What 10,000 development professionals know about improving project outcomes
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PMDPro is the emerging standard for managing projects in the international development and humanitarian sectors. Learn more about the credential, and how it is an appropriate, affordable, accessible, and actionable solution for NGO and public sector development projects.
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What 10,000 development professionals know about improving project outcomes
- 1. What do 10,000 development professionals know about improving project outcomes? February 2015
- 2. A few whispered comments started it all…
- 3. Why LINGOs?
- 4. How do we make it Appropriate? How do I align PM methodologies with Log Frames? We’ve tried existing tools but we would need to do a major process change. What about NGO’s needs and expertise with monitoring and evaluation?
- 5. So, how is it actually different? What does Appropriate mean? Core PM Skills and Tools More Emphasis on Design/Needs Analysis More Emphasis on M&E Aligns with Log Frames & Grounded in our Language/Context
- 6. Would it be accepted? NGO Working Group Proof of concept in DC/London S. Africa Multi- agency Pilot WV-Zambia Pilot “This is the best thing that has ever happened to projects and project management in the development sector.” - WVI Zambia
- 7. How do we make it Affordable? Private Sector Solutions Typical Classtoom Training Goal for PMDPro Training PMDPro Free Option
- 8. Partners committed to the mission of affordability
- 9. How do we make it Accessible?
- 10. A focus on building local capacity Some of the programs/projects have actually trained their communities on how to make use of some of the tools offered in this course. 75%+ of PMDPro 1 candidates are from developing countries
- 11. The Result: PMDPro—Integrated System Job Aids Self-paced online Instructor-Led Training(F2F & Online) Training Materials Certification (Three Levels) Body of Knowledge
- 12. 10,000 people certified, 70 countries, 5 languages GenomeConsulting, Jordan
- 13. 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 PMDPro1 Candidates by Year Africa 45% Asia 11% Europe 7% N. America 15% C/S America 22% PMDPro1 Candidates by Region Since 2010 Steady Global Growth
- 14. Some perspective
- 15. But what about the projects?
- 16. Projects with PMDPro are more effective 95% of responding field leaders agreed that the investment in project management training for their team has paid off – Mercy Corps 86% of trained project managers made changes to their practice; 44% made significant changes – Mercy Corps I am seeing a greater seriousness with on time reporting, and also a greater sense of urgency around “hitting the targets” as planned and within the planned timeframe. - CRS Reports from the projects have shown an improvement on the way projects are managed…which include budget expenditure aligned with the targets. - CRS
- 17. PMDPro is also Actionable “88% describe the training as directly relevant to their work.” – LINGOs survey results 2015
- 18. PMDPro is more than individual professional development Common Language and Tools Organizational Capability
- 19. Customize | Curate | Integrate Rollout Who, where, how Tools and ProcessesWhich ones Existing frame- works Aligning and refreshing
- 20. Going Global: From Donor to CEO to Local Partners
- 21. Individual professional dev’t Organizational capability ☐ Country wide adoption ☐ Sector wide change and workforce development PMDPro Forward…
- 23. More local ownership and local capacity
- 24. Accountability and Transparency “Stakeholders are much happier with the progress updates and the turn around time and resolutions on issues that need attention— There is more transparency with the projects and with all stakeholders.” --WVI South Africa
- 25. Get Involved: From Pockets of Excellence to Systemic Change • What does the future look like to you? • What emerging issues, trends, challenges exist that we can address? • What does building local capacity look like? • How might the PMDPro model be applied to other skills/disciplines?
Editor's Notes
- Our projects are often over budget, are yours? Delays are more common than we would like. What’s the true cost of a “no cost” extension—in terms of re-allocating human resources? Support costs? Do you know of any existing training that is appropriate? Not too expensive? Our project teams, local implementing partners, and our own support services are not all using the same language; they are not as strong a team as they could be. These are the questions that some of our LINGOs members—all large INGOs—came to us with in 2009.
- LINGOs works with over 85 INGOs to build their learning cultures so that they can do training and capacity building in a more efficient and effective way. We also have a long track record of finding and bringing best practice private sector training solutions to the NGO sector. In fact, each year we leverage over $3mm in donated products and services on behalf of the international NGO sector to help improve our collective training and capacity building. IN 2009, there were no existing NGO sector-wide initiatives around PM; no one fulfilling this role. So, naturally, our members came to us and said, help…please find us some training that would help us improve our project management.
- But helping in this case, meant re-framing the question. LINGOs convened a working group of project experts from the NGO sector to better understand what problem are we trying to solve. We also included PM expertise from the private sector. And quickly the grouped realized—the existing private sector solutions, from software, engineering, construction, etc. were not appropriate. In fact, NGOs had a lot of experience with project design and evaluation but lacked good tools for project delivery—but simply applying existing private sector tools would not work. We needed a project management frame work that would be Appropriate to the development sector. So, the working group set out to create a new body of knowledge for the iNGO sector and PMDPro was born. A new certified credential that not only recognize well-trained project managers in the sector but more importantly would create a common language and toolset for anyone delivering projects in our sector.
- The real test of whether it was appropriate would be whether it would be accepted in the field. Early pilots of this new body of knowledge and the tools were tested by World Vision in Southern Africa. The results were immediate. This works! “normally I go on trainings and get tools that help someone else write a report. Now I have tools that help me do my job”.
- At the time, the available standards for project managers were only PMI and Prince2 and both had become expensive standards with layers of training consultancies and high cost exam fees. The working group agreed that if this was going to work—it needed to be affordable– not just for HQ staff but for field workers and local partners. So Affordability became an important priority for the team. How can we build a structure to ensure its long term affordability and sustainability. That resulted in low-cost F2F trainings, free and open access to all the guides, as well as free online modules created by LINGOs.
- So LINGOs, after it created the body of knowledge and the exam, provided the IP to a newly created NGO, PM4NGOs with the express purpose of ensuing that they would own and curate the body of knowledge and ensure access to anyone in the sector, for free, forever. APMG, the certifying body, then agreed to maintain low exam fees of $120 for HQ staff, $50 per exam/field staff, and $25 for local NGOs. So, now we had Appropriate content that would be forever Affordable.
- The third priority was that of Accessibility—which posed some challenges: existing private sector training requires testing centers and/or local ATOs—nearly ZERO in the developing world! So we could not replicate that mode. Availability of trainers, facilitates etc. for F2F training in the field There is a role for interactive Face to Face training in any initiative, but the working group knew that if the model to deliver PMDPro was based only on Face to Face trainings than only staff near regional hubs like DC, London, Nairobi or JoBurg would receive it—and that is not where most projects happen. Furthermore, F2F training is not always the most affordable. (3) Language accessibility Being accessible meant also being in the local languages. So, today LINGOs offers 100% entirely self-paced online learning modules in four and soon to be five languages—totally free. We also offer blended learning courses online for a low fee in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Do people still request F2F training—of course, and in the past twelve months, we’ve delivered them courses around the world from Katmandu to Abuja and Kabul to Chiapas. But the accessibility of the online learning is what is driving the broad-based, grassroots adoption of the model.
- The result has been exactly what had been hoped for. Local partners are an important part of the story of PMDPro. Because of the open model, it is easy for INGOs to include local partners in the training equation. LINGOs led a project in Latin America that was almost exclusively local organizations that has resulted in over 2000 people being trained. In total over 75% of the PMDpro1 candidates are in developing countries. But it goes a step further. The model is designed to so the capacity to train others is developed locally. We have trained organizations in Nigeria, South Africa, Mozambique, Jordan, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama to name a few, so that the expertise on PMDPro is retained locally. These local organizations are able to add a new layer of appropriate, local context. They are able to deliver high quality and affordable training in the local language. In fact, the guide has now been translated into at least 7 languages and the exam is available in five major languages of Eng, Fr, Sp, Port, and Arabic. There are also are additional training partners in the US (InsideNGO) and UK (RedR) and several NGOs have trained their own local trainers, including WVI, MC, Heifer. And finally, we have some projects, where the local community leaders are being trained in using the same tools; in fact this a significant component of a Heifer project in Mexico.
- So, here we are. We will be announcing in the next few weeks, the certification of the 10,000th person from over 70 countries. Staff from INGOs and local NGOs. Program staff and support staff. And mostly driven from the local level. There is no donor requiring this. And with the exception of a couple of NGOs, this has not been driven from the top or from HQ. These results have happened because development practitioners are looking for tools to be more effective and they see that this works!
- I recently joined LINGOs and I am new to the development sector. In my previous role as the CEO of eCornell, an online education company associated with Cornell University in the United States, I had a broad view of professional development, mostly in the private sector. And I can attest—the success of PMDPro in such a short period of time is rare, perhaps even unique. The rapid growth of the certification without enforced compliance, or without a strong market-facing profit motive for trainers, and even without any real sense that of upward mobility upon completion speaks volumes about the demand and effectiveness of the program. In addition, the geographic diversity and reach about traditional urban and commercial centers is a testament to the success of the model. Furthermore PMI, took 10 years to reach the same milestone in the private sector. Its ability to be appropriate, affordable, and accessible have proven to be three critical keys of success.
- 10,000 people, but so what? Are the projects better? Are people who are trained delivering better outputs and/or outcomes? The early feedback and results, both qualitatively, and quantitatively is YES!
- The reason for these data, is that people are applying the tools on the job. A new language around Risk Registers, Issue Logs, and Work Breakdown Structures are becoming common place. So, the program is achieving the holy grail of all training which is “transfer to the work environment”. And that’s happening because the materials and training are focused on being Actionable. By adding this fourth principle or pillar to the formula, PMDPro is able to move from knowledge development to skills application.
- The certification process has obviously encouraged a lot of people, 10,000+, to improve their skills. And if the story ended there, it would be a good story. But it doesn’t, because what is emerging are stories of organizational capability development. A story of how when PMDpro is applied in a region or even globally, the organization sees higher level benefits than just individual skills building.
- There is a lot of flexibility for an organization to customize its approach to rolling out PMDPro. For example, CRS started in a single region and developed significant capacity in East Africa, for example, and is using that experience as it brings the capability to new geographies. Mercy Corps has invested in creating a Project Management office to manage the integration of PMDpro with other toolsets and oversee its rollout and implementation, Heifer is taking a global rollout with strong support from its executives while still providing regions with ownership and autonomy over the rollouts. PMDPro is also not a one size fits al model. Organizations can curate which tools and components to use that meet their needs. By assessing their project processes, organizational leaders are identifying which parts of PMDPro make sense. And part of that curation is integration with existing tools and processes. MC for example has tightly integrated PMDPro into their own internal PM@MC systerm. Heifer is adopting some new tools from PMDPro, keeping some of their existing tools but also throwing away some of their tools they had been using that are no longer useful.
- Let’s look a little deeper at Heifer where there is strong support at the CEO and senior leadership level. The rollout at Heifer has included an executive briefing for the entire executive team to ensure that there was consistent language, objectives, and buy-in. PMDpro is part of a broader effort at Heifer where they are looking at all of their in order to re-focus their work. Hiefer is also exploring how to also adapt IT systems to support a unified approach to projects. And now, some of their donors are getting involved, for example in Mexico where the Buffet Foundation has been working with them and now in Haiti where the team is beginning an in-depth assessment of how to integrate their local partners into one system.
- So, we are now at a very interesting pivot point. We have strong grassroots demand for the certification to support individual professional development. We have a few large INGOs who have adopted this as their standard. We have pockets of local partners in a few countries who work with a few NGOs who are being trained. But what about the sector? Can we scale this effort up to make a difference? What would such an effort look like? What could be the drivers for this change?
- You’ll probably agree that we are working in an environment of increasing complexity. The challenges and the sector responses are getting bigger with more actors, and more diverse actors. The funding environment is shifting with an increased demand for more direct local funding. The geo-political environment is changing, usually not for the better in many places. How can we manage differently in this more complex environment?
- The trend for building stronger local capacity continues with increased donor funding for it. As INGOs how can PMDPro help to bring a more systemic approach to capacity building?
- There are many initiatives in the sector to increase the accountability of all of us to the deliver the outcomes we promise and to be accountable to our beneficiary communities. How will be programs the necessary steps and tools to build into our projects and ensure accountability? Finally, what comes with more accountability is also more transparency. While there are many dimensions to all of these changes and trends, we know that we can best respond if we have a new set of tools. PMDPro provides tools that helps teams to consistently and explicitly manage the increasing risk that comes with increased complexity. It provides a common language that can be extended from the executive leadership, to local and regional leadership and to local partners. The tools when applied correctly help us manage change in our projects and adapt accordingly and that allows to be more accountable for the outcomes we promise. And lastly, all of these changes create an environment where we can be transparent about the project because the information is readily available and up to date.