Page 182 - Global Project Management Handbook

8-8 COMPETENCY FACTORS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The structure of the PMBOK Guide includes nine project management knowledge
areas: integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk, and
procurement. There is a section dealing with project management context and processes
that identifies five process groups: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and con-
trolling, and closing.
The Association for Project Management (APM) in the United Kingdom produces the
APM Body of Knowledge, which is different in structure from the PMBOK Guide and
somewhat wider in scope. It presents those “topics in which practitioners and experts
consider professionals in project management should be knowledgeable and competent”
7
(Dixon, 2000, p. 9). The fifth edition of the APM Body of Knowledge, released in
January 2006, has 52 topics listed under seven headings: project management in context,
planning the strategy, executing the strategy, techniques, business and commercial,
organisation and governance, people and the profession. A separate syllabus for the
APMP examination has been published by APM, based on the APM Body of Knowledge
(fourth edition). It defines the topics that candidates for the APM examination (APM’s
baseline professional qualification) are expected to know and provides learning objec-
tives and a glossary of key terms.
The International Project Management Association (IPMA) has developed the
IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB). The ICB has 28 core elements and 14 additional
elements of project management knowledge and experience (a total of 42 elements),
similar to those of the APM Body of Knowledge, which is one of the four national docu-
ments on which it was based. The primary purpose of the ICB is to provide a basis for
its four-level certification program for project managers. The IPMA is a federation of
national project management professional associations, and it encourages the national
associations to develop their own national competence baselines (NCBs), consistent
with the ICB. Each NCB is required by IPMA to include all 28 of the ICB core ele-
ments and at least six additional elements chosen by the nation. This allows each
nation, in developing its NCB, to take into account local requirements or emerging
developments in project management. The NCB is used as the basis for national certifi-
cation programs validated by the IPMA Certification Validation Management Board.
Most NCBs have been developed by European countries. An Egyptian competence
baseline was published in 1999, and an Arabic version was in preparation in 2002. The
Chinese NCB, also referred to as the C-PMBOK, was published in Standard Modern
Chinese in 2001. An Indian NCB was in preparation in 2002.
P2M, “A Guidebook for Project and Program Management for Enterprise Innovation”

was released, in Japanese, in November 2001. An English-language version has since
been developed. The Project Management Professionals’ Certification Center (PMCC)
of Japan, a nonprofit organization established in May 2002, is responsible for mainte-
nance of the P2M, for promotion of project management, and for the certification sys-
tem for project professionals. The P2M is intended to provide a capability building
baseline (CBB) for project management, with capability being developed and expanded
through professional experience as well as related disciplines of science and technology
in the context of continuing professional development. The PMCC offers three levels
of project management certification on an international basis.
The P2M has four parts:
Part I: Entry. Describes how to make a first step as a professional.
Part II: Project Management. Explains the basic definitions and framework of project
management.
Part III: Program Management. Introduces management of programs of multiple
projects.