Page 231 - Global Project Management Handbook

11-6 COMPETENCY FACTORS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

TABLE 11.2 Competency Profile of a Senior Management Project
Knowledge Experience
5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5
Competences Very Much Average Low None None Low Average Much Very
much much
Project and program
management
Management of the
project-oriented
company
Project contents
processes

Business and
product

more important core of an organization, is becoming a member of a strategically impor-
tant project portfolio group.
Keegan and Turner (2003) have used the term spiral staircase career to describe
the project management career. The phrase suggests that people will move through a
series of varied and wide-ranging jobs and that each project can be a learning opportu-
nity that contributes to a career. Thus career can be understood as a process that
allows further development of one’s own individual competencies.
Many project-oriented companies differentiate management career, expert career,
and project management career. These career paths need to be positioned equally and
need to be flexible to a certain degree. Expert competencies are often core competen-
cies of the organizations that ensure competitive advantage. Thus technical expert
careers need to be considered to be as important as project management careers.
Figure 11.2 illustrates a project management career path in an engineering company. It
is structured with the career steps junior project manager, project manager, senior
project manager, and project management executive.

According to this career path, a person can have different roles. A typical project
management career may start with the role of project management assistant in a project.
Gradually, the responsibility the person takes on will grow. First, the person may take
over the role of a project manager for small projects of less complexity, and then the
projects assigned will become more and more complex. Further roles a project manager
can take are, for instance, program manager or manager of a project management
office. Further possibilities are job enlargements such as, for example, becoming a project
management consultant, a project management auditor, or a member of the project

Junior project Project manager Senior project Project management
manager manager executive

FIGURE 11.2 Project management career path in an engineering company.