PMP certification is the professional project management from the PMI in the USA and PRINCE2 Practitioner is a standard project methodology from the UK OGC. On first view these two standards seem to portray dramatically different approaches to project management. This presents a real problem for people who are trying to decide which project management course is the best one for there career. But we think the two approaches are highly complementary and can offer project managers a more rounded appreciation of project management.

What is PRINCE2?

PRINCE2 is a publicly available method for the management of projects which is promoted by the UK government. It is applied in the UK, and increasingly around the world, to a wide range of projects from construction to IT projects. It has a highly developed process model which describes in detail to steps a project should go through to in order to be executed in a controlled environment. In addition to clear processes PRINCE2 also has a clearly defined set of responsibilities. These include the roles and responsibilities of the project manager, senior user, senior supplier and project executive or sponsor. To complement these PRINCE2 full includes detailed templates for the core project management documents such as a progress report and change request form.

PMP Certification

PMP Certification is a qualification which evaluates to competence of project managers to deliver project based on their knowledge of project management and experience. The certification uses PMI guide to project management body of knowledge or PMBoK guide as the basis of much of the learning. The requirements for PMP include up to 5 years of project management (reduced to 3 years for those with a degree) and a 35 hours of contact time for training. The PMP is one of the most widely recognised project management qualifications in the world. It is now strong outside the USA especially in Asia and Europe. However it is not a project management method, it demonstrates the competence of the project manager. As such is very different from PRINCE2.

PMP and PRINCE2 compared and contrasted

To illustrate the different we will use cost planning. Prince2 recognised that project budgets are a vitally important part of many project processes and documents, from the project brief to the checkpoint (progress) report; however it does not describe the techniques and approaches that a project manager can use to use to produce and accurate estimate. This is left to the PMBok Guide which describes in detail the different estimating techniques than can be used such a parametric or three point estimating to ensure that the project budget is accurately estimates. In this way we can see that the two approaches are in fact complementary.

So can PMP and Prince2 work hand-in-hand

PMP certification can deliver the competence required to deliver successful projects, while PRINCE2 provides the detailed processes, roles and responsibilities and template. We think that combining the two approaches would give project managers a powerful tool set to deliver project successfully.

Disadvantages of mixing PMP and PRINCE2

For any project team combining the two approaches may have significant disadvantages.

1. The team will have to reconcile some of the conflicting language. For example the project charter is called a project brief in PRINCE2.
2. This might cause a bit of confusion in the team as to which approach should be followed
3. The disadvantage of this combined approach it that the project team have to reconcile the different terminology behind the two approaches.
4. Some of the detailed techniques such as the classifications of risk are different.

In practices these differences should not outweigh the benefits of a more balanced approach to project management.

PRINCE2 and PMP Certification from Parallel Project Training

Parallel Project Training is one of the few organisations to offer project management courses in both PMP Certification and PRINCE2.

As we enter the Teens (if that’s what this decade is called), what will future hold for project management?

A little look at history might help predict the trends of the future, but what do you think? Vote in our poll on the  Parallel Project Training website here: What will be the project management trends in the teens?

50’s Conception

The 1950 were the start of project management with the application of Taylor’s scientific management to the management of projects. Project management was based on the marriage of the Henry Gantt’s time based chart and Fayol’s five principles of management planning organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling. These principles still form the foundation of our modern bodies of knowledge.

60’s Learning to Walk

The value of project management was demonstrated on major projects. Many of these projects have attained mythical status in project management including the Polaris missile programme, b DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation development of the critical path (I bet they wish they had patented to method). The decade finished with the formation of the International Project Management Association (IPMA) in 1967, the PMI in 1969, forerunner of the APM, called Internet (another good name) in 1972.

70’s Slow Growth of Early Adopters.

Project Management saw slow growth in recognition during the 1970, along with the birth of IT systems, Apollo space programme project management and the application of project management to the development of cold war defence systems. The membership of the APM reached 1000 by the end of the decade.

80’s Gantt chart for the masses and a decade of unconscious incompetence.

The development of microcomputers in the 1980 saw the explosion of the project management for all, with its ubiquitous symbols the Gantt chart. Some adventurous people even implemented earned value management. During the 1980 every organisation and government department had its own approach to project management, with the expected chaos.

90’s Codification and certification.

1989 saw the launch of PRINCE (followed by PRINCE2 in 1996) following the PMI PMP certification launched in 1984. The 1980 became the decade of codification, standardisation and with growing acceptance that a common approach to project management was beneficial.

Noughties the decade of certification, globalisation and information overload and the credit crunch.

For project management the Noughties as were decade of globalisation for project management with the connectivity of the internet leading to teams outsourced across the world, increasing recognition for project management certification across the globe be it PRINCE2 or the PMI’s PMP. Towards the end of the decade management in general including project management discovered the Blackberry and all of a sudden we struggled with information overload. What had been manageable communications channels became frenetic with ongoing 24 hour activity to suit the new global projects.

What will be the project management trends in the teens?

They say the past is no predictor of the future but what will the up and coming trends for the teens. Will

1. The fallout from the credit crunch and severely reduced public spending lead to a sever reduction in the demand for project management and a decade of cost cutting and cancelled projects?
2. Will the increasing pressure change lead to an increasing demand for truly professional project managers, maybe (or maybe not) linked to chartered status?
3. Will pressure for consistency continue with consolidation between the different methodologies (PRINCE2, APM, PMP)?
4. Will new social media tools such as Google wave help us organise the mass of information generated by project using meta tags and search tool in the same way Google Search Engine made sense of the web.
5. Or all of the above
6. Expect the unexpected.

VOTE NOW