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Asia Pacific Europe, Middle East and Africa Latin America North America Extra Credit Earning the required Professional Development Units to maintain your Project Management Professional credential can be a natural educational fit instead of a chore. Upward Trend What’s behind the trend toward Project Management Professional certification, and why do companies like Procter & Gamble and Atrion put so much stock in its holders? PMI offers its appreciation to the International Institute for Learning Inc. for its sponsorship of PMP® Passport through the end of 2006.

Upward Trend

What's behind the trend toward Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification, and why do companies like Procter & Gamble and Atrion put so much stock in its holders?

by Ross Foti

It's a hot commodity. Multinational companies demand it. Governments have adopted it as standard. The Project Management Professional (PMP®) credential has gone a long way toward global acceptance as the certification standard.

Based on growing demand for certified professionals in the global job market, the number of practitioners taking the PMP examination arced sharply higher during 2005. This growth resulted in 87,776 PMPs earning certification by year's end. Currently, 179,214 holders of the PMP have achieved the credential worldwide.

Providing some insight into the corporate thinking behind this trend, Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Atrion Networking Corp. have invested in PMP training programs. Both companies implicitly trust their PMP holders as leaders and see certification as a strategic business necessity.

Recognized Skills
Historically, P&G has used internally developed methodologies for many of its business processes. Recently, the company has taken steps to be more externally focused in identifying best practices, according to Russell Beautyman, PMP, Western Europe Healthcare R&D IT manager with Procter & Gamble, Surrey, U.K.

"Project management has always been a key skill of P&G managers," he says. "As the profession develops, P&G recognizes the advantage of managers becoming more skilled to an externally recognizable level. This helps in setting expectations of the project manager and also ensures that a level of quality can be achieved and exceeded."

P&G employs around 2,500 IT staff, including about 110 in its U.K. operation, and PMP-qualified IT staff work with people at all levels within the company. Project management training is undertaken through a network of trainers who practice project management on a day to day basis. Many of these trainers have the PMP credential. "P&G has historically been a primarily 'promote from within' company, believing that this enables us to sharpen staff development," Mr. Beautyman says. "The company benchmarks and assesses its staff using external qualifications, such as PMP. Supporting our staff through their PMP qualification enables the company to consistently maintain high levels of professional competencies."

To continue this trend toward PMP-credentialed staff, a study group of seven experienced project managers met during early 2005 with the goal of passing the PMP exam in September 2005. They worked through a series of lectures, study sessions and other published materials, and as a result of their work, the whole group took the exam with 100 percent pass rate.

"Training staff in the use of PMP skills helps to ensure that these commercial interactions are professional, consistent and on target, both for unique projects and routine work," Mr. Beautyman says. P&G considers project management training as a key competency for IT management."

Based on their success, another study group has been formed. "We have an ongoing aim to continuously improve project management processes within the company," Mr. Beautyman says. "PMPs have a responsibility to ensure their projects are executed with excellence, and also to model the required behavior and skills for successful project management to other project managers within the company."

Market Advantage
Moving to standardize its project management processes has allowed Atrion Networking Corp., Warwick, R.I., USA, to grow its project office and validate its ability to successfully complete IT projects, according to Kevin J. Carbone, PMP, senior project manager with the technology and management service provider.

Atrion's project office began in 1998 as part of an initiative to shift from informal to formal project management, and PMPs were a large part of the strategic implementation. "Our project office has recently moved completely to a PMI-based methodology using A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)," Mr. Carbone says. "We currently have six PMPs on staff and are constantly working to further define our formal processes using the PMBOK® Guide and PMI resources."

PMP holders not only help Atrion deliver projects successfully, but also are a marketable resource. To Atrion executives, the credential means its staff can demonstrate its project knowledge and experience. "We're able to sell project management because people are realizing that the cost of an unsuccessful project is much more than having somebody who knows what they're doing," he says. "The PMP designation is different than a lot of certifications because it requires you to demonstrate a lot of experience. You have to demonstrate an understanding of project management—a lot of companies want to move toward a formalized process, and the best way to do that is with PMPs."

Atrion's career path is designed around the project team's level of customer contact and the complexity of a project. There are three levels:

• Project coordinators, who have minimal client contact. They meet the project requirements of clients' smaller projects and time and material engagements
• Project managers, who have moderate contact while dealing with medium-sized projects
• Senior project managers, who have extensive direct contact and deal with large implementations.

Senior project managers also mentor team members on how to make processes more effective across functional areas. "We almost have an apprentice system," Mr. Carbone says. "Having a formalized approach means everyone is on the same page when working with the customer."

Credentials are so important to Atrion that the company funds a PMP training course—all staff coming into the project office can make project management their dedicated career. "The PMP credential is very valuable. If you're going to work in our project office, you have to work toward your PMP," Mr. Carbone says. "The customer values that, so we do also."

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