Project Management Institute (PMI) is a not-for-profit organisation that advances the project management profession through globally-recognised standards and certifications, collaborative communities, a research programme, and professional development opportunities. Craig Killough, vice-president, Organisation Markets for PMI, in an interaction with FE?s Sukalp Sharma, shares what project management is all about, how it is seen in India, and the career prospects it offers. Excerpts:
What exactly does PMI do?
PMI is a standards and certification body. We create standards for organisations to develop methodologies for executing projects, programmes and managing their portfolio. We create certificates and credentials for the roles within the profession of project management. We also do research and develop knowledge around best practices in project management.
Given that project management in various industries is sector-specific, how are you relevant?
The advantage of defining globally-accepted standards and credentials is that is provides common operating framework and also a common lexicon and language for people to communicate. In a big project, say the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project, there will be hundreds of companies involved, and if each of those had its own operating language, phraseology and methodology, it would be chaos. With common, internationally-defined standards, organisations can communicate with one another clearly. Companies are now looking for standardisation and that?s what we bring to the table.
So do you create certified project managers?
We?re not a training company. We develop standards for organisations to develop methods. And we develop certifications for people. We define roles: project manager, programme manager and portfolio manager. And we create global studies for the skills, knowledge and abilities that project managers need to have. Then we do a World Delineation Study, in which thousands of practitioners take part to help us define what the knowledge, capabilities and critical skills are for project managers. Around that we create exam banks that help test skills, knowledge and abilities of project managers to certify them as PMPs (project management professionals). Every four years, we redo the standards of project management as well, which is done through consensus.
Do you develop special programmes for companies? Who are among your clients?
We have no clients and we are not in the business of creating company-specific standards. We create global standards and frameworks to guide businesses. But we have organisations that join what we call the Global Advisory Council. They are MNCs that come together to share ideas and best practices and we facilitate that. But we don?t sell them anything. We promote the profession of project management as a whole.
What is your business model like?
We develop revenues by memberships. We globally have around 4,00,000 members, and only individuals are members, not companies. There is a membership fee that people pay to have access to our knowledge base. Also, for taking the exam, the PMPs have to pay a fee. The fee is uniform (around $200); it differs slightly based on whether it is a computer-based test or a regular test. Additionally, it?s not a one time deal. You have to stay current; just like accountants take continued education units, project managers need to recertify every three years. Then we have a network of 1,600 companies that are training companies. These are registered education providers. We don?t own them but we review their content and approve it. We don?t derive any revenue from their operations, we just certify them and they pay a fee for the certification exam. In India, there are around 100 such providers currently.
How big is the Indian market?
There are around 30,000 certified PMPs in India, of which 12,500 are PMI members. There?s a vast number of people who are trying to practice project management and who are not certified. We had done two researches on the demand of certified project managers, one with Ficci and the other with Indicus Analytics. India needs at least 5 lakh project managers in the next few years. As per the Indicus report, the overall stock of project management staff in India is over 96,000 and is expected to grow over 2,15,000 by the end of this year.