TOPIC: Who should Pay for training

Lets say we have a question on training responsibilities and situation describes functional manager providing resource to Project manager(performing organization PM), resource lacks required skills. Now who is responsible to pay for resource training, it should be FM or PM ?

PMBOK just says at Page 342:
Training cost could be included in the project budget or supported by performing organization if the added skill may be useful for future projects. It may be performed by in house or by external trainers.

So unless situation explicitly says that added skill might be useful for a near future project , we can't say that it's be Functional manager or Project Manager right?

I referred to a PMP book which says that --> Unless very unusual circumstances, project doesn't pay for training and Its functional manager's responsibility to provide competent and trained resources . There is no supporting reference in the book.

Hi Vivek,

Please post the source of this question and ensure that it is not copyrighted material per forum policy.

The parties should be able to resolve the issue without escalation to senior management. You have already posted the relevant reference from the PMBOK® Guide, which indicates that the training can be paid for by either the performing organization or included in the project budget. Therefore, in my opinion, there is not enough information presented in this scenario to arrive at a correct response. I would be interested to see what the author feels is the correct answer along with the explanation and supporting documentation.

Hi Donald,

Thanks for responding to this query, I am new to this forum so was not sure about the policy.. This is a question from xxxxxx book so before we proceed discussing further , please let me know if this type of queries from PMP books can be posted here in this forum for clarification? We can delete this post if its violating any of the policies of this forum and I'll take care of this in future posts.

Regards,
Vivek

If it is copyrighted, then it should not be reprinted without permission (here or anywhere else). You should edit your initial post to ask the question in a general sense. If the author did not provide an explanation for their response, then you would probably need to contact them to get their rationale and any supporting references.

Hi Donald,

I have rephrased the question to make it generic, please go through again and we can take this discussion to a conclusion, Thanks for the help on this!

Regards,
Vivek

Vivek,

As you correctly pointed out, the PMBOK® Guide states that the cost of training could be included in the project budget or paid for by the organization. If the skills to be acquired will only be used for the project, then it would most likely need to be included in the project budget. If the skills to be acquired will benefit future projects or the organization going forward, then the cost would most likely be paid by the organization. As far as the real exam, I would think the question would have to provide some information on how the acquired skills will be applied in order to answer the question.