Project Manager Building Blocks

Project Manager Building Blocks

I'm beginning to prepare for a project management workshop I'm leading in Brainerd and St. Cloud. In this workshop I plan discuss the skills and knowledge that project managers must possess and help attendees inventory their own skills and knowledge to prepare a professional development plan. I plan to use the Project Management Institute's Project Manager Competency Development (PMCD) framework as the foundation for this workshop.

As I began to dive into the PMCD framework I found a useful model but wanted to re-conceptualize the model to better differentiate the project management and supporting skill sets. What I came up with is what I refer to as Project Manager Building Blocks. These blocks represents the different types of knowledge and skills required to serve in the project manager role. The individual blocks are personal behaviors, (project) process knowledge, project performance, industry expertise, and organizational expertise.

The diagram at the top of this posting is my model for these building blocks. Granted, these categories are directly based on the PMCD complementary framework but in my model I am separating direct PM skills and knowledge from supporting skills and knowledge. The industry experience and organizational experience are needed to value the nuances of the industry and organization so that the project context is better understood. This industry and organizational experience provides the foundational building blocks for the project management-specific blocks.

I plan to further develop this model and extend it to include skill and knowledge assessment to support building professional development plans. I'll share more about model as I continue to work on the workshop over the month.