PM News Roundup

Government ministers need project management training

A critical Public Accounts Committee report published earlier this week on the work of the Major Projects Authority (MPA) says there are still deficiencies in the UK government’s ability to successful deliver major projects. The report notes that 2 MPs have attended half-day or full-day project management training courses but suggests this training should be extended more widely to the highest decision-making levels of the government.
The report also says that there needs to be better planning at the outset of projects and greater transparency in decision making.
Read more on the MPA Report.

New Project Fundamentals Event from APM

Earlier this week the APM launched a new one day interactive professional development event called APM Presents… Project Management in Practice covering delivery of real professional projects and aimed at mid-career PMs. It will offer insights into the challenges, techniques and keys to success of projects in the real world.
Practical advice will also be available on improving your employability as a project manager, including creating a CV and networking.
Sessions will be delivered by the 14 APM Specific Interest Groups:

• Assurance
• Benefits Management
• Contracts and Procurement
• Enabling Change
• Governance
• Knowledge
• People
• Planning, Monitoring and Control
• PMO
• Portfolio management
• Programme Management
• Risk Management
• Value Management
• Women in project management

Should Every Employee be a Project Manager?

According to the PwC 15^th Annual Global CEO Survey, businesses need to be able to quickly create new products or services, that customers will buy, in order to survive. They can, therefore, no longer tolerate inefficient processes and need all employees, not just project managers, to behave like PMs.
The survey suggests that the traditional model of project management separate from the business environment could be limiting an organisation’s flexibility and ability to respond quickly to external market forces.

Why Agile Project Managers Need to Relinquish Control

An interesting discussion by Dan Wood about why project managers in an agile environment need to become more spectators than players when it comes to assigning, planning and scheduling individual tasks and why they shouldn’t be actively involved at the task level. Agile project managers should not directly control the project team and their assigned tasks but, instead, provide more of a supportive role. Dan suggests they should do this through a variety of ways, including monitoring and reporting on project health to stakeholders and resist the urge to assign and control at a low level.

Project Management Confidence Index

According to a recent report from Arras People only 28% of project managers are happy in their jobs with 67% of project managers actively looking for a new job. Low wage rises have contributed to this dissatisfaction as at least three-quarters of projects managers have not had a pay rise above the rate of inflation in 2014.
Conversely, a majority of organisations are actively recruiting project managers this year due to increased business demand although nearly a third of companies are recruiting project managers because employees have left.
So companies need project managers and project managers want new jobs but significant numbers of project managers looking for a new position report are finding a lack of openings relevant to their skills and experience but salaries on offer are also failing to meet their expectations.
The survey also reports that 40 per cent of practitioners who started a new job in 2014 have seen wage increases of over 8 per cent on their last salary.