engineering management
a case for credentials
Becoming a certified engineering manager, under this new program, proves that you know your stuff.
By Chor Weng Tan
Managers,
watch out for your jobs. Many young engineers today say they have their
sights set on management.
Some of those engineers will move up the management ladder to become very
successful, while others rise to the level of incompetence. Why?
One answer is that many engineers don't have a place to develop
the talents good managers need. Their traditional engineering education
hasn't trained them well in management and business administration
skills. And most companies don't have a way to determine whether
an engineer would make a good manager. Nor do they have a systematic method
to train that engineer to become a manager.
No established standards or benchmarks exist. The best practices of engineering
management continue to reside mostly in academic literature.
ASME is aiming to change that with its program to certify engineering
managers, which is set to take effect this year.
But first, a little background on how the certification program evolved.
Two years ago, ASME decided to take a look at helping to establish standards
for engineering management. The Society started by studying the feasibility
of developing a program to certify engineering managers.
That study was prompted not only by the needs of young engineers climbing
their corporate ladders, but by factors like the rise of advanced-degree
programs in engineering and technology management, the increase in multinational
engineering corporations, and globalization in general. Also, members
of professional and technical societies are increasingly asking for certification
programs.
A team of 14 engineering managers culled from industry, government, and
academia spearheaded the study by participating in a two-day role delineation
process. Those managers came from diverse disciplines and experiences,
and from several countries. The team collectively established some 180
tasks that represent engineering managers' main job responsibilities.
The next step was to set out those 180 tasks in a questionnaire sent to
10,000 engineering managers from ASME and from four other major engineering
societies: the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute
of Chemical Engineers, the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical
and Petroleum Engineers, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers. The respondents evaluated each task in terms of how important
they found it and how frequently they performed while wearing their engineering-manager
hats.
Survey results in hand, ASME staffers and consultants grouped the responses.
A body of knowledge on the best practices of engineering management began
to take shape.
In January 2004, ASME convened another team of 11 senior engineering managers,
including several corporate executives, for a two-day session to validate
the findings of the survey. The managers evaluated the relationship between
critical tasks and the essential knowledge and skills needed to carry
them out. They also established ways to measure the tasks and skills in
order to certify them.
From these intensive sessions evolved the Body of Knowledge for Engineering
Management Certification, usually abbreviated EMC-BOK.
The Body of Knowledge contains eight general categories (called domains),
49 knowledge areas, and 149 sub-knowledge areas.
The domains are:
• Market research, technology updates, and envi-
ronmental scanning.
• Developing products, services, and processes.
• Planning and adjusting business strategies.
• Engineering operations and change.
• Financial resources and procurement.
• Marketing and sales.
• Leading individuals and engineering project teams.
• Professional responsibility and legal issues.
If you wish to examine the knowledge and subknowledge areas in greater
depth, go to the Web site, ww.EngineeringCertification.org.
The Body of Knowledge is the most comprehensive set of criteria for best
practices as depicted by successful engineering managers over a cross-section
of industries.
Why might a manager seek certification? Certification provides a globally
recognized standard for engineering managers. It also offers a way for
engineers anywhere to develop their managerial talents.
Engineering management certification will be based on a uniform, globally
administered examination that evaluates engineers' knowledge and
skills in planning, organizing, and allocating resources, and in directing
and controlling technical activities and enterprises.
The Body of Knowledge provides a good basis for the examination. The same
examination will be administered around the world to ensure that certified
engineering managers' knowledge, skills, and competency have been
uniformly measured.
Certification will consist of two levels. The first level will emphasize
the fundamental aspects of engineering management and is designed for
early-career engineers, scientists, and other technical professionals
who aspire to be engineering managers.
The second level will be for engineering managers who want to enhance
their professional careers in engineering management or who want to be
better at what they do. This advanced level of certification emphasizes
the empirical knowledge, skills, and competence needed to be successful
managers.
What will a manager get by becoming certified?
Certified engineering managers will gain a competitive edge in the job
market, prestige in their company, and a globally recognized credential
for current and future employment.
Certification also gives companies a tool to assess job candidates and
a benchmark to ensure the competence of key personnel in all engineering
and related departments.
For the engineers building on their technical background, certification
can open new career paths, serving as a bridge to aid the transition from
engineering practice to management.
The certification program is intended to support a mastery of engineering
management's best practices and, through recertification, sustained
professional development. It will set a standard that aligns the engineer
with professionals across industries and countries.
Certification is a credential that follows the individual wherever he
or she goes and demonstrates a commitment to learning beyond the basic
engineering, science, or technology degree.
The engineering management certification can give companies a number of
benefits. It will identify a broad base of managers with the knowledge
and skills to facilitate communication and build success in the marketplace.
It will, in effect, act as quality control of engineering managers, including
candidates for promotion.
With those objectives in mind, ASME created Engineering Management Certification
International to spearhead the certification initiative.
Because of the multidisciplinary nature of engineering management, EMCI
is designed to be a globally recognized, rigorous, examination-based certification
program developed by ASME in cooperation with other major engineering
societies. Four major engineering societies—ASME, the civil engineers,
the chemical engineers, and the mining engineers—have signed to
join the partnership. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
is still deliberating on joining the partnership.
EMCI is to be administered and managed by ASME, with an advisory board
of directors. The board of directors will include representatives from
all the partner societies, which will provide policies and direction.
The partner societies will promote and market the program to their members,
customers, and industries.
The initial marketing efforts kick off this summer and focus on North
American engineers and companies. But the program will be rolled out very
quickly to other countries, beginning with China in late summer.
From there, it will reach out to other countries in Asia, Central and
South America, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the rest
of the world. In five years, engineering management certification should
be available in most countries.
Managers
for a New Age
We witnessed the explosion of master's degree programs in business
administration during the last half of the 20th century. That tide seems
to have slowed in the past few years, and we're now experiencing
the exponential rise of engineering management degree programs in engineering
schools. Are the new master's degrees in engineering management
replacing MBA degrees?
We can't be sure, of course. But an advanced engineering management
degree is more desirable than an MBA to many organizations. An engineering
manager has both the education in engineering and science, and the management
knowledge and skills normally associated with an MBA.
Still, while the degreed engineering manager's education is beneficial,
it's not sufficient. These managers need to possess a specific
set of competencies beyond those covered by a technical or management
education. They should have hands-on experience in product or service
development and manufacturing, systems engineering and integration, and
project management.
Also, not all engineers and other technical professionals can pursue an
advanced degree in engineering management. They may lack the finances
or the time. Passing the certification exam can get credit for those people,
too, who have learned their management skills on the job.
The engineering management certification program, with its requirement
for continuous professional development for recertification, combined
with an engineer's academic and practical knowledge, might be the
best option toward becoming a good engineering manager for the new age.
Chor Weng Tan recently retired as the managing director
of education at ASME. He currently maintains a role in coordinating the
management certification program.
© 2005 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers