Clearing the Path

HEADNOTE

A formal career path can boost project manager performance, but most organizations aren't getting the job done.

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PROJECT MANAGERS WHO SEE A WAY to rise through the ranks at their organizations

are more satisfied and committed than those without a clear career path. But most companies are coming up short in providing a way up the job ladder, according to Pathways to Project Management as Perceived by Project Managers, a study conducted in late 2006 by Lila Carden, Ph.D., PMP, assistant professor of management at Houston Baptist University, Houston, Texas, USA. Only 29 percent of the 644 global survey participants-including executive managers, program managers and project managers-said their companies offered a structured route to the top. "Organizations today tend to not have formalized career advancement opportunities for project managers," Ms. Carden says.

The study was prompted by Ms. Carden's analysis of PMI's 2003 and 2005 Project Management Salary Survey results, which found that project managers with four or more years of experience and some degree of a defined career path earned more than those who lacked such a structure or did not know one existed.

That statistic also explains why some organizations that don't offer a way up have such difficulty keeping project managers satisfied, committed and productive.

"Project managers must be able to visualize their path through the organization as they improve their professional skills and continually succeed to meet or even over-perform their goals," says Berislav Crkvenac, PMP, technology projects manager at Vipnet, a Zagreb, Croatia-based mobile telecom operator.

At Vipnet, employees can plot their course from junior project manager to project manager to senior project manager and finally to project manager principal. The framework helps the company develop the talent necessary to run projects while also allowing project managers to grow professionally. Without the right support and a way to move up, project managers just might look elsewhere, Mr. Crkvenac says.

Alternative Paths

Of course, sometimes project practitioners need to take matters into their own hands. "If there is no clear career path defined for project managers in their organization, project managers could define their own career goals and strive toward them by trying to manage more complex projects and utilize new tools and techniques, fulfilling their personal professional challenges and enriching their CVs," Mr. Crkvenac says.

But project managers may hit a dead-end if their organizations don't offer a career map. Training and certifications alone don't necessarily predicate improved performance, for example. But Ms. Carden says when such variables are coupled with a defined career path, they can provide a boost.

Of course, the task of actually defining that path can seem like a job in itself. But organizations don't have to feel completely on their own. Formal models, such as PMI's career framework, can serve as a blueprint. -Janet Liao

SIDEBAR

"Project managers must be able to visualize their path through the organization as they improve their professional skills and continually succeed to meet or even over-perform their goals."

-Berislav Crkvenac, PMP, Vipnet, Zagreb, Croatia