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The business case for professional responsibility

The business case for professional responsibility

The previous section made the moral case for abiding by a professional code of practice. There is a related commercial reason, or business case, to do so. In terms of legal liability when something goes wrong, there is a great difference between on the one hand having made a reasonable effort to follow recognized practice but failing to achieve the desired results for the client, and on the other hand not having even tried to follow recognized practice and then failing. The first kind of mistake is treated much more leniently in the courts and by the client, which means less cost and shame if things go wrong, and even if things do not go wrong, lower insurance premiums. Companies that provide project management services are charged lower insurance premiums if their employees are members of a recognized professional body than if they are not.

We believe that the main reason to take professional responsibility seriously is the moral one, but the business case is separately a sufficient reason to do so.

Key Idea

Professional responsibility

As a professional you have a special privilege in your relationship with your client, which is that the client cannot check the quality of what you do in the same way as tangible goods can be inspected and measured. In return for this special power that you have in the relationship, you have a special responsibility not to take advantage and to always do your utmost to work in the client's interest. This includes not holding yourself out as having skills and experience that you do not have.

Understand what your client's interests are, know your own abilities and limits, and do your absolute utmost accordingly to serve the client's interest, putting yours to one side in exchange for your fee.

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The PMI and professional responsibility

The PMI takes professional responsibility seriously, and indeed it is one of the main aims of the PMI to increase the professionalism of project management. Accordingly, if you sit the PMP or CAPM exam you will be required to know what the PMI expects. If you are taking the exams, you will be tested on your use of judgement, ethics, and responsibility. Specifically the questions will be based on the following areas:

Ensuring integrity of action and communications.
Contributing to the project management knowledge base.
Applying professional knowledge.
Balancing stakeholder interests.
Respecting differences.

Those taking the PMP exam will be required to sign up to the PMI's code of professional conduct. The PMI says:

By becoming a PMP certificant, you agree to abide by this Code of Conduct. PMI reserves the right to suspend or revoke the credential of any PMP certificant who is determined to have committed a violation of this Code or otherwise failed to adhere to the tenets of this Code.

You will find a full transcript of this code in the PMP handbook, which is available to download from the PMI's website (http://www.pmi.org/).

The PMP code of professional conduct governs two areas of responsibility for the project management professional:

Responsibilities to the project management profession.
Responsibilities to customers and the general public.

The full code of conduct can be found in the PMP Certification Handbook which is downloadable from the PMI website. Responsibilities to the profession of project management include:

Compliance with laws, regulations, and ethical standards governing professional practice in the state/ province /country when providing project management services.
Recognizing and respecting intellectual property developed or owned by others, and being accurate and truthful in all activities related to work and research.
Adherence to the policies and procedures of the Project Management Institute in any activity associated with PMI's certification programs.

Responsibilities to customers and the public is concerned with the candidate's responsibility to:

be truthful, accurate, and technically correct in regards to project scope and other requirements;
maintain and respect the confidentiality of information in the course of professional activities.

In essence, the professional code of conduct is concerned with your acting honestly and ethically and putting the needs of the project above your own. If you can do this, not only will the questions relating to the code of conduct in the exam be simple, but you will become respected as a professional and trustworthy project manager.