How an integrated framework can improve your return on investment
When it comes to ‘value’ beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder. There are many different types of value and while good training programmes can be motivational and promote a good organisational culture, I would suggest that when we talk about getting value from training we are very much in the domain of ‘return on investment’ (ROI).
For the purpose of this blog, I’m not going to get into the quality of different training providers. For now, let’s assume they are all equally good. The simple issue I want to address is “how much do you get out compared to how much you put in?”
Do you need to take a PRINCE2 and APM BoK project management training course?
First of all we’ll look at the input side. Project management training can range from a two-day introduction to a Masters degree but the basic training that so many of us are familiar with revolves around published guides to good practice such as PRINCE2®1, the APM BoK2 and the PMBoK3.
Such guides rarely cover all a new project manager needs to know. They tend to focus either on processes or functions but not both. For example, it is widely recognised that to gain a well-rounded grounding in project management it is necessary to study both PRINCE2 and the APM BoK. The former deals mainly with processes and the latter with functions. There are overlaps though, which means that if you go on a training course in PRINCE2 and a course in the APM BoK, you’ll be learning (and paying for) some stuff twice. This is not the ideal start for our ROI calculation.
The Praxis Framework covers both processes and functions in a single integrated framework. This means that a Praxis course can cover both aspects in a single course by removing all the overlaps. That means a lower cost course and lower opportunity costs for those who are not working while they train. The ROI is suddenly looking better.
Learning good practice is the easy part
But reducing our input costs is probably less than half the story. What do you want to get out of your training programme – I would suggest it’s projects that are run more efficiently with fewer errors. The natural assumption is that the training will lead to this. Unfortunately this is often not the case.
The study of many lessons learned reports indicates that learning good practice is the easy part. Putting it into actual practice is the hard part and all too often people don’t apply the knowledge gained in the workplace. If this happens to you it doesn’t matter how much you manage to reduce the input costs, if the return is zero there is no return on the investment.
Praxis is designed to help here as well. Alongside all the free content on the website are a series of checklists to help people apply their knowledge in the workplace. The 360O nature of these checklists means that the wider community gains benefit from the knowledge gained and you can even measure the organisation’s improving maturity in project management, in a real-time dashboard.
Now your ROI is looking good.
- PRINCE2 (PRojects IN a Controlled Environment) published by AXELOS (a subsidiary of PeopleCert)
- The Body of Knowledge published by the Association for Project Management (UK)
- The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge published by the Project Management Institute (USA)
