Criteria of a Competent Project Manager Based on our research, we have identified three project management competency areas: knowledge, proven experience and personality. Each competency area is built around specific “pillars”. The knowledge area has three pillars. The first pillar contains general management skills such as leadership, negotiation, communication, team building and other human resource management skills that are necessary in any management position. The second pillar contains knowledge of the generally accepted project management areas including the tools used in those areas, such as project scope management, project time management, and project cost management. The last pillar contains industry specific management knowledge, such as lifecycle management and product development methodologies. The proven experience competency area includes track record, hours of project management exposure, size and complexity of project managed and independent references. Years of experience do not necessary always give a good competency rating. The personality area, arguably the most important one, has two pillars. The first pillar contains personality characteristics such as can-do attitude, confidence, enthusiasm, open mindedness, adaptability, and personal integrity. The second pillar contains people management skills such as ability to communicate, ability of motivation, ability to influence and political sensitivity. The political sensitivity attribute is very important for project managers. Projects are multidimensional and are inherently affected by politics. The key is to be aware of politics, to work with them, but not be part of them. A competent leader continually balances five project “currencies” - time, money, knowledge, security, and prestige. For a project to be perceived as successful, all stakeholders have to feel that they received a positive exchange at the end of the project. Most people can readily grasp the exchange rates for time, money, and knowledge. Security and prestige are, however, based on individual perception and are harder to quantify. A prime example is the functional manager who appears to ignore clear gains in both time and money as he/she opposes a project. This individual is perhaps seeing a loss of security or prestige greater than the value of time and money. A competent project manager understands this perception of loss and often can present a stakeholder with a gain in either (or both) areas, and win their support for the project. The final component of people management, often harder to manage, is when people feel threatened by the skill set of a good and successful project manager.