Project Management World Today Viewpoints
April 2006

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Is Project Management a Profession?

by Max Wideman

Editor’s note: A Viewpoints article in the March 2006 edition of PM World Today by David Pells, entitled: “Why I believe that Project Management IS a Profession”, sparked a heated discussion including the nearby article by Paul Giammalvo. Max Wideman also weighed in with the following comments.

Okay guys and gals, what if you are all correct?

It all starts with how you want to define "profession". My "The New Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language" (1980) speaks thusly:

"profession: The act of professing; a public avowal or acknowledgement of one's sentiments or belief; a declaration; a representation or protestation; a calling superior to a mere trade or handicraft, as that of medicine, architecture, etc; a vocation; the collective body of persons engaged in such calling.”

That definition, or rather those options, are pretty broad and so it all depends on how or which definition you want to start off with.

There are other "definitions" of course, for example:

"occupation requiring specialized knowledge and academic training" (Webster's Concise Electronic Dictionary)

"That of which one professed knowledge; the occupation, if not mechanical, agricultural, or the like, to which one devotes one's self; the business which one professes to understand, and to follow for subsistence; calling; vocation; employment; as, the profession of arms; the profession of a clergyman, lawyer, or physician; the profession of lecturer on chemistry.” (1913 Webster)

And so on.

However, one must consider the context of the debate. I believe the context is that of the Project Management Institute averring that it is a "professional body" and that therefore members of this body must be members of a profession.

Dr. John Adams defined the attributes of a professional body circa 1984. (I believe, I cannot lay my hands on it at the moment.) Since then, the definition has been somewhat elaborated, but by that definition (right or wrong), PMI is indeed a "professional body".

However, whether or not members of that body are automatically "members of a profession" and that what they do is automatically a "profession" seems to me to be a bit of a stretch. This is especially bearing in mind that not all members have "academic training", or even a "specialized knowledge" that could be seriously considered as "a calling superior to a mere trade or handicraft" - and certainly not on a par with "that of medicine, architecture, etc".

Then again one must ask whether a body that takes members materials and restricts it by copyright in its own name and for its own benefit rather than for the benefit and safety of the public at large can truly be considered a real profession. This is another matter.

So I think therein lies the disconnect.

Max WidemanMax Wideman is an engineer and professional project manager with experience in systems, social and environmental projects, as well as design and engineering projects. He is a Fellow of the Project Management Institute, of which he is past president and chairman, and for whom he developed the 1987 version of the Project Management Body of Knowledge. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering. His web site is at http://www.maxwideman.com

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