There was an interesting, albeit a bit "simple" question posted on IT Toolbox today. Mohan asked:

Which certification or knowledge area is better for managing successfully projects , ITIL, PMP or Prince2 

I responded as follows:

Interesting question. I think the answer is either "None of them" or "It depends".

"None of them": A certification in project management does not guarantee that the certificate holder can properly manage a project. I have seen some fabulous project managers who don't hold a certification and I have see a number of really bad PMPs. On a high level, successfully managing a project depends quite a lot on the project managers personal skills, experience, the PM team and the managerial support. The certification has little to do with it.

"It depends": ITIL, PMBOK and Prince2 are all project management frameworks. They give you a general "plan of attack" so that you can properly manage it. Each of them is "best" applied in a specific area: ITIL for IT services, PMBOK is favored in the US and Prince2 in the UK/Commonwealth. Therefore, it really depends more on the company and type of project you are leading. But again, neither of these frameworks will guarantee a successful project. All of them are equally useful to manage a project. And all of them will equally fail if the people on the project don't manage it properly. You cannot blame the framework/methodology. You can only blame the people.

I've gone a bit out on a limb here because my experience with ITIL & Prince2 is minimal. So here is my question to you specialists out there: Do you agree with what I said?