The first initiative of the GAPPS has been the development of standards for the Project Manager role.  One of the challenges in doing this was defining the Project Manager role in a way that would be applicable across a wide range of organisations, application areas and project types.  Project Managers are expected to produce essentially the same results – outputs and outcomes that are acceptable to relevant stakeholders.  However, the context in which these results are produced may differ: s ome projects are inherently harder to manage than others.  A project manager who is competent to manage an easier, less complex project may not be competent to manage a harder, more complex project.  

GAPPS has developed an approach to categorising projects based on their management complexity. The GAPPS framework uses a tool called the Crawford-Ishikura Factor Table for Evaluating Roles, or CIFTER. The tool, named after two major contributors to GAPPS, is used to differentiate project manager roles based on the complexity of the projects managed.

The CIFTER identifies seven factors that affect the management complexity of a project. Each factor is rated from 1 to 4 using a qualitative point scale, and the factors are totalled to produce a management complexity rating for the project.  This was used as the basis for development of two levels of Project Manager standards, G1 and G2 where the G3 Project Manager would be operating in a more senior role on more complex projects.

The CIFTER Table also provides a useful basis for categorising projects and therefore selecting the appropriate Project Manager based on their demonstrated competence.