Title:  Project Management Knowledge as a Basis for Global Communication. Learning and Professionalism
 

 

Introduction | Background | Why Care? | Progress | Differentiation | Update
Descriptor Criteria | Where do APMAs fit? | Missing Opportunities
Development | Validation | Further Opportunities | Conclusions

Validation of the Structure

Since the original presentation we have also attempted to validate the usefulness of the structure by populating each APMA with Project Management Descriptors (PMDs) and further developing the structure on down as seemed appropriate. This has been done using Abdomerovich's 1800+ PMDs (PMJ, March 1992, p42.) Trying to establish consistent placing of the PMDs on each branch has necessarily tested the set of criteria described in the paper.

These criteria are not immediately self-evident and require some degree of subjectivity and consequently the results are no doubt arguable. Nevertheless, this exercise has provided some comfort that the structure is both workable and potentially useful. The result so far is that each APMA has up to ten levels (starting at the project level) and their respective contents range between 900 and 1500 PMDs.

Of themselves, the PMDs are meaningless without definition. Therefore, a parallel effort was conducted to develop a glossary of project management terms to complement this PMKS. This has resulted in the now well-established Wideman Comparative Glossary of Common Project Management Terms which you can find elsewhere on this site.

The approach adopted for the glossary was not to mandate specific definitional wording to any given PMD (experience shows this to be a controversial and therefore fruitless exercise) but rather to assemble several 'typical' definitions of each where needed or as encountered in the marketplace. From these, the 'best fit' may be selected by the users of the structure.

Continued Development Continued Development since 1998

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