The present VDI guideline is designed as an orientation aid for: engineers and project engineers1) working in practice who would like to compare their own abilities with a generally recognised knowledge profile, human resources developers who define the requirements profiles for current employees and employees to be recruited and want to establish practice-oriented human resources development concepts managers who want to develop their own staff for project management tasks or who have to assess external project management competence. The starting point for the compilation of this guideline is the realisation that at present there is neither a clearly defined knowledge profile nor any clearly formulated requirements for project engineers. The guideline sets out the high requirements to be fulfilled by a project engineer. The project engineer must acquire management competence, leadership competence, social competence, technical competence, personal competence. These are the qualifications required for the takingon and successful conclusion of tasks in project work (see Section 5). The basis for this is his technical knowledge. Through his practical activities the project engineer acquires skills and abilities which qualify him for increasingly complex leadership tasks.