How to become a project management professional

The path to project and programme management professionalism is not an easy one. J. LeRoy Ward PMP, PgMP offers his tips and hints on how to get there.

There has never been a better time to be a project manager than right now. Just type project manager into Google and youll get about 103 million hits. Try Amazon.com and youll find about 44,000 related books. The fact is, what was once merely an add-on responsibility has become a coveted career option for some of the best and brightest business people in the world.

Over the last 32 years, Ive met many project managers, and the ones who have achieved the most success are those who have followed a distinct career patheither a path they created themselves, or for the more fortunate, one that their company developed. This path, which begins right after university, is like a blueprint for building successful project managers. Although the future is always uncertainand hard work is vital at every stagethe following is a proven guide for helping you successfully manage your most important project of all: your career. And to turn you into a true professional.

1. The First Job

When a young graduate completes university studies, the future is wide open. However, as anxious as one may be to earn a salary, its essential to search for a position that will afford you the opportunity to become a team member on a project with genuine prestige and visibility in an organisation.

As you probably know by now, organisations often hire young peopleor, lets be honest, cheap labourin bulk. Along with an excellent attitude and being as reliable as you can be, earning a spot on a prestigious, highly visible project is key to making a name for yourself and standing out among your colleagues.

2. Task Leader to Senior Task Leader

Once youve established yourself as a reliable team member, its important to begin taking on more responsibility. As a task leader, youll still be a team member, but youll be responsible for certain key tasks within your project. These new experiences will help you add substance to your CV and begin developing the skills that will aide you for the rest of your career.

Many organisations offer senior task leadership positions. As the name would imply, these individuals have been promoted to positions of even higher responsibility among their respective teams. Depending on the industry, a project practitioner could spend a large chunk of his or her career at this level. One of our long-time clients, ABB in Zurich, generally requires 15 years of experience before promoting someone to project manager. Keep in mind though, ABB, the largest electrical engineering company in the world, frequently runs projects worth hundreds of millionswhich is a lot in any currency!

One important thing to remember at this point in your careeralthough it certainly applies at any junctureis that you may need to leave your organisation in the name of career advancement. Today, by the age of 40, leading project managers in many multinational corporations are often on their seventh or eighth job. Loyalty is important, and its a good quality to have, but if youve been in a position for more than a year and you see no signs of advancementboth financially and in terms of responsibility and prestigeyou should begin looking elsewhere. Dont be afraid to extend your search internationally. Monster.com India currently has about 22,000 project management positions available.

Skills to Acquire At the team-member and task-leader stages of your career, it is important to begin focusing heavily on technical skills, or hard skills. This includes becoming a technical expert in your respective field andalways with an eye forwardbeginning to load up on classic project management skills and best practices. Risk management, scheduling and cost control, and quality management are all nuts-and-bolts competencies that should find a home in the skills section of your CV.

Certification As well as developing your base of technical skills, you should also look to earn the necessary certifications available within your professional domain. The IT industry is famous for its many certifications, but other industries offer professionals opportunities for further study and distinction as well. My advice: take these opportunities. Its essential for keeping up with your colleagues and demonstrating a commitment to your industry and profession.

3. Project Manager to Senior Project Manager

Once youve amassed the required experience and proven yourself as a leader, youve reached the point in your career where you should look for a position as a project manager. Like your very first job after university, you should seek projects that not only suit your skill set, but offer visibility within your organisation. Again, depending upon the size and shape of your organisation and industry, you may soon have the opportunity to move into a senior project management role. At the senior level, youll find that the stakes and complexity of your projects have increased dramatically, and you will likely have a group of project managers reporting to you.

Skills to Acquire The younger version of you focused on the hard skills. Now though, as you move to the middle and latter stages of your career, you must begin focusing on the soft skills. Although you may have had individuals reporting to you before, this is a time when youll officially be a boss. To be an effective leader, you must move beyond technical expertise and gain skills in effective communication, team leadership, and other professional and business skills. And, again thinking ahead, now is the time to develop a business mindset, with strong acumen in financial management and critical/strategic thinking.

Certification There are a number of recognised professional organisations around the world that offer formal certification in project management. In my experience, this is an essential step in the career of any project manager and, like the industry certifications I mentioned before, its ideal for demonstrating not only your commitment to project success, but your expertise in the highly competitive marketplace. The requirements for certification are often lofty, and preparing for certification exams can be difficult, but, ultimately, its not only worth itits essential for career advancement and professionalism.

(Above: J. LeRoy Ward PMP)

4. Programme Management to the Executive Ranks

The logical next step for project managers is into the realm of programme management. As a programme manager, youll shift your focus from single projects to the many complex interdependencies that exist between component projects.

An example of a programme might be the launch of a product, say a new generation of mobile phones from Vodafone. The new device, which represents the programme, would be made up of many related projects. Some examples could include bringing staff up-to-speed on the phones functions, the development of a system for fielding user questions and concerns, and the development of a process for repairing or replacing damaged phones. As a programme manager, youd be responsible for the success of all of those projects.

Although programme management is a common next step for project managers, its not the only step. As an experienced project manager, you can also seek positions in an organisations project management office (PMO)or help an organisation launch a PMO. Or, assuming youve acquired the necessary leadership and business skills previously mentioned, you can look to move into the executive ranks by joining a management team.

Whatever the future may hold, if you make smart decisions at every stage of your career and follow in the proven footsteps of those whove come before you, youll end up exactly where you should. As a true professional.

At a Glance: Eight essential competencies for a project management career

1. Project management - Theres an entire lexicon of best practices in project managementfrom risk management and scheduling to quality control and managing the triple constraints. To succeed, you need to know them all.

2. Client relationship and consulting skills - The days of acting as back-office technocrats are over. Todays project managers need to be on the front lines working directly with clients and stakeholders to develop the solutions to meet their needs.

3. Business and financial skills - Technical solutions are important, but project managers need to understand how their decisions impact their organisations top line (turnover) and bottom line (profitability).

4. Leadership ability - Leadership is as much an art as a science, but it can be learned. Project managers must be able to successfully lead a team of people toward one common goal.

5. Upselling skills - Many businesspeople can sell a client something they know they need, but a truly successful project manager has the ability to identify an opportunity to sell clients additional products and services and capitalise on that opportunity.

6. Negotiation and communication skills - As a project manager moves up the ranks, he or she will be called upon to communicate and negotiate effectively on a daily basiswith co-workers and stakeholders across the hall and around the world.

7. Inclination to take risks - Being too cautious is a liabilitybut so is being too aggressive. To succeed, one must strike a balance by understanding the dynamics of risk and having the tools to identify, respond to and control that risk.

8. Strategic vision - If youre only thinking about your project, youre thinking too narrowly. The key is being able to identify how your project fits into broader organisational objectives