Training in the field of project, programme and portfolio management

IPMA Competence Baseline for PM Consultant’s (ICBC) workshop 1.-3.6.2016

I participated in an interactive workshop for consultants in the field of project, programme and portfolio management in Helsinki in June. ICBC is an extension to the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB) version 3.0 and is a part of the IPMA® Integrated Service Package. After three long days, I have to admit that I was very exhausted. The idea of this workshop was to make us even better consultants – at least the feedback from the group works was really straightforward and instructive. All learnings from this workshop are valuable information also for project managers and project team members. 

I learnt a lot from the leader of this workshop, Reinhard Wagner (President of IPMA) and especially from the other participants. We discussed many interesting topics for example global trends in project management, projectification, stakeholder management, professionalisation of project management, micropolitics, feedback and the most important theme was communication. I summarized here shortly the most interesting things from my own point of view. 

Projectification of societies was one of the trends that we discussed. It is an interesting term. What does it exactly mean?  I identified following definitions:

1. “A general development process in which firms to a greater extent focus their operations on projects, project management and various types of project-like structures.” (Kuura 2011)  
2. “Projectification is a series of restructurings by which traditional functional structures are gradually transformed into heavyweight project forms and projects become increasingly autonomous and customer focused.” (Packendorff & Lindgren 2014, 11)

“40 % of the weekly working time is project based, in three years this will increase to 47 %” (GPM/EBS, 2011, 14). It would be interesting to study what the situation is in Finland. I think the direction is also growing, but how much and how fast? Organizations are more and more multi-project organizations (Programme, Portfolio, and Project Management Office) and need new type of processes, structures and competences in managing projects. This requires a change in an organizational and governance structure to increase the primacy of the project processes within a central organization and its stakeholders’.

Many companies are project organizations, even if they don’t necessarily talk about projects and don’t use any specific project model. Projectification starts from the personal level (figure 1) and in many cases there are several ways of working depending on project managers. Projectification needs new skills and a new way of working, more communication, stakeholder and relationship management.  Hierarchy structure does not work anymore. It needs more cooperation and networking.

Organizational level is a change in organizational and governance structures to increase the primacy of project processes within a central organization and its supply networks (Kuura 2011, 121). Societal projectification is a change in governance structures to increase the primacy of the project processes in whole society. Personal projectification is a change in person’s work relations and/or private life to increase the primacy of participation in projects.  (Kuura 2011, 121)

Figure 1 The levels of projectification (Kuura 2011, 119)

ICBC (IPMA Competence Baseline for PM Consultants) also emphasizes stakeholder and relationship management. Projects are more complex, there are more people involved and the network around grows. 

Knowledge of project management standards and methods becomes more important. There are a lot of different standards and methods for project, program and portfolio management. The following new standards are coming in the near future: ISO/CD 21503 Guidance on programme management and ISO/DIS 21505 Project, programme and portfolio management -- Guidance on governance. This doesn’t mean that a project manager needs to know all of them, not at all! However, it is good to have big picture of the most used methods and standards. According to my experience ISO 21500, PRINCE2 and IPMA D- and C-level certifications are most popular in Finland.

Figure 2 Project complexity (GPM/EBS, 2011, 18)

Back to the trends, I would like to ask you what kind of development do you expect in the area of project management by the year 2020 in Finland? I see the biggest changes in governance, management systems and networking. I also hope a big step forward will happen and there will be more women in project management. Like Gemünden and Schoper predict “An increased amount of women in PM leads to different approaches how projects are carried out and managed”. I totally agree, that it will surely do so.

Feedback hamburger

We did a lot of group works and got feedback from each other. What would be more valuable than get honest and constructive feedback from seventeen professional colleagues? We used the next 4-level feedback hamburger (figure 3). I remember simple three-layer feedback hamburger (compliment – criticism – compliment) better so this was much harder implement in practice. It wasn’t easy to give feedback using all these four levels. It is easy to say after the presentation “It was good” but so what?  What is good? What does it really mean? Good is not a good word :-)  You have to explain at more detailed why it is good. I wouldn’t use neither a word “bad”. I wouldn’t say that something was bad, something was done badly. Failure is something we don’t like to admit to. We are more likely to blame failure external factors than our own shortcomings. Feedback is often sensitive and personal. The more positive the conversation is, the more likely your recipient is ready to make the change you’re looking for. It is not easy and it needs a lot of practicing. You can’t learn it from the book. 

Figure 3 Feedback hamburger

Summary

During these three days I learned a lot of new things and I recalled things I have learnt many years ago and almost forgotten. Some keywords that stayed in my mind are: morning round, help for self-help, and I personally will remember to avoid using the word “but”.

Morning round, that we used every morning, is a good way to start for example monthly project meeting, kick-off meeting or any other meetings. 

Figure 4 Morning around

After all, the most important things are still communication, interaction, listening and hearing. The next excellent picture summarize these things.

Figure 5 The 4-ears-model, Model by Schulz von Thun (Schulz von Thun)

Related to this 4-ears-model, I got the next excellent idea related to communication and relationship management. The leader advised that project manager and customer (or supplier or some other stakeholder) would change the chair with each other’s in a conflict situation. Situation, where reaching agreement seems doubtful, changing the perspective and start thinking from the perspective of the counterparty, would lead to an agreement. Sounds challenging, but worth trying!

References and useful links:

Wagner Reinhard. Trends in Project Management 2025.

Wagner Reinhard. GPM Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement. 10 Jahre Fachgruppe „Automotive PM“ - Entwicklung in einer dynamischen Branche.

Wagner Reinhard, IPMA. Change and project management – two sides of the same medal. 

Das 4-Ohren-Modell von Friedemann Schulz v.Thun

Kuura. Policies for projectification: support, avoid or let it be?

Packendorff Johann & Lindgren Monica 2013. Projectification and its consequences: narrow and broad conceptualisations.

Poorav Sheth. Trouble in Paradise.Trouble in paradise

Schulz von Thun Friedemann. "Let's Talk!" 1 Problems and Solutions. A General Psychology of Communication.