafts-manship seems to breed the finer types. The brilliant ability, in proportion to population, of Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries suggests that at about that period the best harmony had been reached. Pure mentality easily becomes trivial in its grasp of fact.” See at: http://www.unb.ca/web/transpo/mynet/profession.htm

At the end of the day, it seems to me that the answer to this question may be neither clear cut nor all that important. Is project management a profession or not? I believe that it is. We have PM professional associations, professional ethics, professional standards, professional certifications and qualifications, professional conferences, journals, academic and educational courses, and many practicing PM professionals in the world. Many large industrial and governmental organizations require professional PM certifications, recognize PM professional attributes, support PM professionalization of their employees and suppliers, and act like PM is a profession. And there are many PM professionals moving in their careers from one project to another and from one PM position to another. That all seems close enough for me.

David L. Pells
PMI Fellow
Dallas

David Pells President, iWorld Projects & Systems, Inc. the parent company of pmforum.org, Inc., is an internationally recognized leader in the field of professional project management, with over twenty-five years’ experience in project management related positions. His professional experience includes a wide variety of programs and projects, including engineering, construction, transit, defense and high technology, and project sizes ranging from several thousand to ten billion dollars.

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