In October 2008 the Association for Project Management (www.apm.org.uk) submitted a petition to the Queen for a Royal Charter. Assuming that the Queen grants the charter then one of the rights granted will be to establish a register of Chartered Project Professionals. This will not be limited to project managers but include any professional involved in the delivery of projects, including programme office managers, risk managers, programme managers etc. It is expected the register will be established in April 2010, if the charter is granted in reasonable time.
What will be the requirements to be a Chartered Project Professional?
These are expected to include:
1. A record of on-going Continuing Professional Development. So if you plan to apply to become a chartered project professional then you should start keeping your CPD record now?
2. Be able to demonstrate you competence against the APM’s competence framework (printed copies are available from the APM www.apm.org.uk/APMCompetenceFramework.asp) , although the APM have not yet announced what level of competence is required for chartered status. Rumours exist that a number of organisations (including possibly the APM) will be providing online competence assessment tools to support the application process. Although a simple spreadsheet should suffice.
3. A written CV and personal statement describing your experiences in project management.
4. Interview with an APM panel of the great and the good. It’s unclear what these will be looking for, but it’s expected that these will seek to validate competency assessments and “the ability to demonstrate achievements and understanding of current issues”.
5. Signing the APM Code of Conduct.
What is the Value of Chartered Project Professional?
Project Management has long been a unrecognised profession, with varying professional standards, from different organisations including the PMI, OGC’s Prince 2 and APM, most of which can be obtained after a short five day course. The status of Chartered Project Professional should help to raise the standards in the project management community. Critical will be the attitude of employees to the value, if it is recognised as a true mark of competence, in employment market then Chartered Project Professional will become of real significance in raising standards. Reportedly several major employers are planning to use Chartered Project Professional to differentiate the best from the rest.
Will Chartered Project Professional help to improve the quality of project delivery?
Successful project delivery is a combination of many factors, quality of project sponsorship, clarity of purpose, availability of resources but most people agree that the quality of the project manager is significant in the success or failure of a project. However we don’t really have a standard to measure this quality beyond the foundation level and the APM PQ has been adopted by very few organisations. So we can’t say a Chartered Project professional will guarantee success but they will surely improve the chances.
The APM requirements for Chartered Project Professional are still in development and are subject to approval by the Privy Council, but it look like it is going to be based on
1)Evaluation against the APM competency framework , this is a bit complex but several people are working on bring our web based tool the help with the assessment
2)A CPD record of training and qualifications (including those from the APM) , project management related seminars and development activities. Candidate4s will be expected to show at least a year of CPD so if you want to apply you need to maintain you record now. Presumably those PMI members who collect PDU’s will be able to submit these.
3)A personal statement (not sure what size yet) but demonstrating you competence to manage project of reasonable complexity
4)Interview with a panel, this may cause logistic problems for the APM if lots of people apply at the same time.
It looks like no existing members will get automatic transfer.
Still no news on Chartered Project Professional. let hope 2012 is a lucky year for everyone at the Association for Project Management
hmmmmm