1. Soft skill competencies for
project management
Final Project by Sonja van Uden
01 February 2016
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any
manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

2. Project management
A brief history
 Project management has been around for a long time
 Best practices captured into methodologies from 1965
We are becoming a project oriented society
(Gillard, 2009)
Source: https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/brief-
history-of-project-management.php
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

3. Project management
Performance figures
 Oil and Gas (EY, 2014):
• 64% costs overruns - 73% schedule delays
 IT (McKinsey, 2012):
• 45% cost - 7% schedule delays
 Transportation (INDOT, 2004):
• 55% cost overruns - 12% schedule
Ineffective project management is one of the causes for
bad results during execution of projects
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

4. Project management
The role of the project manager
 Failure underscores need for improving
 Project managers key factor influencing outcome;
• spider in the web
 Both art (soft) and science (hard)
 Focus on science (hard)
 What about soft skill competencies?
Problem Statement: Which soft skill competencies
enhance the success of project management?
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

5. Research design
Soft skill competencies and associated behaviors for
project managers
Importance
of
soft skill competency
Status
of
soft skill competency
Recommendations
on soft skill competencies
that enhance the success
of project
management
Research problem:
which soft skill
competencies
enhance the
success of project
management?
Questionnaire
based research
Qualitative
Research
Literature
Review
The research design is centred around exploring and unpicking
people’s perspectives in field settings
Identification
of patterns
Scatter-plot
matrix
Open-ended
interviews
Ranking-style
questionnaire
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

6. Main conclusions
Literature versus open-ended interviews
 Six competencies literature
 Six additional competencies open-ended interviews
 Not backed up by open-ended interviews;
• The power of motivation
• The power of values
 Not backed up by literature;
• Significance organizational structure
There is a significant difference between
the theory and practice
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

7. Main conclusions
Importance and status rankings
 All above average importance and status
 No consensus on values;
• Highest spread on importance
• The highest status
 Motivation is hard;
• The lowest importance
• The lowest status
 No importance equals no development
All identified soft skill competencies enhance
the success of project managers
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

8. Recommendations
What should be done
 Additional research should be conducted to:
• Determination of full list
• Understanding values
 University curriculum
 Diagnose – Develop – Measure the practice
Additional research, and development of methodology based
on soft skill competencies
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

9. What could this mean
For organisations and project managers
 Value proposition continuous project achievement;
• On-time delivery
• Bottom-line costs within budget
 Ambassadors of change
 Attractability for employers
Creating competitive advantage through
soft skill competencies
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

10. My dream
A project manager should be an inspirational leader
instead of a puppet master of a team,
and a gatekeeper of cost and delivery.
A project manager should be an
ambassador for values-based leadership
in organisations.
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

11.  www.iloveprojects.nl
The way forward
Continuous collection of data
 Round table event
called ‘mind’-talks
scheduled every 3
months
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

12.  Meetings with peers from various industries
 Partnerships to accelerate
Creation of product
The way forward
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.

13. Thank you very much
for your attention
Final Project by Sonja van Uden
01 February 2016
For additional information please contact Frame of Mind Consultancy
This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any
manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Frame of Mind Consultancy.