Institutional News (APM leaves IPMA); Good News (APM Awards,
NCE Awards, Rapid Development Success, British Museum’s Visitor Welcome
Programme); No So Good News (Electric Flying Taxis, Lessons learned –
Horizon, HS2 Bat Cave); Bad News (Bribery Investigation, North Sea Oil and
Gas Decommissioning, Project Slippage); White Tales and Eagles
REPORT
By Miles Shepherd
Executive Advisor & International Correspondent
Salisbury, England, UK
INTRODUCTION
Regular readers will know that I usually try to classify UK events into good, not so good and bad news but as we come to the end of 2024, events are a little more tricky allocate. This month, we lead with institutional news before moving on events that are easier to classifier.
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
In a joint news release, the Association for Project Management (APM) and the International Project Management Association (IPMA) announced that they would be revising their relationship with effect from 1 March 2025. APM will begin operating independently alongside IPMA, rather than as a Member Association and certification body.
APM has been a Member Association (MA) of IPMA, and over the years, has made major contributions both technically and existentially. The original IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB) received significant input from APM via Prof Peter Morris and later versions were also developed with further APM support. APM has long been IPMA’s largest financial support because of the size of its membership but also provided financial support by donating to IPMA half its ownership of the International Journal of Project Management which they had founded and developed. This provided a basic income for IPMA that is independent of MA subscriptions.
Despite APM’s support, it has been clear for many years that the tensions between national interests and those of the International body have persisted, mainly as IPMA technical offerings have seldom been attractive to UK project managers who had alternatives. The APM Body of Knowledge preceded the ICB and its single level qualification had been in place for several years prior to IPMA’s Four Level qualifications. The UK Government sponsored PRINCE qualification was also outside the scope of IPMA who showed no inclination to accept it in its credentialling system.
In recent years, IPMA has developed an alternative model which is effectively a franchise system so that Member Associations take the title IPMA [Country] which was deeply unattractive to APM which had its own identity and brand image. Despite technical and presentational difficulties, APM and IPMA have worked together for over five decades. APM has proudly collaborated with IPMA as a Member Association and certification body, providing members to the Executive Board and to development teams. As APM has grown, matured and expanded it’s capabilities, particularly since it was awarded a Royal Charter, it has identified a strategic opportunity to further strengthen the project profession as it attracts interest from around the world.
So the time has come for a re-evaluation of relations. From 1 March 2025, APM will begin operating independently alongside IPMA, rather than as a Member Association and certification body. This new relationship reflects the strategy APM developed as part of its Charter campaign, developing relationships with what they term like-minded organisations. In recent months this has resulted in much improved relations with PMI so APM see this new chapter as bringing exciting possibilities for APM and IPMA to advance individually and together, for the benefit of the project profession as a whole. Both bodies have issued Press Releases which may be seen on social media.
More…
To read entire report, click here
How to cite this report: Shepherd, M. (2024). UK Project Management Roundup, report, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue IX, September. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/pmwj147-Dec2024-Shepherd-UK-project-management-round-up-report.pdf
About the Author
Dr. Miles Shepherd
Salisbury, UK
Dr. Miles Shepherd is an executive editorial advisor and international correspondent for PM World Journal in the United Kingdom. He is also managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK and overseas Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 30 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. His PM experience includes defence, major IT projects, decommissioning of nuclear reactors, nuclear security, rail and business projects for the UK Government and EU. His consulting work has taken him to Japan, Taiwan, USA and Russia. Past Chair and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), Miles is also past president and chair and a Fellow of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He was, for seven years, a Director for PMI’s Global Accreditation Centre and is immediate past Chair of the ISO committee developing new international standards for Project Management and for Program/Portfolio Management. He is currently Chairman of the British Standards Institute project management committee. He was involved in setting up APM’s team developing guidelines for project management oversight and governance. Miles is based in Salisbury, England and can be contacted at miles.shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk.
To view other works by Miles Shepherd, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/miles-shepherd/.
