 Reforming Project Management |
||
|
|
||
|
Saturday, February 07, 2004
State of the Art of Project Management
Here's more on the January 27th posting. 3. Be careful what you measure; you will certainly get it. We act in accord with our interests. Measurements allow us to choose among alternative actions. And still, each of us will take care of what matters most to us in the moment. Let's be honest. People are selfish. I know I am. I don't know anyone who is not. I don't mean to say that we can't also be selfless. Of course we can. But not 'til we have our own concerns addressed. When a supervisor, manager, or organization declares measurements people will quickly adjust their behavior to correspond to their understanding of the measurements. Frank Patrick has a wonderful posting Tell Me How You'll Measure Me and I'll Tell You How I'll Behave. But most organizations have too many measurements. Far too many for each person to understand, let alone behave in accordance with them. What inevitably happens is each person behaves according to some subset of the measurements and according to their peculiar understanding. One last thought...the practice of establishing these measurements keeps management detached from the exactly the operations that they are interested in performing well. Try something else: forego the measurements. Get engaged instead. Thursday, February 05, 2004
Read a Good Construction Safety Book Lately?
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Project e-Tip of the Week -- Get Selfish!
Project e-Tips have been missing in action for quite some time. Today's e-Tip is the 20th. Woo Hoo! It comes to us courtesy of Dennis Stevens. Dennis was taken with the similarities between David Schmaltz and Michael Gerber. He wrote me and here we are. Dennis will be enjoying a signed copy of The Blind Men and the Elephant as a token of my apprectiation for sharing this with us.
There'll be another Project e-Tip next Wednesday courtesy of Dennis again. Remember, I reward readers with books from my library when I publish their proposed e-Tips. Have a look at the e-Tip Archive for a listing of all 20. And get your proposals to me. Don't let Dennis be the only one emptying my shelves. Tuesday, February 03, 2004
PMO: Obsolete Before It Gets Off the Ground
After revisiting the State of the Art of Project Management I got inspired to offer my own view of the state of project management. As you might imagine it generated some controversy. Unfortunately, I came down with the Flu and then got quite busy. I will comment on the comments (and criticisms) in the coming days. First up, #9 Project portfolio management is an excuse not to manage each project. Each project team must be set-up for success. In Russell Archibald's report he lends support to the current movement to establish Project Management Offices (PMO) and creating the position of Chief Project Officer (CPO). SO if we can't figure out how to succeed with individual projects we're to create an organization to bring some order to our efforts? I don't think so. There are some good reasons to manage the portfolio of projects. Resources are scarce. Project benefits are temporal. We must respond to competition. Back on March 30, 2003, I highlighted Glen Alleman's view of Project Portfolio Management. I too see great benefits. But I don't see companies creating PMOs for the sake of managing and supporting their portfolio of projects. How about a little test? Do you see a Project Management Office doing these things for you?
The usual case is to establish best practices, to be the authority for standardizing project methodologies, and to be a point of criticism for project performance. Give me a break! We don't need more centralized controlling actions. We need environments that support the uniqueness of each project and we need people who have their attention on the peculiarities of each project. That's hard work. Not the work for bureaucrats. I said that project portfolio management was an excuse not to manage each project. Why? It's much easier to stand back from a project and comment, advise, and criticize than it is to do what is needed to make each one a success. "Portfolio management" is detached and clinical. Neither is good for the uniquely personal domain of projects. While there is the potential for PMOs to be strategic, what we're likely to get is more bureaucracy. How about we just manage projects one at a time? Commenting Enabled for Construction Safety in the News
Now when you visit the news items on construction safety you can leave comments for other readers (and me). Look for a number in parentheses at the end of each news story. That number is a link for making a comment. Click on it to sound off, comment, or ask a question. You'll find these stories in the right-hand column on the Safety Everyday page. Visit the Archives for more postings |
 Reference Papers
|
|||||
| ||||||
