CHAPTER 4
Competencies Required to Manage Complex Projects
The Australian Defence Materiel Organisation expresses a contemporary viewpoint regarding complex projects: “It is broadly accepted that complex projects require a very different set of competencies…. Complex projects are characterized by uncertainty, non-linearity, and recursiveness, and are best viewed as dynamic and evolving systems.”1
What makes a project manager competent? In this chapter we consider the different competencies needed for the senior project manger and explore the emerging understanding of the competencies needed for the complex project manager.
INDUSTRY REQUIREMENTS FOR SENIOR PROJECT LEADERS
Considerable knowledge, skill, and experience are required to manage projects. Table 4-1 presents the array of competencies involved in leading projects, including technical, analytical, business, and leadership expertise.
TABLE 4-1. Skill Requirements for Senior Project Leaders
| Technical | Analytical | Business | Leadership |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demonstrated mastery of project and program management knowledge and skills | Demonstrated mastery of business analysis knowledge and skills | Demonstrated mastery of business transformation and cultural change concepts and skills | Demonstrated mastery of portfolio management |
| Keen understanding of the use of technology to support business objectives | Use of project life cycles to deliver valuable solutions quickly | Strategic planning, goal setting, corporate goal measurement | Customer relationship management |
| Mastery of systems engineering concepts and principles | Demonstrated mastery of research studies (benchmark study, competitive analysis, feasibility analysis, market research) | Demonstrated mastery of six sigma, business process improvement and reengineering | Demonstrated mastery of management of power and politics |
| Powerful modeling techniques | Ability to conceptualize and think creatively | Business planning | Capacity to formulate and articulate vision |
| Communication of technical concepts to non-technical audiences | Techniques to plan, elicit, analyze, specify, validate, trace, and manage requirements | Communication of business concepts to technical audiences | Organizational change management |
| Testing, verification, and validation | Risk assessment and management | Business outcome thinking | Problem-solving, negotiation, decision-making |
| Technical writing | Administrative, analytical, and reporting skills | Business writing | Team management, leadership, mentoring, facilitation, meeting management |
| Rapid prototyping | Cost/benefit analysis | Business case development | Authenticity, ethics, integrity |
| Technical domain knowledge | Time and cost management, personal effectiveness | Business domain knowledge | Project benefits management |
In addition, we can look to the Project Manager Competency Development Framework2 published by PMI for an exhaustive assessment of project management competencies. This PMI® standard discusses several dimensions of competency that are needed for successful project performance, including project management knowledge competence, project management personal competence, and project management performance competence:
Project management knowledge competence—the knowledge and understanding that a project manager brings to a project. This competence is broken down into units, organized according to the PMI PMBOK® Guide knowledge areas, and further divided into clusters organized around the PMBOK® Guide five core process areas.- Project management personal competence—organized into six distinct areas of competence:
- Achievement and action
- Helping and human services
- Impact and influence
- Managerial
- Cognitive
- Personal effectiveness.
- Project management performance competence—the ability to perform project management activities to the levels of performance expected.
EMERGING COMPLEX PROJECT LEADER REQUIREMENTS
Complex projects demand an exceptional level of leadership. As key project leaders are assigned to complex projects, we need to make sure they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to meet the challenge.
THE COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGER
As a project-oriented organization since its creation by President Eisenhower in 1958, NASA offers many insights into the fundamental characteristics of complex project managers. NASA project managers exhibit attributes similar to those found in CEOs and leaders in general. Two studies, separated by more than two decades, identified key differences between average and superior project managers.3 Both listed personal skills in managing others as highly important for superior project managers. Two additional studies that looked at the personality characteristics of NASA project managers found a strong tendency on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) for extraversion, thinking, and judgment, with a prevalence of intuition/ sensing in superior or effective project managers.4
STANDARDS FOR THE COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGER
Looking to another source, the Commonwealth of Australia Department of Defense issued Version 2 of the Competency Standard for Complex Project Managers in September 2006, which proclaims itself a “… milestone in the development of complex project management as a profession.” The standard identifies new project management competencies with the hope of recognizing potential complex project managers early in their careers and establishing courses and development tracks to ensure that a sufficient number of complex project managers are available to meet the demand.5 The standard has generated significant public interest in the project management community and is now out for public comment.6
The competencies for the complex project manager are defined in terms of role descriptions, actions in the workplace, and the underlying knowledge needed. These nine new competency areas are far-reaching:
- Strategy and project management
- Business planning, lifecycle management, reporting, and performance measurement
- Change and journey
- Innovation, creativity, and working smarter ?
- Organizational architecture
- Systems thinking and integration
- Leadership
- Culture and being human
- Probity and governance.
THE IDEAL PROJECT MANAGER
Finally, we look to J. Davidson Frame, who has conducted informal surveys of hundreds of project managers to shed light on the traits of great project managers. According to Frame, great project managers:7
- Have a thorough understanding of project goals
- Are capable of understanding staff needs
- Have a good head for details
- Have a strong commitment to the project
- Are able to cope with setbacks and disappointments
- Possess good negotiation skills
- Are results-oriented and practical
- Are cost-conscious and possess basic business skills
- Are politically savvy, aware of what not to do as well as what to do
- Have a high tolerance for ambiguity.
ORGANIZE FOR SUCCESS: THE CORE COMPLEX PROJECT LEADERSHIP TEAM
In an attempt to deliver projects successfully, we have traditionally focused on management and virtually excluded the vital role of leadership. As we have seen, traditionally the project manager focuses on planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, monitoring, and controlling. All project team members report to the project manager regarding project work assigned to them. (Figure 4-1 depicts a traditional project team configuration.) It is now becoming clear that complex projects thrive on collaboration, teams, and leadership rather than command and control. In the 21st century, managing projects is transitioning from project management to team leadership.
Consider the core project leadership team concept represented in Figure 4-2. Using this concept, the leadership team is small (four to six members), multidisciplined, highly skilled, dedicated to the project full time, and co-located. The core team of experts forms sub-teams and brings in subject matter experts when needed. The members of this core leadership team share responsibility for guiding the project, each taking the lead when his or her expertise is needed.
FIGURE 4-1. Traditional Project Team Configuration
FIGURE 4-2. Core Project Team Configuration
Make no mistake, shared leadership (sometimes referred to as distributed leadership) does not mean no accountability. The project manager is still responsible for ensuring that the business solution is delivered on time, on budget, and with the full scope promised. The business analyst is responsible for ensuring that the project team fully understands the business need and the benefits expected from the new solution, and for validating that the solution meets the requirements and will deliver the expected business benefits. The architect ensures that the solution is optimal and is designed and developed according to specifications. The business visionary keeps the team focused on the big picture (the strategic goal that will be advanced by the new solution), brings in appropriate business experts when needed, and helps prepare the organization to operate in a new way once the business solution is deployed.
Whereas in the past project teams revolved around the project manager as their leader, the very nature of project team leadership is changing. Leadership within the team shifts subtly based on where the project is in its life cycle. For example, during requirements elicitation, the business analyst takes the lead and the other core team members slide into more of a support role. As the project moves into solution design and development, the technical architect or developer often assumes the lead role. All core leadership team members support each other—and get out of the way when their expertise is not the critical element.
Complex projects demand an exceptional level of management and, perhaps even more important, leadership. An array of project management competencies is required to manage complex projects, some of which we have traditionally expected of our senior project managers. The additional competencies required for project leaders to be able to lead complex projects successfully are just now emerging. Clearly, a collaborative team of experts is needed to lead complex 21st century projects.
NOTES
1. DCEO, “Project Management Competencies for Complex Projects,” DCEO Speech to Pro-MAC2006. Online at http://www.defence.gov.au/dmo/speeches_other/dceo_promac_2006.pdf (accessed March 2008).
2. Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition (Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, 2004).
3. R. L. Chapman, “Project Management in NASA: The System and the Men,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA SP-324 (1973); D. Leonard, M. Fambrough, and R. Boyatzis, “Project Management at NASA’s Lewis Research Center: Identifying a Model of Superior Performance,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA Grant: NCC-3-90, LSN: 10414 (1995).
4. C. R. Dreyfus, “Scientists and Engineers as Effective Managers: A Study of the Development of Interpersonal Abilities,” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University (1991); G. M. Mulenburg, “The Characteristics of Project Managers: An Exploration of Complex Projects in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,” NASA/TP-2000-209593.
5. Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Defence), College of Complex Project Managers and Defence Materiel Organisation, “Competency Standard for Complex Project Managers,” Public Release Version 2.0 (2006). Online at http://www.defence.gov.au/dmo/proj_man/ Complex_PM_v2.0.pdf (accessed January 2008).
6. S. Jonathan Whitty and Harvey Maylor, “And Then Came Complex Project Management,” presented at the 21st IPMA World Congress on Project Management (February 2007). Online at http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv.php?pid=UQ:13419&dsID=And_then_came_Complex_Project_Management.pdf (accessed January 2008).
7. J. Davidson Frame, The New Project Management: Tools for an Age of Rapid Change, Complexity, and Other Business Realities (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002), 12-13.