By Staff Writer

Immediate action is needed to respond to the project management skills-shortage and organisations must be prepared to make the investment to cultivate project manager capability for the long term, says a leading project management consultant.

Michael Young has worked as a professional project manager for eight years and is currently working in the ICT Industry as a consulting project manager providing advice and services to a range of government departments, including the Department of Defence, where he is managing the implementation of IT systems.

Mr Young says it is not that there is a knowledge deficit —  “it’s a reasonably speedy process to get people trained up and certified as project managers.”

The problem, he says, is more the lack of experience in new project managers.
“Project managers suffer stakeholders, with big ideas and short pockets, who continually increase the project scope and impose unrealistic timeframes. 

Inexperienced project managers are less likely to know how to manage these problems without ‘killing the team’ and delivering inferior results, he says.
“They may be inclined to bear with it for the sake of customer service or worse still, attempt to address it and fall foul of the client.”

Mr Young says that organisations attempting to ‘grow their own’ project managers need to think more laterally.  

Rather than seeking a short-term resolution to project backlogs, plans should utilise those backlogs as opportunities for aspiring project managers to transfer learned knowledge.

“The key is providing practical experience to supplement formal learning.”

The Hays Quarterly Public Sector IT Forecast said of project management: “a recent increase in demand for these skills will continue into 2007, particularly as the end of the financial year approaches and employers seek skills to complete scheduled projects on time”.

In July 2006, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) prepared the Skills in Demand Lists. 
These lists recorded high demand for project management in five out of the seven states and territories. 

In response to this state governments have instigated various initiatives to attempt to meet the demand.
The Queensland Government has created a Centre for Excellence in Project Management to manage the predicted project manager shortfall which will directly impact the ability to implement critical infrastructure projects in South East Queensland.

The ACT Government has recognised the problem and includes project managers as one of the professions targeted in the ‘Live in Canberra’ campaign.

Mr Young says that organisations currently adopt short-term, bandaid solutions like luring people in from interstate.