![]() Looking at all existing professions from the legal, socio-economic, and semantic perspectives, my research identified some 22 intrinsic and extrinsic attributes. This is false logic and a semantic trap easily fallen into, especially when professional organizations continue to make these claims despite credible research to the contrary. There’s the tendency to make the connection that if a person is, in fact, professional (extremely competent) in the way he or she works and is able to make a living doing something, then what he or she does must, by association, be considered a profession. It’s no wonder that many in the community of practice of project management confuse what it means to belong to a profession. However, just because Tiger Woods meets the criteria to be called both a professional (n) and a professional (adj.) golfer, golf itself does not qualify as a profession, although Woods might call it his profession (his paid job). Having met both tests (highly competent and earning a living at what most do for a hobby) entitles him to be termed a professional (adj.) golfer. Hence, applying the second criterion, he meets the “earnings test” to be considered a professional (n.). In fact, he is sufficiently competent that he makes a very handsome living performing for pay what most of us consider a hobby. Therefore he meets the first test of being a professional (n.) skill and competence. One would be very hard-put to dispute the obvious, which that he is very competent at what he does - perhaps one of the best ever. Tiger Woods is unquestionably a talented golfer. The anecdote below illustrates the false reasoning behind their claims. In conducting my research, I soon discovered a semantic trap that the leaders of these professional organizations, intentionally or not, used as the basis for making their claims. ![]() As a result, I selected the topic for my PhD research, “Is project management a profession? And if not, what is it?” Why So Much Confusion? It was this tension between what I believed in as a professional practitioner and what the professional organizations that purported to represent my chosen life’s work were claiming that made me want to explore the topic in greater detail. I always considered my profession to be civil engineering construction project management was the approach, methodology, or system I used to deliver my construction projects. So what is the truth? Is project management truly a profession, the same as engineering or law or medicine, or teaching? Or is it something else? Are the professional organizations - which clearly have a vested interest in making project management a profession - biased in their views?Īs a life-long construction project manager, with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering majoring in construction project management, claims by PMI, IPMA, and APM bothered me. The oldest and second largest professional organization in terms of membership, the EU-based International Project Management Association (IPMA), while less strident, also refers to project management as a profession.Īnd the UK’s Association for Project Management (APM), in 2008, applied to the UK’s Privy Council for “Royal Chartered” status, giving project management legal status as a “profession.” Yet to date the Privy Council has failed to award APM with Royal Chartered status. The US-based Project Management Institute (PMI), which is unquestionably the largest professional organization representing project management practitioners, refers to project management as a profession 20-plus times in its code of ethics. Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Training.Project Management Office (PMO) Training. ![]()
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