Developing a Basis for Global Reciprocity (original) (raw)
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Relevance lost! A critical review of project management standardisation
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 2012
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the consequences of the diffusion of generic project management knowledge.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is conceptual in its nature, using short examples of four different areas (education, research, certification and practice) to show the diffusion of project management knowledge throughout these areas.FindingsIn this paper the authors argue that relevance may be lost at two levels. The first loss occurs when the practice of project management is transferred, through generalisation and standardisation, into what is generally known as “Best Practice”. The second occurs when “Best Practice” is transferred back to where it is applied (education, research, certification and practice).Research limitations/implicationsThe risk of losing relevance has consequences for what one bases one's assumptions of the nature of projects upon. If the assumptions are based on standardized knowledge, without critically assessing its ...
Project management standards – Diffusion and application in Germany and Switzerland
International Journal of Project Management, 2009
This paper comprises the results of an empirical study on the use of project management standards in German and Swiss enterprises. This research points out the expectations, the realized benefits and -more importantly -the major differences between them. For this purpose, it compares ex-ante expectations of their respective users and compares them in turn with ex-post realised benefits. The results of the study are based on the statements made by 234 participants in an online survey conducted in 2006. Generally, standards are only rarely used in project management in Germany and Switzerland. And if standards are indeed used, they are rarely used ''as is"; in fact they are usually modified or adapted before application. Moreover, it can be observed that most participants expect consistent communication in the projects and better process quality to be the primary benefits of standards. However, it is often impossible to realize expected benefits. Benefits are offset by deficiencies, such as the lack of acceptance, administrational overheads and associated costs. Based on the results of this study, recommendations for standard-giving organizations and standard-applying organizations are put forward.
International Journal of Project Management, 2003
A key issue in the economic development and performance of organizations is the existence of standards. Their definition and control are sources of power and it is important to understand their concept, as it gives standards their direction and their legitimacy, and to explore how they are represented and applied. The difficulties posed by classical micro-economics in establishing a theory of standardization that is compatible with its fundamental axiomatic are acknowledged. We propose to reconsider the problem by taking the opposite perspective in questioning its theoretical base and by reformulating assumptions about the independent and autonomous decisions taken by actors. The Theory of Conventions will offer us a theoretical framework and tools enabling us to understand the systemic dimension and dynamic structure of standards. These will be seen as a special case of conventions. This work aims to provide a sound basis and promote a better consciousness in the development of global project management standards. It aims also to emphasize that social construction is not a matter of copyright but a matter of open minds, collective cognitive process and freedom for the common wealth.
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2012
Certification systems in project management are compared IPMA, PMI, P2M and PRINCE2 through fifteen indicators. These systems have certification processes already established, their own standards and guidelines, and international recognition. The application of the indicators has allowed us to understand the similarities and differences between the four certification systems in project management such as project management that is divided in its guidelines and standards by: 1) competencies, 2) processes and 3) project segments. Thus, IPMA has divided the project management by competencies, PMI and PRINCE2 in processes and P2M in project segments.
International Journal of Project Management, 2006
Since the mid 1970s, project management associations around the world have made serious attempts to conduct themselves as professional associations. Traditional professions distinguished themselves by emphasising standards such as service to the public and competence in their field, and by ensuring that their membership meets these standards. An important element of a profession is ownership of a body of knowledge that is distinctive to the professional group. Project management associations have spent considerable time and effort in developing Bodies of Knowledge (BOKs) and their associated certification programs, and indeed the popularity of these has been notable. Yet there are problems, some relating to the broader issue of whether the project management associations really are equipped to act as professional bodies, others related to the specific challenge of agreeing the 'distinctive body of knowledge' and to the value of certification. This paper draws on insights from the rethinking project management EPSRC project as well as several separate research programs to explore the development of project management as a profession and the role of the formal BOKs in this professionalization, and to suggest a research agenda for critiquing, contributing to, and maintaining both the formal BOKs and the more general body of knowledge relevant to the needs of the discipline.
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One way to develop standards professionals is by having professional graduate students involved in the application and improvement of international standards. At the Ecole de technologie superieure (ETS), a 7,500-student engineering school of Montreal, International Software Engineering Standards are introduced and used in Software Quality Assurance and Software Process Improvement courses and industrial projects conducted by graduate professional software engineering and IT students. These 2 course include an intervention where teams of students have to do a project with local organizations as well as tailoring International software engineering standards such as the new set of ISO/IEC 29110 standards and freely available guides targeted at very small enterprises and software development groups. Three projects, conducted by graduate professional students, i.e. graduate students working full time in an organization, using the new ISO/IEC 29110 are presented as well as a cost and ben...
Setting Global Academic Standards for the Building and Construction Industry: A Discussion Piece
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Building and construction industry professionals are competent to practice because of the knowledge, skills and attitudes they have developed over the course of their education, training and work experience. Different professional groups, registration boards, companies and construction organisations in different jurisdictions can have quite disparate expectations of how professional competence should be constituted and how it might usefully be measured. With the globalisation of the construction industry and increasing mobility of labour it is timely to review how academic standards for building and construction professions should be benchmarked internationally. This paper will review some of the global trends in academic standards generally, and compare and contrast more specifically the current developments in academic standards for building and construction in Australia, the UK and USA. The case will be made for setting academic standards for building and construction practitione...
Regulations on the profession of project manager
According to the Project Management Institute, $12 trillion USD, 1/5 of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), was spent on projects in 2010. This has resulted in a dramatic increase in the need for skilled project managers. The global need for skilled project management is raised by such organizations as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Parliament. Project management is no doubt one of the most rapidly developing industries in the recent years, and the quality of the industry is driven by a knowledgeable and educated project manager. One of the biggest problems in new project management systems is that anyone can call themselves a project manager, since it is not a state regulated profession. In the article, its authors analyze the existing situation in the regulation of the profession of project manager, and the project manager’s professional competence requirements defined by employment market.
The aim of this paper is to propose an alternative interpretation for professionalization and dissemination processes for project management among those prevailing in literature. The considered perspective is that of the situationist, an epistemological option which moves from a critical conceptual framework to the hypothesis of strong rationality for individual and organizational choices. The perspective is enriched, on the one hand, thanks to the contributions of the neo-institutionalist strand and, on the other hand, by the theoretical tools developed in the rich array of cognitive study and phenomenological action and social life, as well as the analysis of the concept of power. The integration of these approaches allows the re-reading, the formation, the structuring, the change and the reconfiguration contexts of organized action (such as that of project management) as the product of two forces, complementary and mutually antagonistic action and institutionalization. Through the proposed lens, it is possible to frame the processes of professionalization and dissemination of project management practices focusing on the skein of "condizionamenti di ordine materiale e simbolico che le istituzioni esercitano sui comportamenti umani" (Bonazzi, 2000, p. VII). The thesis is that, starting from the mid 1950s, originating from the Anglo-Saxon world, and due to the action of some institutional entrepreneurs, the construction of an organizational field, as the result of which the 'practice' project management began to be institutionalized, was undertaken. Subsequently, it has been spread triggering a process called 'contagion of legitimacy'. In other words, according to the approach in question, the dynamics of professionalization and dissemination of project management practices, rather than being understood through the analysis of elements of technical rationality, should be somehow relocated to intrinsic processes of social legitimation and institutional processes known as isomorphism. The processes of professionalization and dissemination of project management practices, therefore, appear not so much and not only as an implementation technique, but as a complex web of interaction ritual, held together and stabilized not by sharing cultural values to which individuals have joined, but by way of reducing the uncertainty arising from practical knowledge of behavior deemed appropriate, pro tempore, in a context of organized action.