Cycle Up Your Career With the ICB4

14 September 2015 | 4:00

Tim Jaques

At IPMA, we see project management deeply rooted in the real world around us. From Mars rovers and nano engineering, to the development of faster trains, safer digital encryption protocols and insightful health care analytics. Projects are at the forefront of most new development. And project, programme, and portfolio managers carry the weight of these efforts on their shoulders.

Is it time to cycle up your career?

Projects, programmes, and portfolios can be the catalyst for career changes. A great project manager will not stay in one place for long – they become too important because of their cross-product, cross-organizational competences. That is why IPMA is pleased to announce the launch of the Individual Competence Baseline, 4th Version (ICB4) on September 30 in Panama at the 29th IPMA World Congress. This exciting event will herald in a new age of competence development for project, programme and portfolio management. As a cutting edge standard, the ICB4 is designed to help individuals strengthen their capabilities in order to achieve career goals and create successful projects.

The ICB4 has been four years in the making, and was truly a community effort. More than 150 individuals from around the world lent their time, expertise and wisdom to the creation of the new standard. A group of twelve product developers – educators, researchers, consultants, practitioners – spent the last two and a half years transforming that body of work into the ICB4. On September 30, IPMA will launch the product to the global community.

The development team gets a lot of questions on the ICB4 – When will it be ready? Can I see an early version? How can I help? Two questions that we get a lot are discussed more thoroughly below:

What’s New In The ICB4?

The ICB4 is packed full of new content! Rewritten from the ground up, the ICB4 is cutting a new path through to competence. Here are some of the features:

New Name: Individual Competence Baseline. The ICB4 reflects a new product orientation from IPMA, and this new product is just the beginning of new tools and standards that will support the development of strong projects.
Three Disciplines: Project, Programme, and Portfolio Management.
Streamlined Competence Elements: The ICB4 contains 29 Competence Elements, each with a set of Key Competence Indicators.
New Eye of Competence: The ICB4 presents the universe of competences for Project, Programme, and Portfolio Management. Competences are divided into three domains: People, Practice and Perspective. Domains provide focus for the aspects of competence, and together create the whole, balanced individual.
- People competences consist of the personal and interpersonal competences required to successfully participate in or lead a project, programme or portfolio.
- Practice competences are the specific methods, tools and techniques used in projects, programmes or portfolios to realize their success.
- Perspective competences include the methods, tools and techniques through which individuals interact with the environment, as well as the rationale that leads people, organizations and societies to start and support projects, programmes and portfolios.
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Collectively, these new features make the ICB4 the go-to standard for competence development.

What Will The ICB4 Do For Me?

The ICB4 is a map that will advance your career and your understanding of projects, programmes and portfolios! Within the ICB4 are all the ingredients for competence. This book is not just for certification – it has been developed for a broad range of audiences including assessors, practitioners, educators, researchers, students, executives, HR professionals and many others.

The ICB4 provides the standard within each each of these audiences can develop unique and wonderful products. Mostly, it was developed for individuals – people seeking to advance their careers and finding a path forward.

Meet the Developers!

Are you going to the 50th Anniversary IPMA World Congress in Panama City Panama? We invite you come meet the developers at a special session designed to answer questions and get a first peek at the standard! More info to come soon!

And be sure to stop by the IPMA booth to learn more about it.

Written by

Tim Jaques

For more than twenty years, Tim Jaques has been exploring, thinking, speaking, and writing on the topics of project management, organizational change, culture, and human performance. Tim is an avid writer, presenter, and facilitator. As the IPMA Global Director for Special Interest Group (SIG), Tim supports the IPMA vision of promoting competence throughout society to enable a world in which all projects succeed. Tim’s work in IPMA focuses on connecting global experts to solve some of the world’s most important and complex challenges through the development of special interest groups around topics as diverse as Innovation, Smart Cities, Smart Rural, Artificial Intelligence and Mega Projects to name a few.

In business, Tim’s work today focuses on business transformation and workplace performance through his company Teaming Worldwide. Tim has worked with a variety of private and public sector clients including General Electric, Toshiba, Tufts University, the US Army, US Postal Service. Teaming Worldwide delivers professional development and performance consulting, re-imagined using the latest science in adult learning, motivation and performance.

Tim’s core capabilities include project and program management, performance improvement, execution and operations, organizational change management, IT transformation, and business strategy. Tim co-authored the International Project Management Association (IPMA) Individual Competence Baseline, version 4, an international project, program and portfolio competence standard. He has published two books on US Federal government PM practices; and written numerous articles on project management, organizational change and transformation.

Tim is a past vice-president of IPMA-USA and has held numerous board positions.