Presentations given to the SWWE branch on 5th November 2019 by Austin Witney and Alex Gerrard at BAWA in Bristol

1. Pathways to
become a
Chartered Project
Professional (ChPP)
Austin Witney

2. Agenda
1. What is Chartered and why is it so important
2. What it means for you and the profession
3. How it fits with APM Qualifications, Membership and RPP
(Registered Project Professional)
4. How to check if you are ready, what is being assessed and
what support is available
5. Routes to achieving Chartered Project Professional (ChPP)
6. Other Information and current statistics
7. Questions

3.  A professional benchmark that demonstrates attainment of
a defined level of technical knowledge, professional
practice and ethical behaviour
 Basis of assessment for applicants to obtain ChPP status
and join Register of ChPPs
What is the chartered standard?

4. Why is Chartered so important?
 Recognisable mark of standards for the profession
 Raise profile and value of PM as a first choice profession
 Develops a group of assured professionals to lead delivery
of projects
 Creation of a Register for Chartered Project Professionals
and raise the standard of project, programme and portfolio
delivery
 It will help address the shortage of qualified/assured
project professionals

5. Benefits: individuals
 Personal recognition from peers in project management and other
professions
 Enhanced CV to stand out from the crowd
 A framework for career development
 International recognition
 Assures clients of high standards and ethical practice
 Use of the post nominal ChPP & entry onto the ChPP Register
 Increased understanding, helping project professionals to work
more effectively

6. Benefits: for the profession and the
public
 Enhanced status of project management as a unique discipline
 Raised standards of practice & improved project outcomes
 Better public understanding and confidence in project
management
 Assurance and confidence for customers buying services
 Opening the door to collaboration with other professions

7. Where chartered fits in the APM picture
Typical years of
experience
APM Qualifications/Standards APM Membership Grades
7+ years RPP|ChPP
Fellow (FAPM)
Full (MAPM)
5-7 years APM PPQ
2-4 years APM PMQ
Associate/
Student
0-2 years APM PFQ

8. How to check if you are ready for
chartered
 You are professionally active with a proven track record of delivering projects,
programmes, portfolios or a key control or enabling function.
 These projects, programmes or portfolios exhibit characteristics of complexity.
 You have the required breadth of project experience to meet the requirements
of ten mandatory and two elective competences.
 You have an advanced technical knowledge and are able to confidently evaluate
and analyse theory of current practices and methods.
 You are committed to continuing professional development and an ethical way
of working.

9. What is being assessed?
Technical knowledge
Advanced technical knowledge and understanding of how to deliver
projects, programmes or portfolios, taking into account many
interacting factors and different approaches that could be taken.

10. What is being assessed?
Professional practice
Application of technical knowledge to deliver projects, programmes
or portfolios that involved:
 Uncertainty or conflicting objectives
 High levels of unpredictability or risk
 Multiple work packages, projects or programmes
 Multiple interdependent stakeholders, possibly with competing
interests.

11. What is being assessed?
CPD and Ethics
Applications must commit to professional ethics and show continued
professional development (CPD) – min 35 hours in the preceding 12
months (uphold 35+ hrs each year)

12. ChPP – What's available & guidance
 The ChPP standard
– Eligibility criteria
– Routes of entry
– Mandatory and Options Competences
 Application Guidance
– Understand what being chartered means for you
– Decide if becoming chartered is right for you now or
at a later date
– Prepare your application
 FAQ and online Clinics
https://www.apm.org.uk/chartered-standard/

13. Routes to Chartership
Route 1 : for those who have a recognised
assessment for technical knowledge. (£710 split £390 +
£320*)
Route 2: for those who have a recognised assessment
for technical knowledge and professional practice. (£245*)
Route 3: an experiential route for those who do not
have a recognised assessment but do meet the eligibility
criteria. (£1110 split £610 + £500*)
* Prices exclude VAT

14. Recognised assessments
 A recognised assessment is awarded to an organisation
who can show a particular development programme or
qualification meets either the technical knowledge or
the technical knowledge and professional practice
criteria
 The list will grow as providers apply to have their courses
and qualifications recognised
 We expect over time a growing number of Corporates
also will join the list as they gain recognition or align
their internal development programmes

15. Route 1
For those who have a recognised assessment for technical knowledge
STAGE ONE – WRITTEN SUBMISSION
Assessment of technical knowledge is via the recognised
assessment that is held.
Assessment of professional practice is via written submission
and interview.
Declaration of up-to-date CPD.
STAGE TWO - INTERVIEW
Up to one hour face-to-face interview to cover:
 Professional practice: validates written submission.
 Ethics.

16. Route 2
For those who have a recognised assessment for technical knowledge and
professional practice
STAGE ONE – WRITTEN SUBMISSION
Assessment of technical knowledge is via the recognised
assessment that is held.
Assessment of professional practice is via the recognised
assessment that is held.
Upload of CPD logo to declare 35 hours.
STAGE TWO - INTERVIEW
Up to 30 minute phone interview to cover:
 CPD: discussion of competence related to CPD.
 Ethics.

17. Route 3
An experiential route for those who do not have a recognised assessment but do
meet the eligibility criteria
STAGE ONE – WRITTEN SUBMISSION
Assessment of technical knowledge is via an extended
interview.
Assessment of professional practice is via written submission
and interview.
Declaration of up-to-date CPD.
STAGE TWO - INTERVIEW
Up to two hour face-to-face interview to cover:
 Professional practice: validates written submission.
 Technical knowledge: questioning to assess breadth of
knowledge.
 Ethics.

18. How to become chartered: the process
 Read the guidance notes carefully before you start
 Complete and submit the online application
 Written submission assessed
 Interview booked
 Outcome of the assessment goes before a panel
 Notice of award issued and name added to the
Chartered Register

19. ChPP - Setting the Standard
 892 CHPPs on the Register since commencement in May 2018
 1199 applications to date (10/10/19)
 1838 applications started but not yet submitted (10/10/19)
 Youngest 26, oldest 71
 43 International
 Male/Female: 85%/15%
 Maintaining rigour of assessment
 Audit of CPD
 Over 5,000 PM apprenticeships and 100 degree level apprenticeships

20. ChPP - Setting the Standard
 Increasing number of recognised assessments :
Route 1 Route 2
APM PPQ APM RPP
APM PQ Australian Institute for PM (AIPM) CPPD and
CPPE
Nottingham Trent Uni MSc Project Mgmt Shell Level 2 Project Professional Roles
Anglia Ruskin Uni MSc Intl Project Mgmt Siemens – Senior PM Certification

21. Submission and results dates 2019
*Successful applicants notified via email from the chartered team and will be added to the
public register on the APM website if they have opted to do so.
Submission Date Result Date
4th October 2019 4th December 2019
13th December 2019 4th March 2020
10th January 2020 25th March 2020
6th March 2020 27th May 2020
29th May 2020 5th August 2020

22. Alex Garrard ChPP

23. 23© PA Knowledge Limited | PA Confidential – Internal use only
Chartered programme leader working for PA
Consulting. I work mainly in the defence sector. I
help clients to lead, define and deliver complex IT
programmes and business transformations.
Over the last five years I have worked as:
• Operational Service Management programme
manager for the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD)
internal IT provider
• Rotary sub-portfolio assurer for the MOD’s
Army Headquarters
• Cyber programme manager for a defence
manufacturer
• Engineering sub-PgMO lead in the Home Office
Hello, I am a…
All about I & my;
never we & our

24. 24© PA Knowledge Limited | PA Confidential – Internal use only
• My company paid…
• I went through the process as part of a team
• I had support from an external training organisation (helpful but not
essential)
• I followed the simple and clear guidance provided by the APM
• I took it seriously and spread the work out over time
• One day to prepare the portfolio (10 hrs)
• One day to prepare for and attend the interview (10 hrs excl. travel)
• I took a structured approach
My experience of Route 3 Work with a
buddy
Think GCSE
answers

25. 25© PA Knowledge Limited | PA Confidential – Internal use only
• Step 1: I mapped my last 5 years worth of experience against:
• the levels of complexity
• uncertain or conflicting objectives
• high levels of uncertainty or risk
• multiple work packages, projects or programmes
• multiple interdependent stakeholders
• the competences
• Step 2: I identified one [project] overview that covered the:
• 10 mandatory competences
• 2 elective competencies
It was not hard to build my portfolio (1/2)
Don’t
overcomplicate it

26. 26© PA Knowledge Limited | PA Confidential – Internal use only
• Step 3: I wrote my 500 word [project] overview using the STAR method.
This included stating
• my role
• the dates of the work
• the levels of complexity
• Step 4: Using the STAR method, relating to the relevant [project] overview
and including at least 5 of the professional practice competence criteria,
write your 12 x 250 word competence statements
• Step 5: Check your work, search for and replace ‘we’ (and similar terms)
then cut the word-count
It was not hard to build my portfolio (2/2)
The APM count
words differently

27. 27© PA Knowledge Limited | PA Confidential – Internal use only
1. In introduced myself – a chance to build rapport
2. I answered a series of questions based on the competences in
my portfolio assessed against both sets of competence
criteria:
• Half of each question focused on my portfolio using the
professional practice criteria
• The other half tested my understanding of the competence
using the technical knowledge criteria
3. I answered an ethics question
4. I told them about my work outside my portfolio
I had been doing the job for over five years… the
interview was more fun than taxing
I learned about my
interviewers using
LinkedIn

28. 28© PA Knowledge Limited | PA Confidential – Internal use only
• I reviewed my portfolio – I knew what I wrote
• I discussed EVM in my portfolio – I rehearsed the formulas
• I mapped my knowledge against my 12 technical knowledge
competences and then filled in the blanks
• APM BoK
• Google
• YouTube
• (PA Academy and PA IMP service Operating guides)
• I understood the APM Code of Professional Conduct
I focused on gaps in my knowledge when preparing for
my interview
I treated it like an
interview and
prepared

29. 29© PA Knowledge Limited | PA Confidential – Internal use only
It has improved my network
• I am speaking here today
• I am supporting my clients in their route 3 ChPP
• I am being introduced to potential clients thinking about ChPP
It has strengthened my brand (CV)
• It silenced the competition within my client
• It helped with a promotion – the qualification rounded out my
promotion case
• It elevated me in the eyes of my peers
How becoming a Chartered Project Professional has
helped me