PM competency in product development organization: A case study of a precision device manufacturer

Many companies adopt project management organization to develop products. In the current business environment, there are several ongoing trends such as globalization, commoditization, open systematization, etc. Under such business environment, it is getting more difficult for project managers to bring projects to success. The expectations are increasing for methodology that helps to train project managers. The goal of this study is to contribute to establishment of methodology that helps to train project managers. Competency is the ability of an individual to do a job properly. It is a set of defined behaviors that provide a structured guide enabling the identification, evaluation and development of the behaviors in individual employees. Competency will be defined for every kind of job and competency of project manager is called PM competency. As necessary and important key factors for success on project, we focus on PM competency. We conducted a case study in a precision device manufacturer in Japan. We interviewed with high performing project managers and asked them about their behavior that brought their projects to success, their concept of value behind their behavior and background of their concept of value. We indicate PM competency and propose a method to develop it.