Project Management Career Path : a case study in a project-based ...

Project Management Career Path : a case study in a project-based telecommunication company Ichsan, M.,Latief, Y. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia Abstract In project driven organizations, human resource plays a big role in determining the quality of project deliverables and they are influenced by 4 (four) major factors: • Professionalism (Project Management, Technical and Non Technical) • Human factors • Business factors • Experiences The probability of deterioration of deliverable’s quality can be increased, if the above factors can not be maintained and further developed. Though the above factors are important, still many organizations/companies do not take them into consideration which is not only affecting the result deterioration of the project deliverables, but also the people churn, thus the organizations becoming resource kidnappers to accommodate their needs. This problem can be solved where integrated project management career path that concentrating on evaluation and resources development plan is applied and hence it will lead the fulfillment of company’s business strategy. This paper is written to explore the case at PT XYZ and concentrated on analysis of the existing PM Career Path and related project management development plan. Using the descriptive method and analytic hierarchy process from related experts in PT XYZ, a scoring and mapped/integrated PM Resource Development Plan can be established. With this improved scoring system, PM Resources Quality Development and Competency Based PM Human Resource Management can be developed and in line with the company’s strategy. Keywords: Career Path, Human Resource, Knowledge, Skills, Analytical Hierarchy Process, 1. Introduction As one of attractive developing country, Indonesia has a power to compete with the other developing countries in the region. This can be seen, where the growth of infrastructure development in many area of industries, such construction, telecommunication, information technology, oil/gas and many others. Almost all those activities are integrated from many activities that are project based. In line with the above statement, PT XYZ, a subsidiary of a global telecommunication company in Indonesia (manufacturer of telecommunication equipment) that has big market share in this country. As one of the contributor in telecommunication infrastructure development in

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Indonesia and a project driven company, PT XYZ has been growing since many years in Indonesia and has been doing its business in Indonesia in form of projects. Project Management Institute (PMI®) has established a Guide of Project Management Body of Knowledge or PMBoK. As project activities are still performed by performed by people (PMI, 2004), hence the human resources factor is considered as major in a project driven organization, where Project Human Resource Management is one of the knowledge areas. 2. Background As human resource is one of key factors that has to be taken into highest consideration by project driven organizations in order to run their businesses, a lot of companies consistently develop their project managers to be qualified to run their projects. Project manager competency is one of project critical success factors (Standish Group, 2001). However, it is not that easy to find qualified and skilled project resources (incl. project managers). Many organizations that have a certain level of project management maturity take into highest account the competency of those project resources by developing/establishing standard qualification of project resources. Many of them apply the international standardized accreditation such:
Level 5 - AIPM (Australia Institute of Project Management)
CAPM (Certified Associate Project Manager) or PMP (Project Management Professional) dari Project Management Institute (PMI)
CITPM (Certified Information Technology Project Manager) dari Singapore Computer Society and Indonesian Standard Project Management Accreditation from Indonesian Project Management Association or Ikatan Ahli Manajemen Proyek Indonesia (IAMPI) that has adapted the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM). such:
Ahli Manajer Proyek (Basic Certification Level)
Manajer Proyek Madya (Intermediate Certification Level)
Manajer Proyek Utama (Advance Certification Level) On top of the accreditation, few of those project driven companies apply the career path globally (as part of their global policy), however compared to the others, the ratio of this application is considered far away too low. As consequences, it is hard to find a qualified project management resources, even worse there are some of them using pick and drop to implement their project, without ‘screening’ or ‘fit and proper’ phase, in order to find out the right resources to be assigned to the right projects. The impact of fulfilling of lacking qualified personnel is as follows:
Hijacking of qualified project resources from companies to others
Risk of having the high cost for project resources (by hiring expatriates resources in the projects)
Dissatisfaction of in house project resources for not being developed to be qualified and hence people churn
Increasing risk of failing the projects by putting unqualified project resources, especially for complex projects.

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1667978

This paper has the aims to :
Evaluate strategy of project resources competency development where level of competency gap can be fulfilled as per project and business requirements and needs.
Establish an aligned project resource competency development with application of project management career path The scope of this paper is limited to the application of career path in Department of Project Management at PT XYZ, using a vertical path. 3. Literature review 3.1 Project Management Career Path There are 4 important key factors in project human resources development1 and they are:
Professionalism An important factor that relates with all supporting background to fulfill their job requirement as project resources.
Human factor All supporting background that relates with psychological aspects such communication skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, etc.
Business factor All related supporting knowledge and skills of project resources in order to implement the project as its business vehicle in their organizations.
Experience factor A factor that can increase the skills and ability of the project resources, to perform their works based on the spending time in the projects doing their job as their profession. Project Human Resource Management processes (PMI, 2004) is part of 9 Project Management Knowledge Areas, as follows :
Human resource planning - All activities that relates with planning of human resources to accommodate and fulfill the project requirement
Acquire project team - All activities to obtain the project resources to fulfill the project needs.
Develop project team - All activities relates with the human resource development as part of project needs.
Manage project team - Activities that focus on project resource’s performance monitoring, gaining feedback towards project resources’ performance, project resource’s problem resolution and coordination of changes that affecting the project resources for the sake of project performance optimization. In implementing the projects, PT XYZ applies strongly the matrix typed project organizations as the application of global project management guideline. Furthermore, PT XYZ also applies the project classification or categorization in order to simplify project management office in fulfilling the project resources as follows:
1

Class A Projects

According to the Global Policy of XYZ that is also used in PT XYZ as a subsidiary company in Indonesia

All projects that have value 0 – 1 MUSD with low level of project management complexity and requires small project management resources (up to 10 project resources)


Class B Projects All projects that have value 1 – 10 MUSD with relatively intermediate level of project management complexity . They require relatively more project resources than class A projects (up to 50 project resources)




Class C Projects These projects have value 10 – 50 MUSD with relatively high level of project management complexity. They require relatively more project resources compared to class B projects (up to 100 project resources)




Class D Projects These projects have value more than 50 MUSD with very high level of project management complexity. Such projects require more than class C projects (more than 100 project resources)

One of the project critical success factors is by having qualified project resources, especially for project managers that have full accountability and responsibility over their implemented projects. According to Extreme Chaos (Standish Group, 2001), 97% of successful projects have experienced project managers. While Kerzner (1998) has defined successful projects are determined by following factors:
Within planned and approved time (duration)
Within planned and approved budget
Clear definition of project objectives
Accepted by the users/customer
Where we can put our customer name as our references (Custome satisfaction)
Within minimum approved scope changes
Without disturbance of workflow in the organization
Without culture changes in the corporation The application of career path in the project management organization is highly dependent to the nature of the projects. Max Widemann in his project management website2 has defined several project managent career level (from the lowest to the highest):
PM Specialist
Group Leader
PM Technical Manager
Project Manager
Project Director
Program Manager And Microsoft has defined its career path level in their project management resources as follows:
Project Manager I
Project Manager II
Project Manager III 2

Website, http://www.maxwideman.com/issacons2/iac1275a/sld003.htm accessed on 11 July 2007

that varies depends on the level of value, project management complexity and numbers of resources that work in the projects3. As has been cited by Byars and Rue (1991), Burack dan Mathys defines some ground rule in appying the career path in the organizations:
Establishment of level of competence and nature from the works in every career level that have been targeted by the particular personnel.
Securing the data from personnel background and revisiting it for accuracy and completenes
Comparative analysis to the respective knowledge and skills to the targeted career level
Reconcile the promotion plan, development requirement and targeted job in the next level.
Setting up the time, when the particular resources move forward in the targeted career level. PT XYZ has established the career path that is aligned with the Global Human Resource Policy and Business Guideline. It starts from the lower level to the top with the respective job description as follows: Project Planner

Project Coordinator

Project Manager

Applied locally @ PT XYZ

Senior PM

Master PM

Applied globally

Picture 1.1 PT XYZ’s project management career path For Project Planner and Project Coordinator, there is no global guideline to be applied formally, but the rest is as of global project management and HR policy. Job descriptions for each role in the PT XYZ’s career level: 1) Project Planner/Project Scheduler a) To support project managers in the development of project time plan (schedules) b) To help project managers in controlling the schedules. c) Their activities i) Creation of schedule draft to be validated and approved by project managers ii) As per project manager’s instruction, to simulate and revise the project schedules (if necessary) iii) Using project management tools (software) in monitoring and controlling the performance of the projects and giving the feedback to project managers iv) Report creation for project managers d) Outputs i) Draft project time plan ii) Project reports 2) Project Coordinators (Assistant Project Managers) 3

Website,http://search.techrepublic.com.com/404.php?page=5100-6404-1058696 accessed on 11 Juli 2007

a) To support project managers in monitoring the project activities in operational level or in work packages (PMI, 2004) b) In certain circumstances to take role of project managers in projects level A c) Their activities i) Doing field coordinations with that are related in the work packages deployment ii) With help of project management software, supporting project managers in monitoring the work packages. iii) Drafting the project management plan prior to its validation by project managers as project baseline d) Outputs i) Products of each work package level ii) Draft of project management plan iii) Products of projects level A (in certain circumstances) 3) Project managers/Senior project managers/Master project managers a) To ensure that project plan is realistic to be done to fulfill the requirement of project stakeholders. b) To ensure that the result of the projects is as per approved project plan. c) Their activities i) Doing coordination with relate project team and project management teams depending on the project types : (1) Projects type B for project managers (2) Projects type C for senior project managers (3) Projects type D for master project managers ii) Execute the projects as per project management methodology such as PMBoK and PT XYZ specific project management methodology iii) In line with their authorities, to do corrective action over the deviation of projects (with the approval from project sponsors) to ensure the project is back on track. iv) Project implementation based on the approved baseline depending on the type of projects. d) Outputs i) Products of the projects 3.2 Development of project management resources In general the project mangement resources development is the series of chains of activities as part of implementation the company business strategy as has been defined by Mazen (2002) that describe the interaction between HR Management and mission/vision of an organization. As benchmark, the HR Management from Hay Consulting can be seen in order to have a better picture of the fulfillment of the HR Management according to Hay4. According to Verzuh (2005), different industry requires different skills and proficiency.

4. Research methodology 4

Hay Management Consultant, taken from website www.hay.com

4.1 Research design This paper is accomodating the research of a case study at PT XYZ. The chosen research design is explanatory and experimental to accomodate the objective of the reseach which is to explore the career path system that has been being applied at PT XYZ (Nazir, 2003). This is in order to describe systematically, facts and nature of interphenomenon that are going to be researched that is related to the evaluation system and Project HR Development in PT XYZ. The data is collected by having interview with senior project management and project main stakeholders in the country indonesia, region (south east asia) and global (europe) in following sequences: 1) Collecting data to explore the influencing factors in project management competency development by having interview of PT XYZ project management experts and establishment of its scoring system. 2) Establishment of variables as the decomposition units of the influencing factors 3) Validation of the variables by the experts 4) Establishment of questionnaires and its scoring system. 5) Collection of questionnaires 6) Validation of the result of the questionnaires 7) Data analysis and findings 8) Findings validation by experts The questionnaire is so designed that the respondent can give their opinion using Likert Scale with the following scoring system.


For Analytic Hierarchy Process to find out the influencing factor in Project HR Development Tabel 1.1 Analytic Hierarchy Process Scoring System Verbal Judgments of Numerical Rating preferences Extremely preferred Very strong to extremely Very strongly preferred Strongly to very strongly Strongly preferred Moderately to strongly Moderately preferred Equally to moderately Equally preferred




9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For reviewing required level of competency in every career level in PT XYZ to every variables identified after validation from the experts.

Tabel 1.2 Analytic Hierarchy Process Scoring System Score

Description of the score

1

Does not require/need identified knowledge and skills

2

Has basic knowledge and skills. Identifies and solves defined problems that require little or no analysis by using existing procedures, techniques and methods. Understands the necessity for improvement and change. Requires supervision and works within a given framework and time schedule Has good knowledge and skills. Identifies and solves complicated problems that require careful analysis by adapting existing procedures, techniques and methods. Actively contributes to improvement and change. Works independently.

3

4

Has highly developed knowledge and skills. Investigates and solves complex problems that require substantial analysis by developing existing procedures, techniques and methods. Impels improvement and change. Can guide and lead others in their work.

5

Has exceptional knowledge and skills. Investigates and solves complex problems that require in-depth analysis. Proposes solutions that require innovation in term of procedures, techniques and methods. Initiates and impels improvement and change. Is perceived as an authority.

It is to be taken into consideration that the proposed of competency requirement the minimum requirement of the expected performance in order to perform their work and deliver the result in “good” level. Respondent criteria:








Age of 35 years old of above Minimum experience of 5 years in project management as project managers. Own at least 1 recognized professional project management certification. The position held at least in functional role as Section Head (Project Management Office) and/or senior management role Vice Presidents (Network Roll Out or Services) Some of them are active senior Professional Project Managers and has at least 1 recognized project management professional certification (e.g PMP) Some of them are Head of Competency Management dan Head of Recruitment sampai Vice President Human Resources Some of them are the Project Sponsor who have a minimum role of Vice President in Account Management (sales) of having 10 years experience.

4.2 The analysis The research analysis is done using




Descriptive Analysis using One sample test Kolmogorov Smirnov In order to do better analysis, One Sample Kolmogorov Smirnov Test using SPSS 13 is the appropriate way in order to know whether the data distribution. If the data has a normal distribution, then mean can be used as reference of the data distribution. If not then the median will be used as reference.




Scoring system. The scoring system to level of competency and experience from each career level in project management resources. The scoring system will be used as baseline score as standard minimum to each career level as per following formula Baseline Score

Median and Mean

From each knowledge and skills in

From each knowledge and skills

every each career level

Weighting factor

in every each career level

=

X

Picture 1.2 Analytic Hierarchy Process Scoring System


Descriptive Analysis using Analytical Hierarcy Process (AHP)

AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) is a appropriate tools and method for decision making as has been established by Saaty as has been cited by Al-Harbi (2001). This methods is to ease the decision making process by giving the alternative quantitatively in a scale ratio that is taken by the decision maker. Tabel 1.3 Analytic Hierarchy Process Weighting

Professionalism

Human

Business

Experience

Professionalism

1.00

5.00

8.00

5.00

Human

0.20

1.00

4.00

4.00

Business

0.13

0.25

1.00

6.00

Experience

0.20

0.25

0.17

1.00

1.53

6.50

13.17

16.00

5. Discussion

The analysis has been done with the following finding using One Sample Test Kolmogorov Smirnov as has been defined in the following table: T Table 1.4 The weighting factors using AHP No

Factors

Mean

N = 30 Median Significance

1

Professionalism

52.05%

57.46%

0.000

2

Human Skills/Soft Skills

23.84%

24.03%

0.000

3

Business Skills

14.31%

13.44%

0.230

4

Experience

9.80%

5.94%

0.000

Due to data distribution is not normal, then median is taken as reference, considering the data characteristics, only business skills factor that has a normal distribution, thus in this case mean value will be taken as reference. The above is the multiplicator in a scoring system. From the data it can be seen that there is a tendency of growth of scores linear with the higher career level in the project management career path in the below picture :

Picture 1.3 Finding of scoring system in project management career path at PT XYZ

Picture icture 1.4 Scoring System – Faktor Profesionalisme

Picture 1.5 Scoring System – Human skills /soft skills factors

Picture 1.6 Scoring System – Business Skills Factors If we compare with the baseline socring system used as reference in the data analysis, analy we can see that there is inconsistency with our findings, by along with the incremented career level, the non managerial skills is getting lower and the managerial skills is getting higher.

Picture 1.7 Scoring system – Experience Factors This is duee to different nature of business, mission, vision, strategy and policy used as a reference coming from the different organization with the different aspects given. Not forgetting the influence of the organization culture and core values from different organization. org This can not result the same product in implementing Project Human Resource Management.

All finding have been re-validated with some project management experts and senior management level that Project Management Offices Section Head is reporting to, who have long range of project management experiences and knowledge/skills. The validations are done through emails, phone conference or face-to-face interview. The validation results are :





The weighting factors done using Analytic Hierarchy Process is accepted and confirmed. For them professionalism factors is counted as first factor in the that will be influencing the Project HR development program. Business skills are also considered important as PT XYZ is a business organization that is project driven, hence form them getting the right people in the right project is very essentials. The scoring system is taken into highest consideration and they confirmed to agree with it. The point is, the higher their career level, the higher the competency level that they have to have. Vision, mission, strategy, culture and core values of PT XYZ has been developed by XYZ Global and has been used as reference to fulfillment of their business strategy.

6. Conclusion From the findings that is done in a structured and science way, it can be seen that the objective of the research can be done with where we develop:


Evaluation system using the scoring system that have been developed as the result of this research. Using this system, the project resources will be able to know what to be done and how to be done with support of the Head of Project Management Office to enhance their career by moving to the next step in the career level.
The Human Resource Development System that is integrated with the evaluation system and PT XYZ’s business requirement. . From the scoring system, the line manager of Project Management Resources will be able to do the following action much easier:





Assessment of current Project Resources’s competency Gap analysis from current level to the next level that they are aiming and requirement of PT XYZ Planning the Project resources development program and training program for those resources whose gaps have been identified. Evaluation of project resource’s competency using the socring system for personnel promotion purposes.

With the enhanced scoring system and execution of project resources development program integrated with career evaluation, it is expected:



The improvement of competency level of project resources will be improved Positive impression from the project resources over their performances that the organization put consideration in the career enhancement. The promotion will be much more objective and this will decrease the people churn in the company, as the personnel will have strong attention from the management. Hence the purpose of the research is answered and fulfilled

7. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank Mr. Eddie Subiyanto, Dr. Ismeth Abidin and all respondent for their cooperation to this research and all the support given to accomplish it. Without their support, this research will not be completed on time. 8. Research limitation This reseach is limited in the environment of PT XYZ considering it as a major telecommunication company with big market share in Indonesia and applying its business in major telecommunication projects also in Indonesia. Another limitation is that, the research is focusing a case study is limited in observing the vertical career path of project management resource and its resource development in the deparment of project management office. There is certainly the possibility of bias the responses as they might be applicable for non telecommunication projects. Further development in a bigger samples are to be taken into consideration to be done in future research. 9. References Al-Harbi, K.M.A. (2001), Application of AHP in Project Management : International Journal of Project Management, Vol.19,No.1,p.19-27 Byars,L.,L, Rue,L.(1991), Human Resource Management, 3rd Edition,1991 Gould,M., Freeman, R. (2003), The art of project management : A competency model for project managers, Boston University Corporate Education Center, p.4 Hill, G. (2004), The Complete Project Management Office Handbook, ESI Kerzner, H. (1998), Project Management: A System Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, Defining Project Success, 6th Edition Mazen, S., El-Kayali, D. (2002),Conceptual Design for Strategic Human Resource Quality Management System, Cairo University, p. 429 Martinelli,W., Program Manager Roles, Responsibilities and Core Competencies, White Paper, Max Widemann Comparative Glossary of Project Management Terms v3.1 Website http://www.maxwideman.com/issacons2/iac1275a/sld003.htm (accessed on July 11, 2007) Muzio et al (2007), Soft Skills Quantification For Project Manager Competencies, Project Management Journal, Project Management Insitute, Vol. 38, No.2, p.30-38 Nazir, M. (2003), Metode Penelitian, Penerbit Ghalia, p.54 Poels, F. (1997), Job Evaluation and Remuneration Strategies; How To Set Up and Run and Effective System, p. 55

Project Management Institute (2006), A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge, 3rd Edition, PMI, Pennsylvania Schwalbe, K. (2006) Information Technology Project Management, 4th Edition, 2006, p.15 Standish Group (2001), Extreme Chaos, The Standish Group International, Inc., USA Verzuh, E. (2005), Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, 2nd Edition, p. 49.