Dean's New Book Highlights Project Competence

ARLINGTON, VA, SEPTEMBER 24, 1999 - UMT Academic Dean J. Davidson Frame has published a new book focusing on how organizations can build competency at all levels in order to be competitive.

Project Management Competence: Building Key Skills for Individuals, Teams, and Organizations describes the individual, team, and organizational competencies necessary for overall competitiveness. The book is published by Jossey-Bass Publishers.

"Successful project management takes more than skilled individuals," Dr. Frame noted. "It takes individuals, teams, and organizations all working together to achieve excellence."

The book covers the key traits that project managers need to excel in their field. Dr. Frame discusses the best ways to strengthen their skills through a variety of channels, including formal education, on-the-job training, and self-instruction.

Project managers can assess their mastery in eight crucial areas using a multiple-choice test based on the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge, the Bible of project-related knowledge.

"The book discusses the different types of teams, why they are so important to today's businesses, and how to gauge their effectiveness," Frame said. "The seven most important characteristics of project-based organizations are covered. Readers are given checklists and scoring sheets to evaluate how well their organization is enabling its individuals and teams to do their jobs."

This is the seventh book for Dr. Frame, who directed the project management certification program for the Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's premier project management organization.

Dr. Frame is dean of academic affairs at the University of Management & Technology, located in Arlington, Virginia. He founded UMT in 1998 after spending 19 years as a professor of management at The George Washington University.