DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT COMPETENCE

Development of project management competence is an investment that leads to better business on fast track. The business case of development activities is easy to show, as solid project management and well-performing projects create successful customer deliveries, increase sales or bring savings in form of new products or processes.

The development for project management competence is a comprehensive process that covers definition of the required competences, identification of development areas, design of the development actions, implementation, and follow-up. With the long-term development plan, various competence evaluations, trainings, and organizational learning form a manageable entity.

The development plan includes all organizational levels in the development of project management competences. In addition to project managers, project owners, steering group members, and project team members should be taken into account, as well as persons in charge of project portfolio and project management development. Also, project management perspective enhances sales personnel’s ability to support successful delivery projects business.

The figure below shows an example of a development plan for project management competences. It includes two levels:

• career path – an organization’s way of defining with which experience and competence a person can proceed towards more demanding tasks and roles in project management area; career path provides superiors with a clear framework for personnel’s performance development

• learning path – describes the different methods of building one’s competence, e.g. trainings, on-the-job learning and mentoring; typically, a portfolio of training programs forms the basis for a learning path.

PHAses of a development plan design and implementation

1. Defining the scope and quality of the required competences
2. Determining the shortcomings and potential for development in organization’s present competences
3. Specifying targets, schedule and investment in development
4. Specifying the means and inputs for making the change
5. Implementation
6. Ensuring the effectiveness of the development activities and defining the next steps of development