Identifying VM Training and VM Certification Components for International Facilitators and Co-Facilitators

Value management (VM) is a multidisciplinary, function-oriented, innovative team approach that uses a systematic approach to ensure the best value. VM facilitators play a key role designing, managing, controlling, and leading a VM study throughout the whole process. Hence, adequate VM training is necessary for VM facilitators. This study aims to separately identify the required training and certification components for VM facilitators and co-facilitators. An international questionnaire survey was adopted and 87 samples were collected from international VM experts and participants. The empirical findings identified 10 VM training components and eight VM certification components for facilitators/co-facilitators. All training and certification components for facilitators scored higher than the mid-point (i.e., 0.5 out of 1). However, VM co-facilitators only rated five training components and four certification components higher than the midpoint. In general, expectations of the training and certification requirements for the facilitators were higher than for the co-facilitators. Hence, it is suggested that all VM training and certification components are adopted by facilitators, while only fundamental VM knowledge (basic cost analysis) and a few soft VM skills (people topics) are adopted by co-facilitators. Simple VM exercises for different techniques and phases could be applied for co-facilitators, but training for VM facilitators should consist of a real project throughout the VM process. This paper contributes to identifying key components in the VM training and certification systems for both VM facilitators and co-facilitators internationally.