THE CHALLENGES OF ASSESSMENT OF PROJECT MANAGERS’ COMPETENCES

Aidanas Barzelis, Oksana Mejerė, Regina Karvelienė

Šiauliai University, Vytautas Magnus University

The aim of this paper was to discuss different theoretical perspectives of competence and to present the
results of wide-scale international survey on the competencies of project managers. The differences between
objectivist and constructivist points of competence construct were analyzed by emphasizing contextuality vs
universality of the its content. In the paper the variety of project managers’ competence models were presented
on the basis of the practical and theoretical methodologies.
The paper also presents the results of international survey which highlighted problematic points of EU
funded projects management. On the basis of constructive approach the needs and opinions of all groups
participating in projects management as well as educational institutions responsible for project managers’
preparation were studied. The survey showed that project managers lack communication and intercultural
communication competencies, development of partnership, leadership, monitoring, risk and time management
competencies.

Introduction
Since last decades project activities became a significant way of organizations’ and institutions’
management, that actualized the need of professional project managers and raised new challenges to
educational processes. The competence of project manager turned into the object of educational,
management and scientific research discourses. Scientific discussions on competence meaning between
objectivists and constructivists made difficult the agreement on universal model of project manager’s
competence.
Today there is a variety of approaches to managing project activities including agile, interactive,
incremental, and phased approaches. The most popular is phased approach, which describes the project
manager competence as set of skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for managing project activities,
differentiated according to project cycle phase. However, on the bases of constructivist approach to
competence, the factors of project type, size, and individual experiences should be considered in describing
and researching competence of project managers, while the most models presented in literature are pretended
to be universal and at the same time different. The clear concept of competence of project managers,
working on EU funded project preparation and implementation, is needed for unification and adaptation of
education and training on this issue.
The main goal of this article is to present different theoretical perspectives of competence and the
results of wide-scale international survey on the competencies of project managers.
Methods: analysis of literature, qualitative method of semi-structured interviews and survey
questionnaire.

Models of competence
In recent decades the concept of competence became an object of interdisciplinary researches. The
structure, content, dimensions of competence and its development and training strategies are analyzed in
pedagogy, public management, psychology, law and other studies. Academics and scientists are discussing
on competence meaning, searching for true competence definition. As Stoof et al. (2002) noticed, the two
main approaches can be observed in scientific discussions of competence concept: the attempts to find
universal meaning of competence are contrasted to contextually bounded competence perspective.
The first approach is based on objective epistemology, considering the world as given, meaning that
there is one objective, absolute truth. The objectivists are trying to find out the one and only true meaning of
competence. They identified its essential structural elements, which are common for every competence. The
labour perspective of competence is based on this objectivist approach. The representatives of this
perspective (Boyatzis, 1982; Veres, 1990; Armstrong, 1991) identify competence as a set of attributes that
are strictly work related and necessary for improving qualitative job. According to Boyatzis (1982, 21), job
competency is "an underlying“ characteristic of a person in that it may be a motive, trait, skill, aspect of
one's self-image or social role, or a body of knowledge he or she uses". Such researchers emphasise the
generic, context-independent nature of professional competence, which means that the characteristics of
competence can appear in many different work activities. So the objectivists attempt to identify generic
manager, teacher, engineer and other professional competences and discuss on universal intercultural,

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informational, etc., competence meaning by eliminating any impact of outside factors to competence content
and internal variations of professional competence.
In contrast, a constructivist approach releases the quest for the absolute truth about competence by
allowing a variety of competence definitions. Here, the criterion for a competence definition is not whether
the definition is true but the extent to which the constructed definition has proved to be adequate in the
context in which it is used (Stoof et al. 2002, 347). The representatives of this approach (Eraut, 1994;
Mirabile,1997; Parry, 1996; Stoff,et al., 2002) accept the dynamic structure and content of competence, by
emphasising its viability, adequateness to situation, context, people needs. The constructivist approach to
competence points its dynamic essence and declares that competence structure is determined by people, who
construct a competence definition, the purpose of competence meaning, and context of enterprises, sector or
institution (Jasper van Loo and Judith Semeijn, 2001; Stoff, Martens ir kt., 2002). According to this
approach, the research of project manager competence should be addressed to job context and respondents
experience. The viability of competence, which means that the competence should be adequate for the
situation, raises the need to link competence to practical tasks of job environment and personal needs. The
educational (Bowden ir Marton, 1998; Barnett, 1993; Melton, 1994) and human recourse (Klarus, Tillema, ir
Veenstra, 1999; Sandberg, 2000) perspectives of competence analyse are based on this constructivist
epistemology. Both perspectives underline the competence correlation to social (job) context and personal
experiences. As Sandberg (2000, 21) noticed, “workers' ways of conceiving of their work constitute
competence (...), attributes do not have fixed meanings, but rather, acquire meanings through the specific
way that work is conceived. (...) workers' ways of conceiving of their work create and shape the context from
which the attributes acquire their specific meaning for competent work performance”.
The main characteristic of educational perspective is that competence is seen as the result of trainings
and educational processes. The purpose of education is the development of main competence elements
(skills, knowledge, attitudes). Comparing to labour market perspective, this approach complements the
structure of competence by integrating attitudes.
The human resources perspective educes the dynamic essence of competence by emphasising its
relation to practical performance skills. Competence is a set of knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes,
which are used in work for certain activities and can facilitate the personal communication in organization or
enterprise. So the competence abilities to act are closely related to certain situation and tasks. The
competence correlation to professional and social contexts is emphasised.
The competence definition, which integrates both (educational and human resources) perspectives is
developed by S.Parry: “”a competency is a cluster of related knowledge, attitudes, skills, and other personal
characteristics:
• That affects a major part of one’s job (i.e., one or more key roles or responsibilities);
• That correlates with performance on the job;
• That can be measured against well-accepted standards;
• That can be improved via training and development; and
• That can be broken down into dimensions of competence“ (Bolles&Hubbard, 2007, 141).
So the main peculiarities of constructivist approach to competence are the dynamic content of
competence, its dependence to personal experience and context. Since the structure of the competence is
partly determined by persons’ ways of conceiving of their work, the important role in competence research
has the person self-evaluation.

The structure of project managers’ competence

In the last decades radically changed methodology and basis of the company/organization activity
management. Project management became one of the most important and effective method. There were
created methodology, schemes, models, guidelines and other material to support this method theoretically
and practically. In this perspective Project manager competence took a different scientific approach to
conceptualize it. In order to analyze the variety of project managers’ competence models on the basis of the
practical and theoretical methodologies the common agreement on concept and its’ genesis was needed. First
of all project management definitions were summarized and it was described as the discipline of planning,
organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and
objectives.
As S. Nokes (2007) proposed, a project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end,
undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, usually to bring about beneficial change or added value. The
temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive,
permanent or semi-permanent functional work to produce products or services (Dinsmore, 2005). In practice,

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the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the
development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management.
The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals (Lewis, 2006) and
objectives while honoring the preconceived project constraints (Phillips, 2003). Typical constraints are
scope, time, and budget (Nokes, 2007). The secondary challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration
of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives.
There are a number of approaches to managing project activities including agile, interactive,
incremental, and phased approaches. A traditional phased approach identifies a sequence of steps to
be completed. The "traditional approach" or the “Project Cycle Management” is a term used to
describe the management activities and decision-making procedures used during the life-cycle of a
project (including key tasks, roles and responsibilities, key documents and decision options). The
cycle of operations for managing the external assistance projects has five phases, as shown in Figure 1
below.

Figure 1. The cycle of project management

Usually for each PCM phase different project management competencies are needed. The problem is
that there was no universally agreed competence model.
The specific competencies of the Project manager vary depending on the industry, the company size,
the company maturity, and the company culture. However, there are some competencies that are common to
all Project Managers, noting (Berrie, 2009):
• Development of the project plan
• Managing the project stakeholders
• Managing the project team
• Managing the project risk
• Managing the project schedule
• Managing the project budget
• Managing the project conflicts
In other perspective Project manager competence is defined as consisting of three separate dimensions
(NCSPM, 2010):
• Knowledge – what a project manager knows about the application of processes, tools and
techniques in project activities
• Performance – how a project manager applies project management knowledge to meet project
requirements
• Personal – how a project manager behaves when performing activities in a project environment.
In order to be recognized as fully competent, a project manager must satisfy each of these three
dimensions.
There were also efforts to create other universal Project managers’ competence model by identifying
the forty key competencies using different horizontal and vertical cuts (The Association for Project Management,
2010):

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 • Project Management:
• Organization and People:
• Processes and
Procedures:
• General Management:
Systems management, Program Management, Project Management, Project Life Cycle,
Project Environment, Project Strategy, Project Appraisal, Project Success / Failure
Criteria, Integration, Systems and procedures, Close out, Post Project Appraisal
Organization Design, Control and Co-ordination, Communication, Leadership,
Delegation, Team Building, Conflict management, Negotiation, Management
development
Work Definition, Planning, Scheduling, Estimating, Cost control, Performance
Measurement, Risk Analysis and measurement, Value Management, Change Control,
Mobilization
Operations and technical Management, Marketing and Sales, Finance, Information
Technology, Law, Procurement, Quality, Safety, Industrial Relations

Despite the universalized conceptualization of Project management the specific situation is with the
international, national and regional research, investment and development projects financed by Europe
Union or other equivalent institutions.
Development projects are a way of clearly defining and managing investments and change processes.
Development projects can vary significantly in their objectives, scope and scale. Smaller projects might
involve modest financial resources and last only a few months, whereas a large project might involve many
millions of Euro and last for many years1 (PCM guidelines, 2004).
The major challenge for managers involved in the preparation and implementation of EU or equivalent
institutions funded projects is to have their project application approved and to successfully manage their
projects. Their success is closely related to their skills and competences important for effective management
of different phases of the project cycle.
For purposes of creation of such generalized competence model wide-scale international survey was
performed which highlighted problematic points of EU funded projects management. On the basis of
constructive approach the needs and opinions of all groups participating in projects management as well as
educational institutions responsible for project managers’ preparation were studied.

International survey on Project managers’ competencies

Due to find highlighted problematic points of EU funded projects management, there was performed
an international survey, using various tools: a questionnaire (for all categories of respondents) and interview
(for educational experts and trainers). Also every project partner after completion of the online survey had
organised national seminars-workshops at their countries (for all categories of respondents). It helped to test
and to verify outcomes of the online survey. All survey methods were used to collect, analyse and compare
current data to the requirements and expectations set by the project managers (PMs) themselves. The survey
was performed during 2008.06-2009.09 by „Platform for common framework for EU funded projects
(Keylinks)“, funded by Grundtvig programme.
The questionnaire was put into virtual space (online survey: www.keylinks.eu) and prepared in the
paper version as well. Open ended and multiple choice questionnaires were created for three groups of
respondents:
1. Project managers (PMs) who were asked to identify challenges they were facing during different
phases of the project cycles. This category of respondents was divided in 3 levels: less experienced project
managers (less than 5 years) - 44%, mid-experienced project managers (5-10 years) - 31%, very experienced
project managers (more than 10 years) - 25%.
2. Managing authorities and administrators of funding programmes (PCMs) who were asked to identify
the most common difficulties experienced by project applicants and PMs.
3. Educational Institutions (EDUs). In other words, educational experts and trainers who were asked to
identify current offer of their training portfolios for the PMs.
Due to identify the problematical points of these target groups in the management of EU funded
projects, the survey was differentiated into main project management phases: project preparation phase and
project implementation phase. In every phase were figured the following eleven main topics:
1. Differences between the views of the PMs and the PCMs.
2. List of the most difficult tasks.
3. Gap between offered by the EDUs and required training by PMs.

1
The EC’s financial commitments to projects are usually for less than 5 years, however a project may (through more than one
financial commitment) last longer.

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 4. The most difficult tasks for the PMs according to their experience, and why?
5. The most important tasks for the PMs according to their experience, and why?
6. The most difficult and/or important tasks for the PMs according to their experience, and why?
7. The most difficult and/or important tasks for the PMs in relation to their training, and why?
8. The most difficult and/or important tasks for the PMs working on national or transnational projects.
9. What type of training are the PMs interested in.
10. What competencies are considered by the PCMs important to them.
11. Differences between answers of different categories of institutions.
Approximately 250 project managers (PMs), 45 programme managers and administrators (PCMs) and
60 representatives of educational institutions (EDUs) from different EU countries and beyond participated in
the international survey. In this survey the project managers and programme managers were asked in
particular to rank the project managers’ various tasks during the above mentioned project phases according to
their importance (only PMs) and difficulty (PMs and PCMs). Representatives of educational institutions were
asked to provide information if subjects related to these tasks were part of their training programs. Collected
results were transformed into proposal of educational standards for managers of EU funded projects. We would
like to present survey results in this article concerning the most important and difficult tasks for trained and not
trained PMs in both phases.
Analysing survey results in the project preparation phase, there were taken into account 38 tasks. The
PMs were rating difficulty and importance of each task. The PCMs’ only difficulty was rated and the EDUs
were asked about providing/not providing types of training for each task. The PM and PCM respondents had
four grades to choose from when answering questions on the scale one (1) to four (4); 1 (the task is very easy or
not important) to 4 (the task is very much difficult or very much important.) The project preparation section
was organized in seven subsections, each followed by an open question (“Project idea generation”, “Selection
of appropriate funding programme”, “Set up of project consortium”, “Proposal preparation”, “Proposal
submission”, “Communication with the funding authority”, “General tasks and responsibilities related to the
project planning phase”).
The most important and difficult tasks for trained and not trained PMs in the project preparation phase
are showed on the table 1. As we may see in the top twelve difficult tasks for both trained and not trained
project managers were most of the parts from the proposal preparation subsection. We found, that important
and difficult tasks in the project preparation phase are related to the communication with different interested
project parts. The most difficult part for the mid-experienced project managers (5-10 years) was to link the
project idea into the framework of participating organisations’ strategies as w ell as international dynamics, as
experienced project managers (more than 10 years) didn’t find it difficult. This group found, that to facilitate
compromises when there is a conflict of interests among consortium members needs much more efforts. Less
experienced project managers (less than 5 years) all financial tasks in the project preparation phase mentioned
as the most difficult for them.
Table 1. The most important and difficult tasks for all project managers (PMs)(Project preparation
phase)
Rank Task Section of project planning phase
1. Calculate project budget and allocate it according to the roles and proposal preparation
tasks of consortium members
2. Define qualitative and quantitative indicators which allow a proposal preparation
constant monitoring of project achievements
3. Search for consortium members appropriate for the project scope set up of project consortium
4. Set project objectives and goals proposal preparation
5. Define roles and responsibilities of consortium members set up of project consortium
6. Facilitate compromises when there is a conflict of interests general tasks and responsibilities in project
among consortium members planning phase
7. Know the principles of sound management, budgetary planning general tasks and responsibilities in project
and sound resource management planning phase
8. Establish a clear picture through a project vision, plan, and general tasks and responsibilities in project
subsequent distribution to involved parties planning phase
9. Set up project work programme (tasks, activities, responsibilities, proposal preparation
time plan, partners´ involvement and roles)
10. Meet deadline proposal submission
11. Communicate with different actors (networks, business partner project idea generation
representatives, etc.)
12. Lead the planning process by taking into account different needs general tasks and responsibilities
and expectations of project consortium members

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 In the section about the project implementation phase 35 tasks have been rated in the same principle
as analysing survey results from the project planning phase. The section of the questionnaire for project
implementation was organised into five subsections each followed by an open question (“Project
management and coordination”, “Financial management”, “Monitoring and evaluation”, “Project completion
and reporting”, “General tasks and responsibilities for successful implementation”). The survey results are
shown on the table 2. As we may note, management and communication were indicated by the respondents
the same as in the project preparation phase. Abilities to communicate, to deliver task to the project team
members and to make sure that activities are carried out in accordance with the administrative and financial
regulations were stated as important and difficult. We have found interesting differences between these 3
categories of PMs: oversee tasks and assure they are fulfilled and that deadlines are kept in accordance with
the project proposal was the most difficult for the very experienced project managers (more than 10 years),
as for the less experienced project managers (less than 5 years) it didn’t make any difficulties. To empower
the team, clearly delegate tasks and responsibilities by taking into account the team members’ strengths and
skills was indicated as difficulty by the mid-experienced project managers (5-10 years), but less
experienced project managers (less than 5 years) didn’t found it very difficult as well. For them to inspire the
multicultural project team and encourage the ownership of the project was the most difficult activity.

Table 2. The most important and difficult tasks for all project managers (PMs) (Project implementation
phase)
Rank Task Section of project implementation phase
1. Make sure the financial rules are clear for all consortium Financial management
members
2. Oversee tasks and assure they are fulfilled and that deadlines Overall
are kept in accordance with the project proposal
3. Complete project results Completion & reporting
4. Prepare project reports (technical and financial) Completion & reporting
5. Empower the team, clearly delegate tasks and responsibilities Management and communication
by taking into account the team members’ strengths and skills
6. Know the financial obligations and assure that the whole project Financial management
consortium understands
7. Have a clear picture of project’s objectives, desired results, and Overall / Management and communication
outcomes and deliver it to the consortium (internal communication)
8. Inspire the multicultural project team and encourage ownership Management and communication
of the project
9. Make sure activities are carried out in accordance with the General tasks and responsibilities for
administrative and financial regulations successful implementation/ Financial
management
10. Monitor financial issues: check if spending by consortium Financial management / Monitoring and
members is in accordance with the project proposal evaluation
11. Observe situation changes and modify the project Monitoring and evaluation
implementation in order to guarantee project’s desired
deliverables
12. (Manage the project consortium by facilitating communication Management and communication
and motivation)

On the basis of this research a curriculum and competency framework was drafted which contains the
most relevant topics for managers involved in preparation and implementation of EU funded projects. This
curriculum was intended to form the basis for the creation of standards for the education of managers of EU
funded projects. In accordance with the survey results, curriculum courses/ modules were created for 2
different levels of trainees. The common framework for all courses/ modules was used in developing them:
level, specialisation, target learner, pre-requisites, key competencies, content, most problematic highlighted
areas, methodology, course/ module duration (including, theoretical, practical, self study) and ECTS
reference. In curriculum creation process a big attention was noticed in to competence development of these
2 levels of trainees. There was created competency framework for every course/ module. There is an
example of competence descriptor of one of the course / module on the table 3. The parts of the competence
descriptor were used in this framework: skills, knowledge, attributes and attitudes.

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Table 3. Competency framework (example of one course / module)
Area Level Skills
1 - Able to communicate using all forms
of communication – written, verbal, e-
mail; formal and informal; body
language
- Capable of keeping partners informed
and exchanging information with
partners
- Able to express ideas clearly - Able
to provide feedback intuitively
- Can recognize shortcomings in
communication within consortium
- Able to present project idea
Communication within the partnership
Knowledge
- Knows different
communication methods and
is aware of their strengths and - Sticks to ethical principles
weaknesses
- Has an overview of
communication channels
- Understands the principles
of active listening
- Knows and understands
principles of providing
feedback
Attributes and attitudes
-Capable of self-reflection
-Open-minded
- Has good self-reflection
- Personal motivation and
enthusiasm
- Oriented towards ICT
solutions in communication

attractively in both written and oral - Knows relevant databases

form for European project partners’
- Can communicate with various
personality types search
- Able to create and develop new - Has an overview of events
relationships organized by EU
- Able to find appropriate opportunities representatives for potential
to meet potential project partners (e.g. project coordinators
conference, seminar, contact meeting
etc)
- ECDL level of IT skills
2 - Able to create environment of open - Knows principles of open
communication communication
- Able to recognize and prevent - Understands techniques for
conflicts arising from communication effective facilitation of
barriers
- Can prepare and implement a meetings
communication plan - Knows negotiation
-Capable of providing positive and techniques
negative feedback on a regular basis - Aware of difficult situations
- Able to manage/facilitate meetings regarding communication and
and workshops potential conflict
- Able to present efficiently - Understands cultural
- Can combine interests among stereotypes
different stakeholders
- Can apply negotiation techniques
- Able to communicate effectively in a
multicultural environment

The curricula, created on the base of the most important and difficult tasks for project managers,
working on EU funded projects, could be used for unification and adaptation of education and training on
this issue.

Conclusions
1. The differences between objectivist and constructivist points of competence construct were analyzed. It
was important to notice that the objectivists attempt to identify for example managers’, teachers’ and other
professional competences and discuss on universal intercultural, informational, etc., competence meaning
by eliminating any impact of outside factors to competence content and internal variations of professional
competence. And the main peculiarities of constructivist approach to competence are the dynamic content
of competence, its dependence to personal experience and context.
2. The variety of project managers’ competence models was presented. The problematic point of these
models is that there are a number of approaches to managing project activities including agile, interactive,
incremental, and phased approaches. A traditional phased approach identifies a sequence of steps to be
completed. Usually for each phase different project management competencies are needed. The problem is
that there was no universally agreed competence model. Yet there were several attempts to universalize
the concept of project managers’ competence model but it was too much generalized.
3. The main results of international survey on EU funded projects management showed that there is possible
to create a curriculum and competency framework which contains the most relevant topics for managers
involved in preparation and implementation of EU funded projects. This curriculum was intended to form
the basis for the creation of standards for the education of managers of EU funded projects. In accordance

11
 with the survey results, curriculum courses were created for 2 different levels of trainees. In curriculum
creation process the biggest attention was paid to the development of project managers’ competence
model. There was created competency framework for every course/ module including skills, knowledge,
attributes and attitudes.

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