Over half of my career has been spent in Project Delivery, specifically, Project and Programme ‘planning’ and ‘scheduling’ and I've enjoyed it immensely. When you enjoy something you tend to get better at it and can easily neglect the skills that aren't necessarily your forte.
When the Project Delivery Capability Framework (PDCF) came out about a year ago, it prompted me to think about what else I could do and how I might grow my capability in other competencies. It also gave me the courage to take on a role I was unfamiliar with-Assurance Management. It was very scary going from being an expert in something to being the newby, but I'm really glad I did.
This week in BEIS, the 'Government Online Skills Tool' (GOST) was launched, with that tool I can now self-assess my capability not only in planning and scheduling (which are the two technical competencies that are vital for any planning role), but all the other competencies needed for a Project Delivery professional.
Using GOST for self-assessment is well worth doing. With the GOST, you can easily identify your own strengths and what gaps you might have, get some line manager feedback and put in place a plan for yourself to grow the career you want.
I can really see how the new skills I've been developing as an Assurance Manager, not only compliment those competencies I developed as a planner, but also how they would make me even better at that role, if I ever went back to it. Not only that, I can also see how I would fare in lots of other project delivery roles. It's opened my mind to a lot of career possibilities to say the least.
So if you are in a government project delivery role and you are thinking about your development right now, don’t just limit yourself to improving the technical competencies for the role you are in. Use the PDCF and GOST to see what else you can do and what else you can develop.
Talk to your departments Head of Profession in Project Delivery to find out more about the PDCF and GOST or visit the Infrastructure and Project Authority web page to watch a video all about it.
