Project

J (not me) posts an interesting comment on the PMP certification here saying in part:

"PMI has a pecuniary interest in promoting their way of doing things. People who work hard to pass their tests, having to learn more about PMI-isms than project management, imho, rightfully want to take pride in their accomplishments and leverage their certification for a greater salary. This results in a huge group-think situation ripe with denial.

No certification or college degree is a substitute for experience and good judgment. I suspect that those who hold certifications as most important are those who know the least about a subject area--depending upon a pedigree for a hiring decision instead of their own knowledge and abilities."

I happen to agree. The "group-think" theme is an interesting one especially in light of some research by Lynn Crawford that suggests that Project Management Standards are not really in alignment with what senior management expects from project managers (see "Senior Management Perceptions of Project Management Competence" International Journal of Project Management 23 [2005] 7-16). It would seem a broader spectrum of input would be useful in developing standards. This makes things vastly more complicated and perhaps makes the potential for "testing" someone on them increasingly difficult, but narrowly drawn lines of Project Management ideology are not suitable for a broad discipline.