Inspiring positive change
‘Inspiring positive change’ is the title of the refreshed APM strategy. Now that APM is the chartered body for the project profession, we have refocused our strategy to reflect not only our new status as a chartered body but also to support our members to meet the challenges we face in today’s changing and complex world.
We recognise the challenges faced by the profession and in our capacity as a modern, professional body, we need to continue to adapt. We aim to provide the professional standards and framework to build a community of credible, capable and trusted project delivery professionals delivering effective change in all sectors to all stakeholders.
Our vision
A world in which all projects succeed with project management as a life skill for all
Inspiring positive change
While our vision remains ambitious, challenging and radical, we recognise that to deliver it we need to inspire everyone to understand the contribution they can make to project success. Our profession faces many challenges, there are still too many projects which fail, successful practice is too frequently ignored and failure often lies beyond the boundaries of traditional project management.
The new vision is a response to these challenges – therefore, in addition to raising the profile of project management as a profession and establishing it as a desirable career of choice, we wish to reach out to different communities and generations and establish project management as a core skill for all.
Our mission
Inspiring communities to deliver meaningful change for societal benefit by advancing the art, science, theory and practice of project management.
This new mission represents a significant shift towards a more outward and inclusive focus for APM, aligning with our charitable objectives and our belief in a more adaptive and diverse profession aligned to delivering societal benefit.
Our mission is underpinned by five key objectives, which set out a clear direction of travel for APM:
- Chartered standard: Successfully position, develop and launch the chartered standard to become the accepted benchmark standard for project professionals.
- Membership growth: Increase the public understanding of how project management drives successful project delivery. Accelerate the growth, diversity and global reach of APM’s membership by engaging with new sectors and communities.
- Knowledge and research: Further develop, with academic and corporate partner support, an innovative knowledge and research programme which adds value to the profession.
- Collaborate and engage: Accelerate the universal adoption of project management by people delivering change through collaboration and partnerships.
- Organisational innovation: Define and build APM as the model of a sustainable professional body for the 21st century
As the chartered body for the project profession we have new responsibilities but with our refreshed strategy we can enhance the status and recognition of project management as a means of delivering effective change that improves our economy and society.
John McGlynn, board chair
John is a Director at Atkins, a member of the SNC Lavalin Group, and one of the world’s leading design, engineering and project management consultancies known for its breadth and depth of expertise in responding to the most technically challenging and time critical projects. He has 30 years experience in delivering projects in Europe and the Middle East and the last decade he specialised in complex acquisition programmes. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of three institutions the IET, CIPS, APM and is an APM Registered Project Professional (RPP).
John became a trustee of APM in 2014 and was elected Chair in November 2016. He has been instrumental in leading APM through the award of the Royal Charter and developing APM’s new strategy, Inspiring Positive Change.
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John, we would appreciate your help. As you know many of us in the volunteer community contributed to, and have been waiting for some time now, for the revised or refreshed APM Strategy. Having spoken with others, downloaded the PDF version and clicked through various links to your article on the Community Blog, we are left wondering whether more detail is available. If so, can you point us at it please? We would expect a strategy to be telling us what the APM intends to do and why. Is the strategy accompanied by a delivery plan that explains what we, as members and volunteers, can do to help with its execution? It would be great, for example, to be able to brief our SIG committee on APM expectations of them. The five objectives are not as "SMART" as we would expect, particularly for a project management organisation. How are we, as the APM, too know whether we have achieved these objectives, and what is the time scale? [At least the previous version, Strategy 2020, was explicit about when the strategy would be achieved] Thanks Merv Wyeth Secretary, Benefits Management SIG Neil White Chair, Benefits Management SIG
Thank you to all involved for the update, appreciated. I was thinking that one option would be to share the Road Maps as an integrated set of Work Streams to a timeline culminating in 2020. I suggest each of the Work Streams have defined success criterion for 2020. Thereon establishment of strategic KPIs can be considered and status is provided every two months on the pathway to achieving the deadline of 1 Jan. 2020. As an example to offer the delivery environment: Work Stream A Generating recognition and trust of the need and value of good project delivery to help develop and deploy great professionals Work Steam B Development – influencing, developing and making available standards, qualifications, designations, guidelines and good practice.
Could be fun and interesting for articulating desires and working backward in units of six months starting from 25 December 2019. Desired for the world is: ISO Normative Standard for Project Management ISO Normative Standard for Programme Management ISO Normative Standard for Portfolio Management ISO Informative Standard for Project Management Methodology (PRINCE2) ISO Informative Standard for PMO (based on P3O model) ISO Informative Standard for Competence Framework (based on IPMA ICB) Consider to sketch out steps in six-month units to attain the above and adapt at your next APM Branch or SIG meeting. Thank you.
Dear Merv and Neil Further details for the volunteer community will be forthcoming both through the business planning process in the Autumn and at the September Volunteers Forum.
Team members I was pleased to learn that a new ISO Standard was published during September 2017 - Guidance on Programme Management. For ease of reference clicking on the Preview button on the URL link below provides an overview. I hope this achievement aids attainment of APM's Vision. https://www.iso.org/standard/66680.html
I wanted to share with members a further related new ISO Standard published in 2017 which in my opinion aligns to APM's Mission - to support our members to meet the challenges we face in today’s changing and complex world. ISO 21505:2017 Project, programme and portfolio management -- Guidance on governance Clicking on the Preview button on the URL link below provides an overview. ISO 21505:2017 describes the context in which the governance of projects, programmes and portfolios is conducted and provides guidance for the governance of projects, programmes and portfolios. ISO 21505:2017 can also be used for assessment, assurance or verification of the governance function for projects, programmes or portfolios. ISO 21505:2017 is intended for governing bodies and executive and senior management who influence, impact or make decisions regarding the governance of projects, programmes and portfolios. It is also intended to provide guidance to those who direct projects, programmes and portfolios, such as sponsors, steering committees, portfolio owners and the project management office. It also can be used by project, programme and portfolio managers, as well as stakeholders involved in the development and implementation of projects, programmes and portfolios. Other audiences who can have an interest in this topic include those advising, informing, assisting or working within projects, programmes and portfolios. https://www.iso.org/standard/63578.html
Great message thank you how can I get involved