Experience beats accreditation in IT: survey

Stan Beer
Monday, 06 March 2006 01:47

IT People - Enterprise

Senior IT managers in Australia more often than not use an individual’s track record and successful delivery on past projects as the true indicator of that person’s skill and ability, rather than any formal accreditation held, according to a new survey. Most employers surveyed did not believe accreditation is a reliable indicator of competence in a project manager.

These findings come from a recently released survey of the banking, insurance and government sectors by  Professional Services company SMS Management & Consulting.

Principal Consultant with SMS in Sydney Bruce Pedersen said, “The survey was designed to find out what value large corporates and government organisations place on project manager accreditations or qualifications. We spoke mainly with Managers of Project Offices or senior Program Directors – people who’ve been in the industry a long time and have direct responsibility either for recruiting project managers or for assigning them to internal roles.

“Most agreed that the number one indicator for selecting a project manager was the individual’s track record of delivery on past projects. We asked respondents to rank six factors, and the individual’s track record was consistently allocated the highest score, well above any other factors such as the person having formal accreditation, an IT degree, a business degree, or even having specific knowledge of the domain the project related to.”

On the experience versus accreditation debate, Josephine Turner, Group Manager, Program Management Office, REACH said, “While accreditation is a useful tool to streamline candidates, the bottom line is that I want a project manager who has jumped the hurdles before. Complex projects, such as those in voice network systems, require a manager with a detailed level of knowledge, which is something that accreditation does not automatically deliver.”

While weighting experience over accreditation when it comes to appointing a project manager, Ms Turner acknowledged that accreditation is of value when it comes to the processes associated with delivering a project. “The value of an accredited PM is that in most cases they will undertake a project using specific methodologies. To that end, if I had had two candidates with similar experience, but only one was accredited, then in all likelihood I would select the person with accreditation as that would ensure that the project was executed using acknowledged methodologies,” Ms Turner said.

The SMS survey supports this view.

“It does seem that accreditation is viewed as having value in the marketplace,” says Mr Pedersen, “For example, survey respondents were asked what they thought was the best way for project managers to improve their marketability. Most ranked accreditation above other education and training options such as obtaining a business degree or an IT degree.”

“Some organisations are starting to focus on accreditation as a method of trying to ensure consistency in approach and it’s in these situations that it could be considered a good career move, particularly if you are an experienced project manager and can therefore obtain evidence-based accreditation,” Mr Pedersen said.

“I’d be looking to broaden my base of experience as much as possible before worrying too much about gaining accreditation. And when it comes to the type of accreditation, most of the survey respondents were very clear that they only rated evidence based accreditation. So I would be wary of investing time in exam-based qualifications which don’t take into consideration your day to day experience. You may learn some skills, but your accreditation may not make you more marketable.”