Project Management Defined

A discussion of the definition of project management from some of my earlier works might be a useful foundation for some of the blogs I intend to provide over the next couple months. I hope you enjoy and participate in this process.

Russ

“Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements” (Project Management Institute, Inc. p. 2013). This simple definition represents a compromise that resulted from intense discussions within the Project Management Institute (PMI) during the 1980’s. One of the priorities of PMI during this time was the development of project management as a profession. Although debate continues on whether project management is a profession with an enforceable code of conduct and other traditional criteria for recognition as a profession, the development of the Project Management Body of Knowledge and the project management certification that derived from these efforts, helped promote the understanding and development of the project management field.

The discussion about what should be included in the definition of project management included debates about the purpose of project management. Is the main purpose to meet client’s expectations or is the main purpose to meet the written specifications and requirements? This discussion around meeting project requirements was not easily settled. If it is assumed that the project client is the one that defines project requirements, then maybe project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet client requirements or client expectations. PMI’s definition of project management does provide a good understanding of project management but it does not help us understand project success. For that, we must include the client.

Meredith and Mantel (2000) discussed project management in terms of producing project outcomes within the three objectives of cost, schedule, and specifications. Project managers are then expected to develop and execute a project plan that meets cost, schedule, and specification parameters. According to this view, project management is the application of everything a project manager does to meet these parameters. This approach to defining project management shares PMI’s focus on the project outcomes in terms of requirements.

Meredith and Mantel added a fourth aspect of project management—the expectations of the client. One client-centered definition of project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet or exceed the expectations of the client. This definition focuses on delivering a product or service to the client that meets expectations rather than project specifications. It is possible to meet all project specifications and not meet client expectations or fail to meet one of more specifications and still meet or exceed a client’s expectation. 

Meredith and Mantel discussed a tendency noted by Darnall ( 2007) that expectations often increase during the life of a project. Meredith and Mantel suggest that this is a form of scope increase. A project scope is a carefully crafted document that reflects the performance specifications of the project deliverables. Defining the project scope and managing scope change is a very different process than developing an understanding of a client’s expectations and managing those expectations. Darnall focused on defining and managing client expectations as a critical project management skill that is distinct from scope development and management.

Client expectations encompass an emotional component that includes many client desires that are not easily captured within a specification document. Although closely correlated with project specifications, client expectations are driven by different needs. It is possible for a project team to exceed every project specification and the project end up with an unsatisfied client. 

The Evolution of Project Management?

I was reading my PMI today and found two articles that seemed related to me. The first was a short article describing the new organization of the project management Journal. The Journal will now have six new departments with two editors for each department. This appears to be an excellent approach to expanding the research concepts and opportunities with and project management.

Two things about this article interested me. First, was the selection of the six departments. The human side of project management and the organizational side of projects is easy to understand. The ICT side of project management? I have no idea what they will be researching. The management of infrastructure and public projects and project business is a title that is also confusing to me. I’m not sure what this department will be researching. Complex innovation projects and project strategy sounds like two different departments but included within one group. Project portfolio management, program management and implementation of strategies is the last department. I suspect any selection of departments for project research would be debatable. The current approach appears to be a good first start.

The thing that also interested me about this article was identification of the people to be the departmental editors. There were two editors selected for each department. Of the 12 departmental editors only one came from the United States. Although this group includes members from Canada  and Australia, to group is European centric. I am curious about what this says about the state of project management research.

In reviewing the August 2013 project management Journal I noted that none of the authors were US authors. There were six research papers presented by 17 authors and none were US authors or US research institutions. I am just curious what the implications are for US-based project management research.

This month is a PMI member I was asked to vote on the slate of officers for the PMI Board of Directors. I decided I would only go for board members became from an industry other than IT. I have a sense that IT is overly represented in many of the leadership roles within PMI. This might be a natural result of the growth of the IT industry. I also believe that the PMI board needs to be diverse. Therefore, my decision to only vote for board members outside the IT industry.

When the ballot arrived we were asked to vote for five out of the eight candidates for the PMI Board of Directors. After looking at the credentials of all a candidates and my determination not to vote for anybody with an IT background, I was only able to vote for three candidates. Of the people with non-IT backgrounds I voted for one candidate whose vita indicates he is a professional speaker. I voted for another candidate who’s the president of five companies including the biggest sport small in Argentina. The third candidate I voted for is an advisor for the United Nations with a focus on PMO’s.

The Board of Directors also has a resolution that they’ve asked the PMI membership to pass which would eliminate the ability of members to be nominated by a 1% approval of the membership. This would mean only the nominating committee could nominate people to the Board of Directors. I read the justification for this motion and do not understand why the board would want to restrict the nomination process.

I do not draw any conclusions based on these observations. There does not seem to be any correlation between the euro centric research approach and the IT dominance in the Board of Directors. I just contemplate disease trends have any implications for the future of the project management profession.

Russ

Broken wrist

Project management blog, August 26, 2013 I have not been into the blog several weeks. My energy has been focused on accomplishing the bare essentials of life such as getting my class work done with a broken wrist. During the last week of July, I was playing basketball and made a heroic effort to save the ball from going out of bounds while not breaking any bones. I failed on both accounts. I ended up at the ER and x-ray indicated multiple fractures of the bones in the hand and wrist. A week later I had surgery and had pins placed in my wrist. I am unable to use the wrist in any significant way until about Christmas time. I have been writing with one hand until recently. The one hand approach is about one third as effective as my two-handed technique. I recently purchased Dragon software which enables me to talk and have it appear in front of me for major edits, because as good as the software is my accent provides a major challenge. I thought about what lessons learned a project manager can gain from an intense experience with the medical industry. I thought the four and a half hours in the emergency room to get a referral to a hand surgeon. This might be an experience worth discussing. I realized I was just frustrated and any learning I developed would sound like ranting. I am on the mend and finishing up grades for the end of the semester and will be reading the new PM Journal which I suspect will provide plenty of fodder for the next blog. See you in a few days Russ

Traditional Project Manager Again?

 

Traditional Project Management

I am a traditional project manager. This is a statement that seems to draw weird looks. Something like declaring the “I belong to the old school”.

I was pursing the PMI website and read about Christophe Midler was recently awarded the PMI Research Achievement Award. I went and downloaded his research paper from the PMI Research Conference in 2000. Project Management for Intensive Innovation Based Strategies: New Challenges for the 21^st Century.

In his paper, Midler stated that traditional project management did not provide the processes needed for innovative projects. I am over simplifying his statement but his characterization of traditional project management still paints a picture of project management as a stagnant grounded in the processes of the construction and similar industries.

Project management is an evolving profession adjusting methods, knowledge, processes and skills needed to apply to a growing number of industries that value the benefits of project management. Every project still needs a scope, budget, schedule, risk analysis, and closeouts processes to name a few. Every project also needs to customize these processes based on the profile of the project.

Traditional project managers manage the scope, budget, schedule and risk. If you are using new tools and processes, that is great. We need to be developing new tools and processes and we need to develop research techniques to better understand the effective of these tools. We also need to develop research techniques that allow us to better understand the appropriate project profiles that will benefit from these new tools.

By labeling the baseline processes of project management as traditional and not applicable to new project profiles is doing a disservice to our profession and stymieing the research we need to be doing.

Russ

John De La Howe School

Blog Post July 13, 2013

I have been supporting the Leadership Team of the John De La Howe School in developing their strategic plan. It has been an exciting process with a very dedicated and talented leadership team.

The team went through a very traditional strategy development process; analyzing the current environment, doing a force field analysis of the organizational strengths and weaknesses, reflecting on the organization’s mission and the refining their vision. Based on these conversations, the team developed the top strategic goals and identified team leaders to begin the process of chartering project teams.

The Leadership of John De Le Howe is engaged in strategy deployment through the use of strategic projects of PPM (portfolio project management). PPM is a trend among many leading organizations to accomplish strategic goals because of the focus, accountability and effectiveness of project management tools and techniques.

I am seeing more organizations use a more focused project approach in an environment where change is constant, speed is important and the environment is less predictable.

John De La Howe is an institution with a proud heritage that is facing challenges from multiple fronts. The School serves families and students with services that are both critical and very difficult to find. The current leadership team are exceptional people with dedication and talent to lead this institution and continue to provide leading edge services to children and families who are in desperate need.

I have been fortunate to be a small player within this organization’s journey and am grateful for the services they provide.

Russ

Interesting discussion is a PMI Discussion Group.

I could not help myself. I have decided NOT to continue to be offended by being called a traditional project manager (whatever that is) and focus on my favorite research topic; how do we develop an understanding of our projects? So I posed in the group discussion. The basic question that started the discussion was; what is the different between Agile PM and Traditional PM? Lots of replies; most focused on defining various aspects of Agile. Some discussed the difference between a methodology and a standard, (Agile vs PMBOK).

Here is my response.

Russ

 

The conversation rest on understanding what is Agile and what is traditional project management. Agile seems well understood. It is a methodology for executing projects, typically in the IT Industry or projects with similar profiles. When people refer to traditional, does this refer to the methodology use to build the Great Wall of China, the project management methodology used in the Apollo Space Program or the methodology to construct offshore wind turbines.

 

The IT Industry has done an excellent job of developing methodologies designed to address the project profiles of the IT industry. There are passionate champions of these methods, creating a strong brand and becoming recognized by PMI and other organizations as best practices in these industries.

 

Do we really believe there are only two methodologies for executing projects? I believe one of the most important research questions of the project management profession focuses on how we develop an understanding of our projects and develop the appropriate execution approach.

 

On three separate occasions beginning in the early 90s, PMI has chartered teams tto explore how we understand, profile, categorize projects. The last effort closed out the charter with a strong recommendation that PMI support research in this area. I just finished reviewing research proposals for funding from PMI and was disappointed; there were no proposals to address these questions.

 

I would like to change the question from what is the difference between traditional and agile project management and ask, How can we profile a project to better understand what methodology is most appropriate for a given profile?

 

Russ

PMI Presnetation at Charleston Chapter meeting

Frinday in Charleston

Yesterday I made a presentation at the PMI Charleston Chapter. It has been a couple of years since I had been to a Charleston Chapter meeting and I ended up at the wrong place. A short call to Nicole got me to the right meeting location well before the meeting start. It was great catching up with some old friends. (the friendship was enduring, not that the people were old)

I talked about one of my favorite topics; profiling projects (you thought I was going to say ME).

Although this is a personal blog I do try to add something about project management. Below is the outline I started with as I prepared the presentation. I stretched and talked about research and our profession.

Heading down to the beach

Russ

1.      Five Assumptions

a.       Project by definition are unique

b.      Projects also have common characteristics (each has a scope, schedule, etc)

c.       These project characteristics can be grouped into project types or profile

d.      There is a management approach that is appropriate for each project profile

e.       The application of the appropriate management approach, tools and skills will have a positive impact on project performance

2.      Project profiling history

a.       PMI Taxonomy Project with Gregory D. Githens

b.      Crawford, Hobbs & Turner, PMI Initiatives

c.       Aaron Shenar

d.      Robert Yonker

e.       Ruth House

f.       Construction Industry Institute   Project Definition Rating Index (2010)

g.      Stretton, (2011)

h.      Stacy Goff

3.      Darnall Preston Project Complexity Index (DPCI)

a.       DPCI Overview

                                                              i.      Project Complexity, Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)

                                                            ii.      Stress Points

                                                          iii.      Gathering Data

b.      External Dimension

                                                              i.      Size

                                                            ii.      Duration

                                                          iii.      Resource Availability

c.       Internal Dimension

                                                              i.      Clarity of Objectives

                                                            ii.      Clarity of Scope

                                                          iii.      Organizational Complexity

                                                          iv.      Stakeholder Agreement

d.      Technological Complexity

e.       Project Environment

                                                              i.      Ecology

                                                            ii.      Cultural Complexity

                                                          iii.      Legal Complexity

4.      Implication of Project Profile for Execution Approach

a.       Leaderships: styles, knowledge skills abilities.

                                                              i.      Myers Briggs

                                                            ii.      Emotional Intelligence

                                                          iii.      Project Organization/ Span of Control

                                                          iv.      Project Lifecycles

b.      Alignment

                                                              i.      Common Understanding

                                                            ii.      Means and Methods

                                                          iii.      Trust

c.       Use of Goals

d.      Schedule development and control, use of milestones

e.       Cost estimating and control

f.       Risk analysis and mitigation

g.      Quality defining and managing

h.      Scope development and control

i.        Team building, managing

j.        Communication plan, processes

                                                              i.      Listening

k.      Managing client expectation

l.        Measurement

m.    Project culture

5.      Conclusions

It has been a while since by last blog. Seems to be a busy summer.

I am still reading the Project Management Journal with interest. The new editor, Hans Georg Gemunde, put out his fist issue in June. His letter from the editor was great. Dr. Gemunde discussed trends in project management and the need for quality research. Hard to argue his points.

As I have pointed out in past blogs, if the PMJ is a representation of the PM Research, and I believe it probably is, then we have a ways to go before we will have research that has practical application for the project manager.

 

I reviewed research proposals for PMI this summer and found some good research concepts; which I take as a good sign. Most of the proposal suggested that the authors did not have any PM experience and the research they proposed would be of little value.

 

There were six papers in the June edition of the PMJ. The article, MBTI Personality Types of Project Managers and Their Success by Cohen, Orney and Keren, all professors at Israeli Universities, is the only one that interested me. The research conducted a survey of 280 project managers identified by master’s degree students from their universities, representing several different industries. The survey included four parts. The first focused on project success; did the project manager believe the project was a success based on the PM’s satisfaction, the client’s, the manager’s and overall satisfaction.  The second and third focused on the PM’s personality type and the third focused on demographic data (years as PM, gender, age etc.) Completing the questionnaire took 20 – 30 minutes.

 

The authors concluded that Project Managers have unique personality type. Essentially, project managers were more likely to be NTs (43%) on the Myers Birggs Type Indicator (MBIT). This indicates an ability to tolerate risk, make decisions with less data and deals with uncertainty and ambiguity. These conclusions are consistent with my own observations and no surprise.

Interestingly, the survey showed that NT project managers had the lowest self- reported success rate. The SF, the MBTI with the least project managers (6.9%) showed the highest self-reported success.

The authors suggest four reasons why SFs might be more successful as project managers.

1.      SF project managers have special talents needed to be project managers

2.      They manage unique projects

3.      Success is inflated

4.      Data is insufficient

The authors conclude by suggesting that the relationship between personality types of project success need more research.

Understanding the relationship between personality type of the project manager and project success is a reasonable research question for the project management profession. Unfortunately, this research does not help us answer this question.

1.      Using the MBTI is a good tool for developing a personality type for project managers.

2.      Defining success by asking project managers to report their belief on their own success does not seem very reliable.

3.      Many times I have seen project managers be very successful on one project and fail on another project. This indicates that each project type may need a unique set of skills, knowledge and personality type.

Until we have a tool, method or process for profiling projects, all research on generic project success based on an independent variable will have serious flaws. I strongly believe that our number one research priority in project management should be the development of a method for profiling projects.

Russ

I just got back from a nice vacation break. I was able to catch a Crosby, Still and Nash concert. It was great to see "rock stars" older than I am with so much energy and talent on the stage and fully appreciated by the audience.

I read the PMNET after I got back and was interested in the article about the labor shortage. The article focused on the labor shortage in construction. I always suspect articles including the ones that suggest a shortage of project managers.

Surveys of the industry are useful but a much more useful indicator of shortages is the labor or wage rates. The laws of economic indicate that when demand for a product or service is in short supply, the market will respond with higher higher price or wages, unless there is some mitigating factor. Since there is no indication of increasing wages in the construction labor market and has not been for many years, the article would be more useful if there was some explanation for the lack of wage increase.

Good to be back, although I could have used another week.
Russ
 

PMI Journal April Review

PMI Journal April Review

Forgive me, this ran a little long. Long enough to deal with some criticism and not long enough to deal with some of my thoughts.

This was the first edition of the Project Management Journal (PMJ) for the new editor Hans Georg Gemunden although the April edition was edited by the outgoing editor. I am using my blog to tackle one of two of the articles in the journal and see if I can gleam some practical usability for my students and practicing project managers.  It is the mission of the PMJ to provide value to both theory and practice of project management. It is consistent with this vision that I look at the articles in the PMJ for both their value to enhancing our understanding of project management and providing information that enables project managers is execute projects more effectively and efficiently.

I understand the need for academic writing. The purpose of this style of writing focuses on accuracy and I spent a great deal of time in my doctoral work including my dissertation developing an appropriate writing style. It is a language shared by academicians but often frustrates at least it did for me developing the style and wading through journals. So, I reflect on articles and will provide some thoughts here with my focus more on the applicability of the information provided in the PMJ articles I select.

I am interested in both complex project and risk so I found Hans Thamhain’s article Managing Risk in Complex Projects,in the April edition of the PMJ appealing. The article is a continuation of research done on risk and complex projects done by Thamhain.  He provided a good overview of research on risk and focused on known and unknown risk factors. In describing unknow risk factors he referred to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident in the Golf Coast and described it as predictable and preventable and concluded that our current systems and processes do not allow us to predict and managing these risks. Without much more information, this is a premature conclusion. I believe we have sufficient systems and processes; they were just not applied in this case.

Thamhain’s definition of risk varies a little from PMI even though he references PMI. He also developed four categories of risk uncertainty. I typically use three but four is OK. The same with potential impact, his continuum is divided into four categories rather than the typical three. His model also use Shenar’s work on complexity categorization and uses project, program and array. The use of four categories for uncertainty and impact may bring more clarity but the complexity level is too simplistic.

Thamhain identifies his research methodology as Action Research which, simply put, is a research method for testing a model. There are problems with some of the process such as data collection and analysis but again minor issues only important to research nerds (like me). Although, PMI might want to look at the research methods, clarity of writing as well as the applicability of the findings in solicitation and publications of research. With that said, I am not challenging any of the findings base on research methods.

The major conclusion from the research is that risks do not affect all projects equally. I suspect most experienced project managers would have agreed with this statement but is nice to have your beliefs supported with research. Thamhain presented a method for analyzing risk and I believe that the model will provide value to project managers, once you are able to wade through the academic writing..  What we don’t know about this methodology is it any better than ones we might be using now? We know it is better than nothing. How this approach might compare to others might be a good research topic.

Russ

Third discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Third discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Sustainability in Project Management, 2012

Silvius, G.,Schipper, R., Planko, J., Brink, J., Kohler, A.

Gower Publishing Limited, Surry, England

 

Project management and Sustainability

Sivious et al provide a model for exploring sustainability and project management through context of the project within the chartering organization. I saw this as directly correlated to the power or authority of the project manager within the organization.  In other words, my ability to influence sustainability is related to my authority and my power. Although this may seem obvious, Sivious looked at project management processes, project management delivery, and project management life cycle among other concepts.

Let’s take an early project in my career where Bethlehem Steel built a new coal injection plant at the integrated steel plant in Burns Harbor IN. The Board of Directors authorized the new plant to reduce the cost of steel as well as reducing the environmental impact of the steel plant. The Coal Injection plant reduced the need for coke which was both dirty and expensive. From almost every perspective (profit, people and planet) this met the criteria of a sustainable project.  

Bethlehem assigned a project manager to execute the project. The project manager had a deliverable that was sustainable from an organizational context. The project manager also had authority and the power to design the facility and include sustainability within the design of the facility. What is the expected life cycle of the facility, how can I reduce energy usage, what are the most sustainable equipment specifications for this plant. These are major questions that will influence the project costs, operating costs and the sustainability of the project from the plant design and build project perspective.

Fluor was contracted to design and build the new plant based on the specifications developed by the plant project team. The sustainability of the deliverables of the Fluor Project Team was determined by the client’s specifications. The Fluor Team could and did make recommendations relative to the deliverables that would reduce cost, add durability and save time. These suggestions were approved or rejected by the Plant Project Manager. Again, the Plant Project Manager retained the power and authority over the sustainability of the project within this context.

The Fluor Team also explored how to design the plant maximizing the use of electronic files and reducing paper, recycling paper, reducing the need for air travel and various techniques and processes that could be labeled green or sustainable. This was another context for sustainability in project management. Within this context the project manager used the power and authority of the position to execute a green project.

The Project Management Institute and other professional project management institutions have not yet included a sustainability requirement within the code of ethics but I suspect it is coming. How we define sustainability and the role of the project manager will be important is defining the ethical obligations and we are not there yet. Sivious et al and others are providing some models that may encourage this conversation.

Russ

Continued discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Continued discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Sustainability in Project Management, 2012

Silvius, G.,Schipper, R., Planko, J., Brink, J., Kohler, A.

Gower Publishing Limited, Surry, England

 

In the second chapter of Sustainability in Project Management, the authors view the development of project management in stages. There was some early form of project management that must have existed in the earliest eras of civilization that accounts for massive projects like the Egyptian Pyramids. The discipline of project management emerged during the 1950s and has been refined with the development of new tools, processes and skills. The authors also stated that as the economy and organizations become more complex, traditional project management does not have the processes, and traditional project managers do not have the skills to successfully manage the new project environment. It is time to develop a modern project management approaches to meet the new requirements.

Research and general observation provides strong evidence that changes in the project environment do require tools and processes to better understand the project, and develop an appropriate execution approach. The approach of the authors to divide project management approaches into traditional project management (that is becoming increasing inadequate), and some form of new project management is problematic. This belief assumes you can define some project management tools and processes as traditional, and yet the authors do not attempt to define traditional project management other than list the tools used to manage project where the scope and project deliverables are not well defined at the beginning of the project.

This view of traditional project and modern project management creates a dichotomous view of projects.  Projects are either traditional or some form of modern project. This approach implies that tools and processes used successfully in the past are inappropriate, or at least insufficient for modern projects. I believe this is a limited view of project management and inhibits our ability to develop greater understanding of projects. An alternative approach focuses on creating a profile of the project and developing the appropriate tools, techniques and skills for that project profile. As I have discussed in other blogs, developing a project profile and appropriate execution approach would serve the authors as a better model for defining and discussing sustainability in project management than the model of traditional versus modern project management. In forthcoming blogs, I will reflect on the role of project management and sustainability.

Russ

Sustainability as a Project Management Ethical Obligation

 

Sustainability as a Project Management Ethical Obligation

 

Sustainability in Project Management, 2012

Silvius, G.,Schipper, R., Planko, J., Brink, J., Kohler, A.

Gower Publishing Limited, Surry, England

 

I read and developed comments on Sustainability in Project Management, a book by Silvius, Schipper et al for the Global Sustainability Community within the Project management institute. I often take a very critical view of books on project management, challenging academicians to make their work relevant to practicing project managers and challenging project management writers to show the research or the data that backs up their assertions. Sustainability in Project Management has a good balance of research based information and practical implications for project manager.

 

The forwards in the book set the stage. Nelmara Abrex, Deputy Chief Executive at the Global Reporting Initiative provides context when discussing the earth as a provider of natural resources for the generation of wealth. A generator that regenerates itself until we extract more resources than the earth is able to regenerate. At this point we begin to denigrate resources and the capacity to regenerate.

 

All countries and all businesses plan to grow. It is a model based on unlimited resources and a model inconsistent with our reality. This is the business case for the book. If our current economic practices are unsustainable, how do we change?

 

Projects by their nature enable change. Projects will be on the leading edge of whatever our new models become. As project management moves from a focus on the technical deliverable of the project to understanding and meeting the business need of the project, the skills and methods for project managers will change. This change in focus is best reflected in the new revisions of the PMI Body of Knowledge. 

 

Sustainability in project management suggests that project managers must also be responsible for driving sustainability on their project. The authors provide a good review of the literature that indicates that businesses have begun a new sustainability paradigm and are making changes in their organizations and developing reporting that parallels financial reports on performance.

 

The authors argue that this makes good business sense. They also argue the project managers have an ethical obligation to plan and execute their project sustainability. The books explains what this means, but that is for a later blog. I am interested in the ethical obligation of the project manager within the context of sustainability.

 

While Director of Sustainability of a college I attended a Sustainability Conference at Furman University. Five university presidents, who had all signed the American College and University Presidents’ Commitment to Climate Change, http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org, made a compelling argument for the university’s role in creating a more sustainable economy. One speaker declared that government was too political to make significant changes and business was to short term focused. Universities were uniquely positioned because all teacher, lawyers, scientist, bankers and business people spend time at our campuses. He argued forcefully that University Presidents have an ethical obligation in lead in developing a new economic paradigm that respects the regenerative ability of the earth.

 

I believe there is a more compelling ethical argument that says project managers have an ethical obligation create a new project management paradigm that inculcates sustainability into purpose of every project. If this is true we have a lot of work to do to develop new methods, new tools and new skills.

Russ

 

Rookie Mistakes

I was reading my March PM Network today, always a source of thinking about project management. There was an interesting article on the six common rookie mistakes by Ashley Richardson.

Mistake number 3, Skipping the Charter or Initiation Process. I suspect this is not a mistake limited to rookies. Ms Richardson suggests eight questions that should/ must be answered during the early phase of the project:

·         Why are we doing this project?

·         What is the problem?

·         Is this the best way to solve the problem? (for me, if I have been assigned the project manager it is probably a little late to ask this question)

·         What are the risks?

·         Do the benefits outweigh the risks? (again, a little late to ask)

·         Do we have adequate support?  

·         How will success be defined?

I assume that when you’re at the initiation stage of a project, management has already decided the benefits outweigh the risks, it is the best way to solve the problem and the project will have adequate support.

During the initiation I am focused on aligning the project team. I typically pull the team and key stakeholders together for an alignment session. The agenda, length and makeup of the alignment process will depend on the profile of the project. I have participated in alignment meetings that lasted a week and alignment meetings over an extended lunch. The common focus for each of the session was the development of three areas of the project:

·         The development of a common understanding of the project purpose (mission, vision, values, roles, barriers)

·         A common understanding of the means and methods (policies, procedures and major work processes ie change management)  

·         Trust; being the development of team trust and set the stage creating an effective team.

Project alignment and develop trust on you’re a project will be good fodder for future posts.

Best

Russ

Sustainability in Project Management

I had a dialog with my project management sustainability class and I provided the following and thought it might be of interest.

We are looking at sustainability from TWO perspectives in our program. Although sustainability refers to the long term viability in both uses of the term sustainability, two different concerns have emerged and we are addressing both of these concerns in our courses.

1. Project Management/ Stakeholder Management

I was on a PMI committee in the 1980s that was developing what became the 1st edition of the PMBOK. This was a revision of the all the earlier work into one document. I wrote a definition of project management that focused on the satisfaction of the client. The debate at the time was where project success was defined by meeting project specifications (time, cost, quality) or by client satisfaction. Project management at that time was dominated by the engineering profession and focused more on meeting specification. Today, the focused is more on meeting client satisfaction.

For a project to be deemed successful the deliverable of the project MUST meet more than the specifications and meet the long term business need that created the need for the project. This focus on the long term business need is called sustainability although you will not find this word in the glossary of index of the PMBOK. What you will find is a greater emphasis on meeting client long term goals or business goals. especially in the newest edition of the PMBOK. This is the emphasis discussed by our authors (Goleman, Pinto... ) in portfolio management.

2. Sustainability/ saving the planet

A second use of the word sustainability focuses on sustaining the earth. There is a general consensus among scientist (environmental, physicists, climatologist, anthropologist, social scientist, etc) that the carbon based economy and population growth will place so much stress on the earth's ecology that the earth will not be able to regenerate and that changes will occur in the earth's environment that will make human habitation difficult and maybe impossible.

Governments, social institutions and economic entities are all developing the means and methods to operate effectively while reducing their carbon footprint. http://www.carbontrust.com/client-services/footprinting/footprint-measurement

Each of these entities are investing in projects to reduce carbon impact on the environment and human life. Project managers must understand the business drivers of their project sponsor. Although governments, social entities (such as the Rocky Mountain Institute) and economic entities may have different motivations for focusing on sustainability, the project manager must discern and manage the project to maximize the project sponsor’s needs.

This also means we are ethically obligated to manage our projects to meet our client’s business needs and to manage the project in such a way as to minimize the project’s carbon footprint both in the lifespan or the project and the lifespan of the organization.
I am interested in your thoughts.

Russ