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Research on the role and profile of project managers has been a growing concern in the field with researchers and professional associations developing a fragmented body of knowledge regarding project management competency. In order to address this issue, this article systematically reviews the literature regarding project management competency. This review found that a project managers' competency profile is composed of 81 competencies divided across 11 dimensions: influencing, communication, emotional, contextual, management, cognitive skills, professionalism, knowledge and experience, project management knowledge, and personal skills and attributes. Based on the competencies identified, we developed a project management competency assessment instrument that can be used by practitioners and academics.

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Iberoamerican Journal of Project Management (IJoPM). www.ijopm.org.

ISSN 2346-9161. Vol.10, No.1, A.R.B., pp. 34-59. 2019.

Recepción: 02/04/19. Aceptación: 06/06/19. Publicación: 10/06/19.

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK

Leandro Bolzan de Rezende, Paul Blackwell

The University of Manchester

Abstract

Research on the role and profile of project managers has been a growing concern in the field with

researchers and professional associations developing a fragmented body of knowledge regarding

project management competency. In order to address this issue, this article systematically reviews

the literature regarding project management competency. This review found that a project

managers' competency profile is composed of 81 competencies divided across 11 dimensions :

influencing, communication, emotional, contextual, management, cognitive skills,

professionalism, knowledge and experience, project management knowledge, and personal skills

and attributes. Based on the competencies identified, we developed a project management

competency assessment instrument that can be used by practitioners and academics.

Keywords:

Project management; project manager; competency; profile; framework.

1. Introduction

In recent years, there has been a growing concern regarding the human factor contributions to

project management. For instance, the annual publication about project managers' (PM)

competencies almost doubled from 138 articles in 2014 to 256 articles in 2018. During the same

period, professional associations such as the Association for Project Management (APM) and the

Project Management Institute (PMI) both published frameworks describing PM core competencies

(1,2).

On the practitioners' side, PMI's framework assess es project manager's abilities in terms of

knowledge, performance, and personal competencies regarding their best practices guides (1).

Similarly, the APM framework assesses the project manager against 32 competencies, most of

which focused on technical aspects. On the academics side, researchers have used instruments such

as the Leadership Dimensions Questionnaire (LDQ), the McBer Competency Framework, the

Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, the General Mental Ability (GMA), the

Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI), the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), and the

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to assess PM competencies (3 –11).

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However, while the efforts of professional associations and researchers have helped to uncover

many different perspectives about project management competencies, this naturally led to the

creation of an extensive but also fragmented body of knowledge regarding the topic. Therefore,

there is a gap regarding a complete competency framework that describes project managers in all

their complexity, going beyond technical competencies. Thus, the objective of this article is two-

fold. First, we focused on identifying and grouping all project management competencies to create

a complete framework. Second, based on the competencies identified, we developed a project

management competency assessment instrument.

Figure 1: systematic review process

2. Methods

The method chosen to conduct the systematic review was the Search, Appraisal, Synthesis and

Analysis (SALSA) framework (12). For this, a step by step process was designed (Figure 1). The

first two stages of the SALSA framework, search and appraisal, were divided into steps A to C and

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D to E, respectively. The remaining stages, synthesis and analysis, were composed of stages F and

G, respectively.

In order to minimize the risk of missing relevant sources (12), the search stage was conducted using

the broadest terms possible related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO (project management

office) competency. The Web of Science Core Collection was the main database used. The

keywords used to search titles, abstracts, and keywords were ["project manage*" OR "program*

manage*" OR "portfolio manage*" OR "PMO" OR "project management office*"] AND

[competence* OR skill* OR ability* OR knowledge*]. The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-

EXPANDED), the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and the Emerging Sources Citation

Index (ESCI) were the indexes used. Conference proceedings, book citations, and other sources

were excluded from the search to avoid grey literature and to allow us to focus on peer-reviewed

documents (Step A). The search results were further refined to include articles in English (Step B).

A final filter was applied to exclude research areas and Web of Science categories related to

biology, medicine, and health sciences, among others, focusing on research areas such as business,

management, and engineering (Step C).

After step C, a total of 658 articles related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO competency

were identified. Given the diversity and number identified during the appraisal stage, title, abstract,

and full text were analyzed to select articles specifically related to the research topic. The

combination of several search query possibilities, especially common keywords such as

knowledge, ability, skill, and competency, led to results addressing different research areas.

Articles were excluded from the results (Step D) based on their title and abstract when featuring

the same words, but with different meaning. Any unrelated articles were excluded (Step E),

resulting in a final datasheet with 55 articles.

During the synthesis stage (Step F), the articles were coded (13) to develop a line of argument

using the thematic and narrative synthesis approaches, since this study combined documents with

different objectives and methods to develop a robust literature review.

Finally, the analysis stage (Step G) was conducted to verify the consistency of the synthesis stage

and ensure that the findings were sufficiently robust. Articles were organized according to the

number of codes and data saturation was found after eight articles and no new competencies were

found after that, showing that the sample was enough and robust.

3. Project management competency framework (PMCF)

Research on project management competency was explored from different perspectives, leading to

discussions focused on specific topics such as leadership, emotional intelligence, general and

project management competencies, among few others. The focus of specific topics created a

fragmented view, therefore, Figure 2 illustrates the PMCF based on all competencies discussed by

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authors over the years. Moreover, it highlights the project management core competencies (inner

bar) according to the number of times researchers found them to be more significant than other

competencies. Given that authors organized project management competencies in different ways,

competencies are presented in eleven main groups created according to competencies' affinities.

Figure 2: Project management competency framework

Project managers have a profile that focuses more on social competencies (right side), rather than

individual competencies (left side). For instance, 38 social competencies accounted for an average

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of 28.64% mentions in the examined literature. On the other hand, the 43 individual competencies

accounted for an average of 23.69% mentioned in the literature. In the following sections, each

group is discussed.

3.1. Influencing skills

The influencing skills group represents six competencies that have the ability to produce effects on

the actions, behaviors, and opinions of others. Among these competencies are leadership (63.46%

- 33 sources), conflict management (42.31% - 22 sources), influence/persuasion (38.46% - 20

sources), motivating others (36.54% - 19 sources), negotiation (34.62% - 18 sources), and charisma

(9.62% - sources). Despite their differences, some competencies are correlated and are often

described as one. For instance, leadership, influence/persuasion, and motivating others are usually

used concomitantly to describe the ability to lead people toward an objective. Similarly, conflict

management and negotiation are usually used concurrently to describe the ability to build

consensus or find a common ground on issues related to the project. Charisma, on the other hand,

plays a more passive facilitating role, enhancing the effect of the previously competencies.

Leadership is the ability to lead or guide people toward an objective and it was regarded as a core

competency by many authors (14–23). Leadership is exercised in different ways, thus many styles

were developed, such as servant leadership (24), leadership by example (25), inspirational

leadership (26), task-oriented leadership (27), relationship-oriented leadership (27), transactional

leadership (5,11) and transformational leadership (3 –5,11). Among these styles, transformational

leadership was most positively correlated with high-performing managers and projects. In addition,

competencies such as influence/persuasion and motivating others are also associated with high-

performing managers (16,23,26,28–31). Influence/persuasion, for instance, can be described as the

"capability to persuade others to change a viewpoin t based on the understanding of their position

and the recognition of the need to listen to this perspective and provide a rationale for change" (32).

Similarly, motivating others can be described as the ability to inspire followers toward a vision or

objective (5) and in contrast to persuasion, it relies more on the emotional aspect of people.

Another competency frequently discussed by authors is conflict management. In the case of the

construction industry, it is occasionally described as claim or dispute management (19,33,34).

Nevertheless, conflict management can be defined as the "ability to arrive at effective solutions to

conflict whilst maintaining good relationship" (35) and project managers can exercise it through

different strategies, such as avoiding conflict (8), facilitating conflict solving (36), building

consensus (25), resolving conflicts (21,26) and managing conflicting situations in general. Similar

to conflict management, negotiation is another competency commonly mentioned as an important

ability for project managers. It is ability to reach an agreement, and in the project management

context it is usually associated with procurement (37,38), conflicts (26,39), and team negotiations

(9).

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Finally, charisma was an aspect mentioned by few authors (4,21,25,31,40). Nevertheless, it is

related to influencing skills, given that it can be described as the ability to influence others, attract

their attention and admiration, and being likeable. Despite being neglected by most project

management researchers, it was considered a core competency by Yasin et al. (25) in the case of

project managers in the Portuguese public administration sector and by Skulmoski and Hartman

(31) during initiation and closeout phases in IT projects.

3.2. Communication skills

Communication skills represent one of the most mentioned competencies in the project

management literature. It describes the ability to exchange information between individuals, but

authors mentioned several skills that form a competent communicator. Not surprisingly, basic skills

such as verbal (42.31% - 22 sources), written (40.38% - 21 sources) and listening (19.23% - 10

sources) communication were highly mentioned, ranking as first, second and fourth in this group.

Additionally, communication types such as multi-level (32.69% - 17 sources), open (15.38% - 8

sources), clear, direct and concise (15.38% - 8 sources), engaging (15.38% - 8 sources), multi-

cultural and contextual communication (11.54% - 6 sources), and presentation skills (11.54% - 6

sources) were mentioned as important competencies.

Basic communication skills were highly regarded as core competencies; however, reading was left

aside by authors. Some authors such as Davis (41) and Creasy and Anantatmula (42) vaguely

mention decoding as forming part of communication skills, although it can be applied both for

reading and listening. Similarly, Hwang and Ng (19) and Gray and Ulbrich (43) briefly mention

reading as a communication skill, although without going into further detail. The lack of discussion

about reading as an important communication skill raises concerns, given that a great deal of

information in projects is communicated in written contracts, plans, lessons, reports, among others.

Stressing the role of written communication as an important competency and neglecting the role of

reading skills raises the question of whether project managers are more focused on writing

information on paper as a way to comply with bureaucracies, rather than reading the available

information and, most importantly, understanding it.

Besides the basic skills, complementary communication skills describe important aspects of PM

communication competency. On one hand, skills such as multi-level, multi-cultural, contextual,

and open communication encompass skills regarding whom project managers communicate with.

On the other hand, complementary skills such as clear, direct, concise, and engaging

communication as well as presentation skills explain how the project managers share information.

For instance, multi-level communication was regarded as a core competency by several authors

(17,18,34) and describes the ability to effectively communicate with different levels of individuals

involved in the project, such as superiors, stakeholders, team members, and peers. Similarly, multi-

cultural and contextual communication describes PM ability to tailor the message according to the

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context. This skill is especially important in projects involving foreign languages (39,44) or when

technical information needs to be translated into common words that allow individuals from

different cultural and social backgrounds to understand the message (15). In addition to that, open

communication skills describe PM openness to create meaningful two-way communication in

which questioning and feedback are encouraged (4,21,27,31).

Focusing on the message, rather than the interlocutors, skills such as clear, direct and concise

communication, presentation and engaging communication help project managers to improve their

effectiveness. For instance, clear, direct and concise communication was regarded as a core

competency, especially when involving team members and executive stakeholders (4,27,40).

Similarly, other authors also highlighted the role of presentation skills and the importance of using

pictorial and graphical information to facilitate communication (21,45), especially during planning

phases (31). In addition, an engaging communication with lively, enthusiastic, and appealing

images about the project was regarded as an important aspect to win the support of stakeholders

and team members (4,8). All in all, these skills show a preference toward a clear, direct, and concise

message using visual presentations whenever possible, combined with an engaging defense of the

argument presented.

3.3. Team working skills

The team working skills group is composed of seven competencies that focus on the way people

work together to deliver projects. Some competencies are usually associated with each other, such

as collaboration (4 8.08 % - 25 sources) and support (28.85% - 15 sources), developing others

(28.85% - 15 sources) and team building (25.00% - 13 sources), delegation (30.77% - 16 sources)

and escalation (5.77% - 3 sources), and, as a result, trustworthiness (34.62% - 18 sources).

Collaboration was the most researched competency in this group and it is usually described

interchangeably as teamwork (3,16,26), collaboration (11,26,31,46), or cooperation (16,44,47).

Despite the different definitions, collaboration describes the ability to work together, varying from

simply sharing information and resources to a very interdependent working relationship. Support,

on the other hand, is the ability to assist someone and it is usually described by authors as

consultation (44,48,49), facilitation (21,31,36,40), or simply supporting others (4,15,23,47).

Therefore, support assumes a more passive role in which the individual does not need to actively

engage in the working relationship such as in a collaboration but needs to be available whenever

necessary.

While collaboration and support focus on existing working relationships, developing others and

team building skills focus on developing people in order to have an effective collaboration and

supportive working environment. Developing others, for instance, describes the ability to

effectively help individuals to improve their skills, knowledge, and performance levels. PM

attitudes toward developing others vary from case to case, although authors argue that coaching

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(8,21), mentoring (50), training (4,47), sharing knowledge, job shadowing (22), among others, are

effective strategies. In turn, team building is the ability to make a group of people effectively work

together, transforming a dysfunctional group into a cohesive team. In order to do so, project

managers must focus on fostering communication between groups (40), properly select

interdisciplinary team members (25), build coalitions within the project team (50), motivate and

develop trust between team members and project parties (22,36), among others.

Another pair of competencies that facilitates teams working together is delegation and escalation.

Delegation describes the ability to effectively transfer power and responsibility regarding an

activity, and it has a twofold usage in the literature. On one hand, when authors refer to delegation

as a way to motivate team members, asking them to take more responsibilities, the term

empowerment is used (6,24,28). On the other hand, when the focus of transferring responsibility is

to share the workload, authors tend refer to it as delegation to emphasize the need for decentralizing

activities (19,25,27,34). Therefore, project managers need to identify when and how to delegate

activities, whether the intention is to empower someone or to balance the workload. It is worth

mentioning, however, that delegation and empowerment are effective only when the necessary

power and authority to execute the new responsibilities are also transferred. Equally important to

delegation is the ability to know when and how to escalate issues in the project. Authors, however,

focus little attention on this competency, and only Brill et al. (21), Stevenson and Starkweather

(17) and Starkweather and Stevenson (18) raise it as a project management competency.

Finally, trustworthiness was the second most researched competency and it describes people's

belief that someone will act as expected. Because of that, many authors also refer to it as reliability

(48,49,51) or, as Medina and Francis (46) described it, "whether the project manager [or team

members] can be relied upon to act without reminders and finish tasks ". In order to develop trust

in a team, authors argued that defining clear roles and responsibilities (43) and improving

communication (8) are common strategies. As a result, establishing trust is an important aspect to

motivate team members, mitigate risks, resolve conflicts (8), and facilitate project success (22).

Moreover, Skulmoski and Hartman (31) argued that trustworthiness is an important aspect in all

project phases, but especially at the closeout phase, when being honest, truthful, and trustworthy

are key elements to make the client believe that the project was delivered as agreed.

3.4. Emotional skills

The emotional skills group is composed of six competencies related to individuals ' mental states ,

sensations, beliefs, or desires, namely stress management (4 4.23 % - 23 sources), interpersonal

skills (42.31% - 22 sources), interpersonal sensitivity (40.38% - 21 sources), self-awareness

(30.77% - 16 sources), self-motivation (28.85% - 15 sources), and empathy (13.46% - 7 sources).

Within this group, two subsets of competencies can be identified. On one side, interpersonal

sensitivity, interpersonal skills, and empathy are competencies focus on emotion toward or from

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others. On the other side, self-awareness, stress management and self-motivation focus on emotion

within the individual.

Interpersonal sensitivity describes the ability to sense and understand emotions expressed or felt

by others. The discussion regarding interpersonal sensitivity as a PM competency is usually carried

out by researchers investigating leadership (6,7,28,29,32) and emotional intelligence (3,41,52) in

projects and programs, and it is usually highlighted as a core competency to facilitate the work of

project managers. Interpersonal skills, on the other hand, focus on using and managing someone's

emotions. The way project managers use interpersonal skills varies substantially, but when authors

described it as a core competency, they argued that establishing and maintaining interpersonal

relationships (44), accepting flaws of others (25), having high concerns for people (26), giving

personal attention to members who seem neglected (4), showing an interest in members as

individuals and not only as project resources (46), and developing an understanding of the

relationship between behaviors and feelings (23) were important aspects to help to influence others'

emotions. Empathy describes the ability to understand and feel emotions from the perspective of

another, and despite being less researched in the project management competency literature, it

plays an important intermediary role between interpersonal sensitivity and interpersonal skills.

Thus, empathy facilitates interpersonal sensitivity by understanding someone's emotions from the

others' perspective and not from the observer 's perspective. Consequently, a better understanding

of someone's emotions facilitates the decision-making process regarding how to use interpersonal

skills to manage emotions toward the desired outcome.

On the second subset of competencies, self-awareness is the ability to sense, understand, control

and managing oneself emotions. Comparatively, it does for oneself what interpersonal sensitivity

and interpersonal skills do for others. Self-awareness was considered a core competency among

many project management leadership researchers (3,6,7,28,29), but its applicability goes way

beyond this area. In general, self-awareness is usually used to assess the "situation and

subsequently adjusting one's behavior - verbal, emotional, and so forth, and hence to be seen in a

positive light" (42). Moreover, in harsh field conditions such as some NGOs' working

environments, the risk of terrorism acts, bomb explosions, kidnapping, government abuses, and

long working hours demand project managers and team members the ability to self-manage their

emotions and physical state (15). In these situations, in addition to self-awareness, managers and

team members need to use stress management skills. As Brière et al. (15) added, one may remain

calm and not panic to not worse the situation. However, stress management also applies to non-

hostile environments, given that projects tend to have challenging deadlines, limited resources,

conflicting interests, and many other restrictions and frustrations that can stress those involved. For

that reason, authors tend to describe it in different ways, such as emotional resilience (7,29,32),

self-control (9,16,48,49,51), relaxation (48,49,51), patience (15), persistence (35), perseverance

(45), emotional stability (52), mental capacity (31), or being good under pressure (20,21). Whatever

the term used, stress management is the ability to resist and manage the emotional and physical

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effects of demanding circumstances or events experienced. Finally, another emotional skill raised

by authors was self-motivation and it describes the ability to positively influence or find stimuli to

pursue an objective. In the literature, it is usually related to enthusiasm (14,50), job satisfaction

(45), positive attitudes (21,40,50), or simply as motivation to achieve results and make an impact

(6,28,32).

3.5. Contextual skills

The contextual skills group represents five competencies related to the understanding and

management of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, or environment,

namely adaptability (44.23% - 23 sources), contextual awareness (30.77% - 16 sources), strategic

alignment (19.23% - 10 sources), political awareness (17.31% - 9 sources), and networking

(15.38% - 8 sources). Similar to other groups, some contextual skills are related to each other, such

as contextual and political awareness, adaptability and strategic alignment, and networking as a

facilitator.

Contextual awareness, for instance, describes the ability to understand the social and institutional

context in which the project is executed. In practice, it is related to the understanding of the

project's commercial and business environment (14), the differences between cultures, beliefs

systems and values of those involved in the project (14,15,23,34,39), the characteristics of the local

environment (15,34,39), and which organizations are involved in the project delivery (25,26,53).

As one may note, contextual awareness deals with explicit and observable contextual aspects, while

political awareness deals with implicit and hidden contextual aspects. Therefore, political and

contextual awareness complement each other. Political awareness can be described as the ability

to understand the political context in which the project is executed. In practice, a competent PM

with political awareness is capable of identifying hidden, diffused or conflicting interest agendas,

navigating through them, foreseeing the implications of various scenarios based on these interests,

and power relationships (26,54).

While contextual and political awareness focus on sensing and understanding the context in which

the project is developed, strategic alignment and adaptability deals with the responses under those

circumstances. Strategic alignment, for instance, describes the ability to align team members and

the project toward an objective. This may occur within the project or in relation to a program,

portfolio, or organizational strategy (48,49,51,55). In order to do so, project managers inform

members regarding the project's strategic values, goals and vision, thus aligning, focusing and

managing expectations among team members (21,26,36,40). Strategic alignment, on the other

hand, focuses on the long-term strategies and orientations, while adaptability prepares managers to

deal with the daily dynamics involved in a project. Therefore, adaptability describes the project

manager's ability to be flexible and rapidly adapt to new conditions, especially in situations

involving high levels of ambiguity and change (17,18,31,43).

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Alongside the prior four competencies in this group, networking plays an important role in

facilitating understanding and the response to the context. Thus, networking describes the ability

to connect and interact with others, exchange information, and develop professional and social

contacts. In developing a network of contacts, project managers facilitate the role of gathering

information to understand the context and drive the response toward the right individuals. Authors

highlighted how having a network of contacts was an important aspect to engage team members

(9), stakeholders, such as members of the public, local contacts, funding sources, beneficiaries, and

partners in NGO projects (15,22,25), or even rapidly reach people in corporate or senior

management by bypassing slow formal communication channels (54).

3.6. Management skills

The management group is composed of five generic skills related to the processes of

administration, conduction, and controlling factors and people in a project, namely monitor and

control (38.46% - 20 sources), planning (26.92% - 14 sources), directiveness (25.00% - 13 sources),

organization and coordination (23.08% - 12 sources), and prioritization (17.31% - 9 sources).

Similar to other groups, some competencies are complementary to each other given their similar

characteristics. For instance, planning and prioritizing are competencies that order projects, while

directiv eness, organization, and coordination deal with its execution. Alongside these, monitoring

and controlling links these competencies and provides a feedback loop between them that facilitates

proper management.

One of the first competencies used by project managers is planning, which describes the ability to

think, make sense of, structure and organize information required to achieve a goal in a formal or

informal plan. In the literature, planning is usually related to defining the project's scope,

scheduling the activities, forecasting risks, estimating resources, etc. (19,21,54). Similarly, in

bodies of knowledge such as the PMBoK (56), it is also described as planning a specific project

management knowledge area. However, it is important to understand that planning goes beyond

conventional project management knowledge areas. Complementing the role of planning in

structuring the project, prioritizing adds the ability to order the level of importance between factors

and people involved. It usually involves the prioritization of work (40,44), the identification of

issues (16), the development of a sense of urgency (21), and prioritizing between projects and

programs in the context of portfolios (55). In summary, planning and prioritization complement

each other and play the essential role of ordering and structuring the project through successive

prioritizations, decisions, and information organization.

Directiveness, and organization and coordination are competencies that complement planning and

prioritization given that they transform what was planned into action. Directiveness, for instance,

describes the ability to assertively define the direction and guide others toward an objective. In

practice, this competency is exercised through an assertive direction with clear roles and goals (27),

making team members comply with the plans (16), or, as Miterev et al. (54) stated, "holding the

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program together and directing people to meet the business commitments". In opposition to

directiveness, organization and coordination focus on a hands-on attitude to ensure the achievement

of defined goals, thus it describes the ability to systematically arrange and order things and people

with the purpose of enabling them to effectively work together. Project managers use this

competency when coordinating the work and activities of others, determining the workflow or

order of tasks (44,46), structuring information flow (54), coordinating subcontractors' interfaces to

avoid potential risks (26), organizing project staff and process expertise (50), among others.

Alongside these competencies, monitoring and control checks the progress of activities and people,

keeping their performance within defined parameters. Common monitor and control activities

involve frequently reviewing plans (39), controlling project team members (39), and supervising

their work (27). These activities are usually executed by previously defining, measuring, evaluating

the work (21,22,34,45,48,49), review and assess portfolio performance (55) and monitor other

initiatives that may affect their project outcomes (50).

3.7. Cognitive skills

Cognitive skills encompass competencies such as problem solving (34.62% - 18 sources), creativity

and innovativeness (32.69% - 17 sources), decision-making (32.69% - 17 sources), critical analysis

(30.77% - 16 sources), strategic perspective and system thinking (3 0.77 % - 16 sources), vision and

imagination (23.08% - 12 sources), intuitiveness (15.38% - 8 sources), and learning (13.46% - 7

sources), which describes abilities related to mental processes of perception, memory, judgment,

and reasoning, in contrast with emotional and volitional processes.

Two competencies are often related to determine how managers envision the project. Vision and

imagination describe the ability to share a view of the future state after the project. Project managers

with that ability are usually described as strategic thinkers, visionaries, having a long-term

orientation, having a strategic vision of the project or can look ahead and picture future scenarios

(15,21,25,50,51,54). While vision and imagination look what is ahead the project, strategic

perspective and system thinking looks the project's broader picture, identifying patterns and

connections between the elements that constitute the project (9,16,50). Researchers on PM

leadership also identified this competency and described it as having the ability to see the wider

issues and broader implications (7,28,32). Therefore, vision and imagination, and having a strategic

perspective and system thinking complement each other, with the first looking ahead and the later

looking at the broader picture.

Critical analysis and intuitiveness are two different and opposing competencies that focus on

reasoning about a concrete project issue. Critical analysis describes the ability to logically reason

and analyze issues in a project. Authors argued that project managers with this competency have

the ability to gather information from a wide variety of sources, breaking down or deconstructing

it to understand the implications and causes of a situation in a systematic manner

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(16,23,31,32,43,45). Conversely, intuitiveness describes the ability to understand something

instinctively, without logically or consciously reasoning about it. Authors described it as an

important competency when project managers face incomplete or ambiguous information, arguing

that they must use both rational and emotional perceptions to make a judgement (6,7,28,32).

Based on the wider or long-term vision of the project, and the logic or instinctive reasoning about

issues, project managers are able to use problem-solving and decision-making competencies.

Problem-solving, for instance, describes managers' ability to formulate a solution to overcome an

unwelcome issue or question in the project. Some authors described four stages to solve problems:

identification, framing, analysis and decision making (21,41,43). Additionally, Zhang et al. (26)

argued that problems need to be quickly solved, so managers need to avoid allocating blame

between project parties and focus on solving problems (36), for which managers need to develop

their decision-making skills. However, decision-making goes beyond problem-solving and

describes the ability to make choices in general. In practice, project managers are constantly asked

to make time-sensitive decisions (21,39) and embrace collective decision-making processes

(26,36), which demands sound judgement to arrive at an effective decision.

Finally, two other cognitive skills that facilitate the use of previously described competencies are

learning and creativity. First, learning describes the ability to acquire and absorb knowledge and

other skills, contributing to the continued development of competencies essential to project

delivery. For that reason, authors argued that project managers not only should seek out

information, but also invest in self-development and life-long learning as strategies to be ready to

deal with project-related issues (16,31,45). Project managers need to use the knowledge acquired

in a creative and innovative way to deliver better solutions. Aga et al. (4) and Fisher (23) described

creativity as an important leadership aspect that helps team members to rethink problems, and

develop novel solutions and ideas. Moreover, Skulmoski and Hartman (31) found that creativity is

an important competency, especially during project initiation when project managers and team

members are faced with challenging problems and new requirements. Together, learning and

creativity help to accumulate and use knowledge in favor of the other cognitive skills.

3.8. Professionalism

The professionalism group represents PM qualities that can be encompassed into two major

attributes: ethics (32.69% - 17 sources) and accountability (15.38% - 8 sources). All in all,

professionalism focuses on how people behave on the job, describing the positive behaviors

expected from a professional. Professionalism is one set of competencies that is noticed when

present but much more perceived when it is absent.

Project management ethics describes moral principles that govern professional behaviors when

conducting a project. As such, authors described many core attributes that can be encompassed

under the ethics umbrella, such as integrity (21,23), honesty (21,23,25,31), respectfulness (31),

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loyalty (23,25), reliability (49), punctuality and politeness (31). As a whole, these competencies

help to build a better working environment with less uncertainty and in which team members can

trust each other.

In addition to the ethics attributes, authors also highlighted the importance of developing

accountability and responsibility skills. Medina and Francis (46) argued that managers should take

an active responsibility to show their commitment to the project, rather than always delegating

tasks to the team. Additionally, Yasin et al. (25) and Blixt and Kirytopoulos (51) argued project

managers should also be accountable for their actions and decisions, claiming that accountability

is a core competency, especially in projects concerning the public sector.

3.9. Knowledge and experience

The knowledge and experience group focus on general knowledge and experiences required from

project managers. In this group, the most mentioned competencies were technical expertise

(42.31% - 22 sources), experience (17.31% - 9 sources), business expertise (13.46% - 7 sources),

and administrative expertise (13.46% - 7 sources).

Among the knowledge competencies, three kinds of expertise were mentioned by authors:

technical, business, and administrative. Technical expertise was by far the most mentioned

competency, and describes the knowledge and skills necessary for managing technical tasks

(20,25,31,45,54), technology (9,35,44,50), products and the systems (39) involved in the project.

Business expertise describes the ability to understand and identify patterns and common behaviors

in the industry in which the project is executed (31,39,53). Administrative expertise, on the other

hand, describes the knowledge and skills related to the logistics, managerial activities, and

workflow within the organization and the project (10,25). The kind of expertise required in a

project uncovers three levels of analysis. For instance, technical expertise focuses on the micro-

level of the project, dealing with execution matters related to technologies and technical tasks. In

contrast, business expertise focuses on the macro-level, usually dealing with issues outside the

project. Administrative expertise concerns the meso-level, supporting the activities carried out by

the previous levels within organizational boundaries.

Experience was another competency mentioned by authors to describe the knowledge and skills

gained by executing projects and tasks over a long time period. Different than knowledge within

specific domains, experience was mentioned in a generic form, encompassing aspects of technical,

administrative, and business experiences (14,22,53).

3.10. Project management knowledge

The project management knowledge group is composed of eighteen competencies focused on

specialized knowledge, techniques, and practices, mostly organized into traditional body of

knowledge such as the PMBoK (56). Therefore, the project management knowledge group is

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divided into two subgroups. On one side are the traditional project competencies to manage human

resources (50.00% - 26 sources), time (42.31% - 22 sources), stakeholders (40.38% - 21 sources),

risk (40.38% - 21 sources), quality (36.54% - 19 sources), cost (34.62% - 18 sources), procurement

(34.62% - 18 sources), scope (26.92% - 14 sources), resource (25.00% - 13 sources),

communication (21.15% - 11 sources), requirements (15.38% - 8 sources), and integration (11.54%

- 6 sources). On the other side are additional project management knowledge such as methods

(44.23% - 23 sources), client/costumer management (23.08% - 12 sources), health and safety

management (19.23% - 10 sources), knowledge management (17.31% - 9 sources), change

management (17.31% - 9 sources), and supply chain management (13.46% - 7 sources).

Comparing traditional project management competencies described in bodies of knowledge such

as the PMBoK (56) and those found in academic literature, the former shows a more extensive set

of competencies required from project managers. For instance, the PMBoK divide resource

management into two different disciplines in the academic literature: human resources

management focusing on personnel, roles and responsibilities (8,27,40) and resource management

that focus on estimation (34), and materials and equipment allocation (34). Requirement

management (25,48,51) is a separate domain from scope management in the academic literature,

contrasting with PMBoK, which encompasses both areas. Project management knowledge

competencies concerning cost and procurement also extended their focus. In the academic

literature, cost management also incorporates topics related to finance management

(15,25,34,48,50), which gives the discipline a balanced view regarding expenses (cost

management) and budgeting (finance management). Similarly, procurement management in the

academic literature also incorporated legal (25,35,44,48,51) and contract management knowledge

(34,35,48) as key competencies for procurement management. As one may notice, bodies of

knowledge such as the PMBoK cover most traditional project management knowledge

competencies, although it is necessary to recognize that project managers are required to know

much more than only the good practices. Therefore, training providers, recruiters, and self-educated

professionals should look beyond good practices and current bodies of knowledge.

In addition to the traditional project management knowledge competencies, the academic literature

also discussed other competencies such as the knowledge of project management methods

(14,21,22,47), client/customer management (8,16,36,47,49), knowledge and information

management, health and safety management (15,33,48), change management (15,26,39), and

supply chain management (14,36). All in all, the existence of additional project management

knowledge competencies reinforces the argument that project managers need to learn more than

traditional project competencies described in the existing bodies of knowledge.

3.11. Personal skills and attributes

Finally, the last collection of competencies is the personal skills and attributes group, which focuses

on the main individual PM characteristics. This group has ten competencies: achievement

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orientation (38.46% - 20 sources), commitment (28.85% - 15 sources), initiative (28.85% - 15

sources), confidence (25.00% - 13 sources), openness (17.31% - 9 sources), detailist (13.46% - 7

sources), courage (7.69% - 4 sources), sense of humor (7.69% - 4 sources), multi task (3.85% - 2

sources), and discipline (3.85% - 2 sources).

The three most mentioned competencies in this group were achievement orientation, commitment,

and having initiative, all of which are required for active project management. Achievement

orientation, for instance, is a very desirable competency, since is usually related to being

productive, focused, motived by delivering results and achieving goals (16,25,27,31,43,48).

Similarly, commitment, engagement or conscientiousness is a core competency described as the

ability to define a course of action and stick to a plan, despite adversities (6,7,15,24,28,32,43,51).

While achievement orientation focuses managers toward an objective and a commitment to keep

them on track, initiative plays the role of getting things done and proactively avoiding issues

(16,21,40).

Another two contrasting competencies mentioned in the literature were confidence and courage.

On one hand, confidence describes a full trust or belief in the ability to achieve project goals (4).

On the other hand, courage is used to challenge assumptions. Therefore, project managers must

work to build confidence in their course of action, but also have the courage to challenge people

and ideas in order to achieve a project's goals.

Five additional personal attributes were identified in the literature, although few authors argued

they are key characteristics of a project manager. These are openness (23,48), being detailed

(31,40), having a sense of humor (45), multitasking (47), and being disciplined (21).

4. PMCF as an assessment instrument

The PMCF presents a comprehensive set of competencies that maps the whole profile of a project

management professional and can that be used by practitioners and academics to assess people

working in the project management industry. However, the PMCF needs to be tailored to the

context within it will be applied, given that competencies may vary according to organizational

processes, roles, responsibilities and the level of proficiency required for each of them.

Nevertheless, using the PMCF as the foundation to analyze the relationship between people and

processes (who does what), competencies and organizational processes (what people should know

to work on the process), and competencies and people (what people already know) may prove a

valuable exercise to better understand the project management competency level.

The assessment objective may vary from academics to practitioners. Academics, for instance, may

use the PMCF constructs alongside Likert scale to find correlations between project management

competencies and other factors. Practitioners, on the other hand, may use the PMCF combined with

proficiency scale in order to evaluate people involving in organizational projects. Focusing on the

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practitioners side, there are two relative similar ratings scale regarding project management

competencies, namely the APM's (2) and PMI's (1) competency level scales. APM's (2) rating is

scale is more descriptive, as illustrated in Table 1, therefore easier to use:

Table 1 - Project management competency rating scale

One has an awareness of the knowledge needed for the competency. As only

awareness is required at this level, no application is expected.

One has a working knowledge of, and can describe, the competency. Applies

the competency under supervision, primarily in non-complex situations.

One has a comprehensive knowledge of the competence in situations of limited

complexity. Applies the competency independently, primarily in situations of

limited complexity.

One has a detailed knowledge of the competency in complex situations and can

critically evaluate and adapt as required. Applies the competency

independently, primarily in complex situations. Supervises others applying the

competency.

One has an in-depth knowledge of the competency in complex situations. Can

critically evaluate, adapt or develop new theories and/or methods if required

and educate others. Applies the competency independently, primarily in

complex situations. Recognized as an expert by others senior professionals,

who is called on by others for advice on the competency.

In addition to the five levels described in Table 1, is important to incorporate an initial level

represented by zero, in which one do not know the competency. The result is a project management

competency assessment instrument (Annex 1 – Project management competency assessment

instrument) that can be used by individuals (self-assessment) or managers (assessing others). By

applying the PMCF, one may find competencies gaps that need to be addressed to perform well on

the job or, on the contrary, find that one is above the required threshold for the job, therefore being

able to be perform well in a higher or more complex position. Moreover, as roles and processes

require different competencies, the PMCF allows managers to identify multi-competency people

that can be allocated for different roles or processes, giving the organization flexibility to manage

their talents.

5. Conclusion

The purpose of this article was to identify all PM competencies to develop a complete profile and

an assessment instrument tailed to this profession. In order to achieve such an objective, a

systematic review was used as the research method.

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The findings showed that project management competency profile is formed of 81 competencies

divided across 11 dimensions: influencing, communication, emotional, contextual, management,

cognitive skills, professionalism, knowledge and experience, project management knowledge, and

personal skills and attributes. In summary, among the 81 PM competencies, 48 were correlated

with project success, most of them related to leadership, emotional competencies, team working,

and project management knowledge.

Additionally, assessing project management competency using the identified constructs may prove

positive to individuals and organizations. The use of an assessment instrument based on a

comprehensive set of competencies may is an important step toward better understating the

complexities and nuances of a professional. Moreover, by applying the PMCF as an assessment

instrument organizations and instruments can identify competency gaps, improving investments by

training people on the right competencies, improve development programs and recruiting and

selection processes, assess the impact of firing or moving people to other departments, effectively

manage talents in the organization, among many other benefits.

Despite the benefits and strengths of a systematic review, this article was limited by the difficulty

to code different terms and data instruments used to express the same competency. Therefore,

further research is needed. For instance, it would be interesting to investigate the relative

importance between competencies according to a person's role and organizational process or

according to their gender, ethnicity, or personality.

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Correspondence:

Leandro Bolzan de Rezende. e-mail: leandro.rezende@manchester.ac.uk.

Paul Blackwell. e-mail: paul.blackwell@manchester.ac.uk.

The University of Manchester, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering. 76

Sackville Street, Pariser Building, Manchester, United Kingdom, M1 3NJ.

Iberoamerican Journal of Project Management (IJoPM). www.ijopm.org.

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Annex 1 – Project management competency assessment instrument.

Multi-level communication

Clear, direct and concise communication

Multi-cultural and contextual communication

Interpersonal sensitivity

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Organization and coordination

Project

management

knowledge

Human resources management

Cost and finance management

Procurement and contract management

Project management methods

Client/customer management

Knowledge and information management

Health and safety management

Personal skills and

attributes

... For that reason, standard assessment tools focused on few aspects of individuals' competencies (functionalist and reductionist perspective) such as the leadership dimensions questionnaire [73], IPMA's individual competence baseline [5], McBer job competency assessment process [51], Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional Intelligence Ability Test [74], Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire [75], Individual Perceptions Inventory [76], among others, was replaced by a comprehensive and integrated assessment tool in this article, the Project Management Competency Framework (PMCF). Based on the project management competency literature [20,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][59][60][61][62][63][64]67,68,[77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95], the PMCF was developed by Rezende and Blackwell [3], resulting in the identification of 82 competencies organised within 11 groups, namely influencing skills, communication skills, team working skills, emotional skills, contextual skills, management skills, cognitive skills, professionalism, knowledge and experience, project management knowledge, and personal skills and attributes. Fig. 1 illustrates the project management competencies identified by Rezende and Blackwell [3] and highlight in blue the competencies correlated to project success in the project management competency literature [20,33,43,46,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]84,86]: ...

... Based on the project management competency literature [20,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][59][60][61][62][63][64]67,68,[77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95], the PMCF was developed by Rezende and Blackwell [3], resulting in the identification of 82 competencies organised within 11 groups, namely influencing skills, communication skills, team working skills, emotional skills, contextual skills, management skills, cognitive skills, professionalism, knowledge and experience, project management knowledge, and personal skills and attributes. Fig. 1 illustrates the project management competencies identified by Rezende and Blackwell [3] and highlight in blue the competencies correlated to project success in the project management competency literature [20,33,43,46,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]84,86]: ...

... The purpose of the interviews (why) was to understand the role of competencies in the management of complex projects and programmes, given that it was identified in a recent bibliometric analysis [99] as an important aspect related to complex projects. The focus of the interviews (what) was outlined based on the findings of a systematic review [3] which aimed at developing a comprehensive project management competency framework (PMCF) covering all competencies discussed in the literature so far. ...

This research adds a comprehensive way of assessing competencies, contrasting with the usual reductionist approach that uses off-the-shelf instruments. The study reveals 27 competencies to manage complex projects based upon a comprehensive analysis of 22 interviews with senior practitioners associated with the most strategic projects from the Brazilian Army. These competencies were divided into 10 groups, namely influencing, communication, team working, cognitive, management, contextual skills, professionalism, project management knowledge, and personal skills and attributes. Surprisingly, both emotional skills and social competencies were not prominent. The results contribute to advance our knowledge by revealing that practitioners involved in complex defence projects value more technical and individual competencies. This study analyses competencies across several complex projects in the defence sector, providing insights to practitioners and expanding the academic debate focused on other industries and single cases. Organisations might use the competencies to recruit, select, and develop human resources involved in complex defence initiatives.

... A wide-ranging literature review on engineering practice in global context finds that global engineering competency, technical coordination, engineering cultures, ethics, standards, and regulations are the most important competencies (Jesiek et al., 2014). A recent study identified 81 competencies and divided them across 11 dimensions (Rezende & Blackwell, 2019;Dotsenko, Chumachenko, & Chumachenko, 2019). But, none of these articles identify the important competencies required of engineering students who participate in international projects. ...

... This article incorporates the competencies proposed by Levonisova et al., (2014) in the flow chart. Instruments to measure Engineering Global Preparedness have been created by Streiner, McCave, Levonisova, Savage & Besterfield-Sacre (2015) and Rezende and Blackwell (2019). It is possible to use such instruments to evaluate how well students are prepared to work in international projects in the future. ...

• Chetan S. Sankar

Given the importance of students working in international environments, this study identifies the important competencies that engineering students need so that they could work effectively. The list of competencies was identified using a realist synthesis methodology. The context of the research was thirty-seven U.S. students who worked on twenty-two international projects with companies and research centers in India. The outcome was development of multi-media case studies based on the projects. The students spent a semester preparing for the project, eight weeks working on the project, and a semester developing the case studies. Each project was evaluated and students interviewed to identify the competencies that were utilized by the students. Analysis of these evaluations showed that successful projects trained the students to be competent in the technology domain of the project and encouraged them to communicate well with their counterparts.

... Diversos autores têm produzido listas de competências transferíveis [3], [25], [26], que, em muitos casos, estas listas atingem um número elevado de competências. Um gestor de projeto ou um membro de uma equipa de projeto dificilmente dominará todas essas competências. ...

... Alvarenga et al. [3] conduziram um estudo que envolveu 257 gestores de projeto com mais de dez anos de experiência de gestão de projetos, tendo identificado 28 competências nucleares. Uma revisão de Rezende e Blackwell [26] identificou 81 competências na literatura, organizando-as em 11 dimensões: de influência, de comunicação, emocional, contextual, de gestão, de conhecimento e experiência, cognitivas, profissionais, de conhecimento em gestão de projetos e atributos e habilidades pessoais. Quarenta e oito daquelas competências foram associadas ao sucesso do projeto, especialmente liderança, competências emocionais, trabalho em equipa e conhecimento da gestão de projetos. ...

Published in IEEE VAEP-RITA (Versión Abierta Español-Portugués): Expository approaches in project management education do not seem engage engineering students, who lack transferable competencies. This article reviews the project management competencies, Generation Z profile, and teaching methods trends reported in the literature. It presents a study involving 147 engineering students, through a self-report questionnaire, to explore their profile's self-awareness and compare it with the literature. A correlational study links the Generation Z personality traits with project management soft skills. Findings reveal interesting personality characteristics of Generation Z engineering students for project management. The sample showed low recognition of their individualism, less personal relationships, and did not value their creative potential. Some traits have a significant effect on critical soft skills. Other soft skills were not supported in personality traits. This work suggests implications for re-think educational approaches to Generation Z engineering students.

... This article is an extension of: "A multigenerational approach to project management: implications for engineering Several authors tried to provide comprehensive lists of transferable competencies [3], [25], [26]. In many cases, such lists are populated with a significant number of competencies. ...

... Alvarenga et al. [3] conducted a study that involved 257 project managers with over ten years of experience in project management and identified 28 core competencies. Another review [26] identified 81 competencies in the literature, organized in 11 dimensions: influencing, communication, emotional, contextual, management, knowledge and experience, cognitive skills, professionalism, project management knowledge, and personal skills and attributes. Forty-eight competencies were associated with project success, especially with leadership, emotional competencies, team working, and project management knowledge. ...

Expository approaches in project management education do not seem to be engaging engineering students. Although the students acquire remarkable theoretical knowledge throughout their coursework, they lack transferable competences, such as soft skills, which are scarcely attended in the teaching of project management. Generation Z's characteristics differ from previous generations and should be considered in new project management education approaches and methods. This article reviews the project management competencies, Generation Z profile, and teaching methods trends reported in the literature. It presents a study involving 147 engineering students, through a self-report questionnaire, to explore their profile's self-awareness and compare it with the literature. A correlational study links the Generation Z's personality traits with project management soft skills. Findings reveal interesting personality characteristics of Generation Z engineering students for the project management field. However, this sample showed low recognition of their individualism, less personal relationships, and did not value their creative potential. There were also differences in Electronic, Electrical, and Computer Science engineering students, namely, lower emotional intelligence. Some highlighted traits have a significant effect on critical project management soft skills. Other soft skills were not supported in personality traits. This work suggests implications for re-think educational approaches to Generation Z engineering students.

... Consequently, there has been a demand for standard individual competencies, such as the "Project management competency development framework" [9] and the "APM competence framework" [10]. Such standards, coupled with published research, suggest extensive lists of competencies [2], forming a fragmented body of knowledge [11] as concerns this topic. Not only have many competencies been described, but they are also not equally important in different industries and project types [3,5]. ...

... The literature of project management competence distinguishes three main areas: the context, the project management tools, and techniques and the human aspect [13]. The latter reflects a growing concern regarding the human factor contributions to project management [11,16,35,36]. Competencies can embody an array of characteristics, behaviors, and traits necessary for effective job performance [5]. ...

Generation Z is arriving in the workforce. Do these youngsters have the skills and traits to fit project teams? This study reviews the literature concerning project management competencies and the traits that are associated with Generation Z. To deepen the understanding of its members (Gen Zers) traits, we explore the self-awareness of their profile, strengths and weaknesses with an empirical study. We used a mixed-method approach, implementing a survey on a sample of 211 college students about to enter the labor market. Comparing our survey results with the literature, we identified differences that reveal some of the lack of awareness of Gen Zers about their traits. Further analysis also revealed a significant correlation between the most highlighted Generation Z traits and essential project management soft skills, pointing to Generation Z as a promissory asset in the project management field. However, other essential project management (PM) soft skills were not grounded in personality traits. Our findings, namely the lack of awareness and association results, suggest the need for further research on educational approaches and re-thinking and targeting education and training policies that could strengthen Generation Z soft skills. Our results also suggest reflections about whether the Gen Zers traits fit the PM competencies sought by organizations.

... They highlighted the differences in soft skill requirements, countries and industries compared to the literature. The authors in [7] provided another systematic literature review of recent articles. Using this data, the authors constructed a profile of project manager based on 81 skills divided into 11 skill categories comprising of communication, emotional intelligence, management, technical knowledge and personal attributes. ...

• Pratibha Purohit

The objective of this study is to present the required competencies for success in the Project Manager profession by performing a content analysis of 403 job advertisements inside the United States. Web scraping is adopted as the data collection technique. We utilized search results from a popular job hosting engine, Indeed.com. To accomplish the goal, we design a com-petency classification framework wherein individual keywords were assigned to different skill categories and associated skills. Thereafter, we match these keywords with the n-gram present in the job ads. Finally, we present a sorted list of skill categories based on the relative frequency count with respect to the total number of jobs. For this purpose, we heavily relied on a semi-automatic text mining system based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) built in Python.

• John Clark

The purpose of this research sought to investigate the relationship between project management competencies and project complexity upon project success. A literature review indicates that project complexity is a primary source of project failure. A gap exists concerning how project management competencies and project complexity predict project success. The first research question was, "To what extent do project management competencies predict project success?" The second research question was, "To what extent does project complexity predict project success?" A quantitative method nonexperimental research design, using a correlational approach, was deployed. The theory of complexity explains that the relationship between project management competencies and project success is influenced by project complexity. The standard project management model and the expanded standard project management model were used to relate the three variables. The study population was project management professional certified project managers, who operated in the United States of America, and who completed a project within the last six months from the time of this research. Research results showed that project management competencies positively predict project success. Results were inconclusive concerning whether project complexity predicts project success. The predictive model involving project management competencies and project complexity upon project success is a good model. The predictive model offers insight into managing project complexity. Using project management competencies, project managers can establish an environment built on collaboration and knowledge sharing. Using collaboration and knowledge sharing, project managers can seize creativity and ingenuity, available in complex systems through interdependence, to influence project success.

The paper focuses on the problem of high youth unemployment and low levels of entrepreneurial activity, as well as the limited potential of young people to work on real life projects as a result of the COVID-19 economic crisis. Strengthening the entrepreneurial and project management competencies of young people, especially those with high educational potential and ambitions in specialized professional fields, is one of the ways to solve the problem described. In the current education system, the latter have little opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial and project management competencies. The lack of such competencies among highly educated young people, especially those studying in non-economic faculties such as the natural sciences, humanities, etc., has almost no potential to develop into so-called high-impact entrepreneurs. Instead, they become a useful but very scarce resource. The skills and attributes that characterize an entrepreneurial individual are also largely consistent with the skills and characteristics required of project managers. The paper presents the synthesis of entrepreneurial and project management competencies, according to the ECF (Entrepreneurial Competency Framework) and PMCF (Project Management Competency Framework) models. A comparative analysis illustrates the numerous coherences and interrelationships between the competencies of these two important areas, which can considerably simplify and, in particular, shorten their development processes. Although the names and scope of the individual competencies are not always the same in the first and second models, they are almost or entirely consistent in terms of content. We have defined three categories depending on the consistency of content or relationship of the identified competencies according to the ECF and PMCF models: (1) "ECF and PMCF compliant competencies", (2) "Entrepreneurial / Project management specific competencies" and (3) "ECF exclusive competencies". The proposed synthesis of the two models can therefore be a very suitable basis for implementing a program for the harmonious development of such competencies in educational programs and training.

The role of a project manager's leadership competence in improving project performance is critical. However, little attention has been given to people-related competencies of the project manager as a leader. This study aims to develop and test a model of project manager leadership competence. To investigate the influence of a project manager's leadership competence on project performance, 289 project managers working on public sector projects in Pakistan were surveyed. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to analyze interrelationships among specific competencies and to explain these competencies in terms of their common underlying dimensions. Hierarchical Regression Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling were employed to test research hypotheses and the model. Findings from this study demonstrate that all five leadership competencies of a project manager are significantly related to achievement of project performance in terms of schedule, cost, and quality, as well as stakeholder satisfaction.

Purpose Public sector projects still fail to meet delivery expectations, and the lack of significant project management experience in the Australian public service (APS) has been identified as a contributing factor. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of competencies required for delivering public sector projects, as well as challenges faced by the project managers when operating in a public context. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative semi-structured interviews were used to enlighten the social and operating construct in APS. In parallel, a quantitative survey was used to determine the relative importance of various competencies to effective project delivery. Findings The research concludes that communication, accountability, business alignment, scope and deliverables, change, and project and program orientation are the most important competencies in APS project delivery. Furthermore, there is evidence that the operating environment acts as a barrier to successful project delivery, noting that it does not let project management practice deploy its full potential for increased effectiveness and efficiency. Practical implications The research findings noted that the specific needs, values and functions of project management in the APS are not well defined, and therefore there were limited criteria against which public sector project management competencies could be designed and measured. Originality/value This empirical research contributes to the open dialogue of improving efficiency in project management within the APS context. The findings point to the conflict between the operational nature of APS agencies and their project activities, and how they struggle to define themselves as project organizations rather than lack of appreciation to individual competencies.

Project Management (PM) capacity can be defined as PM resources and capabilities that are supporting for effective project operations. Using the Resource Based Perspective, the paper aims to explore the nature of PM capacity in NGOs and develops a framework for PM capacity in NGOs. A case study approach and qualitative methods have been applied for this study. For this study, the literature on PM resources and Organisational capacity was reviewed and a theoretical framework was created. This theoretical framework was then explored using four case studies conducted at Local and International NGOs in Sri Lanka. The study identified three levels of PM Capacity: Team PM Capacity, Organisational PM Capacity and Collaborative Social PM Capacity, a Capacity that has not yet been identified in the literature which supports adaptation to the complex, uncertain environments in which some NGOs operate. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. APM and IPMA. All rights reserved.

Although the effect of transformational leadership on project success is empirically supported, less is known about the mechanisms that explain this effect. To address this issue, we propose the mediating role of team-building as a possible explanation of the relationship between transformational leadership and project success. Based on a field survey of 200 development project managers in the Ethiopian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) sector, the results of our study indicate that team-building partially mediates the effect of transformational leadership on project success. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

• Rashid Maqbool
• Ye Sudong
• Nasir Manzoor
• Yahya Rashid

Project stakeholders always strive for a successful project, hence there is growing concern about the factors that influence project success. Although the success of a project is influenced by various factors, project managers play a very important role. This study aims to examine the relationship and impact of construction project managers' emotional intelligence (EI), managerial competencies, and transformational leadership style on project success. A total of 107 Pakistani construction firms were studied with a view to measuring the effects of these variables on the overall performance of construction projects. The results show that project managers with high emotional intelligence who bear the desired competencies and exhibit transformational leadership behavior are effective leaders and ensure higher success in projects than their counterparts. The findings will assist project sponsors in selecting the appropriate project managers for their projects.

The emergence of building information modeling (BIM) has generated several BIM jobs. However, despite opinions by BIM experts, questions regarding BIM jobs and their competencies still have no clear solution. This paper addresses this question by the collection and analysis of 242 online job postings, written in English, from the US, the UK, and China. These 242 job postings comprised a total of 32,495 words, from which 35 types of job titles and 5,998 terms related to job competency were extracted. Sequentially, the 35 job types were classified into eight BIM job types by analyzing the relations between the job titles using the role and position analysis of social network analysis. The eight BIM job types were BIM project manager, director, BIM manager, BIM coordinator, BIM designer, senior architect, BIM mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) coordinator, and BIM technician. The 5,998 competency-related terms were categorized into 43 competency elements using the O*NET classification as a framework for analysis. The 43 competencies were then subcategorized into essential, common, and job-specific competencies for the eight BIM job types. The findings of this paper could contribute to the research, industry, and academia by a) providing researchers with a scientific foundation for conducting studies related to BIM jobs and competence in the future; b) setting up guidelines for recruiting and training BIM experts in the industry; and c) allowing universities to develop BIM-related courses depending on their educational goals.

• Jingting Shao

We investigated the moderating effect of program context on the relationship between leadership competences of program managers and program success. Leadership competence was measured as the combination of intellectual competence (IQ), managerial competence (MQ) and emotional competence (EQ). A worldwide cross-sectional survey using the Leadership Dimensions Questionnaire (LDQ) and a program context and success questionnaire yielded 79 responses. Moderated hierarchical regression analyses (MHRA) were used to test the moderating effect of program context, which is characterized by organizational fit, program flexibility, organizational stability and resource availability. Results showed that program context positively moderates the relationships between program managers' IQ respective MQ with program success. However, the relationship between EQ and program success is lowered to insignificance in the presence of context. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.

• Karmin Gray
• Frank Ulbrich

Purpose The project management literature provides a fairly united picture of the importance of projects being successful. One success factor is represented by project managers themselves, whose personality, skills, knowledge, competencies, and traits affect project success. To better understand various project manager types, the purpose of this paper is to review the extant project management literature and propose a framework for categorising project managers based on the traits that they possess or lack. Design/methodology/approach The research commenced with identifying and collecting articles from the academic project management literature. The articles were then coded to identify different competencies and traits that a project manager needs to be successful. Based on this analysis, a framework with four main project manager types was developed. Findings The results indicate that ambiguity acceptance and translation skills are two important dimensions that project managers need to be successful. The four project manager types were arranged around two dimensions. Research limitations/implications The framework presented is based on previous research. Empirical testing of the proposed framework would be a promising direction for future research. Practical implications The framework assists reflective practitioners in identifying what kind of project manager they currently are, suggesting how they might transition into a different project manager type to increase their project management success rate. Originality/value This paper conceptualises project managers and how their personal traits relate to project success. It offers practical help to project managers in understanding their strengths and limitations, and how to become a different type of project manager.

• Xianhai Meng
• Paul Boyd

Relationship management is recognized as a focus of the next generation of project management. As a major sector, the construction industry has increasingly embraced the concept of project-based relationship management. On the other hand, project managers have grown steadily in prominence. This research explores the contribution of construction project managers to relationship management through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Project-based relationship management can be either internal or external. This research identifies 18 roles of project managers in internal relationship management (IRM) and 18 roles in external relationship management (ERM). As a result of data analysis, they are categorized into six internal role groups and five external role groups, respectively. In addition to role identification and categorization, this research provides evidence for the change in construction from traditional project management that concentrates on planning and control to new project management that highlights the importance of people and working relationships.

Although the construction industry is a major component of the U.S. economy, it has been suffering from declining productivity for decades. The human element, project managers (PMs) in particular, are key in solving these persisting problems. Measurement of a PM's overall performance is important to identify training needs and enables executives to better match competent PMs with the appropriate projects. This paper provides the construction industry with a generic mathematical formulation to reliably weigh different PM competencies. The developed data-driven mathematical model reflects the relative importance that industry practitioners place on different PM competencies while distinguishing exceptional PMs from average ones. This developed model is applied to a data set of 124 PM assessments filled by 62 PM supervisors so that each PM supervisor selected and rated an exceptional PM and an average PM. The results presented in the paper suggest that PMs should focus on developing their cognitive side, rather than settling only for possessing adequate knowledge and experience, managerial skills, and leadership capabilities. Also, these quantitative results illustrate that having business and financial acumens, disciplinary understanding of all the phases of construction projects and their interrelationships, continuous monitoring of similar construction projects, and consistent awareness of the available information technologies are among the most distinguishing competencies between exceptional and average PMs. Such results can assist the construction industry in directing its efforts toward accurately identified leverage development areas through pinpointing actual training and educational needs. Additionally, this paper compares the results of the developed data-driven mathematical model to an existing expert evaluation, presenting a key step in revealing and, in turn, reducing experts' subjectivity.

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333882135_Project_management_competency_framework

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