An examination of the various PM standards offered by PMI and others: How can they be used effectively?

Today projects are growing in complexity with project managers often being asked to satisfy requirements of global business. The various nature of projects has made difficult the ability for project managers to successfully perform in this challenging environment. Successful project managers recognize these challenges and have utilised project management standards to improve project delivery.

After most of the project management training courses I deliver, I am asked the question about the best standard in project management. There is no direct answer to this question as the most used practices in project management, while covering pretty much the same knowledge, have different objectives.

For decades, the broadest standards of generally accepted best practices / approaches have been both the PMBOK® Guide and PRINCE2®, and project managers recognize that there is great value in both approaches to address project success.

Background

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge is the world’s leading reference to project management knowledge. Now in its fourth edition, the PMBOK® Guide has been released by the US-based Project Management Institute (PMI), a global not-for-profit professional association with members in over 170 countries. PMI defines standards, which provide common language and framework for projects across industries and regions.

Another widely used project management approach is the UK-born PRINCE2®, which evolved from the first edition of PRINCE (Projects in Controlled Environments), an IT-oriented Project Management method, to the current version, an open end-to-end project delivery method scalable to any industry and business sector. It is owned and operated by the UK Government, though it’s completely open to the public.

The UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and PMI continue development and improvement of both standards.

What are their main differences?

There are a certain number of differences between PRINCE2® and PMBOK®Guide. Here are a few that I believe are significant.

PRINCE2® does not cover, or covers very little, areas such as communication, leadership, and people management skills. PMBOK® Guide does. How to build a communication plan? How to manage multi-cultural teams? How to resolve conflicts within the project team or among stakeholders? The PMBOK® Guide provides guidance across the knowledge areas and process groups to address those questions. The PMBOK® Guide also provides essential information on procurement. How to plan procurement? How to prepare procurement packages and select vendors? How to manage contracts and external resources?

It also emphasises professional and social responsibility, which aims to strengthen integrity in the project management profession and encourages project professionals to contribute to the entire knowledge base.

On the other hand, PRINCE2® provides focus on principles. None of those will be unknown by PMBOK® Guide users but they are highlighted in PRINCE2® as essential to project success.

PRINCE2® has seven principles beginning with the business justification (in other words the business case). The business case provides details on the result, the value you get from the project. The PRINCE2® approach guides, throughout the project life cycle, to ensure that those benefits occur.

The concept of the Project Board is key in PRINCE2®. The Project Board chaired by the sponsor / executive actually owns the project. The project board is accountable for the project success or failure. The senior manager’s engagement is critical to project success and PRINCE2® highlights this principle.

Managing by exception is also key in PRINCE2®. Clear governance and definition of roles and responsibilities facilitates the management by exception. Basically variances from baseline for scope, quality, cost and time are managed by the project manager within pre-defined tolerance limits. Beyond those limits the deviations are escalated up to the right level of management (project board / executive).

What Richard Pharro, CEO of APMG-International says about the benefits for organisations to adopt PRINCE2: “The most cited reason I hear is do to with governance and clarity of roles and responsibilities. Plus there is an increasing emphasis placed on the importance of strong and sound business cases. The financial crisis has sharpened the focus on business cases as organizations prune project portfolios to focus resources and ensure greater alignment to corporate strategy and objectives. The need for project management is probably greater in times of scarcity than in times of plenty.”

How do PRINCE2® and the PMBOK® Guide relate to each other?

“The PMBOK® is a comprehensive source of information about Project Management best practice. It tells what a project manager should know. PRINCE2® is a process model. It says what a project manager should do to organise that knowledge.”

Project managers considering project management training often ask this question. The answer is that both standards actually work well together. The PMBOK® Guide is what we call a knowledge framework or a toolbox. It provides tools, techniques, and proven practices in the main knowledge areas of project management. PRINCE2® is a process model that describes how seven principles when understood and applied through clear processes, can help minimize risks and maximize project return. It helps the project managers answer the questions “where do I start? And where do I finish?”

The PMBOK® Guide mentions some process model (Initiating – Planning – Executing – Monitoring & Controlling – Closing) but it is not as detailed as PRINCE2®. The focus is on the Project Management tools and techniques developed within each knowledge area (Cost, Time, Risk, Quality, etc) whereas the focus in PRINCE2® is on how to deliver a project from start to end.

The purpose of both standards is actually to support and complement each other. As stated by the OGC, “PRINCE2® does not cover all aspects of project management. Areas such as leadership and people management skills, detailed coverage of project management tools and techniques are well covered by other existing and proven methods and are therefore excluded from PRINCE2®.»

The Certifications

For PMP® designation, the project managers have to prove a certain number of years of experience in project management, take some training, pass a four-hour exam, and commit themselves to earning PDUs (Professional Development Units), which are required to maintain the PMP® credential over a period of three years renewable.

With about 430,000 certified Project Management Professionals (PMP®), PMI professional certifications are accepted and recognised worldwide.

“PRINCE2® assumes experience. PMP® Credential tests the experience.”

The PRINCE2® certification is a knowledge-based approach with foundation and practitioner levels. It is a test based on your understanding of the entire method as opposed to your experience. A training course is taken to become a registered practitioner, and a re-registration exam every three to five years is required to maintain the designation.

PRINCE2® certification does not require that a candidate prove project management experience; however it would be difficult to fully understand the PRINCE2® model and properly use it, especially at practitioner level, with no or very little project management experience.

“By the end of 2010 over 750,000 PRINCE2® examinations (35% of Practitioners) had been taken. Firmly established in the UK, Australia and many European countries, worldwide take-up continues to gain momentum.” Kate Winter, PR Manager, APM Group

How do I apply best practice in my projects?

“An increasing number of project managers are effectively using both standards on the same projects.”

The best practice is the practice itself, beyond certifications. Experience is key and is a pre-requisite to credentialing project managers. After a few years of experience, my advice would be to select the features from both practices that will offer the most benefit to your projects. People management and communication represent over 90% of project managers’ time. It is essential to spend time studying those project management areas (covered by the PMBOK® Guide) and developing skills.

PRINCE2® offers a complete list of templates, which are a great source of information. Some such as the Project Brief (the equivalent of the PMBOK®’s Project Charter) and Project Initiation Document (PID) define project start-up and organisation. There are others that I have found really useful and applied to my projects (e.g. . exception reports, issue management, lessons learned, etc.). PRINCE2® is completely scalable to any projects so there is no need to use them all on our projects (e.g. a detailed Project Brief could allow skipping the PID phase).

Having a Project Board / Sponsor Group clearly defined and truly involved in the project really makes the difference. This is a big challenge to run a project through to success with no or limited senior management commitment. To gain top-level engagement and avoid resistance to change, the project managers, or more specifically the PMOs, will have to provide a relevant project management approach, clear documentation, processes, and techniques required for development. Project management training (including senior managers’ training) is key to achieve those cultural changes.

“Work opportunities help make the decision on effective Project Management standard.”

Both standards are recognised worldwide as best practice. It does not answer the question of which one to opt for. Should project managers start studying the PMBOK® Guide and then look at PRINCE2® as it shapes project management knowledge? Or should project managers start getting a flavour of what PRINCE2® is; understand what’s important (the principles), who should do what (roles and responsibilities/project board, and the business case), when (process model), and supplement it all with the PMBOK® Guide tools and techniques?

I think the best way to look at this really depends on what industry, business sector, and region you want to work in and develop your professional network. Certifications are, more than anything else, an effective way to share a common language in project management. A certified project manager who starts working in an organisation, which uses either the PMBOK® Guide or PRINCE2®, will be less confused and more comfortable, no matter how new in the sector they are. Job opportunities should help make the decision. Personally, PRINCE2® was highly recommended in the London-based financial organisation I worked in. Back in France, I had great opportunities to work on projects using the PMBOK® Guide approach. Did I feel the need to get an additional certification beyond PRINCE2®? Honestly I didn’t, but actually I was wrong. Through additional training and experience, I managed to develop skills in areas I was less familiar with and therefore showed continuous professional development.

© 2011 allPM.com

Estelle Groult, MBA, MSc, PMP, Prince2 Accredited Trainer - is a Project Management professional with international experience in Project Management, Business Analysis, and Process Change. Estelle has spent 10 years in the banking industry as a business analyst and finance change project manager (US, UK, France) working on major finance transformation projects rolled out in multi-cultural work environments. Estelle is an independent consultant and trainer in project management and business analysis based in France (http://estellegroult.net). She can be contacted at estelle@groult.net

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An examination of the various PM standards offered by PMI and others: How can they be used effectively?