India has only 50,000 certified project professionals in India, most of whom are certified basis their examination results. To become a successful developed nation, India needs at least 200 certified projects directors, 2,000 senior project managers and 20,000 project managers by 2022. A specialised branch of education for project management is the need of the hour, says Adesh Jain
India as a young country is full of ideas and enthusiasm. Ever since we opened our economy in 1991, entrepreneurs have thrived and new avenues have emerged. However, what has failed to change is our approach to handling projects. Be it the public sector or the private sector, there remain abundant stories of projects that started with much promise but have fizzled out due to poor planning, inability to foresee and minimise uncertainties, and poor implementation.
Analysts today are increasingly coming to the conclusion that we as a nation lack ‘project mindset’ and this is a lacuna that is slowing our success. While a lot of countries like China have realised the need for trained and qualified project professionals, India is yet to wake up to this need. So, while we churn out thousands of management graduates every year, we do not produce enough people professionally equipped to handle projects.
Handling projects is an expertise and there is a need for separate qualification and competency. Whatever we are doing today is for tomorrow, whether it’s manufacturing, service or infrastructure. Tomorrow could be the next minute, the next hour, the next month, the next decade or next hundred years. Now, when we are working for tomorrow, the venture paradigm shifts to predicting how things will turn out in the future and how we plan to handle them. When we talk of future, we have to take uncertainties into account because howsoever well we plan, the future is always uncertain.
Risk and uncertainties are linked together; if there is a certainty there is no risk. Therefore when we start doing something, the uncertainty is very high and when we wrap up a project by completing hundred activities, the uncertainty at completion is almost zero as you have finished.
How fast you are able to reduce your uncertainties is the challenge. The faster you reduce them, the earlier you will make it zero (uncertainties) and time will be saved. If you manage to reduce the uncertainties slowly, time taken to make it to zero will be high. So, the rate of reduction of uncertainties is the crux of project management.
In the current scenario most of our projects — big or small, are ill implemented due to lack of detailed planning and little attention to minimising uncertainties, resulting in tremendous cost overruns and repeated failures in meeting deadlines. In today’s scenario of an unprecedented rate of change, managing uncertainties proactively is crucial for project success. Minimising uncertainties before there is a crisis, is the most significant aspect for a project to be successful. We should be realistic in estimating our time and cost elements.
Preparation helps you avoid firefighting which is anti-project management. Minimising firefighting is also a key part of project handling.
We in India don’t recognise that project management involves crucial tasks of minmising uncertainties and predicting the future needs, qualifications etc. While anybody can do a project, not everybody can make a successful project manager who would plan with precision and implement with perfection.
If you need a surgical intervention, you would need a doctor — a qualified one, not a quack, to operate on you. If you want to design a bridge, you have to be qualified engineer to understand the engineering mechanisms to do it correctly. Similarly, project management is a professional job and managing uncertainties needs a qualified project manager too.
Competency is crucial for a successful project manager. In India, Project Management Associates (PMA) provides certifications and competency skills for project managers based on the international guidelines set by IPMA (International Project Management Association).
The certifications provided are of different levels. Beginning with level D, the certifications offer increasing levels of competency skills right up to level A which qualifies certified project directors. In India, while we've a good number of certified project professionals ie level A qualified professionals, not many of them graduate to the higher skill bracket, which is disappointing. It is estimated that we have 50,000 certified project professionals in India, most of whom have been certified based on passing an exam. This is a good first step but they need to move up the ladder. Having an exam based certification must get transformed to competence assessment in managing projects.
Here, India lags dismally from global benchmark leading to problems and issues. We just have 114 Certified Project Managers (IPMA level C), 17 Certified Senior Project Managers (IPMA level B) and 12 Certified Project Directors (IPMA level A). Today, China has maximum number of competency based qualified project professionals globally with 18,368 IPMA level C certified persons, against our 114. According to our estimate, for India to become a success story we need at least 200 certified projects directors (IPMA level A), at least 2,000 senior project managers (IPMA level B) and at least 20,000 certified project managers (IPMA level C). This is a tremendous challenge and need every stakeholder, be it the Government, ordinary citizens, corporations, contractors, financiers to join PMA in creating a project oriented India.
The writer is National President of Project Management Associates (PMA)