Project ManagementPresentationTeam Event

Career Development Project

Plan and actually run a project to promote and teach the knowledge and skills needed for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, management and entrepreneurship, then document it in a written entry of up to 20 pages and present it as the project managers in 15 minutes. No exam.

About this event

Career Development Project (event code PMCD) is a prepared Project Management event for one to three members of the same chapter. The point is to use the full project management cycle, initiating, planning and organizing, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing, on a real project whose purpose is to promote and teach the knowledge and skills needed for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, management and entrepreneurship. Typical projects include career fairs, summer boot camps, professional dress seminars, resume workshops, career exploration, mock interviews, and workplace re-entry and mentor programs. The project may start any time after the previous year's chartered association conference and must finish before the next one. A project may be entered in only one category. Chapters may run a successful project again in later years, but the guide urges teams to do more than update last year's written entry (and to avoid even reviewing it), and plagiarizing a previously judged project disqualifies the chapter from competition and awards. The written entry is limited to 20 numbered pages (including any appendix, excluding title page and table of contents) and must follow the outline: executive summary, initiating, planning and organizing (goals, team roles, 2 to 4 milestones with a timeline, quality metrics, risk plan, budget), execution, monitoring and controlling, closing the project (metrics, lessons learned, recommendations), bibliography and optional appendix. The signed Statement of Assurances goes in front. The entry is scored out of 100 and penalty points come off for formatting violations. ICDC qualifiers upload the entry through DECA's online submission system in the weeks before the conference (DECA posts each year's window on its ICDC page; the 2026 window ran March 25 to April 8) and the chapter advisor must log in to verify it. The presentation is up to 15 minutes including the judge's questions, every member must take part, and you present as the project managers. It is scored out of 100, so the total is 200 before penalties, with the written entry and presentation each worth half. Hand-carried visual aids only; no power or internet is supplied.

What judges score

Initiating (15)Planning and Organizing (15)Execution (15)Monitoring and Controlling (15)Closing the Project (15)Presentation Technique: Organization (5)Presentation Technique: Effectiveness (5)Presentation Technique: Delivery (5)Presentation Technique: Presentation Design (5)Presentation Technique: Overall Impression (5)

What judges score

Executive Summary: clear, concise one to three page summary of the project (10)Initiating: the need or opportunity and the project scope (10)Planning and Organizing: goals, human resource plan, schedule, quality plan, risk plan and budget (20)Execution: narrative and documentation of how the plan was implemented (20)Monitoring and Controlling: how feedback, data and checkpoints kept schedule, quality and budget on track (10)Closing the Project: evaluation of key metrics, lessons learned and recommendations (20)Professional Standards: professional layout, business language and correct grammar (10)

Study resources

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