ChPP Step 3 - Competence Statements

With the application system now open for the refreshed Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) Standard, many of you will have completed ChPP Steps 1 & 2 (please see my August 2023 article) and are now ready to start writing your Competence Statements. Warning – this article assumes that you have already completed Steps 1 & 2 and you will need the outputs from those activities to complete Step 3.

I have included links to information and materials on the APM website and do please refer to the official APM ChPP application guidance for the most up to date content and for details of the various routes to obtain the Chartered Project Professional standard. Wherever you see the term ‘project management’ it should be considered to include the activities involved in not just projects, but also programmes and portfolios or key control or enabling functions such as PMO.

APM have undertaken a full review of the ChPP Standard and the revised version now includes additional elective topics, changes to the number of Mandatory & Elective topics that must be included and some minor changes to the requirements of the Project Experience Overviews.

During Step 1 you will have identified which Professional Practice (PP) assessment criteria you think you can demonstrate in the various topics you intend to include within your ChPP submission. Professional Practice is all about being able to provide evidence of applying the Technical Knowledge (project management theory) to practice. Perhaps consider this as your experience. Step 3 is all about demonstrating your experience!

Step 2 involved writing the Project Experience Overviews that will provide the context for your Competence Statements.

Step 3 – Involves writing 12 x Competence Statements (maximum of 250 words each) that demonstrate how you have applied the Professional Practice (PP) assessment criteria within each of those 12 x topics and you must link each Statement back to one of your Overviews. Golden rule – within each Statement only refer to one of your Overviews. The Overviews can provide the context for multiple Statements, however, only refer to one Overview when writing each Statement.

Mandatory Statements. You will need to write 7 x Competence Statements that cover topics from the Mandatory Competence list. Two of these topics are compulsory (Risk & Issue Management and Stakeholder Engagement & Communications Management). The other 5 x mandatory topics (1a to 5b) have an option of A or B.

Elective Statements – There are 16 x Elective ChPP topics for you to choose from and you decide which topics you are going to include for your 5 x Elective Competence Statements. Any of the topics you include in your submisison (mandatory or elective) could be selected for validation of Professional Practice at interview.

Route 3 candidates please note – at interview any of the topics could be selected for assessment of Technical Knowledge and so hence the need to select topics that suit you in terms of knowledge and experience!

The ChPP interview is based upon the contents of your submission and so make sure that you are selecting the most appropriate topics for both your Professional Practice (PP) and Technical Knowledge (TK).

Writing Competence Statements - Each Overview should ‘set the scene’ or context for your associated Statements and so when you start writing a Competence Statement there should be no need to write a lengthy introduction. It may help you to explain a particular situation at the start of a Statement i.e. when writing about Conflict Resolution. However, I do not advise using the STAR technique as this will ‘eat up’ word count.

Always start a Statement with the project name/title of the associated Overview, or to save word count, use reference numbers i.e. P1, P2, P3, etc. Just remember to add the reference number to the front of your project name in the Project Experience header section of the submisison form (APM endorse this approach). ?

The ChPP Standard requires all candidates to explicitly demonstrate 4 x PP assessment criteria per competence Statement. The trick is to select the ones that you can both write about and easily demonstrate if asked questions at your ChPP interview. The expectation is that you have personally undertaken the activities that are involved in demonstrating the PP assessment criteria.

Remember to write all your Statements in first person context – ‘I facilitated a risk identification workshop during the initiation phase of the project and I held monthly risk workshops where the risk register was reviewed and new risks identified’. (Topic 6, PP1.1)

First person context is a specific requirement for ChPP Statements. Remember that your ChPP submisison should aim to demonstrate your personal actions and activities. These will be validated/checked at interview and so you will need to be able to explain the examples that you write about in the Statements. Do not include text that implies information and always aim to be explicit. You also need to ensure that you do not copy the PP assessment criteria 'word for word'.

Warning – Within the lists of PP assessment criteria, the word and is often underlined. Where you see this you MUST provide evidence for all aspects of the competence criteria. Example: Topic 6, PP1.5 ‘Reacted, assessed, and planned responses to issues’. If you decide to include this particular PP criteria in your Statement for Topic 6, you must explain how you ‘reacted’ to issues, ‘assessed’ issues and you must explain how you ‘planned your responses’ to issues. Many of the PP assessment criteria include multiple aspects (such as the example above) and so make sure that you have demonstrated all of the required aspects for each criteria you are going to include in your Statements. If in any doubt, ensure that you have included all the required aspects!

Should I include more than 4 x PP criteria? Personally, I feel that you should. Whilst the word count is very tight at 250 words maximum, it should be possible to demonstrate 5 x PP assessment criteria within each Statement. By doing this you build in some contingency and as a project professional you should be treating your ChPP submisison as a mini project – so contingency is a good thing!

Some PP assessment criteria within a topic can be combined when you are writing your Statement and they can be explained in an order that suits your examples, you do not have to demonstrate them in a set order or sequence. However, put yourself in the shoes of the APM Assessor and make sure that your Statements can be easily understood – often writing 5 x sub-paragraphs (one per PP criteria) will help both you and the APM Assessor!

Final tip - Always get someone to check your submission and good luck!

The APM website has been updated to prepare for the refreshed / revised ChPP Standard and you can download all the documents you need from their Chartered Standard page.