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Who will get that great, new opportunity within your organization? Perhaps the daughter of the top salesman, or the young lady that was in the same sorority as the CEO? The fourth aspirational Fairness standard in the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is “4.2.4 We make opportunities equally available to qualified candidates.” Not everyone has the needed qualifications, so opportunities should not be equally available to unqualified candidates. But the pool of equally qualified candidates should all have the same opportunity. Some people deliberately use their position of power to show favoritism, but what is difficult about this standard is that someone can have every intention of trying to do the right thing by “helping someone out” without realizing that it is precluding the opportunity for other individuals. This standard asks us to think through our actions to ensure that they are fair.

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“I wish I could, but you need someone better qualified than I for the job.” Sometimes we are asked to do things that we simply are not qualified to do. This could be for many reasons. In my case, sometimes people have misunderstood my background. I am not a clinical psychologist, yet people have asked me if I can help them with their marriage problems or interpret their dreams. Nope! In other instances, I have been asked to do work in an entirely different profession in order for the company to save money on expensive outside consultant fees.

The Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct contains six aspirational Responsibility standards, with the second one being: “2.2.2 We accept only those assignments that are consistent with our background, experience, skills, and qualifications.”

This does not mean that we cannot accept work if we haven’t performed that exact work before. In fact, we should be continuing to learn and expand our experiences. The Code of Ethics contains a comment stating “Where developmental or stretch assignments are being considered, we ensure that key stakeholders receive timely and complete information regarding the gaps in our qualifications so that they may make informed decisions regarding our suitability for a particular assignment.” They key here is to open and honest about your experiences and qualifications. Perhaps you are almost ready to do a certain type of assignment on your own, but you’d like permission to ask a consultant for advice if certain types of unusual problems arise. Know your own strengths and limitations.

When submitting bids, we also need to be honest about the qualifications of our organization as a whole. A comment contained in the Code of Ethics states “In the case of a contracting arrangement, we only bid on work that our organization is qualified to perform and we assign only qualified individuals to perform the work.” The loss of time and money can be tremendous when a buyer selects a bidder only to find out through experience that the organization was not competent for the work.

Thinking this might be an ethics complaint!

As stated in the last posting, even though 9% of the PMP exam is based upon the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct it is often not given enough attention. A question I often hear about the Code of Ethics concerns when it is appropriate to report ethics violations to PMI. For example, if your colleague claims to have her PMP®, but her boss tells you that she actually has her CAPM® because she doesn’t have enough hours of experience to obtain her PMP, should this be reported? Section 2.3.3 of the Code of Ethics states “We bring violations of this Code to the attention of the appropriate body for resolution.” Falsely claiming to have a certain PMI credential is certainly unethical, and if this is occurring it should be reported. However, we must keep in mind the companion Code of Ethics section 2.3.4: “We only file ethics complaints when they are substantiated by facts.” In the situation above, your colleague’s boss is providing you with information that may be considered hearsay, rumors, or gossip. Based solely on what you have heard, you do not have enough information to file an ethics complaint. Imagine that your colleague later says that last year she indeed told her boss that she did not have enough experience for a PMP, but since then she has gained the required amount of experience and recently passed her PMP exam. The key point is that only substantiated ethics violations should be reported.

The PMBOK® (Project Management Body of Knowledge) is the book produced by PMI that is the recognized standard for the profession of project management and the foundation for PMI’s certifications. Currently in its fourth edition, the PMBOK describes 42 processes that are “generally recognized as good practice” in the field of project management.

We’re thoroughly enjoying the growth and quality of interaction / learning in our continuing education subscription program. If you have a PMP and need a fast, economical and meaningful way of earning PDU’s – check out this PDF.   If you act by September 30th you’ll be able to earn 45 PDU’s in the next 12 months for only $375.00. In October our class roster includes Effective Virtual Teams, Professional and Social Networking for Results and the last offering of our Six Sigma Green Belt within the subscription progam. Take a look at the attached PDF.

If you’re ready to sign on today you can go to http://shop.1asecure.com/prod.cfm?ProdID=326179&StID=9187

Also our connections on Facebook and LinkedIn continue to grow in number and content sharing. This blog is approaching its one year anniversary with a shade under 200 postings regarding project management (geared toward the 4th Edition PMBOK), business analysis and practical consulting tips and the exercise – brain connection. Feel free to explore and please post your feedback. We thoroughly enjoy the replies to each posting here!

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Best success to you!

Sincerely

David Kohrell, MA, PMP, CISA, CBAP
President
Technology As Promised(TAP), LLC
Seminar Leader
TAPUniversity
1520 South 70th, Suite 106
Lincoln NE 68506 USA
’1-402-486-0827(Office)
’1-402-216-0827(Skype)
’1-402-429-9805(Mobile)
www.tapuniversity.com

Laura Hilkemann, PhD, PMP
Vice President
Technology As Promised (TAP) LLC
Chair
TAPUniversity
1520 South 70th, Suite 106
Lincoln NE 68506 USA
’1-402-486-0827(Office)
’1-402-216-0827(Skype)
’1-402-540-TAPU(Mobile)
www.tapuniversity.com

Technology As Promised and its learning portal TAPUniversity recently completed their renewal as a Global Registered Education Provider for the Project Management Institute. This designation allows TAPUniversity to continue its expanding delivery of project management related courses – online and in-person. That delivery now includes not only project management but virtual teams, business analysis, Six Sigma, CobiT, Career Survival Series and several additional subject areas geared toward helping our alums succeed in difficult economic conditions.

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Dear Mr. Kohrell, I am happy to inform you that the Technology as Promised renewal application for enrollment as a PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) has been reviewed and approved by PMI…

Best Regards,

Cherie Sterling
R.E.P. Processor
Project Management Institute

For those that meet the experience and education requirements, the first step is going to www.pmi.org to work on the application for the PMP exam. You’re able to save your application and come back and work on it later if you wish. On this application, you’ll be documenting your education and the specific details of the projects you have led. After submitting your application, PMI reviews it for completeness. Then you’ll be asked for payment. The cost of the exam for PMI members is $405. At this point, some applications will be audited. Otherwise, the exam can be taken. The computerized exam is scheduled through Prometrix at a testing center. You’ll be taken to the Prometrix website through the PMI website.

The exam itself is 200 questions. Only 175 of these questions are actually scored. The rest are questions that are being tested for future exams, and you won’t know which questions these are. You’ll have four hours to take the exam. You’re allowed to take breaks, but the clock is still ticking so it’s best to keep breaks short. Immediately after you finish the exam questions, you’ll be informed whether you passed. To maintain your PMP certification, you’ll need to earn PDU’s. During the three years after you earned your PMP, you’ll need 60 PDU’s. There are various ways to earn PDU’s—for example, you can be involved in your local PMI chapter meetings, give talks or write papers on project management, and take classes. If you choose to take classes for your PDU’s, TAPUniversity has a variety of online classes available.

Here’s the link to PMI’s official handbook that goes into more detail on the PMP certification if you wish to read more: http://www.pmi.org/PDF/pdc_pmphandbook.pdf

The honor roll includes:

Ken Bratch, Quad Cities
Karen Miller, Quad Cities
Melissa Olson, Minneapolis
B Howard Penix, Quad Cities
Peggy Pangersis, Denver
Mary Regan, Nashville,
Bobbi Stark, Minneapolis
Max West, Boston

Best success all on a healthy, prosperous new year and on all your virtual team interactions!