THE P2S PM CERTIFICATION PROGRAM :
LEVELING UP YOUR PROJECT MANAGERS
Project Management is both demanding and rewarding , and frankly , it is just plain difficult sometimes and requires commitment and perseverance . Good project managers have honed their skills through the gauntlet of experience , but everyone needs a solid base from which to start . Even experienced PMs need training to prepare for larger and more complex projects and keep their skills sharp . With that in mind , P2S offers an internal PM training program with three ascending levels . PMs « level up » from one tier to the next depending on years of experience and demonstrating consistent positive performance and dedication .
Principal and Director of Project Management Travis Taylor has seen a lot during his career in Project Management . He ’ s the lead PM at P2S and is responsible for developing and overseeing our PM Certification Program . We had the privilege of chatting with Travis recently . While he wouldn ’ t confirm if , in his younger years , he ever fled from a client in fear , he did talk a lot about what makes a good PM , how to resolve issues and his favorite part about coaching PMs of all experience levels .
So , tell us about the PM Certification Program .
Travis Taylor : We created the program at P2S six years ago to improve our project management performance and delivery to the client . There were three things that we wanted to achieve with the program . The first is to provide clear expectations to the project managers so they have defined metrics and goals to measure success of their projects . Number two , we want to match the project manager with the job ’ s complexity and size . Matching the right project manager with the right job reduces risk and maximizes client satisfaction . The third thing we want to achieve is to create a career path for our project managers . We have three different levels : Green , Silver and Gold . The green level is our entry-level , which allows PMs to manage up to a certain project size while requiring them to meet certain reasonable metrics . Silver is the middle level , and Gold is the top level . Only about 10 % of our PMs are currently at that Gold level .
How do you know when someone ’ s ready to « level up ?
TT : It ’ s part experience and part commitment . Have they been successful in the past with their projects ? Have they been capable of handling the complexity and size of their projects ? Our largest jobs can be over a million dollars , so PMs must first demonstrate that they can manage our mid-size and larger projects successfully before « leveling up .
Every year in December , we do a recertification when all the PMs apply and state what level they want to achieve that year . We review all the applications and decide which PMs can progress to manage larger projects . When we decide who ’ s ready , we look at what sort of projects they ’ ve managed over those last couple of years — size , complexity , different types of projects . We look at their project portfolio to evaluate their willingness and capability to move to the next level . It ’ s really about the consistency of the PM ’ s performance . Have they shown that they can reliably deliver projects to the client over time ? Once they demonstrate that they can be successful with Green level projects , we consider moving them to Silver . And once they ’ ve shown that they can manage Silver level projects routinely and effectively , they can request to move to Gold . There ’ s also another factor at play , which is desire . Project management requires a different skill set than engineering design , and not all our engineers desire to be project managers . We want to ensure that our PMs are serious and committed to managing projects .
Who else helps you with the annual recertifications ?
TT : Greg Alexander is the other member of what we call our Project Support Team . We ’ re in the process of bringing in some other people to the team , but right now , it ’ s just us two . Greg is an experienced project manager , and we complement each other well , so he ’ s been a great help in running the program and speaking to different aspects of the management process .
7 | Q3 / 2022