A few years ago, the Standish Group estimated that 74% of all IT projects missed their deadlines, came in over budget, or, in the case of 28% of those projects, failed completely. It also estimated that 31.1% of all projects would be canceled before they ever got completed. In a similar vein, a 1999 Gartner Group report predicted that, through 2002, a full 75% of e-business projects would fail to meet business objectives.

Those are some pretty sobering statistics for projects that, on average, probably cost $400,000 and up in smaller companies and $2,000,000 or more in large companies. The cumulative price tag? According to James Johnson, chairman of the Standish Group, nearly $100 billion in wasted capital per year (as quoted November 2001 in Billing World and OSS Today). And that doesn't include the cost of lost business, diminished productivity, or unused system functionality.

Waste of those proportions should have been of great concern even when business was booming a few years ago. Now it's untenable. Meta recently reported that, for the first time in some 35 years, technology expenditures in 2002 will likely be the same as or lower than the year before. Given the fact that enterprises both large and small are under increasing pressure to do more with less, it's crucial that they find ways to reduce the number of late, over-budget, and failed IT projects.

Enter Certification

In light of such pressures, many businesses are turning to project management certification in an attempt to ensure greater success with IT projects. Some larger companies are already encouraging project management certification for internal staff, and many small to mid-size companies are wondering if they should be looking for similar credentials in the consultants they consider engaging.

Does project management certification really promise higher success rates for IT projects? Is certification a reliable indicator of an individual IT project manager's ability to bring projects in successfully, on time, and within budget? And is it a credential valuable enough to warrant higher salaries for program managers (or higher fees for consultants) who have it? The answer, as with many things in life, is both yes and no.

Two Key Routes to Certification

The two most important project management certifications available today are those of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and CompTIA. PMI is a professional association of some 86,000 members dedicated to establishing project management standards and providing education and certification in the project management profession. CompTIA is a computer industry association that establishes vendor-neutral standards in a variety of areas to help its more than 8,000 member companies stay competitive and profitable. The appropriateness of either certification to an organization's IT project management situation depends on a number of considerations.

The two certifications are different in their intent and scope, and enterprises need to be sure they understand what kind of project management certification they are looking for.

The PMI certification--the most recognized of the two--is grounded in traditional project management approaches and seeks to differentiate true project management "professionals." It currently focuses on skills in five key performance domains--project initiation, planning, execution, control, and closing--and ranges over a wide variety of knowledge and techniques, from needs analysis to cost estimating to procurement planning and contract administration. A sixth performance domain, professional responsibility, will be a part of PMI's certification examination beginning in March of 2002.

PMI certification also requires a minimum of 4,500 hours of project management experience over at least three years, satisfaction of specific education requirements, and adherence to a Project Management Professional Code of Ethics. This makes it a formidable credential indeed.

CompTIA's certification, the IT Project+ certification, was originally designed by the now-defunct Gartner Institute. It was specifically crafted to reflect capabilities in leading, managing, and directing IT projects and includes assessments of some "softer" skills and technical skills, in addition to more traditional project management practices. Its intent is primarily to certify that candidates have "the business, interpersonal and technical skills required to successfully manage IT projects" and requires at least one year of experience leading what CompTIA terms "small" IT projects as a prerequisite to taking the certification exam.

The PMI certification is probably more relevant for very large enterprises undertaking complex, mission critical projects, while the CompTIA certification will likely be more relevant for small to medium-size organizations engaged in smaller, less complex projects.

IT projects require their own breed of project management, and existing certifications may not cover all the ground.

Traditional project management methodology has its origins in industries like engineering and construction. Projects in those industries typically proceed slowly and incrementally according to rigid, detailed plans. They are overseen by specialists, and there is little if any room for changes to design specifications once the project is underway.

IT projects, in contrast, typically proceed much more quickly, frequently begin without completely detailed plans, and usually involve design specification changes along the way. In fact, a significant issue in successful IT project management, especially in application development, is not how to prevent design specifications from changing but how to manage the changes that are inherent to the process.

The PMI certification does not specifically address IT project management issues, based as it is on more traditional project management approaches. PMI has special interest groups devoted to IT issues and is reported to be working on a number of "Certificates of Added Qualification" for software/computers, information technology systems, and information technology networking, but these are not yet available.

The CompTIA certification does specifically address IT project management issues and includes a focus on some "softer" project management skills, like interpersonal communication, team management, and a grasp of key business outcomes. These can be especially significant to the success of many IT projects, particularly in rapidly changing business environments. Many of CompTIA's objectives, however, still focus on more traditional issues and tools, like defining requirements, creating a project management schedule and plan, developing cost estimates, performing risk assessments, and managing budgets.

IT project management today may also involve one (or more) of several highly developed methodologies for application development, like the Rational Unified Process or Extreme Programming (XP). As of this writing, neither the PMI nor CompTIA certification directly reflects competencies specific to those methodologies.

In short, the PMI certification reflects considerable knowledge and experience with traditional practices but may not reflect some other important skills that are especially pertinent to IT projects. The CompTIA certification is more IT-specific and more attuned to some of the softer skills that can be critical in such projects, but it is based on less extensive experience, with smaller projects, and still includes a considerable emphasis on more traditional techniques and processes. Neither certification reflects competency with some of the newest IT project management methodologies.

Certification in any industry or profession is generally based on demonstrating that one commands a "core" set of "measurable" skills. Yet there isn't complete agreement on what a core set of measurable skills for project management really is, and the skills needed can vary, depending on the nature of the specific IT project. It also isn't always clear what specific capabilities make a given project manager especially effective or successful in a particular situation, as opposed to being merely "competent"--or even "professional."

One of the guiding principles behind certification testing is that there is some clearly definable body of skills a person must command in order to be "certified" as being at "minimal competency" in a particular domain or at one of various levels above minimal competency, all the way up to mastery of the domain.

Organizations like the PMI have done a remarkable job over the years of defining a comprehensive body of project management standards and competencies, and PMI's A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) is a very thorough compendium of generally accepted project management knowledge and practices.

The problem is that there isn't universal agreement on just what all of the core skills are that make a project manager really good on a particular project. In explaining the purpose of the PMBOK Guide, PMI itself notes that "generally accepted means that the knowledge and practices?are applicable to most projects most of the time, and that there is widespread consensus about their value and usefulness. Generally accepted does not mean that the knowledge and practices?are or should be applied uniformly on all projects."

The pass/fail PMI examination aims to identify "professional" project managers and is based on extensive psychometric work intended to validate its assessment. It does indeed serve as an indication that a project manager has a thorough grasp of the most important practices, tools, and techniques of project management. It doesn't necessarily predict, however, how well a particular project manager will determine which practices are appropriate for a specific project or how well that project manager will implement those practices.

Many highly respected project managers will tell you that, in the end, project management, especially IT project management, is as much an art as it is a science. Look again at the statistics on failed IT projects, despite the existence of thousands of certified project managers.

Existing project management certifications tend to focus on "hard" rather than "soft" skills, yet soft skills may be more important, in the long run, in making projects successful.

While the hard skills of project management are important--for example, the ability to apply estimating tools and techniques to specific tasks to determine schedules and budgets--they are only a part of what successful project management is all about. The most successful project managers command a whole host of other "soft" skills, many of which may, in the long run, be far more important than the ability to draw up a comprehensive project plan or make adjustments to a budget.

Among these softer skills are things like being able to tune into--and stay focused on--the key business outcomes for an intended project, the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively without necessarily having "all" of the facts, and the ability to be flexible and creative in using all of the different hard skills at one's command. They also include a host of interpersonal and leadership skills like team building, communicative effectiveness (with project teams, customers, executives, and other "shareholders"), trustworthiness, and the ability to understand intuitively--and work effectively in--an organization's unique corporate culture.

The CompTIA certification, in particular, attempts to measure at least some of these capabilities. For example, it includes a focus on the interpersonal communication skills that might be employed to regain support for a project from a wavering executive.

The problem is that certification exams can only go so far in making an assessment of a person's capabilities in these areas. They cannot assess just how well people function in their own particular organizational cultures or how well they are attuned to the specific business objectives of their unique enterprises. Certification exams can determine whether the candidate is aware of the importance of such things and may know, in theory, the most appropriate action in one hypothetical situation or another, but the exams can never truly certify that the person is going to be able to "enable" the team of six programmers down the hall or effectively engage Vice President Jones in meaningful dialogue in the executive suite.

The Long and the Short of It

Project management certification is an important way of determining whether a project manager has much of the knowledge and many of the skills that can go into delivering a successful project, on time and within budget.

For larger companies in particular, where projects are likely to be quite complex and mission critical, a credential like the PMI certification can be an important way of ensuring that a project manager is truly a "professional"--verifying, as it does, significant knowledge, experience, and education. By the same token, it may be a reassurance to smaller companies who may be looking at consultants to provide the kinds of project guidance that may not be available in-house.

Smaller companies might want to be sure, however, that the PMI certification isn't overkill. Many a small or medium-size business has been scuttled by applying too-grandiose project management practices to what ought to have been small, quick projects. The CompTIA certification may be more relevant in this case.

Neither certification covers the full range of IT-specific project management skills, especially those related to some of the newer application development methodologies. And neither gets fully at the softer skills that are so important to the success of projects, particularly in IT. In the longer term, the latter may ultimately be of greater importance than the harder skills, particularly in smaller organizations.

In future issues of MCMagOnline, watch for additional articles on project management, certification, and related professional topics. Pieces in the works include what to look for in a good IT project manager, keys to project management success, and the impact of application development models--like the Rational Unified Process and XP--on approaches to IT project management in the future.

John Knapp is currently an independent analyst and author. Formerly, he was a college professor, Senior Industry Analyst with Andrews Consulting Group, and Manager of Program Management for Sylvan Prometric, not necessarily in that order. He can be reached by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sidebar: The Relationship of Certification Tests to Performance

No examination can test every skill, capability, or bit of knowledge associated with a particular job. The PMI examination, which certifies that a project manager is "professional" is made up of 200 items. The CompTIA examination, which measures basic IT project management competence, has 85 items.

So how can one be sure that someone is "professional" or "competent," based on their responses to just 200 or 85 questions? The answer is that a well-developed examination has been subjected to a variety of rigorous psychometric analyses and calculations that link real-world performance to the "snapshot" of knowledge and skills that a particular examination represents. In general, these analyses confirm that:

· People who are already known to have the kinds of knowledge and skills being tested will do well on the exam. Those who are known not to have the knowledge and skills will perform poorly on the exam.
· The passing score on the exam (the "cut score") is related to specific standards of competence, as determined not only by statistical analysis but empirical observations of performance on the job as well.
· People who are generally judged to be competent in the profession reliably pass the exam. Those who are generally judged not to be competent reliably fail it.
· If there are different forms of an exam, those who pass one form of the exam will normally pass the alternate forms as well. Those who fail one form will normally fail all the other forms, too.

All of these factors taken together make it possible to conclude with considerable reliability that someone who passes the exam actually does have the overall competency the exam is intended to measure.

--John Knapp