Letter to PWGSC about the New Pro-Services Arrangement

29 October 2012 Normand Masse Director General PWGSC Dear Mr. Masse: As the president of the Project Management Association of Canada / Association de gestion de project du Canada, it has come to my attention that some of the recent changes to the government’s services procurement framework (namely, the creation of “Pro-Services”) may cause confusion, duplication of work, and inefficiencies. Specifically, the way in which Project Management and Group Facilitation are handled under the new framework. Project Management and Group Facilitation are specific skill sets that are used in all types of projects. They are what we call competencies – similar to “engineering,” “strategy consulting,” or “programming.” Most projects engage a range of competencies through resources who may have experience working in a particular application area. Application areas provide specific industry, function, or solution experience that instructs how the competencies are applied to a project of a particular type. In a recent submission from the International Association of Facilitators – Canada, titled “Group Facilitation Across the Pro-Services Vertical Framework” dated 16 October 2012 – the IAF-Canada refers to competencies as process services and application areas as content services. Our association, the only Canadian national project management body and Canada’s official representative in the International Project Management Association (www.ipma.ch), would like to submit its direct support for the IAF submission described above. Our membership agrees that Project Management and also Group Facilitation skills should be represented differently in the Pro-Services framework to show that these professional skills are applicable across all project types, regardless of application area. Doing so will re-establish the recognition of professional group facilitation as a unique competence and will also show that project management skills are transferrable across different project types. As president of the PMAC-AGPC, I represent our 500 members in this submission. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Sincerely, Kevin Aguanno, B.A., MAPM, IPMA-B, PMP, Cert.APM, CSM, CSP President .cc: Shereen Miller (PWGSC), Vincent Robitaille (PWGSC), Tara Hartley (PWGSC), Taralee Hamond (IAF-Canada), Gerard Lewis (IAF-Canada)