Project management is a large field and there are plenty of opportunities for developing a long-term, successful career within the discipline.

In this chapter we’ll look at:

• How to get into IT project management: finding your first role.
• How to get on in project management: adding qualifications to your CV to show your expertise.
• How to move on in project management: programme management roles and other opportunities for taking the next step after project management.
• How to move out of IT project management: what options there are for leaving a project delivery role and how your project management skills can support you on other career paths.

By the end of this chapter you’ll understand a typical route for career progression and the qualifications that will support your career journey.

GETTING INTO PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The projects that you read about in the media are often high profile, with budgets in the multi-millions or even billions. They all seem to be led by highly experienced project managers who have the confidence and skills to deal with the complex sociopolitical environments of their projects, international and virtual teams and other factors that make their work particularly challenging.

When faced with that view of projects, you might wonder how people ever got started. But all those high-profile leaders got started in the same way that you can: managing smaller initiatives, practising their core skills and learning through training and on the job.

You can also build up your experience at home: if you are keen to learn the principles and tools, why not have a go with products like Microsoft Project, Trello or Asana to make a simple project plan for decorating a room or planning an overhaul in the garden, for example? Similarly, you can also use project management approaches in your current role – even if that is nothing to do with project management. Look for opportunities to manage work in a structured way and use project management principles to support that.

These are good ways to build up something to talk about at interview and to show an employer that you are interested in project management as a career, while you work on securing a role.

If you talk to project managers or read through the stories in this book you’ll realise that there are as many ways to build a career in the field as there are people. However, there are three common ways of entering the job market in a project delivery role:

• through higher education;
• through an apprenticeship;
• through direct entry.

Higher education

There are lots of undergraduate degrees and postgraduate certificates and degrees with a project management concentration. Whether you opt for a module of project management within a degree in a different discipline, or take one with a high proportion of project management is up to you and will depend on the direction you see your career taking.

A project management individual module is definitely worth considering because even if you don’t end up in a ‘full’ project management role, you can guarantee that most jobs these days will require you to be able to plan and organise your own work and possibly the work of other people as well.

Majoring in project management or taking a combined degree could also give you a professional qualification (or the background and education required to be able to sit the exam for a professional qualification). That’s a way to round out your education so it’s worth considering if your chosen degree course will count in any way towards industry qualifications.

Apprenticeships

An apprentice is an employee whose company receives funding to train them and to put them through professional assessments. It’s on the job training with support for structured learning too, and it’s a great way to get into project management with little previous practical experience.

At the time of writing, higher level project management apprenticeships in the UK are evolving. The Associate Project Management Apprenticeship Standard (APM) – also at level 4 in the Regulated Qualifications Framework from Ofqual, which equates to the first year of higher education – is a Trailblazer apprenticeship and has been available since January 2017, but only to candidates from England.

The Trailblazer apprenticeship is the new standard and has been developed by an employer group specifically to meet the requirements of a particular profession. APM is involved with the project management apprenticeship standard and the two-year scheme includes taking the APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ).

Over your time as an apprentice you’ll develop the skills and behaviours required to succeed in the job, and these are assessed during a presentation and discussion-format interview at the end of your apprenticeship.

Degree-level apprenticeships are being developed as well.

The Higher Apprenticeship in Project Management at level 4 is available in Scotland and Wales. This also includes a professional qualification, the EAL²⁰ Level 4 Diploma in Project Management.

Direct entry

You can’t walk into managing a multi-million pound project, but there are plenty of entry level IT jobs that will give you the experience you need to work up to that.

Look for jobs advertised as project coordinators, project office assistants or junior or trainee project management roles within technical functions. These are all involved in the discipline of managing projects, and with some experience you’ll be able to move into managing larger projects by yourself.

Project coordinator, or a role with a similar title that has the objective of assisting a project manager or team of project managers, is a very good entry point, so let’s look at that in a bit more detail.

The role: Working on larger projects in a support position to assist with whatever the project manager, wider team and senior management need. This could range from being in charge of updating documentation, making travel plans, organising meetings and taking minutes, calling team members to gather status reports, managing the project management software tools for the team and anything else. It’s a hugely varied job.

The projects: These will vary depending on your industry and the company and team you work within. You may be able to manage smaller projects on your own in this role, especially if they are initiatives the business does regularly, such as updating a system, where there is a defined project plan and the work is low risk.

Watch out for: Being a general dogsbody. There’s a lot of admin in project management and much of it can be offloaded onto the project coordinator. However, that shouldn’t mean you get all the horrible jobs. A good employer will ensure that you have the opportunity to work-shadow experienced project managers and be exposed to different areas of the team to ensure you are growing your skills. A not-so-good employer could end up treating you as a glorified secretary. That’s not what project management is all about.

Tips for your first role

Whatever your route into project management, you’re going to want to make a good first impression. Here are five tips for making your first few weeks in a new entry level job as a project coordinator go smoothly, although many of the tips will still apply if you are going directly into a project manager role.

1. Meet the team

Make time to meet your direct colleagues, people doing a similar project delivery role to you (the other project coordinators, if there are any) and your project team. Schedule one-to-one meetings with key people like your project manager and project sponsor so that you can find out more about what you will be doing for them and how your work supports the team as a whole.

The people you are working with day to day might not have been involved in your recruitment, so be prepared to talk a little about your background and experiences to date too.

2. Find your project context

In other words: how does your project fit into the bigger picture? Your direct line manager or project manager should be able to tell you this. It’s a huge help for prioritising work and understanding why decisions are made – if you understand how your project ties in with other large initiatives you’ll suddenly find that conversations that felt random make a lot more sense.

It’s also better for you because you can more easily explain the value of your work to other people if you understand how what you are doing contributes to the business goals overall.

3. Clarify your objectives

Understanding the project context is helpful for the big picture, but what about the work you are responsible for? You also need to understand your personal objectives and how the company will rate your contribution.

This is normally clear on a structured scheme like a higher apprenticeship, but if you’ve entered the workplace after higher education or directly with no previous qualifications, you’ll have to sit down with your manager and set objectives for the year.

Don’t be scared to do this – all employees have targets, goals and objectives as a way to monitor performance and support development, so it’s a normal part of your conversations with your manager.

4. Learn the tools and processes

Prioritise learning as much as you can about the methods, approaches and tools in use in your team. Find out how you can access the library of project management templates if there is one. How should you be reporting and recording your progress?

Get logins to all the IT tools you need and watch how other people use the processes. Ask questions, take notes and learn. The first three months at a new job are the perfect time to absorb a lot about the company and team culture and how work gets done.

5. Smile!

You worked hard to get this break into IT project management, and hopefully you’ll be in the field for a long time. However nervous you feel meeting new people or doing new tasks, try to be polite and positive. You don’t need to be best friends with the people at work, but you’ll go further in your career if you are personable and helpful because people will enjoy working with you.

MOVING ON IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Having secured a project management role, your natural career steps will be to take on larger and more complex projects.

The other important thing for individuals looking to solidify their position as a career IT project manager is to consider the importance of qualifications. A qualification can demonstrate to employers that you are serious about your career path, and that you know what you are talking about. Plus the effort of studying for an exam shows that you are committed to continuous professional development (CPD). And you might learn something.

There are a number of project management qualifications that you can go for. Below we’ll look at the most common options that reflect the major methods and standards in place that are recognised by most UK employers.

CAPM^®

The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)^® is the introductory level credential from PMI. It’s designed to demonstrate your understanding of the fundamental knowledge, terminology and processes of effective project management. It’s globally recognised and it’s not essential to have any experience of managing a project before undertaking it so it’s perfect if you are starting out in your first project role.

However, there are some prerequisites before you can apply. You have to hold the globally recognised equivalent of a high school diploma and have 1,500 hours of work experience on projects, or have 23 hours of project management education by the time you take the exam.

You can gain the required education hours in a number of ways. Many training providers offer courses that meet the hours requirement and provide you with the information you need to study for the exam successfully.

The exam is a multiple-choice, computer-based question paper. It draws questions only from the latest edition of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)^®,²¹ as it assesses your ability to recall the concepts and terminology and doesn’t assess if you are able to apply them.

PMP^®

The Project Management Professional (PMP)^® credential from PMI is the follow-on certification from CAPM^®, aimed at people who already have experience managing project teams. It’s not necessary to do the CAPM^® first if you meet the eligibility criteria for PMP.

The prerequisites for this credential are either:

• a secondary degree (high school diploma, associate’s degree or the global equivalent);
• 7,500 hours leading and directing projects;
• 35 hours of project management education.

or

• a four-year degree;
• 4,500 hours leading and directing projects;
• 35 hours of project management education.

You’ll have to evidence both your experience and your education hours (equivalent to a week-long training course, although you don’t have to do it all in one go) on your application.

The PMP^® credential scheme is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) against the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17024.

Once you’ve passed the PMP exam, which is a computer-based multiple-choice exam that you have four hours to complete, you don’t have to take it ever again. If you want to maintain your credential you will have to carry out and log continuous professional development time.

Both the CAPM and the PMP credentials are based on the PMBOK^® Guide and PMI has released a Software Extension²² to that. This standard provides additional guidance on project management in a software development environment. It aims to bridge the gap between the traditional project management approaches described in the PMBOK^® Guide and the approaches more commonly used in software development that are more agile and iterative in nature.

Other credentials from PMI

PMI offers a range of relevant certifications for project managers who wish to specialise or gain a credential that showcases their domain knowledge. The specialist qualifications offered by PMI cover scheduling, risk and Agile project management, so let’s look at those next.

PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)^®

The PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)^® credential is a specialist qualification that recognises what you know about agile principles and is evidence of your practical experience. It’s a fast-growing certification which isn’t surprising as agile tools themselves are seeing more and more growth.

It’s not specific to one agile approach and the certificate covers Scrum, Kanban, Lean, extreme programming (XP) and test-driven development (TDD). It will round out your experiences and show an employer that you have the versatility to work in multiple agile environments.

To be eligible for the PMI-ACP you have to meet the entry criteria, which are:

• 2,000 hours of general project experience working on teams. If you already hold the PMP^® certificate then you’ll meet that already, but if you don’t then you’ll simply have to evidence your experience.
• 1,500 hours working on agile project teams or with agile methodologies. You can’t double-count your hours, so in total your experience needs to add up to 3,500 hours.
• 21 contact hours of formal training in agile practices which can be gained through a relevant training course of your choice.

Once you’re confident that you can evidence your experience and training you can apply for the exam. It’s a three-hour paper delivered through a computer-based test and includes 120 multiple-choice questions.

The exam tests your knowledge of:

• Agile principles and mindset;
• value-driven delivery;
• stakeholder engagement;
• team performance;
• adaptive planning;
• problem detection and resolution;
• continuous improvement.

PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)^®

The PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)^® certificate is for people who understand that building a good project schedule goes beyond using software tools to churn out a Gantt chart.

This qualification will show employers that you have the knowledge and skills to improve the management of schedules and lead on scheduling for your projects. If your projects are complex and scheduling is a challenge, then this could be a good certification for you. In some industries, the role of Scheduler is a defined (and essential) job so if you love this element of project management it is possible to specialise.

To be eligible for the PMI-SP you have to meet these criteria:

• a secondary degree;
• 5,000 hours’ experience of project scheduling;
• 40 contact hours of formal education specifically related to scheduling.

Or

• a four-year degree;
• 3,500 hours’ experience of project scheduling;
• 30 contact hours of formal education specifically related to scheduling.

These are tough criteria to meet, and you might find that you need to leave it a few years before you can evidence the experience required. Once you’re confident that you qualify, you can apply to do the exam. There are 170 questions and you have three-and-a-half hours to complete the exam during the computer-based test. The exam tests your knowledge of five domains:

• schedule strategy;
• schedule planning and development;
• schedule monitoring and controlling;
• schedule closeout;
• stakeholder communications management.

PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)^®

The PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)^® credential is a specialist qualification that demonstrates your ability to manage project risk beyond what a ‘general’ project manager could do. Some industries have a huge focus on risk management, and this certificate could demonstrate to a potential employer that you have the knowledge and skills to act on project risk in a way that would support their business.

To be eligible for the PMI-RMP you have to have spent a lot of time identifying, assessing and managing project risks over the last five consecutive years. There is also a minimum level of education that you need to meet:

• a secondary degree, high school diploma or equivalent;
• at least 4,500 hours spent on risk management tasks in the last five years;
• 40 contact hours of formal education specifically related to risk management.

Or

• a four-year degree, bachelor’s degree or equivalent;
• at least 3,000 hours spent on risk management tasks in the last five years;
• 30 contact hours of formal education specifically related to risk management.

The formal education could be a module on your degree course that covered risk management or a course from a recognised training provider. Check the eligibility of any course to make sure it qualifies before you part with money.

If you meet those criteria you can apply for the exam. As with the PMP^® exam, it’s a multiple-choice paper. There are 170 questions and you have three-and-a-half hours to complete the exam during the computer-based test. The exam tests your knowledge of:

• risk strategy and planning;
• stakeholder engagement;
• risk process facilitation;
• risk monitoring and reporting;
• performing specialised risk analyses.

You can find out more about these PMI certificates and the current entry criteria and assessments on the PMI website.

IPMA^® certificates

PMI has a presence almost everywhere, but in some countries there are other active groups that might be more relevant for you. It’s important to consider which qualifications and certificates are going to make you the most employable in your market and with employers in your particular area of IT.

The International Project Management Association (IPMA^®) is a federation of over 50 membership organisations. Each national association runs its own qualification scheme, but they are all aligned to the international standard framework which categorises qualifications into four levels:

• IPMA^® Level A: Certified Projects Director (this is the highest level and is suitable for someone who manages complex project portfolios and programs).
• IPMA^® Level B: Certified Senior Project Manager (appropriate for you if you manage complex projects, and requires at least five years of experience).
• IPMA^® Level C: Certified Project Manager (designed for people who manage projects of moderate complexity, requiring at least three years of experience).
• IPMA^® Level D: Certified Project Management Associate (the entry level qualification which demonstrates your ability to apply project management knowledge in context).

As these levels are internationally recognised, your certificate will be acknowledged by employers in other countries too. This makes the IPMA^® framework a good choice if you are planning on spending time working internationally.

In the UK, APM is the local project management association affiliated to IPMA^®. It offers a range of qualifications aligned to attainment levels laid out by IPMA^®, aimed at professionals with varying levels of experience and skills. These are summarised in Table 5.1.

PRINCE2^® Foundation and Practitioner

PRojects IN a Controlled Environment (version 2) is a tried-and-tested project management method that was last updated in 2017. It’s built around seven principles, themes and processes as you can see in Table 5.2.

The principles form a framework for good business practice and the processes take you through the project life cycle.

Principle	Theme	Process
Continued business justification	Business case	Starting up a project
Learn from experience	Organisation	Initiating a project
Defined roles and responsibilities	Quality	Managing a stage boundary
Manage by stages	Plans	Closing a project
Manage by exception	Risk	Controlling a stage
Focus on products	Change	Managing product delivery
Tailor to suit the project environment	Progress	Directing a project

The seven themes provide insight into how projects should be managed. They relate to how the principles are put into practice in real life. They are essential to monitoring and controlling a project because they are the things you track. You introduce them at the beginning of a project and then monitor as you go.

PRINCE2^® is actually a family of three qualifications: Foundation, Practitioner and Professional.

• PRINCE2^® Foundation: The basic certification level, which covers the PRINCE2^® terminology and methodology, is ideal for project managers, aspiring project managers and any staff members who would play a key role in the project management process.
• PRINCE2^® Practitioner: The next certification level, PRINCE2^® Practitioner is also designed for project managers and aspiring project managers. Passing this exam indicates the individual has sufficient knowledge of how to use and customise PRINCE2^® to use in an actual project.
• PRINCE2^® Professional: The highest level of PRINCE2^® certification, PRINCE2^® Professional tests your knowledge and ability across all stages of the project life cycle. It requires a two-and-a-half day assessment at a residential assessment centre.

Most candidates in the UK opt to do a combined Foundation/Practitioner course in a classroom, so it’s instructor-led training. The course normally takes place over five days with the Foundation exam on the Wednesday. If you are successful you can stay in the classroom for further study on Thursday and take the Practitioner exam on a Friday.

There are also providers offering online learning, weekend courses or you could self-study prior to the exam.

The PRINCE2^® 2017 Foundation qualification consists of a one-hour exam, with 60 multiple-choice questions. You must achieve 55 per cent to pass. There are no eligibility criteria although you’ll find it easier to understand the concepts if you have some experience of working in a project environment.

The prerequisite for the Practitioner exam is the Foundation certificate or equivalent. The exam is in the objective testing format (a more complicated style of multiple-choice questions). You have 150 minutes to complete the exam and there are 68 questions. The pass rate is also 55 per cent but you can take your official PRINCE2^® manual into the exam room as a reference – although there isn’t a lot of time to read it.

The pass rates for PRINCE2^® exams are published, and this is different from the PMI credentials where the exact pass mark isn’t given. Commentators and training providers tend to agree that you need to be looking at routinely getting 75 per cent in your PMI practice exams in order to be sure of passing those.

PRINCE2 Agile^®

PRINCE2 Agile^® Practitioner is a qualification that demonstrates your ability to apply and tailor the PRINCE2 Agile^® methods through a scenario-based assessment.

The certificate assesses your ability to:

• understand the basic concepts of common agile ways of working;
• understand the purpose and context for combining PRINCE2^® and agile methods;
• be able to apply or tailor the PRINCE2^® principles, themes, processes and approach to an agile environment and flex appropriately.

You’ll need to hold another project management qualification before you are eligible to take PRINCE2 Agile^® (although this doesn’t have to be an agile credential). PRINCE2^® Foundation or Practitioner, CAPM^®, PMP^®, and all levels of the IPMA^® scheme are acceptable as prerequisites.

The exam itself follows a similar format to PRINCE2^® Practitioner with 50 objective testing questions over a 150 minute exam. You need to get 60 per cent to pass and you can take your official PRINCE2 Agile^® guide into the exam room as a reference.

BCS professional certifications in project management

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, also offers project management and related qualifications. These are particularly relevant to project professionals working in IT.

These are summarised in Table 5.3.

Agile Business Consortium certifications

The Agile Business Consortium has a range of qualifications aimed at people working in an Agile environment, specifically with DSDM^® (Dynamic Systems Development Method).

Agile Project Management (AgilePM^®), available at Foundation and Practitioner levels, is the most relevant for people starting out in their careers. This is a certification that demonstrates your ability to adopt agile tools and techniques in your workplace. It covers testing, estimating, a variety of agile practices, facilitation and support within an agile project and managing requirements.

The Foundation level is assessed by a 40-minute multiple-choice exam of 50 questions, of which you have to achieve 50 per cent to pass. The Practitioner exam is two-and-a-half hours and follows the objective testing format: the more complicated type of multiple-choice paper also used for PRINCE2^® Practitioner. The pass mark is also 50 per cent.

You can go on to take Agile Programme (AgilePgM^®) and Agile Portfolio (AgilePfM^TM) qualifications too, should your career take you in this direction.

As you can see, there is a wide range of qualifications and professional body schemes to consider. Project management, and IT project management in particular, are not areas that stay still. The knowledge bases that underpin all of these credential schemes are works in progress, continually held under review by their governing body. This means that whichever you go for, you should have confidence in knowing that the standards and documentation have been reviewed by professionals in the field and deemed to be reflective of current best practice.

Each syllabus or body of knowledge is refreshed on a rolling basis so make sure that if you are investing in a text you have chosen the latest version.

Other training courses

Aside from courses that lead to a professionally recognised qualification, there are numerous other opportunities for training that will enhance your career. As an IT project manager, you can study everything from short courses in soft skills to an MBA with a technical project management specialism, and many other courses in between.

It’s worth talking to your employer to see what support they offer for training. For project managers early in their career, there is a huge benefit from taking courses that will help you develop your leadership and interpersonal skills as these will strongly influence your career success over time. Take every opportunity for training that is open to you, as you never know what you might learn or who you might meet through the course.

Whatever qualification or course you choose, it’s going to support your next move and enhance your CV. You’ve invested your time and energy into professional development. Whether you’re aiming to make your next career move in-house or to move to a new company, the fact that you’ve committed to improving your skills will help your application shine.

MOVING UP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

After spending some time managing projects of some complexity, you’ll be thinking about the next phase of your career. Programme management roles are often seen as a natural choice for project managers looking for their next challenge. As businesses get more strategic with project management and start aligning projects together into programmes of work, the need for skilled programme managers grows.

Programme management isn’t the same as managing projects and the skills you need are quite different. However, they are certainly aligned and many project managers successfully make the leap into the more strategic and higher-level role of managing a programme of work.

If you want to move into programme management, here are nine skills you can develop during your time as project manager that will help you make the jump to programme level when the time comes.

1. Resource management

In a programme management role there are lots of people, all playing important parts in keeping everything moving in the right direction. At project level you will be used to juggling the resource requirements around within your team so that you’ve got the right people doing the right things at the right time. On a programme, it’s a bigger pool of people.

You’ll have to look at the skills required to deliver the programme and work with project managers to resource the projects adequately. Then you might have to take decisions about where to deploy those staff members so that the work gets done in the most efficient way, even if that means taking someone off one project and temporarily asking them to work on another.

It’s a huge juggling act and can be quite time consuming. The experience you can build doing similar activities managing teams on projects will definitely help.

2. Stakeholder engagement

Programmes have stakeholders, just like projects do. Hone your skills on your project and you’ll be well-placed to use them at programme level.

There is a lot more stakeholder engagement to do at a programme level as the pool of stakeholders is larger and generally people hold more senior roles in the organisation (in other words there is more politics to deal with).

3. Analysis

Analysis is a broad term but really it’s the ability to look at lots of different data sources and information and see what’s really going on.

You’ll have to weed out the opinion, focus on facts and ask challenging questions to get to the root cause of issues. You’ll have to dig into the detail and then apply that to the big picture. Being able to assimilate lots of information and condense it into a format that people can understand is important.

Think about how you do that today in your role as a project manager and that might give you some ideas of how you can prove you can do this at a programme level.

4. Decision making

Someone has to make the decisions, and in an IT programme management role, that’s often you.

You have to be confident enough to use the information you’ve received and make the call. There’s no hiding in this job.

You make decisions all the time in your project management role, so there’s nothing inherently different, except the implications are generally more significant and the buck stops with you.

5. Business acumen

Your programme is delivering some kind of change but there are parameters around that. Use your business acumen skills to understand the commercial aspects of the work beyond the scope of the IT work. You need to be able to think of your programme in the context of other business initiatives and consider the implications for spending money.

This is all about understanding the business case, challenging intelligently and thinking about the cash as if it was your own money on the line. There’s possibly also an element of contract negotiation and procurement that perhaps isn’t a big part of your project role. Finally, you’ll have to manage the programme budget, making sure each project and initiative is adequately financed.

6. Change management

Programmes frequently include an element of business-as-usual work, but mostly they are about changing something. The constituent projects support the overall change the business is looking for. Good change management skills are really important, and this goes beyond knowing how to fill in a change request form and doing the analysis for a project-level change.

This is really about changing behaviour. Programme managers have to bring people along with them, encouraging them to see the vision and to understand why they are going on this journey. And dealing with the inevitable resistance to your plans.

You might work alongside a change manager who can handle these elements, but it’s still worth having a broad understanding of change management tools and techniques yourself so that you can assist and support as required.

7. Communication

It should go without saying that programme managers need to be excellent communicators. Again, this is a skill you can hone in a project management role. You’ll be able to use all your experience in a programme management job.

The audiences for communication on a programme are quite different, but the analysis and planning for communications have a lot of similarities to project-level communication.

8. Risk management

Risk management is another one of those skills where the title makes it look like you’re just doing the same thing as you did on projects but the reality is quite different.

Programme level risk management is not just about rolling up all the project risks into one big log and then asking project managers to stay on top of them. You’ll need to link programme level risks to strategic business outcomes, identify issues that will impede other business initiatives and present all of that in a way that ties back to what the executive team really care about. Plus you’ll do all the monitoring and corrective action for those risks, as well as supporting project managers with their local issues.

9. The ability to let go

On smaller projects you probably understood a lot of the tasks in minute detail. If you came from a technical or subject matter expert background you might have got stuck doing some of the tasks as well. You can’t do that on a programme. First, you are too busy doing programme management and second you can’t be close enough to the project detail to be able to get hands on.

You have to acknowledge this and get comfortable with not knowing the minutiae of what is going on. Let it go. You have to trust your project managers and their teams to do what they need to do and to flag problems to you. You have to press on with the confidence that it’s all happening, even if you don’t know exactly what ‘it’ is.

Qualifications to support your career at this stage

Professional qualifications don’t stop at project management level. There are qualifications you can achieve to support your ongoing career in a programme management or project office role too.

Common qualifications include:

Managing Successful Programmes (MSP^®). MSP^® is the AXELOS Best Practice framework to manage complex change through interrelated projects, from the same family as PRINCE2^®. You can be certified at Foundation, Practitioner or Advanced Practitioner level. These are assessed through an exam.

Program Management Professional (PgMP^®). This credential from PMI is aimed at senior level practitioners managing multiple, related projects in a programme structure. This is assessed through an exam.

APM Registered Project Professional (RPP). This standard from APM demonstrates that you have the competencies required for effective management of projects, programmes and portfolios. It’s not aimed specifically at programme managers but it does recognise leadership and experience across the project delivery spectrum, and requires applicants to have a minimum of seven years’ experience plus hold an APM project management qualification. The standard is assessed through a written submission and an interview that covers the FIVE Dimensions of Professionalism^TM: Breadth, Depth, Achievement, Commitment and Accountability. The standard is aligned to the APM Competence Framework.

APM also offers IPMA^® Level A and B qualifications through a process of an application, a report and an interview.

Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O^®). P3O^® is the AXELOS Best Practice guidance for setting up and maintaining an effective delivery support office. It covers designing, implementing and managing a project office of any kind. Certifications are available at Foundation and Practitioner level and are assessed by exam.

Management of Risk (M_o_R^®). This is the AXELOS Best Practice guidance for risk management. It combines principles, an approach and processes to bring together the disciplines required to manage risk effectively at project, programme and portfolio levels. Certifications are available at Foundation and Practitioner level and you’re assessed through an exam.

Management of Portfolios (MoP^®). MoP^® is another Best Practice standard from AXELOS. This one offers guidance on principles, techniques and practices for the framework for delivering projects, decision making and ensuring a return on investment and benefits realisation. As with the other AXELOS certifications, this one is available at Foundation and Practitioner level and is also assessed through an exam.

Management of Value (MoV^®). This Best Practice guidance is aimed at people involved in more senior, strategic levels of project delivery and also at those tasked with improving operational efficiency. It looks at how to get the best out of the work and the most benefit for the investment but it covers more than just reducing costs. Available as Foundation or Practitioner certifications and assessed by an exam.

The Agile Business Consortium offers a range of approved Agile certifications specifically designed for programme managers and experienced project managers working in an agile environment. These include:

Agile Programme Management (AgilePgM^®): available at Foundation level only (assessed by a multiple-choice exam) this qualification is aimed at giving you the fundamentals around running an Agile programme. It covers planning, management, control, communication and team structure.

DSDM^® Agile Professional: this is an experience-based certification which showcases your expertise in managing projects within a DSDM^® (Dynamic Systems Development Method, another Agile method) environment.

Chartered status

In April 2017 APM became the chartered body for the project profession. The Chartered Project Professional standard (ChPP) was published at the end of 2017 and aims to be:

• achievable by project professionals within a decade of entering the profession;
• open to individuals who are directly involved in the delivery of projects, programmes and portfolios and the associated control functions;

Mandatory competencies for ChPP (all required)	Elective competencies for ChPP (two required)
Team management	Procurement
Conflict management	Contract management
Leadership	Requirements management
Risk and issue management	Solutions development
Consolidated planning	Schedule management
Governance arrangements	Resource management
Stakeholder and communications management	Quality management
Reviews	Transition management
Change control	Resource capacity planning
Budgeting and cost control OR Financial management	Frameworks and methodologies
	Independent assurance
	Asset allocation
	Capability development
	Business case
	Benefits management

• subject to a code of conduct;
• demonstrative of the key competencies required to work in a professional capacity.

Those competencies cover technical knowledge and practical experience across ten mandatory competencies and two of 15 elective competencies, as shown in Table 5.4.

In addition to demonstrating that you have achieved the required standard in the competencies listed in Table 5.4, applicants also need to provide two references related to their project work in the past two years and demonstrate 35 hours of continuous professional development in the past 12 months.

Finally, you have to commit to the Code of Professional Conduct, demonstrate your understanding of what working within an ethical framework looks like, and commit to CPD.

The standard recognises the diverse routes that people take with project management careers and has requirements for candidates to demonstrate technical competence, professional practice and ethics, and continuous professional development. There are three routes to achieving the ChPP designation, depending on your prior certifications:

1. For project professionals with a recognised assessment for technical knowledge. In this case, your professional practice will be assessed by a written submission and interview.
2. For project professionals who hold a recognised assessment for technical knowledge and professional practice. You will need to submit a log of your recent professional development activity and if your application is successful, you will be invited to interview.
3. For project professionals who do not hold a recognised assessment, but are eligible for chartered status. In this case, your technical knowledge will be assessed by interview and your professional practice through a written submission and interview.

There is more information on chartered status, eligibility requirements and how to apply on the APM website.²⁴

MOVING OUT OF IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The skills you develop working in an IT project management role are highly transferable and can set you in good stead for any role that involves getting work done. Your project management experience will have given you confidence, skills and examples of where you have delivered across a number of technical disciplines that will help you move out of IT project management perhaps into a line or functional role, where you have a team of people working for you on more operational responsibilities.

Equally, you have the opportunity to move out of IT project management into a different industry, but still managing projects. Project management skills are broadly similar across all industries and while your domain knowledge gives you deep insight into how technical projects are run, you can also use your expertise to deliver projects in other domains.

Another option is moving into product management, which could be open to you if you work in an Agile environment (and might still be worth considering even if you don’t).

Moving into product management

Project management and product management have some similarities, although they are different jobs. Both roles require you to have excellent communication skills and they both act as a link between one team and another. In a project role you’re the link between the project team and the customer. In a product management role, you link the business to the delivery team but with a slightly different focus.

The skills in planning and budgeting as a project manager will help you transition to product management, along with the expertise you’ll have gained in managing issues and risks, leading and decision making.

The main difference between the two roles is that a product manager makes decisions over how the project is going to affect the products and the project manager makes decisions over how that is going to be done.

The product manager’s role is to set the direction for the project and come up with the solution. They set the strategy for the project and take decisions about the end product. They don’t work with the project team to schedule and plan, monitor and control the path to achieving that.

Having said that, on some initiatives to do with their products, they might have to use project management skills because the workload or level of change is too small to involve a dedicated project manager.

Project managers often work with product managers and, especially in Agile teams, it can be an appealing career change. As many of the skills are the same, it can be a relatively straightforward move, although there are some big differences.

The product manager’s position is a long-term one. Their involvement starts at the concept and design phase, putting together the business case for a new idea. They act as the project manager’s ‘customer’. Then they support the project team through delivery. At the end, when the project team disbands and moves on to other initiatives, the product manager is still there, supporting the product through future updates, ongoing customer services and user support and then eventually decommissioning the product when the product life cycle ends. The role has a lot more long-range planning and requires a strategic outlook. There’s also a lot more interaction with customers through research and investigation into what they would like the product to evolve into.

There’s also a greater focus on sales and marketing, as well as customer service. The financial implications for managing a product are quite different from the project budgeting that you will be used to.

If you enjoyed the fact that you changed projects every so often, working with different teams and on different initiatives, you might miss that in a product manager role.

Product management is definitely a departure from the world of project management, but it’s included here as an example of the kinds of role that you can sidestep into, following a successful career as a project manager.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Whatever your role or your plan for developing your career through certifications, take note of the continuous professional development (CPD) requirements or you may lose your ability to reference your qualifications on your CV as they may become invalid.

Being able to demonstrate your CPD is required to maintain your standing with many project management professional bodies. You will be expected to log the activity you did that contributes to your continuing development and in some cases you may be audited on your CPD log.

CPD activities include:

• formal and informal training courses;
• community participation;
• on-the-job professional practice such as internal presentations;
• attending or leading workshops and seminars;
• developing materials for others to learn from – for example, writing articles for industry or internal publications.

Scheme requirements and what counts as CPD differ for each qualification, with some schemes limiting the amount of hours you can claim for particular activities, so always check what is expected of you.

The requirements for professional development relating to some of the more common qualifications are covered in Table 5.5.

Planning your own professional development

Even if you aren’t formally obligated to take on CPD it’s always a good idea to look at ways each year that you can develop your skills.

Luckily, the project management community is very active and there are lots of events, seminars and websites providing top quality information and learning opportunities for IT project managers.

Here are some options to consider – you can use these even before you begin your career in project management to test out the discipline and see if it feels like a good fit for your future career.

• Attend industry conferences. These tend to be paid events and you may be able to get your employer to sponsor your attendance.
• Attend meet ups, exhibitions and trade shows. These happen in various locations nationally and are normally free to enter, with some exhibitions offering the option of paying to attend specific workshops. There are often some presentations that you can see for free at exhibitions in the main trade show arena. Check out Project Challenge (www.projchallenge.com).
• Read the trade and industry press, both in print and online. If you are a member of a professional organisation, make the most of the publications they offer. If you aren’t, see if your PMO has a subscription to a professional journal that you could read. There is a list of websites covering IT project management in Appendix 2.
• Stay connected to the professional groups and key thinkers on social media through blogs and podcasts. There is a list of social media sites covering project management in Appendix 2.
• Take a course in skills related to project management, such as leadership, negotiation or conflict resolution. A short course in this area is unlikely to lead to a qualification, but it will help you develop all-round skills.
• Take a MOOC (a massive open online course, usually offered by a university or similar training provider).
• Take a course in an allied subject such as project management offices, project assurance or information governance, to give breadth to your experience.
• Mentor a colleague if you have experience in a field where other people can benefit from your knowledge. This is a good opportunity for senior project managers looking to prove they can support individuals on a team before moving into a role with direct reports.
• Ask for a mentor. Take advantage of your company’s mentor or buddy scheme and ask to be partnered with someone who can support your career through offering you their expertise and being around for you to bounce ideas off.

SUMMARY

There are many opportunities for enthusiastic and experienced IT professionals who want to build a career in project management.

Whether you are looking for your first role, solidifying your experience and demonstrating your skills through qualifications or considering moving up or out into other roles, there are career options that will support your choices.

There is a wide range of qualifications available covering a variety of project management approaches, methods and specialisms. Once you’ve gained a qualification (and even if you haven’t yet) you should demonstrate your commitment to continuous professional development through an ongoing programme of formal and informal learning.

Do this

• Choose a qualification that is appropriate for your career level right now and make the commitment to achieve it within 12 months. Draw up a project plan to schedule out your study time and approach achieving your qualification like a project.
• Plan to attend one formal or informal workshop, seminar or event in the next three months on a topic that lends itself to your CPD.
• Talk to your manager about finding a mentor if you don’t already have one.

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