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PM magazine | SPRING 2021
Jeff Beverage, PMP, CSM, CSP, PMI-ACP
BRIDGING THE GAP: CONNECTING THE PMBOK® GUIDE’S BEST PRACTICES TO FEDERAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES
One of the many unique complexities of the federal Chief Executive Officer p r o j e c t management environment is the strong Corner Post emphasis on managing not Management Experts just projects and programs, but acquisitions. Simply put, the acquisition process – buying goods and services on behalf of the federal government – is heavily regulated to ensure that agencies are being effective stewards of taxpayer dollars (PMI, 2017). Project management is therefore intricately linked to contract management. The federal project manager (PM) plans the scope, schedule, and cost within the constraints of their congressional appropriations (PMI, 2017). Then they solicit, select, and oversee contractors who perform the hands-on work of the project. As such, training and certification for federal program and project managers go beyond PMBOK® Guide fundamentals and focuses on acquisition integration.
Most federal agencies require, or at least encourage, program and project managers to obtain the aptly named Federal Acquisition Certification for Program and Project Managers (FAC-P/PM). Originally modeled after the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Career Field Certifications, FAC-P/PM was first established in 2007 and has become the standard for PMs in non-Department of Defense agencies (Federal Acquisition Institute, 2013). Under the Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI), PMs can be certified at entry, mid, or senior level with each level having its own training and experience requirements. The FAI is the federal organization that facilitates and promotes career development, provides standardized guidance for FAC-P/PM to all agencies. The certification itself is issued by each agency’s Acquisition Career Manager (ACM) (Federal Acquisition Institute, 2013). Although FAC-P/PM is generally considered to be the ‘federal equivalent’ to Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification, which is issued by Project Management Institute, there are a handful of key differences from both a process and content standpoint. Process-wise, FAC-P/PM has a lengthier and defined training curriculum, varying experience requirements for each level, and no certification exam (though some individual classes do have a final exam). Each level includes 80 to 112 hours of training within a defined set of courses, compared to 35 contact hours to apply for the PMP® (Federal Acquisition Institute, 2013)(PMI, 2017). FAC-P/PM applicants must demonstrate one, two, or four years of project management experience for entry, mid, and senior level, respectively, including one year of federal PM experience for senior level. PMP® certification requires three years of experience (Federal Acquisition Institute, 2013) (PMI, 2017).
“PMs in both federal and contractor roles must invest the time and effort to engage their counterparts to develop shared language and common understanding.”
In terms of content, FAC-P/PM courses focus on seven competencies: Requirements Development and Management, Systems Engineering, Test and Evaluation, Life Cycle Logistics, Contracting, Leadership, and Business, Cost, and Financial Management (those last 3 being combined into one competency – Business, Cost, and Financial Management). As noted above, each of these competencies is geared towards managing in the context of the acquisition with the work being executed by teams of contractors (Federal Acquisition Institute, 2013). Agile is another area where PMI is moving faster to adopt while most FAC-P/PM courses are exclusively focused on predictive management concepts, though there has been more acknowledgement of agile practices and principles in recent years (Federal Acquisition Institute, 2013).
The distinction between FAC-P/PM and PMP® is especially important for PMs in federal government and government-adjacent industries to understand, not to compare the value of the credentials, but to recognize that one’s project management education may differ from their collaborators on the other side of the fence. PMs in both federal and contractor roles must invest the time and effort
to engage their counterparts to develop shared language and common understanding of how the project will be managed. Exploring these topics can even be a great way to strike up conversation and build relationships with your contractors or your customers early on in a new project engagement (Federal Acquisition Institute, 2013). For more information in FAC-P/PM certification, visit the Federal Acquisition Institute’s website at www.fai. gov. References: Federal Acquisition Institute. (2013). Program and Project Managers (FAC-P/PM). https:// www.fai.gov/certification/program-and-project-managers-fac-ppm Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide) (6th ed.). Project Management Institute.
“Training and certification for federal program and project managers go beyond PMBOK® Guide fundamentals.”
