Development of Assessment methods to evaluate competencies in project management

Julian Ebert is developing a set of assessment methods, such as assessment centers, questionnaires and tests to evaluate competencies in project management.

In the „MD-Pro²“ project Julian is developing a (multi-source) online feedback assessment for professional project managers. The project’s main goal is an assessment method that is used for evaluating social aspects of cooperation parallelly or retrospectively. Its special focus lies on project managers’ social and method skills. Download the project brochure here.

The MD-Pro² assessment can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses of the projects’ managers as well as for coaching purposes in order to learn about social and methodical skills for further project work. By means of the project managers’ profiles, individual training advice can be given.

This project is run collaboratively with Prof. Ulf Kieschke, University of Potsdam (Germany). Its psychometric studies will result in Julian's PhD thesis.

In the "PROMAC" project Julian is working on assessment methods to evaluate the effectiveness of a project management course for students and professionals. Besides the examination of project management knowledge, that also includes the application of a developmental assessment center to check the development of some typical project management abilities over the course period.

The Project Management Assessment Center (PROMAC) allows participants to lead simulated projects and to manage typical challenges of professional project managers within a one-day assessment. Besides written tests on planning skills and (procedural) knowledge concerning important management issues (e.g. project schedule, delegation, risk analysis, decision making, reports, problem solving, communication etc.), participants are tested in simulated interactions with clients and subordinates.

Creation of online assessment methods to assess students’ communication and leadership skills

Béatrice Hasler creates online assessment methods using typical project management scenarios to assess students’ communication and leadership skills. She intends to find out whether the observed behavior in assessment centers is comparable to “online” behavior observed with a web-based assessment tool using interactive role plays. The online assessment method distinguishes between behavioral competence and power of judgment. Individual profiles of competencies are generated contrasting self and peer assessment of the students’ role playing behavior.