Soft skill competencies for

project management

Final Project by Sonja van Uden

01 February 2016

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

Project management

A brief history

Project management has been around for a long time

Best practices captured into methodologies from 1965

We are becoming a project oriented society

(Gillard, 2009)

Source: https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/brief-

history-of-project-management.php

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

Project management

Performance figures

Oil and Gas (EY, 2014):

• 64% costs overruns - 73% schedule delays

IT (McKinsey, 2012):

• 45% cost - 7% schedule delays

Transportation (INDOT, 2004):

• 55% cost overruns - 12% schedule

Ineffective project management is one of the causes for

bad results during execution of projects

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

Project management

The role of the project manager

Failure underscores need for improving

Project managers key factor influencing outcome;

• spider in the web

Both art (soft) and science (hard)

Focus on science (hard)

What about soft skill competencies?

Problem Statement: Which soft skill competencies

enhance the success of project management?

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

Research design

Soft skill competencies and associated behaviors for project managers

Importance of

soft skill competency

Status of

soft skill competency

Recommendations on soft skill competencies that enhance the successof projectmanagement

Research problem: which soft skill competencies enhance the success of project management?

Questionnaire based research

Qualitative Research

Literature Review

The research design is centred around exploring and unpicking

people’s perspectives in field settings

Identification

of patterns

Scatter-plot

matrix

Open-ended

interviews

Ranking-style

questionnaire

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

Main conclusions

Literature versus open-ended interviews

Six competencies literature

Six additional competencies open-ended interviews

Not backed up by open-ended interviews;

• The power of motivation

• The power of values

Not backed up by literature;

• Significance organizational structure

There is a significant difference between

the theory and practice

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

Main conclusions

Importance and status rankings

All above average importance and status

No consensus on values;

• Highest spread on importance

• The highest status

Motivation is hard;

• The lowest importance

• The lowest status

No importance equals no development

All identified soft skill competencies enhance

the success of project managers

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

Recommendations

What should be done

Additional research should be conducted to:

• Determination of full list

• Understanding values

University curriculum

Diagnose – Develop – Measure the practice

Additional research, and development of methodology based

on soft skill competencies

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

What could this mean

For organisations and project managers

Value proposition continuous project achievement;

• On-time delivery

• Bottom-line costs within budget

Ambassadors of change

Attractability for employers

Creating competitive advantage through

soft skill competencies

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

My dream

A project manager should be an inspirational leader

instead of a puppet master of a team,

and a gatekeeper of cost and delivery.

A project manager should be an

ambassador for values-based leadership

in organisations.

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

www.iloveprojects.nl

The way forward

Continuous collection of data

Round table event

called ‘mind’-talks

scheduled every 3

months

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

Meetings with peers from various industries

Partnerships to accelerate

Creation of product

The way forward

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

Thank you very much

for your attention

Final Project by Sonja van Uden

01 February 2016

For additional information please contact Frame of Mind Consultancy

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.